As a frugal dude, I'm always looking for ways to save money on my daily expenses. But I'm also conscious of not cutting out the stuff my family really enjoys.

Instead of slashing our coffee or vacation budget, I like investigating ways to save on recurring bills or services I'm already using. One major bill that hits people each month is their cell phone bill. In fact, the average cell monthly phone bill in the US last year was around $144.

I'm a big proponent of not overpaying for your service if you don't have to. There has to be a way to bring that number down for most people!

After being a loyal Verizon customer for over 20 years, I was satisfied with their service, but the price seemed consistently higher than the competition. When I got the opportunity to try out Tello Mobile, I was surprised at what I found.

In this Tello Review, I'll share what I experienced with their service over the past 3 years and how it has compared to our Verizon service.

What is Tello Mobile?

Tello Mobile is an MVNO cell phone provider that runs on the T-Mobile network. They want to make customers happy with their wireless carrier again.

Their pillars for that happiness mission are as follows:

• No contract: With their prepaid model, you are able to go “no contract” and have the flexibility to stay with them if you'd like. And leave them if you'd like. (I think they'd prefer you stay, but the choice is yours!)
• No fees: One typical complaint from cell phone customers is excessive fees. Tello evidently listened. They have no activation fee, no early termination fee, no overage fees… and so on.
• Online, friendly, and clean service: The more I can do online, the better. Tello seems to know that about busy parents like me. They communicate effectively through your computer, phone, or tablet.
• Flexible and economical: Tello has multiple plans to choose from. Some of them start at just $6 / month.

Tello Review: Our Experience With Tello Mobile

When we first started with Tello, my daughter had been using an iPhone at our house to watch videos, play games, and take pictures.

We decided to try out a month of Tello for her phone as a test. That way we would see how the service works for her, compare it to our Verizon service and if it would be something we'd want to use in the future.

Phone Compatibility

First of all, we wanted to make sure my daughter's phone even worked with Tello. They had a convenient section on their site called “Bring Your Own Phone”.

This area let us insert some quick information and see if her phone was compatible. Lucky for us, it was!

From there it was time to sign up for a plan.

Activation

Given that one of their happiness pillars was “online, friendly and clean service”, the signup and activation process occurred all online. This process was smooth and easy.

I created an account and signed up for the Unlimited plan (currently priced at just $25/month!). That plan included unlimited data, unlimited talk, and text. Given that we were paying a higher price for less than unlimited data with Verizon, I thought I'd give this plan a shot.

As part of the activation, Tello has an eSim process that makes getting started super simple.

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Data Coverage

One major area that I was excited about trying out was the wireless coverage. How will Tello compare to Verizon's service?

Surprisingly, it was equal if not better. I'm sure this depends on where you live, but we have a weird pocket near our home that feels like a dead zone for Verizon service.

When I pull out of my driveway and leave my wi-fi connection, that's usually the time I experience very low data speeds on my phone. That's right about the time I need to access my Google Maps app or my Spotify songs. It's very frustrating.

The Tello service (which runs on the T-Mobile network) didn't seem to experience as much of a drop in data speed.

As a wild example that demonstrated this data speed difference, our power went out one summer after some major rain and wind hit our area.

We relied on our phone's data for our access to the internet. Unfortunately, our Verizon coverage was super slow and we could barely even check our email.

And that wasn't the case for my daughter's Tello phone! She had 3 bars and we had 1 flippin' bar!

She was happily watching her fidget YouTube videos and we were cursing our phones for 24 hours.

Calls & Texts

Outside of the data coverage, my daughter tested her Tello phone through calls and texts as well. We made calls in our home, outside of our home, and even at Grandma's house 20 miles away. Everything seemed very comparable to Verizon's service and worked just fine.

No complaints!

Online Experience

One of my favorite features of Tello's service is its online experience. When I visited Verizon's website, I was often confused about where to go and how to access my plan information.

Tello's interface is clean and easy to navigate.

Tello Packages We Chose

Through some trial and error over the years, I found that my daughter uses a little under 5 GB of data per month on her Tello service. With unlimited texts and 100 minutes of talk, her plan comes out to only $11/month.

After the positive experience we had with Tello during our test trial run, my wife and I jumped on board with Tello as well. We went with the unlimited data, text and talk plan for $25/month.

So in total for the three of us, we're paying around $60 per month. With Verizon, we'd be looking at least double that price.

Why We Switched from Verizon to Tello

After being a Verizon customer for 20+ years, this wasn't an easy decision, but after 3 years of using Tello, I'm so happy that I did.

Here's why:

• The reception with Tello is better than Verizon (where I live)
• We're paying half of what we would be paying with Verizon.
• We have unlimited data, text and calling.
• I've traveled outside of my area for work and the reception and data were equivalent to Verizon

Now, we're a Tello Mobile-only family. (By the way, we have iPhones too so it's not like you have to use some random phone that Tello carries.)

Final Thoughts on this Tello Review

If you're looking to save some money on your cell phone bill and you're frustrated with your current provider, I'd give Tello Mobile a shot. They have some highly competitive plans and their use of the T-Mobile 5G or 4GLTE network makes them a powerful contender.

At a minimum, have a conversation with your current provider and let them know you're considering a switch. That conversation alone could save you hundreds of dollars per year because they may just discount your service to keep you as a customer.

Either way, competition (like what we're seeing here with Tello) is excellent for customers like you and me. More options can mean lower prices.

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Do you agree with this Tello Review? How do you think Tello compares to Verizon in your area?

Please let me know in the comments below.

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