Just in time for back-to-school prospects, AT&T’s prepaid Cricket Wireless brand is offering new multi-month discounts for new customers who sign up for it online.
The promotion, which launched today, involves three new online-only plans that promise to save customers up to $300 a year or $30/month on a single line when they pay in advance. That compares to Cricket’s regular $55/month unlimited plan.
Customers who bring their device to Cricket can choose among the three multi-month unlimited plans, which include calls and texts to/from Mexico and Canada. To be clear, the new plans are available to customers with a single line only.
The plans are being offered in three, six and 12-month installments and the purported savings range from $45 on the lowest plan to $300 on the 12-month plan, which costs $360 in advance.
The company said it’s introducing these plans because according to an August 2023 survey from Recon Analytics, roughly half, or 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.
"Our multi-month offering is timely as customers think of more ways to save during this back-to-school season. With 80% of parents allocating their Back to School budgets to technology and 72% stating their children will need a smartphone for school based on our recently commissioned survey by One Poll, we know offering this value and flexibility will help many,” said Cricket Wireless Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Tony Mokry in a press release.
As to why the offer is only for online customers, a Cricket spokesperson said the target customer for this offer is “digitally focused” and already has a phone but “is interested in the best value in wireless for their service plan. For this customer, online represents the preferred path.”
Like any other online order, if the customer has an eSIM, Cricket will activate the service after they check out. If they need a physical SIM, Cricket will ship it to them and they can activate it when it arrives.
It’s worth noting that Mint Mobile, the MVNO partially owned by actor Ryan Reynolds that T-Mobile wants to acquire, for a long time has been offering discounts for the more time a consumer buys. A current promotion on its website is for new and online customers only, offering a $45 plan for three months, which brings the per/month payment down to $15/month.