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Posted on 10/16/2013 6:24:05 AM PDT by kyperman
Prepaid phone plans, where you pay the full price for a cellphone and then pay lower monthly rates without a contract, seem to offer what most budget-conscious people want. So why haven’t they really caught on?
(Excerpt) Read more at bits.blogs.nytimes.com ...
We are in your situation as well so I will look forward to good advice. It would be cool to have a smart phone but not smart enough to pay what it costs. I have enough connectivity in my life.
If you want to pay $500 up front for an iphone, go ahead.
It’s like buying a car with cash upfront versus paying it in installments.
If you can get credit and pay it off with future, devalued dollars it usually makes more sense economically to pay in installments.
Now, if you want a cheap phone with few features, then prepaid would be the way to go.
ping for later reading.
Google ObamaPhone and follow the yellow brick road.
Is this true?
If so, we're keeping our old phones. We're not paying 30 bucks a month for something we don't even want. Actually it's 60 bucks since we have two phones.
I use my phone... as a phone. I occasionally text.
My company bought my iPhone for me. I would not have a smartphone otherwise.
If I had my druthers, I’d go prepaid or just get a home phone.
You can get an iphone 5c for only about $100
It will work with several prepaid plans.
Our last contract was up in May 2013 and we haven’t signed a new one. We’re month-to-month now. I miss the new *free* phones that aren’t really free. We switched plans, now have unlimited minutes, was 1200, now have unlimited data and the bill went down about 30 bucks a month. Our phones are good for now, will buy when needed. We’ve never had iPhones, just androids. They work just fine for our family of four, Mom, Dad, and 19 & 16 yr old so LOTS of texting going on every month. It does feel good to be contract free!!!
Around where I live, the phone service on prepaid plans is not as good as on their premium plans; I know this for a fact as twice we’ve had phones from the same company, different plans and we wander all around the area.
Civilized people write letters anyway :-)
Do you stream music or radio talk shows?
Typically the no-contract wireless providers advertise ‘unlimited data’ but the fine print terms ‘data’ as internet surfing, emails but not streaming video or music/radio. As such many folks get their data throttled once they have hit 1 - 1.5 GB in a month.
AT&T has a new no contract service - GO Phone - which you choose the data amount...you can save some money with that. Can’t set up a hot spot, though...
Good luck!
I can access the net with my tracfone if I really need to but I don’t.
What did you go to? Metro PCS? I hear they have pretty good plans for reasonable rates.
I don’t know of any good ‘pay as you go’ plans. They all seem to be rigged to force you to spend $30-$50 per month — what I pay for my current phone $50 per month, 400 minutes 250 texts, visual voice mail.
If you just want a basic cell phone that you can make and receive calls and texts (and voicemail, if you like), then prepaid is a LOT cheaper.
I have a basic TracFone that cost me $19.95, and for another $29.95 a quarter, I get 240 minutes, plenty for me. My wife and son have one too, so our total initial outlay for three phones was $60, and our monthly cost is $30.
I like having a phone that can give me GPS directions, or let me find stuff on the internet wherever I am. Or check twitter while I am waiting in line.
If you just want a phone to be a phone, then cheap and prepaid is the way to go.
The Walmart trac phone plan. Buy the phone and it’s $45 a month for unlimited data (3G) and it’s month to month so you can cancel anytime. The phones are not top of the line cool phones but it’s more than adequate for my limited needs.
Neither. Use a plan where it is plan as you go. Our carrier has about five phones and prices to choose from (including a Smart phone), plans with different minutes going all the way down to $10 for an emergency phone. Text and media is available, but we don’t use them. If we think the minutes will go up for a month we can go in an add another $10 which adds another 350 or more minutes.
Used to have Verizon and AT & T long ago. Would NEVER go back.
If I used the phone a lot I'd get StraightTalk unlimited for $45 a month. I can't see why anyone would go with a contract with a deal like that.
