New Cellphone Plan

timsclips

timsclips

Joined
Nov 27, 2007
Messages
610
I have been on Verizon cellphones with the renewable 2yr contracts for the past 10 years and have been thinking of switching to a pay as you go plan. Most likely candidate at the moment is the straighttalk plan thru Wal-Mart and tracphone. The only downside I see is the choice of the phones is very limited, coverage thru Tracphone is good in the area that I live and the coverage map looks very close to the Verizon maps.
The basic $30 a month plan is probably all that I need but I can upgrade to unlimited usage for $45 a month.
Anyone hear of any problems with this company? StraightTalk just started last fall so there is only about 6 months experiences with this company but TracPhones have been around for several years.
 
I had a Tracphone for awhile in 2006-7ish. I only really used when camping and hiking in MI as a SHTF backup plan. I never went out in the boonies so I usually had coverage. I thought it was expensive for what ya got. I don't know if the prices have changed since then. BTW, if you need customer support, you will talk to someone in India.

The straight plan looks interesting but I don't know anyone who has it.

If you don't use a lot of mins each month, considering asking someone to add you to their family plan. My sister added me for $9.99 a month (sprint). We also added more mins to the plan. I just give her $20 a month to cover my cell phone.

Metro PCS has a unlimited plan for 30-40 IIRC. They have the tv commercial with the two Indian guys trying to be funny.
 
Ah, I actually have Straight Talk and love it :thumbup:

I used to be with T-Mobile and had to pay $110 a month for my G-1 which I hardly used except for emails. That was too much monthly fees for me so I went to straight talk about two months ago and couldn't be happier. I have the Samsung R451C, it works great and has the slide out key pad. If you can route your emails (like I can with gmail) you can have your emails forwarded straight to your phone.

I used the $30 plan the first month to test the waters, and went ahead and did the $45 for this past month. I've heard mixed results from customer service, but I've never had to contact them for anything. You buy the phone, add the service feature ($30 or $45) and pay at the register. It's good for 30 days from the time you add the "refill" to your phone and that's it :)

I've used other pay-as-you-go plans before t-mobile, and after comparing them recently, straight talk was the best option. They have the same coverage as verizon and you don't have to worry about minutes or data usage.

Hope this helps, J.
 
I have actually been looking around on some of the cellphone forums. Only downside I see on Straight Talk is:
1. You have to buy one of their phones, nothing else will work.
2. If you get into an area that Verizon does not cover you cannot get connected, there is no roaming to another carrier's tower. Not a big issue unless you live by or travel thru one of the white areas on the Verizon coverage map.
 
timsclips said:
I have actually been looking around on some of the cellphone forums. Only downside I see on Straight Talk is:
1. You have to buy one of their phones, nothing else will work.
2. If you get into an area that Verizon does not cover you cannot get connected, there is no roaming to another carrier's tower. Not a big issue unless you live by or travel thru one of the white areas on the Verizon coverage map.
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Oh, I see....then I suppose I'm lucky that it covers my fishing hole and the drive to and from home :D

I was unaware of the no-roaming part of it. I suppose I was more worried about cost vs. whatchaget. I've never had a dropped call or heard static if that helps any :)
 
I use Tracphone . The coverage is good. Its the least expensive way to go for me. I got one with double minutes for life.It cost me less than 20 bucks a month,but Im not a talkaholic.
 
I tried a prepaid phone at one point. It was a huge PITA for me. I was getting charged a .50 cent connection charge everytime I made a call, and I was always buying cards. The concept is good, but I gave up.

Had T-Mobile back in the day when it was Voicestream Wireless. That was funny, I'd be sitting in my livingroom and the phone would ring I'd answer and the call would drop as soon as I would go anywhere near my kitchen.

I have Verizon now, been 4 years and I have not had too many problems. I like that I can pay my bill online and not have to fuss with stamps and other things. I get coverage in my area pretty well, no dropped calls yet. I pay $50/month and I'm ok with that since I have no landline.
 
been 4 years
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Cell phones are a kind of computer technology. One ordinary year is seven computer years. Reports of experiences with other brands >4 ordinary years ago were >28 computer years ago, ancient history of no relevance to modern times. A fifty cent charge to make a connection? LOL! It's like saying "I wouldn't want to live in Italy -- this book about the Roman Empire says they have really high taxes there!"
 
