TALK IS CHEAP: Cell phone plans continue to get cheaper! The latest El Cheapo entry comes from FreedomPop, a company I wrote about a few weeks ago. And the plans don’t get much cheaper than $0/month, which is what FreedomPop plans to charge for its new entry-level plan.
That $0 will get you 500MB of data, 500 text messages, and 200 voice minutes, though you will have to shell out $99 for an HTC EVO Design 4G, the only phone that will work with this plan. How does FreedomPop make money? By upselling people to better plans. If you’re willing to pay $10.99 per month, you can get unlimited talk and messaging and that same 500 MB of data.
FreedomPop is doing what Republic Wireless is doing, which is to skip cell carriers’ voice networks completely and use data networks for calls. (I’ve got a Republic affiliate link here if you’re feeling charitably inclined.) Republic charges $19 per month for unlimited talk, text, and data and requires you to buy a Motorola Defy XT for $99. Supposedly this phone is supposed to be durable, which is appealing to me as someone who has small children, though the reviews I’ve read of the phone’s performance have not been too flattering.
If you want a more cutting-edge phone, you could also go for a cheap plan at Walmart, or you could even try the Mr. Money Moustache $10/month iPhone plan, which involves a FreedomPop hotspot.
I am currently on a $25/month plan with Virgin Mobile (this particular plan is no longer available) and my phone is an LG Optimus V, which is for the most part a terrible phone but has the virtue of being durable. It’s been dropped on the floor and broken apart into its component parts (front, back, battery) dozens of times but has never stopped working. I was thinking about switching to Republic, but now that FreedomPop is on the scene I’m intrigued. Anybody with experience with cheap cell phone plans, by all means give your two cents in the comments.
IT’S QUARTERLY CREDIT CARD MARKETING TIME!: Check your mail and check your inboxes! And as always, make sure you’re not opted out of marketing solicitations. Citi offered me 5 TYP per dollar spent at Best Buy (how’d they know?) as well as 5 TYP on gas, groceries and department stores for Mrs. PFD’s card. Meanwhile, Barclays is offering Mrs. PFD 5 points per dollar on gas stations, restaurants, and department stores.
You can also check to see if you’re eligible for any promotions from Bank of America here (for B of A-branded cards) or here (for cards from its FIA Card Services subsidiary).
VAMPIRE REOS AND ZOMBIE FORECLOSURES: RealtyTrac has identified the latest trend sweeping the nation: Vampire REOs. For those of you not into this stuff, REO stands for Real Estate Owned–that is, bank-owned property:
Vampire REOs…are bank-owned homes that are still occupied by the previous homeowner who was foreclosed on. On the surface these properties often will look like normal, non-distressed homes, but beneath the surface they represent a shadow inventory that is becoming more imminent as rising home prices motivate banks to sell off these homes to try to recoup their losses on soured loans.
If you get to live in a house without having to pay for it, that’s a pretty good deal. But if lots of people are living in bank-owned houses, something’s wrong. ZeroHedge writes about this,
The vampires are particularly acute in Miami (64%), Houston (65%), Los Angeles (61%) which have nearly two thirds of bank-owned properties falling into the “vampire REO” category. This means that in order to generate a housing scarcity, millions of deadbeat Americans have been given a carte blanche to live mortgage-free, in some cases for years, and in a state of default in their existing homes, as the banks have no incentive to actually clear out the properties to which they have title, making home purchases for everyone else – those who have the funds and are willing to purchase a home – impossible due to artificially los supply and artificially high prices.
For more on the “housing scarcity” to which ZH refers, refer to this Wall Street Journal article from a couple of months ago about the real estate price spike in Las Vegas (vampire percentage: 40%). If you can’t get past the firewall, here’s the relevant quote:
The number of available homes has plunged here after a sweeping state law subjected lenders to stiff new foreclosure rules and penalties. With banks exercising caution, many homeowners—including those seriously delinquent on their loans—have been allowed to remain in place. As a result, there is little on the market at a time when first-time buyers and real-estate speculators are anxious to tap both cheap prices and low-interest mortgages.
Foreclosure takes a really long time. The average time to foreclosure hit a new high of 477 days earlier this year. Of course, that’s the average–it can take a lot longer. This couple lived rent-free in a million-dollar house for five years without making a single mortgage payment.
CANADA HAS SOME HIGH-QUALITY VANDALISM: Canadian motorists got a surprise recently–check out what some vandals did to the “Welcome to Edmonton” signs up north. The lower part used to say “City of Champions”, and keep in mind that the changes were made the old-fashioned way, not with Photoshop:
And this one too:
And on that note, I am done for this week. Have a great weekend!
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