‘Dead’ data is a waste

If it’s been a few years since you last changed your mobile phone plan, the market as it is today may surprise you. The telcos are throwing data at us, encouraging us to do more – watch more, listen more, play more – and filling plans to the brim with internet data. The thing is, prices are creeping up in line with these generous increases.

The difference in price between the various phone plan tiers tends to be between $10 and $20 a month. This may sound like small change to some but it adds up to several hundred dollars over a two-year contract. And the kicker is that every dollar you spend on data you don’t use disappears. You can’t donate your spare data to charity or hand it down to family. You can’t stockpile it for a rainy day. It is literally money spent on nothing.

So before you rush out to buy a new iPhone, take a moment to figure out which plan is right for you. Then, stick the money you save in a savings account for your kids, or go out for a fancy dinner. Turn the money you’d have spent on nothing into something.