There are many ways in which Tru customers, new and old, can get the most out of their Tru phone service and even make the switch to Tru from their current wireless provider and save money in the process. Local providers are a thing of the past, and when you think about the possibilities of vacationing, traveling, business, or moving, the last thing you want to think about is changing your phone number, losing contact with friends and family back home, or having to purchase a new phone from a provider who’s going to overcharge you for international phone calls.
There are two ways to combat these types of situations, of course, one of which being the Tru VoIP App, similar to many other VoIP apps on the market. The other is Tru’s innovative SIM (Local Anywhere) GSM service. For the sake of this article (and because we have discussed the Tru VoIP App before), we will be discussing the SIM service.
One of the setbacks (at least right now) of the Tru service is the lack of bundle plans to keep the costs to “Personal” customers low. While it is a prepaid service (and hence is able to be budgeted more easily), the pay-as-you-go prices can seem a bit daunting to new customers at first glance.
However, it doesn’t have to appear this way. While we are waiting for the upcoming Tru SIM bundles, we have discovered various ways of keeping you talking to your friends around the world from anywhere while keeping your pocketbook in the green:
- Free Incoming Text Messages and Calls
What many new Tru customers don’t realize is that any calls or text messages received on their UK numbers are FREE. That’s right. Any incoming calls and texts are at no cost to you. If you have a US or Australia number, incoming text messages are also free. You can have a number from all three countries for a very low monthly fee. By making calls or sending text messages only when you need to, you can save hundreds per year. - Data Management Apps
As we mentioned in February, Onavo is a great app for data compression and managing data usage on your Tru service. We have tested it and have confirmed that it works perfectly with Tru. Onavo allows you to set limits on how much you want to spend, or how much you want to use. For instance, we set our limit to $10 USD. Once we got to $10 in data usage, Onavo stopped the data. This allows you to budget your Tru account and save the money in it for voice and messaging use. It can also help avoid issues with accidental use. - Free International Messaging
Speaking of messaging, there are also apps for this as well. Granted, it still uses your data, but when you couple it with our first point, this allows you to use an app like Onavo to manage your messaging budget too. This is a lifesaver for anyone who would prefer to save the money in their Tru account for calling. Services such as Google Voice (US), any Instant Messenger, E-mail, or a variety of free Android, iOS, and BlackBerry messaging apps can be used in lieu of normal text messaging to keep costs down. - Wi-Fi
Which brings us to our next point: Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi is known the world over for saving on data usage with any carrier. Tru is no exception. While using Wi-Fi, you save money. Plain and simple. Couple Wi-Fi with the aforementioned free messaging apps and you’ve got unlimited messaging at no cost. The data management app mentioned in our first bullet point can still be used alongside Wi-Fi to keep things low-cost and flowing smoothly.
Unfortunately, in this day and age, many people have learned to abuse their wireless services. That is, they use more than they need to and way more than they should. Research has shown that prepaid plans lead to far less abuse. This is where Tru SIM and our methods come in.
Using our methods, we were able to keep our Tru account loaded and working at a mere $60 per month USD and we honestly didn’t notice the difference between our old provider after a short period of adjustment. In fact, since Tru has MVNO agreements with multiple GSM carriers, we noticed a significant improvement in our coverage area (this of course may vary from place to place).
Have you discovered an innovative way to use your Tru service? Please let us know in the comments!