Posted on 04/12/2012 10:01:28 AM PDT by mamelukesabre
If you havn't heard, Verizon is starting up a new fee. It was all over the radio yesterday, and now I am seeing it on the internet. I am currently with Verizon but I am off contract and using an old flip phone. I've been doing this purposely in anticipation of the day when I would kick Verizon to the curb.
What Cell carrier are you with and what advantages do they offer?
How many ways are there to get cell phone like service without using an actual cell phone(if any)? I'm thinking maybe VOIP on a wireless modem or something like that.
I have a pay as you go phone. Whatever was cheapest at Best Buy.
very expensive on a per minute basis, 10 or 20 cents, but I only use a few minutes a month. It costs about $20 for three months.
Since I am looking for work I have to have one, and they do come in helpful on rare occasion.
I guess there is something called “hybrid calling” now.
Im with Verizon. But if you want cheap service, Virgin is the way to go.
The $30 dollar fee will be charged when you upgrade your phone service.
... cause brain cancer.
pagepluswireless.com is a no-contract, pay-as-you-go service that uses the Verizon network—so you receive the exact same coverage. You may use your existing Verizon phone. I pay $29 per month for 1200 anytime mins., 3000 texts, 100mb data. They also have unlimited talk/text/100mb data for $39 and also other options. It is less than half the price of Verizon for the same coverage.
There is a 3rd-party customer service provider: kittywireless.com. They are extremely helpful and can do most things that pageplus can do (customer service), but with a personal touch. If you use kittywireless to start your pageplus account, you can sign up for autopay/renewal each month so you don’t have to worry about adding minutes to your phone—they do it all for you at no charge.
Switching to pageplus after my Verizon contract ended was one of the smartest things I’ve ever done—especially in combination with kittywireless!
Verizon simply is doing what the competition is doing. AT&T charges $36, as does Sprint. T-Mobile is only charging $18.
Unlike the competition, Verizon does NOT charge existing customers an Activation Fee when you go to activate your upgraded phone - so existing customers do get a break there.
I’m with AT&T now. My cell phone sits in a coffee mug, so I have signal. It’s useless outside of the coffee mug; either indoors or outdoors. I live in Utah, and even though 80% of the state’s population lives in a stretch of valley 80 miles long and 15 miles wide - AT&T can’t seem to manage coverage here.
So, while you may be leaving Verizon; I’m going back to them. I guess it all boils down to how good the service is where you live and travel. In my case, for the places I go; I frequently have “No Service” and pathetic data rates.
I have a prepaid Tracfone. Good service, good rates, no bills.
I don’t make many calls, so I can get about 15 months of service for $77.00 [about $5/month]. When I had the land line it was costing $25/month.
[Just be sure to opt out of Tracfone’s ‘offers’ programs. When I first tried them, I was getting 2 emails, 2 land line calls, and 2 cellphone messages twice per week. I complained and complained. They finally got the message and started the opt-out. I have been completely happy with them since — been a customer over 3 years.]
If you don’t yack on your cell phone a lot, I’ve found T-mobile to be a great option. Buy a cheap cell phone from them and then cough up another 100 bucks and you become a “gold” member, which means unused minutes roll if not used up after a year with a minimum additional $10.00 addition to your minutes each year. The $100.00 also gets you 1200 minutes.
I mostly use my cell phone to forward my land line to when I’m out and about, for travel, and so myself and Mrs. Catnipman can communicate when we’re raiding Costco. (Mrs. Cantipman has her own T-Mobile pay-as-you-go cell phone, too.)
If you are an infrequent user of your cell phone, you can buy the $20 Verizon pay-as-you-go phone. One of their plans is $1.99 per day only on the days you use the phone.
Any day you make or answer a call, your cost is $1.99 which is deducted from your balance. On that day, you may make as many calls as you want at no additional charge or send as many texts as you want for 2 cents each.
If you buy the $15 plan, your money runs out in 30 days if you don’t use it, but if you add money before the previous $15 expires, your previous balance carries over. If you pre-pay $100, your deposit is good for a full year.
My girlfriend, Nurse Christine, paid $120 for a full year (including the phone) of cell phone service. That’s $10 a month and she can use the phone for unlimited minutes on 60 different days without paying another penny.
I never understood people who buy cheap cell phone plans and then complain because they never have service.
I’m with Verizon because...it works.
Even in the boonies.
Make sure you check out the “Common Cents” phones at walmart.. My carrier is Virgin MobilNet.. $40/month for internet and 7 cent a min on the phone rounded down + $30 every 2 months.
What are you looking for in phone service? Cell service, VOIP service are completely different technologies and don’t operate the same way.
I use the T-Mobile annual prepaid plan. $100 for 1000 minutes good for a year.
metro pcs
$40 per month flat fee. all taxes included in the $40
I get 100m per month for streaming video and audio via the 4G net. if I turn off 4G and connect to wifi... then stream video, it doesn’t count towards the 100m limit.
I have no minute plan. no special times or days.
also, I picked up a droid phone... which the other carriers required an $80/mon plan minimum. I would be paying at least $100/mon to sprint for the same package (which is why I dropped sprint)
Straight Talk prepaid. You can buy it at Walmart, or online.
You’re on the Verizon network, but no stinking contract with Verizon.
$45 per month for unlimited everything, voice, text, data.
Or $30 per month for a thousand minutes.
Best deal I’ve ever found for cell service. Works great.
Yep. That's been my experience as well.
Same is true using the much cheaper Straight Talk setup. You're on the Verizon network, but no contract. No surprises. And much cheaper.
Depending on your usage of phone versus data, there are three good plans to choose from that I have found.
1. For light data and light to medium phone usage, go with PlatinumTel. They use Sprint network, no monthly fee 5c/min for phone, 2c/text, 10c/MByte. A $100 prepay gets you a year of usage, and you can find coupon codes on the web to get that $100 credit for $85. Their phones are not current generation (Android 2.1). You can try buying a Sprint phone off Craigslist and see if they can activate it, otherwise just buy one of theirs (prices start at $19.99 with free ground shipping) and start saving.
2. Republic Wireless. $19/month unlimited voice, text and data. Uses Sprint network, but relies on VOIP and data over Wi-Fi for primary connectivity. It’s in Beta currently, but it sounds like they’ll open up some new customer slots in the next couple of months. Phone is LG Optimus (Android 2.3) and costs $200 up front.
3. T-Mobile offers a prepaid plan for $30.00/month that offers 100 minutes of phone, plus unlimited 4G data and texts. Don’t know what phones/prices they have.
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