I have two phones: the simplest, “dumbest” phone with a prepaid plan that doesn’t even include text messages, with Virgin Mobile. Either $20/mo for 200 minutes or $50/mo for 1000 minutes. I usually get the $20; when I’m low, I get the $50. It balances out to about $25 a month over time for me.
The other phone is a cast-off smartphone with no service from when my wife upgraded her own phone service. I use free wifi at McDonald’s &c from time to time, and play music and take pictures and make voice memos to myself and all that stuff.
I pay $9 a month for an AT&T go phone, anyone know of a cheaper plan?
If you own the equipment pre-paid is by FAR your best bet. I have the entire family on pre-paid...Four of us, unlimited EVERYTHING...54.00 per line...that’s including tax. Verizon.
It does appear there is not many phone choices that don’t require a data plan.
And by the way..these are smartphones with all the bells and whistles.
I’ve been with T Mobile for about 6 years. I’m happy with them, although they did ship me a worthless piece of crap phone called a Gravity3 I think. Then i had so many issues with it’s lack of performance (dropped calls every.single.day)that they sent me a refurb of it, it was baaaad, so they were going to send me a new one and I said WHOA, I want a new phone, these refurbs aren’t worth the shipping costs.
So they did, and it messed up worst of all. so I said NO GRAVITY and the first guy and a supervisor said I couldn’t get anything else. Then the call dropped. I called back and got a cs rep named Tiffany and she said of course you can get a different phone. The alternative was a bottom line business phone, but it worked!
I kept it a couple of months and then finally got a smart phone. I pay $30 a month per phone for unlimited minutes, texts and some amt of internet that i never use. I also pay $ 10 or 20 a month toward my LG Optimus L9, it cost $245.
The app PDANet+ will give you a hot spot on an Android phone without needing to have the phone company to turn it on. Everything will work except the web. And you can get the web to work too if you know how to change the USER_AGENT string in Firefox.
But, for a long time, I just used my 3GS and stayed on my current plan with no contract. Even when it broke, it bought a new 3gs (because upgrading meant I had to get a new contract or pay cash) for $150
I did end up paying for the 5 phone outright but at the end of two years I still come out about even and have no contract.
If you are paying more for just minutes than you would pay for a plan with data and/or text, then you aren't saving any money. Straight Talk is AT&T service. Virgin Mobile is CDMA from Sprint. They have $30/month plans and unlimited plans for a little more. The only advantage for a contract plan is a discount on a high end phone. If you don't have a new, high end phone, you are getting screwed.
My situation is a little unique in that the place where I work doesn’t allow camera phones for security reasons. I went to the local Verizon store one day and asked if they had phones without cameras and the kid looked at me like I was from Mars. So I’m stuck with a probably 10 year old Motorola cell phone without a camera. Luckily you can’t kill this thing.
Betcha I’m not the only one with this no camera restriction.
My last phone was a Blackberry Bold, and they made a version of the phone without a camera.
Net 10 offers a cellphone for 35 bucks it is a basic phone with camera and caller id and recent call feature and voice mail unlimited long distance the card costs anywhere from 15 or 20 bucks for 500 minutes and 30 days service to unlimited Long distance for 50. I have had no problems with service and have had it for a couple of years. They also have a home verison same features for 84 bucks start up cost and 19.95/mo. I am going to drop the cell phone and go to the home based cell as I no longer have a business and think it is rude to take and make cell calls around other folks. Ever go to a store and have the clerk while waiting on you hear her bell and either answer or checks number? Pisses me off. Also my grandfather fathered his last child at 72 and since I am only 59 I prefer not to kill my remaining sperm, may need em. There is no contract on these phones. I don’t work for them.
I have three phones (for three people) with Boost. My mom and I are using flip phones (we’re old), but my son’s using a smartphone with their service.
No issues. They use Sprint towers, so we’re getting the exact same service at a fraction of the price.
The only thing that irritated me is that we had the phone insurance for my son’s phone ($5 a month) and when we needed to use it, they charged us a 50% deductible. In the long run, when you add together all of the insurance payments plus the cost of the replacement phone, it ended up costing us more than if we’d just saved that money and bought a new phone.
