You’ve heard the terms “unlocked phone.” Sometimes they’re called “loose.” Basically, it’s a phone without service or anyway tied into any specific provider. People who buy these phones pay a lot for them — full price, up to $700. So are they insane or do they just know something the rest of the world hasn’t yet discovered.

Of course, it’s the latter.

An unlocked phone may be expensive, but the service you can get is cheap and without a contract.

As an example, say you buy a Galaxy Note 4 phone and a 2-year contract at Verizon. The total is $299 for the phone and $35 for activation. Add in $70+40 per month, or $110 × 24 months. That’s $299 + $35 + $2,640 (the contract), for a total of $2,974 for the phone and two years service.

Now buy an unlocked Galaxy Note 4 for $699. Pay $6 for a SIM card. Add in $40 a month for service comparable to Verizon’s 2-year contract. Multiply $40 &times 24 and you get $960. So $699 + $6 + $960 equals a total of $1,665 for two year’s service with the same phone.

Still reading? I’m not. The bottom line is that when you go rogue, you save about $1,300 over two years.

So is the unlocked phone worth it?

You bet!

To go the unlocked route you need three things:

1. An unlocked or available phone
2. A SIM card
3. Cellular service

You can buy unlocked phones on Amazon or from a number of retailers. You can also use any phone that’s out of a contract. Check with your cellular provider to see whether or not your phone is available for porting to another service.

The SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card is what identifies your phone to the cellular service. You must obtain a SIM card for your unlocked phone, one that is not only compatible with the phone’s cellular radio (CDMA or GSM) but in a proper SIM card size: Standard, Micro, or Nano.

The best place to obtain the SIM card is from a cellular service, which is usually a third party reseller of one of the national services. They buy a block of time and access from AT&T or Verizon or T-Mobile, and then they resell it to you at a deep discount.

I use a service called AirVoice Wireless. AirVoice resells the AT&T network, so for $30/month I get AT&T network coverage, unlimited voice and text, plus 1GB of data. That’s works out fine for that phone.

AirVoice sells SIM cards in addition to their wireless service, and the website helps you configure and activate your phone. You can even port a phone number from an existing phone to AirVoice — providing that the phone number isn’t locked up in an existing contract.

When you’re done, you have a fully functioning smartphone and wind up paying a lot less for monthly service.

I’ve found only two tiny downsides to this approach.

First, I can’t seem to get MMS to work. That’s not really an issue for me.

Second, one app refuses to work because I have a month-to-month contract. I forget which app it was, so the problem is inconsequential.

Let me know if you plan on going rogue. It’s perfectly okay and saves you a ton of money.