Useful, but not as helpful as knowing about SERO.

My 2 top-rated plans are from Sprint?

Obviously, BillShrink doesn't read Consumerist.

Top five plans: "No expected savings."

If nothing else, it makes me feel good.

i wish we had something like this for Canada :)

Well, I had "No Expected Savings" on any of the plans they came up with, including their #1 rank recommendation, so I suppose I'm doing something right.

I got this message:

"The major national carriers (AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon) do not offer cell phone plans in your specified home location. If you primarily use your cell phone in a different location, please specify the corresponding zip code as your home location."

Which, surprised me, since I've had Sprint for close to four years now

the only plan that would have saved me money is one for seniors only. the signal strength maps didn't work at all for me. still a cool service with a lot of potential. especially for those crazies who use tons of minutes/txts and have overages.

SERO FTW. Seeing this site just reenforces the awesomeness that is SERO.

SERO > All.
Sprint can do no wrong.

@Jorel:

You could probably get that plan if you asked nicely.....Seriously.

Okay, what's SERO?

I would save $120 per year if I got rid of my cell phone.

@Jorel, ditto. The signal strength guide is opposite reality for my area.

@Eyebrows McGee: its apparently some "secret" sprint site to get MUCH better deals from them.

They're stupid. Suggested the EXACT plan I have and suggested I change to it to save $144 a year.

How can I save money if nothing changes?

Fools.

At least I know I'm doing something right...

@8abhive: Exactly. Every single plan recommened was sprint, but Sprint cannot hold a signal for anything here - so no one I know has it!

interesting concept. too bad they suggested TMo was the best for me. i've had them and they were terrible in many aspects. i have never been happier than I am with Sprint.

@Eyebrows McGee:

SERO = Sprint Exclusive Referral Offer (I thought the "E" used to stand for "Employee"....)

A little more info here:
[delivery.sprint.com]

It tells me that Sprint offers the best plan for me. In fact, Sprint plans are the only ones offered.

Ironically, I already use Sprint, and already use the package they suggested.

How am I going to save $600+ a year with the same package? :P

T-Mobile is great, you should get it Ben.

Lol, yeah, I punched in what I was getting with Sprint SERO and it broke the site. I guess they should just put a link to SERO on the front page and save a lot of server costs :P

savings@sprintemi.com FTW!

Suggests TMo, which I have, but dang am I on the wrong plan! I can save over $1400 by switching to a lower plan.

If your area is supported well by Sprint, go SERO. Fastest network + dirt-cheap plans = best choice. Even if their customer service is lacking (I've never had to deal with it), SERO cut my monthly bill by 2/3.

No expected savings for me, but I saved a few of my family members some cash by switching their plans within the same company.

@BrianH - the SERO address you gave asks for a sprint employee email address, I don't know anyone that works at Sprint, what can I put there?

@MARTHA__JONES: Yes, they recommend T-Mobile as having the best plans for me, which is also the conclusion I came to last time I shopped -- too bad T-Mobile reception here is non-existent!

(And last I checked, since I don't live in a major urban area, T-Mobile's coverage maps only covered my actual city and the interstates -- my husband drives a lot in rural areas for work, and I do NOT want him without service in the ass end of nowhere. Most carriers wanted to put us on a more expensive plan if we wanted NOT to pay roaming charges when off the interstates, though I understand that's changed since I last shopped. We are stuck with Verizon by default as they're the only carrier that provides service in our area that has good rural coverage.)

@BrianH: oh well, it's not available in my market anyway.

My guess? They'll recommend the provider that gives them the highest affiliate payment.

I messed around with it several times, and not once did it actually come up with the cheapest plan.

For SERO put in savings@sprintemi.com

This buys in to the concept that these are the only two providers in our area.

We use Alltel and thanks to the whole "my circle" thing cut our bills in HALF from using sprint/nextel.

There are other providers as well, especially in the prepaid market.

Thumbs down!

Recommended the same plan I had, but I figured that it would as I checked out many and got the cheapest plan possible for 2 phones.

It doesn't seem to have any regional carriers like Alltel, and US Cellular, and it does not seem to take into consideration plans like "My Circle" or Fav 5 or whatever. Plus the signal maps are non-existent for me.

I guess all these sites don't ever expect you to txt internationally!

Nice idea. One hopes that BS will expand their reach and refine their algorithms until their offering is more in line with the way we actually use our mobile phones.

A group of us who trust one another set up a Family Plan in a tax-friendly state. Individual costs are dramatically lower than if each of us had our own plan. Only works with responsible people, but if you've got a real My Circle, and none of you are likely to go insane and start hawking crack to school kids over the phone, or start negotiating over your phones with the ever present Saudi prince who is looking for great investments in America ... we've found this to be a great money saver.

I checked out both the website and SERO -- the website said that I couldn't get additional savings by switching, which is correct. SERO will just double my minutes without any actual savings, which is also pointless for me, since I usually use less than half of the minutes due to free mobile-to-mobile on my T-Mobile family basic with 2 lines. So, guess I can't save any more money by switching plans... Anyone know if prepaid would be cheaper?

All of the recommended plans for me are Sprint, yet Sprint has absolute crap service in this area. Also, no mention on the site of Alltel (which isn't available here) or Unicel (which is the best provider in this area). Boooo.

I don't think this will work correctly...does it take into consideration customer service and hardware costs? The time you spend with customer service issues could cost you far more if you are with the wrong company.

savings@sprintemi.com -- gets me the white page.. anybody know another address?

If you have a combined AT&T account, (Wireless+Land Line+Internet on one bill) the import function will not work.

Anyone remember the Consumerist a while back saying they're part of the sprint ambassador program and get free phones because of it?

I wonder if anyone has "reached out" to this comparison website?

Thanks for sharing to your readers Ben. Billshrink currently only has the big 4 carriers but hope to add the other ones shortly. We sort thru over 180 plans with 25 possible add ons per plan, which creates about 10M combinations.
Coverage maps for all 4 carriers on top of the google maps was pretty hard, but the coverage data you see is exactly what the carriers say they are. We hope that it gets more accurate with user submitted information over time.
Try the bill import where we analyze your last month's usage and can provide a much more detailed analysis like which network you call the most, what time of day you call (maximize which night and weekend plan) etc.. and we make the recommendation on which plan would cost you the least.

Mr. bungle, we are working on being able to seperate wireless/landline/internet bills and should have a fix shortly.

After entering my info, I got back the exact plan I have now with Verizon, except they claimed I would get "unlimited" text messages. Um, no, it's only unlimited if I text other Verizon customers. All of my texts to my BF on AT&T count against a limit of 500 per month.

Can Consumerist do a spread on SERO?

I'm on Sprint now, just got reamed for overages (some justly, some unjust)

This would be great!!