Who has a great cell phone plan?

[WatchingThemGrow]

DH and I have an antique Sprint plan that he thinks could be beat by a longshot. It's unlimited text and data for his android and my iphone. With taxes it is $160. We lost my employee discount and haven't applied for the AAA discount, out of laziness.

I do want to get a new phone, I think....currently have a 5c, so i suspect any changes should all happen at once.

[klwa]

We use Straight Talk. $45 a month for each of us, less if we prepay for a year rather than a month, unlimited talk, text, & data.
http://specials.straighttalk.com/catalog/plans
Depending on the phone you get, you end up piggy backing on different large carriers. This is an older article, but it explains sort of how it works & what phones work on the different networks: http://www.prepaidphonenews.com/2011/12/how-to-get-tracfone-net10-or-straight.html

[ang79]

Similar to Straight Talk (same parent company of Trac Phone), we have been on Net10 for the past 2 years. We didn't purchase phones up front, we had older AT&T iphones that we transferred over. We pay $95/month for 2 phones with unlimited talk and text and 5GB of high speed data (if we go over the 5GB, then it cuts down to 2G for the rest of the month). The only issues we've had are sometimes customer support is really slow. But we've only had to contact them when activating new phones. And I've gotten some activation cards from Target that were not properly scanned so they weren't activated upon purchase, so it took a day or so longer to activate my phone. Otherwise we are on an auto renew program that charges to my credit card, so I never have ot think about buying new cards and adding time to my plan (you can do that and get discoutns on the time cards but I like the auto renew where I don't have to remember things!). We do sometimes have spots of no service when visiting my family in northern rural PA, but even large carriers like Verizon don't always work up there. No issues when we've traveled anywhere else.

[marymoo86]

Something to consider is that I think all carriers now no longer subsidize the phone purchase and instead amortize the cost of the month in your monthly plan.

I use Ting and pay roughly $35/month but I use small amount of data as I am primarily a wifi user so about .5GB which is $12 up to 1GB is $19, 2GB is $29. Text is $3 for 100 or 5 for $1000, Talk is $9 for every 500m used. I had carried over an unlocked phone but bought a Nexus 5x when it was on sale during Christmas.

Ting uses both CDM and GSM

[marymoo86]

double post

[ILikeToSave]

I use Cricket (on the AT&T network). I recently switched from Virgin to get my phone updated (on the Sprint network). On Cricket you can use an unlocked phone, which is great. I pay $45/month. I get unlimited talk/text & a lot of data. I never go over on my data. The taxes are very minimal, as well. On Verizon I was paying a boatload of taxes each month & didn't have a great plan, either. Both Virgin & Crixket have great family plans, too. If you like a new phone every 2 years, these plans are not likely for you. I upgraded to a iPhone 6 from a 4. I will plan to have the 6 as long as it keeps kicking (maybe 4-5 years).

[vludmilla]

I highly recommend a prepaid plan. You could easily more than halve your bill by switching to Straight Talk, Cricket, or Virgin. The first two have especially great coverage maps. I use Virgin and have unlimited data, text, and talk for $35 a month, my husband has Cricket and pays $35 for the same excellent coverage...no nonsense taxes and surcharges as you get with the regular "post paid" plans a la Verizon, AT &T...

[Twin Mom]

DD has Cricket too. She has unlimited talk and text and 2.5 GB of high speed data for $35 a month including all fees. The data is unlimited but the speed is slowed down after you hit 2.5 GB. I don't think DD has ever even come close to hitting it. She had a hand me down iPhone 4S that she was using but my mom just gave her her old iPhone 5 so she is so excited to have a "new" phone. Her phone works better than my super old iPhone 5. If I didn't have unlimited data with AT&T I would switch to Cricket myself.

[JustMe]

I have ultra mobile. I'm really don't need data, so I pay $20/month for unlimited talk and text. They have plans with data as well. Not sure how much you want to research this, but howardforums has tons of info if you really want to explore.

[calebsmama03]

If you don't use a lot of voice time, I really like my t mobile prepaid plan. It is $30/mo for unlimited text and data but only 100min of voice. I rarely talk on the phone at all, cell or home, so it works well for me. I have an app by vonage (free, don't have to be a vonage user) that gives free outgoing calls using your data (or wifi) so the 100 mins is not an issue for me. You can get the plan at Walmart by buying a starter pack there with SIM card, or it is on the website. You cannot get it in a t mo store.

