I currently have the Blackberry Pearl 8100 which is a great phone but it’s rate plans are rather expensive.

I have my service through Cingular and pay $103.77 a month! My old company (salesforce.com) used to cover the costs because my corporate email got pushed via Blackberry’s enterprise server but since I recently left, I no longer need the $44.99/month extra add-on.

Here’s my current monthly rate plan:

  • $39.99/month – 450 anytime mins & 5,000 night/weekend mins
  • $44.99/month – unlimited blackberry data transfer service
  • $4.99/month – 200 text messages
  • $13.80/month – Govt fees and taxes
  • $103.77/month – Grand total!

So how can I continue to get my Yahoo & Gmail email delivered to my 8100 Blackberry without having to pay the extra money? It took me a while to figure it out but here’s what I did.

Instead of using the built in Blackberry email service, you can download the cell phone applications that works basically the same. Both Google and Yahoo offer these free apps which are called Google Mobile Mail and Yahoo! Go.

Once you install the apps on your cell phone, you’ll need to find the Gmail and Yahoo icons on your main cell phone screen, sign in (just like you would normally on your computer) with your username and password, and then watch it sync up your mail! Yahoo also has additional cool features besides just email which I have yet to use.

I’m hoping they have a fantasy sports app so I can manage my fantasy teams on the go. The lifehacker.com website also provides some additional information on these add-on apps here.

So here’s how my new monthly Cingular plan and bill looks like:

  • $39.99/month – 450 anytime mins & 5,000 night/weekend mins
  • $44.99/month – unlimited blackberry data transfer service
  • $4.99/month – 200 text messages
  • $19.99/month – Unlimited web browsing and 200 text messages (MEdia Max 200 Bundle)
  • $13.80/month – Govt fees and taxes
  • $73.78/month – New grand total!

So overall, I’m saving $29.99 a month but still getting essentially the same service (if not better). Yahoo Go has more than just email which is wonderful especially if you use my.yahoo.com.

Update: After you install Yahoo! Go, the email option wasn’t turned on by default for me. I had to go into settings and activate it. If you don’t see the email icon, that’s probably why.

Update: Turns out the $19.99 MEdia Max 200 Bundle plan doesn’t work for my Blackberry 8100. I just got off the phone with Cingular and they only have special data plans for all Blackberry phones even if you don’t want to use the email feature. Lame! So I instead signed up for the $29.99/month Blackberry Business Unlimited plan which they call the “minimized” version.

I don’t see the difference besides the $15 extra a month. So tack on another $10 ($19.99 up to $29.99) and my grand total is $83.78/month. I’m happy to be saving some extra money but spending that much a month on a cell phone just seems ridiculous.

If you’ve had similar experiences with your cell phone provider please share some stories below. I’d love to hear em.

(Visited 13 times, 1 visits today)