I've been using tracphone for about 4 years - hard to beat the $100 flat rate for 1 year of service, and with the double minutes, that's 15 hours of talk time, so I'm pretty well covered.
 
I've been thinking about going the pay as you go route, also.

Page Plus gets some pretty good marks, from what I can tell.

I think the use Verizon's network and you can use your existing Verizon phone with them.
 
Has anyone looked into Net 10?
They offer a basic $15.00 a month plan, that appears adequate.
Website says plans are available at Dollar stores and Walmart in Ohio.
I haven't checked personally, but would appreciate any feedback.
Thanks for your time and consideration.
 
I've got net 10 currently and been pleased with them for my purposes. I bought 2000 minutes for the year for $200. Not the cheapest minutes in the world, but I don't need a lot of minutes so it's about the cheapest for my uses. Coverage has been OK. Utah coverage maps aren't good from any provider once you leave a major highway.

Prior to this I used tracfone and liked that well enough too. This is a bit more economical for me and has email though it sucks up the minutes using email.

I'm using the Samsung t401g (walmart on line has a good price and accessory package).

Tracfone, net10 and Straightalk are all the same company. Straight talk looks good to me on paper, but is more than I want to pay for a cell phone service.
 
I rarely use the phone, and for years, I was paying Verizon for 300 minutes per month and using less than 100 of them. I switched to Tracfone and have been saving a huge amount of money. Tracfone doesn't have its own network; it leases bandwidth from other companies, so connectivity has been better than Verizon's in my area. There are also Tracfone bonus numbers all over the net, so it's easy to get extra minutes.
 
I thought I would update my thread, wound up moving my cell phone and my wife's from the Verizon family plan we had to Page Plus. I took advantage of the bring your own device policy and bought a refurb Palm Treo 650 from evilbay, now I can get on the internet on my cellphone without paying the data charges from Verizon. (They want $30 for extra for a smart phone for data connection.) Connection has not been an issue, Page Plus uses Verizon's network so if you can connect with one you can connect with the other.
 
timsclips said:
I thought I would update my thread, wound up moving my cell phone and my wife's from the Verizon family plan we had to Page Plus. I took advantage of the bring your own device policy and bought a refurb Palm Treo 650 from evilbay, now I can get on the internet on my cellphone without paying the data charges from Verizon. (They want $30 for extra for a smart phone for data connection.) Connection has not been an issue, Page Plus uses Verizon's network so if you can connect with one you can connect with the other.
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What?! You can use your own phone with their plan??? I would like to know more about this :eek: I still have my G1 from Tmobile laying around and it would be nice to be able to use it without the added on $30-$40 for it being a smartphone.
 
J's Knives-N-More said:
What?! You can use your own phone with their plan??? I would like to know more about this :eek: I still have my G1 from Tmobile laying around and it would be nice to be able to use it without the added on $30-$40 for it being a smartphone.
Click to expand...

If it'll take an ex-Verizon phone (CDMA) I don't think Page Plus will help you since T-Mobile is GSM. Tracfone/Net10 only works offering both phones because they lease from both Verizon & AT&T.
 
Have you thought about boost mobile I got a friend that digs his 50 dollars for unlimited minutes for the month.
 
i switched from nextel to a straight talk as for phones you always have to buy there phone no matter your plan,i love mine.....i got the $30 dollar plan.
 
THE PUNISHER said:
i switched from nextel to a straight talk as for phones you always have to buy there phone no matter your plan,i love mine.....i got the $30 dollar plan.
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That's what I'm on and I love it (straight talk). $45 a month and the only reason I have this and not the $30 is because of the text messages. I have it set so that I receive my emails as text messages so in total with texts and emails it runs a little too close to 1000. So the $45 gives me peace of mind :)

But had my G1 worked with the other plan I'd happily switch over :D
 
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