Get a free cell phone plan with Lifeline assistance. Lifeline is a federal assistance program for low income families that will subsidize your phone service. You can apply it to either your home phone or your mobile phone plan. You can only get one Lifeline benefit per household so if you decide to get a Lifeline home phone you can’t also get a free wireless plan on Lifeline. Also, if you have a Lifeline phone, you can’t get one for your spouse as well.
Lifeline can subsidize you about $9.25 per month toward telephone service. That’s the Federal portion of the benefit. Some states kick in a little extra and, if you are residing on Tribal land, jackpot! Your number of free minutes will depend on how many minutes your provider can purchase in your area for the amount of money the government is providing. It usually ranges from 60 to 250 minutes per month. If you qualify for Tribal Lifeline, you can get plans of 1000 minutes or even unlimited since the subsidy is so much more. Although, in some places like Oklahoma, it requires a $1 per month fee. Still, $1 for unlimited minutes is a great deal.
Most providers will supply a free phone for qualified applicants which would make your total investment $0 down and $0 per month. And, you have no contract so you can cancel at any time with no penalty.
Most plans allow you to text with your free minutes but be sure to ask because not all “free” plans allow it. However, texting can use up your minutes fast because they usually cost your 1 minute per text. These plans are usually all “anytime” minutes so you don’t have to wait until night time or the weekend to make calls. If you run out of minutes you can purchase more on a pay-as-you-go basis to get you to the next month.