Cricket Wireless has launched new multi-month plan discounts based on Cricket's unlimited high-speed data plan that is normally priced at $55/month. Subscribers who prepay for a year of service on the plan can get it for just $30/month. But there's a big catch. Cricket's new multi-month discount options are only available to NEW single-line accounts. And the new multi-month line CANNOT be merged with an existing account. The discount plan options are also only available to bring your own device (BYOD) subscribers. However, after you signup for a plan, device upgrades are allowed. Yet, there's another catch. If you choose to upgrade your device through Cricket, you must pay the full retail price of the device. No discounts.
Cricket's Three New Multi-Month Plan Discount Options
Taking a page from the Mint Mobile playbook, Cricket is offering 3, 6, and 12 month discount plan options. Here's how the pricing shakes out for each one:
- 3- months - $40/month, $120 paid in advance
- 6-months - $35/month, $210 paid in advance
- 12-months - $30/month, $360 paid in advance
The plan does offer truly unlimited on-device high-speed data, but you guessed, there are some additional catches. Streaming video is limited to a maximum of 1.5Mbps or a resolution of about 480p. Mobile hotspot is not allowed, and there are no add-ons to enable it. Cricket will temporarily slow data speeds during times of network congestion. Customers can change their plan only in the last 30 days. At the end of the billing cycles customers will have the option to renew their plan, change to a different multi-month option or move to month to month. Customers that move month to month, WILL NOT be able to go back to a multi-month discount option.
Autopay billing is allowed, but customers will not receive any additional discounts for using it.
These aren't the first multi-month discount plan options to ever be offered by Cricket. In May 2022, BestMVNO reported that Cricket Wireless had quietly added a multi-month discount option on its $40, 10GB plan, lowering its price to $25/month for customers who prepay annually. Like the new multi-month discount offerings it was only available to new customers who bring their own device. That offer no longer appears on the Cricket Wireless website.
Multi-month discount plans continue to be all the rage in prepaid, maybe even more so since T-Mobile put an offer in to acquire Mint Mobile and it was disclosed that Mint Mobile has two million subscribers.
Unreal Mobile recently refreshed its multi-month plan offerings and is putting much more of an effort into the brand. Its social media channels recently have come back to life with lots of videos that promote its plans. AirVoice Wireless also released multi-month plans that strongly resemble Mint Mobile's except they operate as an AT&T MVNO. And Good2Go Mobile also has new multi-month plan options.
According to a press release today, Cricket Wireless cites research from Roger Entner's Recon Analytics that notes that "roughly half (49%) of respondents who currently use prepaid wireless services say they are interested in signing up for a Multi-Month Unlimited prepaid service plan, with 23% saying they would immediately sign up." Cricket says this data is why it has opted to release the new plan options. However, with the number of catches the plans have, one has to wonder how much Cricket really wants customers to sign up for them.