Other than that, we love it and would never consider a contract.
Went prepaid 6 years ago and never looked back. Best money I spend on communications. Several carriers now have Android “smart” phones. So the me too factor is lessened.
http://www.tracfone.com/phones.jsp
If the phone is stolen you can easily port the number to the new one and most of the time keep the minutes. Buy “double minutes” for life phones and add to the savings.
I now spend less than $40/month per phone and love it(10 phones in service). I have each of my supervisors in the business on them and saves me from their gripping about using their minutes for business. Six years ago I spending $100/ phone for less service.
I used AT&T for years.
I don’t talk on the phone much, and even their lowest tiered plan was too many minutes. I called them and they had an unpublished plan below that which I was on for a few years. Still too many minutes.
Eventually I got a Tracphone. It had double minutes, and I bought one of the large minute cards that had a 1 year expiration. The price of the phone and the card was about 3 months worth of AT&T’s unpublished lowest rate. I got a new 1 year card every year for 3 years and it worked very well for me.
But my company got me a cell, so I’m no longer with Tracphone. The reason they did was I want to send text alerts from my server monitoring software, and that could have easily overwhelmed my Tracphone account. The company phone has unlimited texts.
I was pretty happy with Tracphone, and my wife is still on it. I only wanted a phone, and they do that pretty well. Having the minutes expire on the lower count cards is somewhat annoying. I suspect that part of their business model makes it unattractive for a lot of their potential customers, especially some who might otherwise buy several phones and keep them in their cars for emergencies. But that’s their choice.
It's only for emergencies, so my plan is no minutes, but 25 cents a minute if I actually use it. I'm very happy with Consumer Cellular. Anytime I've needed to call them they've been punctual, friendly, accurate, and English speaking. They also have plans that include different levels of minutes/month, all choices being very clear.
I had Verizon for years and when my mother died, I had to cancel her phone. They wanted me to pay for the phone until the contract run out. I walked away from them without looking back. In the last year, I have been using Metro PCS. I just got a brand new 4G Smart Phone, with unlimited calls, texts, messages, email, The Works. All for $ 40.00 a month. I love it!
We’re with TMobile and their new “no contract” plan. Now, instead of paying 30 days after use, you pay up front, 30 days pre-pay but not a prepaid throw away phone.
Works for us. And even this was 30 a month cheaper than contract plan and I checked Verizon and ATT and they would be about 60 more than what I am currently paying and I’d be under a 2 year contract.
We’ve been with TMobile for 6 years now, they are pretty good. We’d previous had a contract with both ATT & Verizon, customer service with TMobile is much better. Perhaps ATT & Verizon have improved since back then?
With a daughter 4+ hours away at college and son in high school, it is peace of mind . . . keeping in touch with both of them.
I was on Verizon forever. $154 two phones. Just got off the contract.
Wife and I got two free semi-smart reconditioned Android phones from Net 10. $85/month for both lines, “unlimited” text, talk and data.
The “unlimited” isn’t really. You get like 2.5GB per month and then they throttle you way back on speed, till next month comes around. If you don’t download movies or do other pretty stupid, IMO, stuff on your phone the 2.5 is much more than adequate.
Uses AT&T towers and reception is generally better than with Verizon here in FL.
If you already have an iPhone or other phone you like, you can often have connectivity switched to Net10 by buying a simcard. <$10.
I’m just waiting and keeping eyes open for a good buy on a used iPhone or good Android, and then I’ll switch to that.
But it’s really hard to beat for $85 and two free phones. The phones obviously aren’t state of the art, but three or four years ago they’d have been considered really good.
Interesting. I just checked the data used app on my trac phone and for a one week period it’s 56 MB, so I’ll never approach the level of usage mentioned in that article. I’m happy with the plan so far.
