What a time to be alive! Several months ago I changed cell phone providers – from Ma Bell to Ting. For talk/text/data service for my wife and me, my bill went from approximately $130/month to anywhere from $40-75/month, just depending on how much data we use in a particular month. My service has been great and I’ve noticed no drop-off in call quality, data speeds, etc.
Today, I switched my auto insurance for two vehicles from one of the major national insurance companies to a newish startup called Metromile. Metromile has an interesting model – relatively inexpensive base rates and then you pay per mile. If my calculations are even roughly correct, my monthly auto insurance costs will go from $118/month to somewhere around $50-75/month, depending on our driving volume that month.
I am completely in favor of moving to the pay-for-what-you-use model. It forces businesses to be efficient and cut out bloat, and is better for consumers. Granted, the jury is still out on Metromile and I am probably a little bit of a guinea pig but I’m ok with that.
Side note: I’m not getting anything from Ting or Metromile to say nice things. But if you’re interested, here is a referral link for Ting: