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#1
Excellent Advice, Brink. Shop very carefully and, if possible, buy your phone/plan from an authorized dealer, face-to-face, instead of on the internet.
I go through great pains to ensure that my family stays on the unlimited Sprint talk/text/data plan that we've had for the past 8 years, as we trade in older phones for newer ones. The last thing I want is a surprise charge on our bill because someone in the family watched one-too-many Netflix movies, or something. These overage charges now account for the majority of the complaints in the Verizon, ATT, etc.. customer forums. It used to be dropped calls, LOL.
A good rule of thumb to keep in mind for 2015 is that if a wireless provider is pushing a certain package, it's probably full of potential additional charges, or just a plain old rip-off. The $20 a month lease is a good example of the latest rip-off gimmick. The carriers have calculated that millions of people are too lazy or dumb to multiply $20 x 24 and figure out that they'll pay $480 (plus additional monthly taxes!) for the same phone that they could get for a one time $199 payment at the point of sale.