Hey, there!
I’m a SAG-AFTRA member. My AT&T iPhone is my lifeline, but my cell bill is insane. And I’m constantly reminded by my fellow SAG-AFTRA members that I can get a 15% discount on my insane cell bill.
I finally got around to taking care of that.
You can too. Here’s how.
To be clear, this is just for SAG-AFTRA members.
(It’s one more reason to work hard to get into the union. This is in addition to how young you’ll look, how much slimmer and sexier you’ll be, and that you might get to observe Ed Asner wolf down dinner during a board meeting. Fascinating stuff.)
And this is only for your AT&T wireless service – it doesn’t work for home phone service, U-verse or anything else that AT&T might be selling you. That means the discount is only for cell phone service, wireless mobile modem service and the like.
(Seriously. Don’t call AT&T and ask if you can apply the discount to your other stuff. I tried. I was rejected.)
So, start by logging in to your SAG.org account, and viewing the deal:
https://www.sagaftra.org/membership-benefits/deals-discounts
…select Any category and Any local (it’s very important that you do this as it won’t show up if your local is preselected, as it’s a national deal), then scroll down to the AT&T entry (the displayed list of deals is in alphabetical order), then follow the instructions shown.
You’ll be whisked off to the UnionPlus site, where you’ll fill out an online form, and then given a coupon and instructions on how to redeem it.
Is it worth the hassle? I think so.
On a $100 monthly cell bill, that’s a $180 per year savings.
Hope this helps.
David
Do you know or is there a way to find out if other carriers offer union discounts?
Thanks David
Yes – they do not. AT&T is very pro union, and the other carriers are completely non-union.
All of them.
David
Insane cell phone bill? Huh? Rates are lower than ever. My cell phone bill is $27 for unlimited talk and text up to 10GB data on T Mobile, tax & fees included. That’s because we got 4 friends together for a friends/family package. We each send out payments electronically from our banks to a single T Mobile account. (We’ve added 2 more people since then and each pay a few bucks less.)
My other tip: buy a used phone as soon as a newer model is released. I buy some “early adopters” phone when they buy the latest & greatest, because ‘m ok with last year’s model and big savings. Why rent it and pay more, if you can own it outright by selling your existing phone and kicking in a little more? it’s far less money in the long run.
Good idea Marion, I like your idea of buying the used phone of an early adopter. How is that T Mobile coverage?
Thanks
Having spent over 25 years in the cell phone industry, I suggest you take your existing main carriers phone to Straight Talk or Total Wireless offered thru Wal-Mart.
They are simply a reseller of the Big 3’s air time, so you’re using the Big 3’s same towers, but at a substantially reduced rate.
Now if your someone that is constantly utilizing the Big 3’s customer service or store’s, this is not a good idea! The main thing you LOSE by doing this is the excellent customer service programs and the knowledgeable reps.
I just tried to get this discount and AT&T told me they don’t offer any discounts at all on any of their plans with unlimited data (which I have). I’d be happy to be proved wrong, but I did want to let folks know about the limitations on the offer that I encountered just last week. My husband gets an even better discount through his work and they wouldn’t let me apply that one either.
Just my 2 cents: I started with this discount thanks to David a long time ago. But I think AT&T read that blog, so when they started coming with new plans, the way they set them up made the amount where the discount is applied less and less.
Before, the discount was on the basic plan plus my phone, and not my family phones.
Now, the discount is on the basic plan only, and mine and my family phones don’t have it.
So before the discount was on $100 and now on $85.
$15 vs $12.75.
Sneaky, and better for them.
Still, a discount is a discount, and I’m thankful to David for saving me some $.
Hi David, I’m getting an error message from the link to the form. Do you have a better link? Or can you post it for us here?
UPDATE: With the brand spankin’ new SAG-AFTRA website redesign, they’ve also streamlined this whole process, so I updated the instructions above.