[WatchingThemGrow]

Yeah, we use them as our primary means of communication with the world, so lots of voice time, lots of data, lots of texting. We currently use under 7G of data, and we don't hit the limit on our 1500 min (oops, it was unlimited, but now it's this I learned last night.)
I'll look into the links provided and see if there's any way to jump onto a prepaid with our usage. Just having my phone not working for a day was about to make me crazy. I'm in contact with a lot of people about a lot of things for our family. It was disorienting.

[liz]

If you don't use a lot of voice time, I really like my t mobile prepaid plan. It is $30/mo for unlimited text and data but only 100min of voice. I rarely talk on the phone at all, cell or home, so it works well for me. I have an app by vonage (free, don't have to be a vonage user) that gives free outgoing calls using your data (or wifi) so the 100 mins is not an issue for me. You can get the plan at Walmart by buying a starter pack there with SIM card, or it is on the website. You cannot get it in a t mo store.

:yeahthat: I've had the TMobile plan for years now. I am happy with it, since I use text and data the most. I barely make phone calls so this plan works for me, plus I love the price ($30/month)! If you run out of talk minutes, it's super easy to add funds. I will have to check out that vonage app. My DH had the Virgin Mobile plan but switched over to tMobile because of the unlimited data.

[bcafe]

Dh, DD, and I have Republic. We couldn't be happier with the service especially for $25/ month. DD has a $10 plan with unlimited talk/text anytime and data over wifi only. The $25 plans have everything.

[vludmilla]

:yeahthat: I've had the TMobile plan for years now. I am happy with it, since I use text and data the most. I barely make phone calls so this plan works for me, plus I love the price ($30/month)! If you run out of talk minutes, it's super easy to add funds. I will have to check out that vonage app. My DH had the Virgin Mobile plan but switched over to tMobile because of the unlimited data.

Virgin Mobile plans now include unlimited data.

[calebsmama03]

This plan won't work for you, then, but you still could save a lot switching to republic, Virginia, or cricket prepaid. Even a TMO post paid plan would save over your current rate. Any family who could split a family plan with you? TMO often has an unlimited everything family olan promo that works out to $30-35 a line with 5 lines.

[liz]

Virgin Mobile plans now include unlimited data.

DH was looking for unlimited text and data. I think the Virgin plan was $35 and TMobile was $30, so he went with the cheaper plan. Plus, I think Virgin would slow down data once you hit a certain limit and TMobile does not.

eta, ok I had to look it up since it's been a while. The TMobile plan uses 4G speeds up to 5GB of data, after that it throttles down to lower speeds. DH really liked Virgin Mobile, but the rates went up to $40 for a similar plan with slightly less data of 4GB but with unlimited minutes. Since we hardly use talk time minutes, it makes sense to keep our $30 plan. We would recommend both plans depending on your needs.

[calebsmama03]

:yeahthat: I've had the TMobile plan for years now. I am happy with it, since I use text and data the most. I barely make phone calls so this plan works for me, plus I love the price ($30/month)! If you run out of talk minutes, it's super easy to add funds. I will have to check out that vonage app. My DH had the Virgin Mobile plan but switched over to tMobile because of the unlimited data.

Here is the vonage app. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/vonage-mobile-voice-text-video/id491391564?mt=8

I only use it for outgoing calls, never use the other features.

[mommylamb]

I'm very intrigued by this discussion. I have an iPhone 5s with verizon and my contract is up next week. DH has an iPhone 5 also with verizon but has been out of his last contract for a while. Neither of us needs a new phone as the ones we have meet our needs. I'd like to switch to one of these lower cost carriers if possible. Can I keep my phone? I assume my phone is locked since I bought it from verizon. Now that I'm nearly done with my contract what do I need to do if I want to unlock it and use it with ones of these cheaper alternatives?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[klwa]

I'm very intrigued by this discussion. I have an iPhone 5s with verizon and my contract is up next week. DH has an iPhone 5 also with verizon but has been out of his last contract for a while. Neither of us needs a new phone as the ones we have meet our needs. I'd like to switch to one of these lower cost carriers if possible. Can I keep my phone? I assume my phone is locked since I bought it from verizon. Now that I'm nearly done with my contract what do I need to do if I want to unlock it and use it with ones of these cheaper alternatives?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Many of the prepaid carriers allow you to bring your own phone. Also, since they piggy back on the other networks, I'm not sure if you'd truly have to get it unlocked or not.
https://www.straighttalk.com/wps/portal/home/h/BringYourOwnPhone/carrierselection
http://www.t-mobile.com/bring-your-own-phone.html
http://www.net10byop.com/