When the iphone 3GS came out I wanted it but had the choice of paying in full or getting it for much less but then locked into a plan. I calculated out the total costs and found the pay up front and use pay as you go at about $1000 cheaper. Now I was happy to forego the internet connection because I felt I had enough internet in my life and if I ever needed it on the go it was also available for daily or weekly plans. I also was not a heavy user of the cellphone so it fit me fine. Still have the iphone and still going strong. This works if you are a low level user. If on the other hand you use the phone and internet a lot it would not work as well. You really need to figure out how much you use or need the various services.
I kind of doubt it costs the phoneco anywhere close to as much as the full retail to get the phone they sell. An $80 phone might be $15 to manufacture. The high prices are just so they can say yes they offered the phone. And it might even be a refurbished phone, costing even less.
Surely somewhere somebody already sells used, cleaned phones?
The people that are unhappy are streaming music, videos. 1.5 GB before being capped would be a lot of data for me.
The only reason I’d like to have web access on my phone would be to have access to real rime radar. I’ve lived without it my whole life, but it would be cool to have.
A lot depends on your phone needs and usage. Also, if your home and usual places to visit offer wi-fi.
I am not a big talker by phone but I need it at times. I also found myself wishing for all these neat apps found on smartphones, particularly traffic and weather now that I have to drive across town on the interstate to reach my new job.
The answer I chose was Consumer Cellular which re-sells AT&T but there are other companies with similar plans. I bought a smartphone for $250 from them which they break down to $100 now and $25/mo until paid. You can craft your plan based on how much phone and data you need.
I did use a flip phone and Pay as you go which was costing me around $30/mo and with this new plan on Consumer Cellular, I am spending $35-40/mo but now can use all sorts of bells and whistles on my smartphone that are very handy.
But there is a catch to this. The data you use over Wi-Fi does not count on your total so I got my internet router set up at home and all my home data usage is free. My favorite hang-outs also have Wi-Fi so I can use their networks when I am out.
The phone is equipped with 4G for everywhere else but that data counts against your total so use it sparingly. I’ve also discovered that 4G constantly on is a big drain on your phone’s battery so I have an app that turns it off when I am not using it. It still works for phone calls with 4G off, just not data unless I can access Wi-Fi.
I would never set up a contract because I don’t use the phone like some teenaged girl. I almost never text and I really don’t make many calls. But now I have a phone that gives me data access almost anywhere so it is like having a mini-laptop that doubles as a phone with picture quality good enough to watch a sporting event or a tv show on it (as long as Wi-Fi is present).
One other nice thing about Consumer Cellular. They almost by accident found themselves popular with senior citizens so their customer service and website are very good with tailored videos on how to use your new phone if you bought it from them. Plus you can increase or decrease your usage plans as you go along so you aren’t locked into a certain plan that no longer fits.
I tried to set up with two other companies before making this move. Republic Wireless offers $19.95/mo unlimited everything but they insist you get your phone from them at a high cost. Ting has a scaled plan like Consumer Cellular and is more flexible on what phone you use with them (they are a reseller of Sprint) but they refer you to a company called Glyde for your phone and they are selling you other people’s used phones that are often in less-than-pristine condition. Consumer Cellular sends you a new phone they have customized for their network but, really, any phone set up to work on AT&T can be used with them.
When I was a kid (70's) we used AM radio on the farm for "real time radar." Always get the cracking and popping on the radio when lightening was around. You could also watch the cows and get an idea when storms were coming.
Sure, you can buy used phones.
My point was that if you want the newest iphone or top-tier Android phone, there is a cost for that phone.
The question is then whether you pay upfront or in installments.
If you don’t want a new, modern phone, then my point is moot.
I have to turn my Virgin Mobile off at night - they call me at 4 AM to tell me to top up.
Didn't Obama and Hagel turn off the GPS System as part of the shutdown? Just kiddin, but I bet they considered it.
Check out Republic Wireless. We have it for my son and it works well. We pay $19.95 a month for unlimited everything (with no contract). The phone is specially programmed by Republic to use Wifi whenever it can and to use Sprint when Wifi isn’t available.
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