What’s your biggest bill every month? Aside from your mortgage, your cellphone plan may easily overshadow your other individual expenses, including credit card bills, student loans, and utilities. A family may easily pay over $200 per month to keep up with the cost of new phones, data overage, and unlimited minutes. If you support yourself financially, a single monthly cellphone bill for a plan with unlimited features can can easily reach the triple digits, too. You may legitimately need to talk and text throughout the day, but mobile carriers like AT&T and Verizon lock you into these outrageously priced plans for up to two years at a time with a severe early termination fee should you choose to cancel your plan early.

These days, other mobile carriers are realizing that mobile users have a need for flexibility as life and mobile needs can quickly change, especially if their taste in technology evolves as quickly as the technology itself. T-Mobile now offers a “plan” that allows mobile users to use T-Mobile services without a contract, paying $50 month by month for unlimited talk, text, and 4G data. The caveat is that users must purchase a compatible phone, which can cost up to $400. However, many of these phones also feature hotspots, so users may have personal and unlimited Wi-Fi anywhere they also have 4G service. Additionally, T-Mobile allows users to use both data and talk at the same time, unlike some other mobile carriers such as Verizon. Though a phone with these features can cost twice as much as those offered on contract by other carriers, the average $50 per month savings, as opposed to a two-year contract, is easily recouped within just a few months of using an unlimited contract.

If you want to ditch your cellphone plan, you can also combine a pay-as-you-go feature phone to use in case you need to call 9-1-1, with a service like Skype, which you use strictly over Wi-Fi. These featured phones are offered by carriers such as AT&T, Boost, and Virgin Mobile, so their service is on par with traditional mobile service. Skype users can call anyone within the US and Canada for $2.99 a month, and there are monthly plans for unlimited calling to other international regions. If you want to ditch your cellphone plan but already have a smartphone, you can use the Wi-Fi feature on your phone to combine with the Skype app (for Android or iOS) to make calls using your phone with Skype when Wi-Fi is available. Just make sure you have an emergency mobile phone, such as the previously mentioned pay-as-you-go phone, available at almost any retail outlet or grocery store for a very low cost.

Google Voice is another alternative to a cellphone plan, though Google Voice operates differently than Skype. Google Voice allows users in the US to make calls for free from their mobile phones or from their computers within the US from the US, except when calling internationally. Google Voice isn’t actually a phone service, but allows users to manage all of their phones with one phone number. Google notes that you don’t have to make or take calls using a computer, but the benefit to Google Voice is that the option exists to make normal calls using your computer to avoid a cellphone contract if you’re normally around a computer most of the day anyway. For those who primarily text, Google Voice also offers an app for Android and iOS users that features free texts. If you just can’t ditch the talk portion of your cellphone plan, using Google Voice is at least a great way to enable you to minimize the cost of your texts.

If you are especially tech savvy, one of your best options may be to keep the smartphone you already own and purchase an unlimited hotspot from a mobile carrier that offers a hotspot device. (We found that T-Mobile had one of the best priced hotspots for unlimited data.) Using the Wi-Fi feature of your smartphone, you can still use your smartphone anywhere you have data service to make calls using Skype, text using Google Voice, and still access your email and other data as needed. You should note that this setup may not be as stable as a dedicated cellphone line, and you may not be able to always call 9-1-1 in areas with poor data reception. If you do choose this option, consider pairing a hotspot and smartphone combo with a very cheap pay-as-you-go phone to use in emergencies.

If you’re ready to ditch your cellphone plan, your best time to switch to a non-contract plan or utilize any combination of other methods discussed above will be when your contract is over. Otherwise, you’ll be faced with early termination fees. For example, AT&T forces you to pay $325 minus $10 for each full month of your service commitment that you complete if you cancel your contract before it expires. Should you decide not to pay this fee (and spend months arguing with the company about the fee, for any reason), you may find yourself talking with a collection agency instead. However, if you desperately need out of your contract, consider elevating your grievance to the corporate level of your current carrier and politely explaining your concerns immediately. A sales representative at your store or even a customer service agent likely won’t hold the authority to override this fee, but someone in management may be able to waive it.

Other options to ditch your plan include transferring the ownership of your mobile plan to someone else. If you have a friend or family member who is in the market for a new cellphone plan, you can easily get out of your current plan by transferring your plan to them. Other third-party websites, such as Cellswapper.com and CelltradeUSA.com, provide listings and facilitate exchanges of cellphone plans online. You can also watch for plan changes that impact the cost of your plan, which legally allow you to cancel your plan immediately without facing an early termination fee.

Have you cancelled your cellphone plan? Do you think using a mobile phone without a contract is a better deal financially than the two-year plans that most mobile carriers require? Let us know in the comments.