[ang79]

Many of the prepaid carriers allow you to bring your own phone. Also, since they piggy back on the other networks, I'm not sure if you'd truly have to get it unlocked or not.
https://www.straighttalk.com/wps/portal/home/h/BringYourOwnPhone/carrierselection
http://www.t-mobile.com/bring-your-own-phone.html
http://www.net10byop.com/

We took AT&T phones (locked) to Net10 on the BYOP program (purchased a card at Target to activate it - make sure you buy the one for AT&T coverage). We wanted to continue using AT&T towers as that is what works best at our house, so it wasn't a big deal to move the locked phone over to Net10. My brother tried to unlock one of them for me (he was original owner), but AT&T gave him such a hard time about it, apparently its getting harder and harder to get them unlocked, at least iphones.

[ang79]

Many of the prepaid carriers allow you to bring your own phone. Also, since they piggy back on the other networks, I'm not sure if you'd truly have to get it unlocked or not.
https://www.straighttalk.com/wps/portal/home/h/BringYourOwnPhone/carrierselection
http://www.t-mobile.com/bring-your-own-phone.html
http://www.net10byop.com/

We took AT&T phones (locked) to Net10 on the BYOP program (purchased a card at Target to activate it - make sure you buy the one for AT&T coverage). We wanted to continue using AT&T towers as that is what works best at our house, so it wasn't a big deal to move the locked phone over to Net10. My brother tried to unlock one of them for me (he was original owner), but AT&T gave him such a hard time about it, apparently its getting harder and harder to get them unlocked, at least iphones.

[JustMe]

I'm very intrigued by this discussion. I have an iPhone 5s with verizon and my contract is up next week. DH has an iPhone 5 also with verizon but has been out of his last contract for a while. Neither of us needs a new phone as the ones we have meet our needs. I'd like to switch to one of these lower cost carriers if possible. Can I keep my phone? I assume my phone is locked since I bought it from verizon. Now that I'm nearly done with my contract what do I need to do if I want to unlock it and use it with ones of these cheaper alternatives?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I really do encourage anyone who is interested in lowering their cell phone bill to check out howardforums. They are like the BBB of cell phones, and I have learned so much! They know about unlocking, and anything else you could possibly want to know. I am in no way affiliated of course (other than posting and getting help), and its totally free, etc.

[calebsmama03]

I really do encourage anyone who is interested in lowering their cell phone bill to check out howardforums. They are like the BBB of cell phones, and I have learned so much! They know about unlocking, and anything else you could possibly want to know. I am in no way affiliated of course (other than posting and getting help), and its totally free, etc.

Yes! That is where I heard about the plan I have. Way too technical for me much of the time, but awesome info.

[Twin Mom]

My mom's phone is an iPhone5 from Verizon which I was able to use on the cricket network which is AT&T. I verified on the cricket site that it would work so you can probably do that with whatever carrier you want. Just look under bring your own phone and it will tell you how to see if the phone is compatible. My understanding is that iphone5 and later from Verizon are unlocked. Can't speak for the other carriers. I know we had to get DD's 4s unlocked to use it on cricket and it was an AT&T phone which is the same network.


I'm very intrigued by this discussion. I have an iPhone 5s with verizon and my contract is up next week. DH has an iPhone 5 also with verizon but has been out of his last contract for a while. Neither of us needs a new phone as the ones we have meet our needs. I'd like to switch to one of these lower cost carriers if possible. Can I keep my phone? I assume my phone is locked since I bought it from verizon. Now that I'm nearly done with my contract what do I need to do if I want to unlock it and use it with ones of these cheaper alternatives?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[khm]

DH and I have an antique Sprint plan that he thinks could be beat by a longshot. It's unlimited text and data for his android and my iphone. With taxes it is $160. We lost my employee discount and haven't applied for the AAA discount, out of laziness.

I do want to get a new phone, I think....currently have a 5c, so i suspect any changes should all happen at once.

We also have vintage Sprint plans, but we have 5 people on it, so it works out (4 of us are add-ons $29 for 1500talk / unlim data&text).

For my husband's business, we used some old Sprint phones we had in the junk drawer and hooked them up on Ting for a 3 of his employees. It's worked great! I keep thinking about moving all of us to Ting, but haven't taken the leap yet. Their website does have a nice calculator where you can put in the specific usage of a few old Sprint bills and get an exact price what Ting would have cost for the same usage amounts.