Who Offers Military Discounts on Cellphone Plans?

All three major wireless carriers offer discounts for active duty military, reserves, retired military, veterans and Gold Star families.

Expect discounts of around 25%, which can mean saving something like $25 to $35 every month. Over the course of a year, you’ll save at least $300 on your cellphone bill. Do yourself a favor and switch to a military discounted plan right away if you’re eligible.

Here are the military discounted cellphone plans from all three major wireless carriers:

AT&T discounted military plans

AT&T offers the best military discounts on its cellphone plans, all of which are 25% off the normal price. No matter what unlimited plan you choose, you’re getting an awesome deal with your discount.

In this case, you’ll get the most bang for your buck by going for the Unlimited Elite cellphone plan. Without the discount, the unlimited elite plan costs $85/month, so you’re getting over $20/month off your cellphone bill. Here are all the features that come with an Unlimited Elite plan:

• Unlimited talk, unlimited text, unlimited data (including to Canada and Mexico)
• No data cap
• 40GB Mobile hotspot data
• Free HBO Max subscription ($14.99/month value)
• 4K Streaming quality

If you can live without the HBO subscription and 40GB mobile hotspot data, you can also go with the basic Unlimited Starter plan or Unlimited Extra plan.

Both plans come with unlimited talk, text and data, but don’t come with extra perks like 4K streaming, tons of hotspot data and free subscriptions.

T-Mobile discounted military plans

T-Mobile only offers military discounts for its top-tier Magenta unlimited plans. You can either get the Magenta unlimited plan for $55/month, or splurge for the Magenta MAX plan for $70/month. Either way, you save $15/month with your T-Mobile cellphone plan with your military discount.

It’s not quite as good of a discount you find on AT&T, but if T-Mobile is your carrier of choice, it’s certainly better than paying full price.

Both Magenta plans come with unlimited everything, but the main difference is that the Magenta MAX plan comes with 4K-quality streaming, no data cap, 40GB mobile hotspot data and a Netflix subscription.

If none of those perks call out to you, you can go for the Magenta plan and save yourself $15/month on top of everything you’re saving via discount.

Verizon discounted military plans

Verizon also offers military discounts on all of its unlimited plans, but the discount is only $10/month cheaper than the normal rates. Compared with AT&T and T-Mobile, Verizon’s military discounts just are not that good.

Honestly, that’s par for the course with Verizon, which notoriously charges the most out of all the wireless carriers. The good news is that Verizon’s high prices aren’t completely unwarranted, due to the fact that Verizon offers the best coverage in the country. If you live in an area with spotty coverage, you’ll have better luck getting signal bars with Verizon than any other carrier.

If the coverage justifies the price for you, Verizon’s got four different cellphone plans to choose from.

Just like the AT&T Unlimited Elite plan, Verizon’s top-tier 5G Get More plan comes with a whole mess of perks that can justify the $80/month price tag. Here’s everything you get with Verizon’s most expensive plan:

• Unlimited talk, text, and data (including to Mexico and Canada)
• 50GB Mobile hotspot data
• Free Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ subscriptions ($13.99/month value)
• Free Apple Music subscription($9.99/month value)
• 600GB Cloud storage

Factoring in the military discount, the combined perks of the 5G Get More plan easily justify the price. But if you just want unlimited data with excellent coverage, any of the other Verizon cellphone plans will do the job.