Need info on AT&T plan for 4 smart phones

[teddymines]

Current scenario:
We have 3 smart phones (2 iPhone 4, 1 Moto G) on AT&T's prepaid "go" plans, one plan per phone. There is no data, but unlimited text, and I think 600 voice minutes per. Wife has a T-Mobile flip phone on their prepaid plan, and that costs us something like $100 a year. T-Mobile coverage is pretty bad in our area.

What w'd like:
Looking to get all 4 phones onto AT&T's 10 GB mobile share plan. I realize we'd have to buy wife a smart phone (terms of plan). I get a corp discount so the total monthly will be $141 plus taxes and fees comes out to a little over $160/mo according to retail clerk.

Q1: Is this plan decent, or are there any catches?

Q2: Need advice on managing the data usage. Terms indicate that we'd get charged for data overage, so is there a way to cap usage of each phone? With two kids, I'd like to prevent them from hogging all the data so we're not left with squat. If possible, is this done at the phone level or the account level? Also, are there settings within iOS and Android that tells the device "use wi-fi whenever possible over 3G"?

Thanks!

 

[Zircoben]

Current scenario:
We have 3 smart phones (2 iPhone 4, 1 Moto G) on AT&T's prepaid "go" plans, one plan per phone. There is no data, but unlimited text, and I think 600 voice minutes per. Wife has a T-Mobile flip phone on their prepaid plan, and that costs us something like $100 a year. T-Mobile coverage is pretty bad in our area.

What w'd like:
Looking to get all 4 phones onto AT&T's 10 GB mobile share plan. I realize we'd have to buy wife a smart phone (terms of plan). I get a corp discount so the total monthly will be $141 plus taxes and fees comes out to a little over $160/mo according to retail clerk.

Q1: Is this plan decent, or are there any catches?

Q2: Need advice on managing the data usage. Terms indicate that we'd get charged for data overage, so is there a way to cap usage of each phone? With two kids, I'd like to prevent them from hogging all the data so we're not left with squat. If possible, is this done at the phone level or the account level? Also, are there settings within iOS and Android that tells the device "use wi-fi whenever possible over 3G"?

Thanks!

Within Android, I know you can turn off Data in Settings > Mobile networks. You could give the iPhone 4 to your wife and buy your other kid a Moto G, and do that. As long as they aren't smart teens, they shouldn't be able to figure out how to turn it back on.

Looks like a good plan! It is a bit costly, but for a whole family, it doesn't look bad.

If you have the money and want to change your plan entirely, I would take a look at Ting. I am not an advertiser or anything for them, but their plans have amazed me. Take a look: https/ting.com/rates

You can pool the whole family in a plan with Ting, and rates are low. No contracts or hidden fees either. You would have to switch every phone to one of theirs, but I would keep Ting in mind.

Hope that helps!