Cellphone plan again can anyone recommend

[My3Princez]

We currently have iPhone 4s phones with Verizon, with one year remaining on the contract. When that contract is up, can we take our phones to PagePlus and get the pre-paid service or did buying the phones under contract some how void that?

-Astrid

If you finish your contract out, then you can change your phones to Pageplus. Just a suggestion - if you haven't done so already, make sure you contact Verizon to "unlock" your phone before you switch to another carrier. The phone doesn't have to be unlocked to work on Pageplus, but an unlocked phone is more valuable. We're in the process of looking for an unlocked iphone for my husband to use because he needs to travel internationally, and the used unlocked phones sell for alot more than the used ones that aren't unlocked.

 

[FarmDisney]

So far I have had really good luck with PagePlus been using the $30 per month 1200/3000/500 plan. It has been very reliable and works well with a Verizon iPhone 4s.

How much is it a month with all the taxes and fees added on?

 

[disneycrazi]

We have what we think is the best plan ever. It is Go Smart thru T mobile. I pay $30 a month and its unlimited talk and text. DH pays $35 and has unlimited talk, text and data. It's not a card thing you just go to website every month and put the money on the account. And yes really unlimited text and talk and data. Data is not super fast but we didn't care. I love this because I can't go over!

 

[arihillfarm]

If you finish your contract out, then you can change your phones to Pageplus. Just a suggestion - if you haven't done so already, make sure you contact Verizon to "unlock" your phone before you switch to another carrier. The phone doesn't have to be unlocked to work on Pageplus, but an unlocked phone is more valuable. We're in the process of looking for an unlocked iphone for my husband to use because he needs to travel internationally, and the used unlocked phones sell for alot more than the used ones that aren't unlocked.

Thank you! Do I just call them and ask, is there a fee, can it be unlocked before the contract is up?

-Astrid

 

[luvmy3]

How much is it a month with all the taxes and fees added on?

Its just $29.95 a month. I buy my refills through callingmart and they normally have a 3% discount code, and every month they have a period where they have a 5% off code. Also I get points for every purchase that are redeemable for the next purchase (you can let them accumulate if you want). Its not alot, like right now I have $ 0.60, but every little bit of savings is nice.

 

[ceecee]

TracFone is cheap if you really want to budget. DH and I have the LG 800 with camera and touch screen, we got his for $5 (refurbished from the website) it has triple minutes and there's always a code for 200 extra, so he gets 1500 minutes and a year of service for $100.00. He has about 3000 from carry over minutes, I tend to use more. DD has an iPhone and we got her the Virgin plan that has unlimited texting and 300 minutes per month and it is $30. The Tracfones get better reception and we have used them while traveling and have never had any issues.

 

[My3Princez]

Thank you! Do I just call them and ask, is there a fee, can it be unlocked before the contract is up?

-Astrid

From what I understand, you just call them and ask, assuming you meet some basic requirements, they will do it for you with no fee. And yes, it must be done while you are still a Verizon customer. You have to meet the following requirements:

* Must be a Verizon Wireless customer.
* The iPhone 4S being unlocked must be active on a Verizon Wireless line of service.
* The line of service must be active at least 60 days.
* The line of service must be in good standing for the past 60 days.
* Only one SIM Unlock per line every 10 months.

FYI, the purpose of unlocking is not to enable you to move your phone to another USA carrier. You can only use a Verizon phone on specific carriers (such as PagePlus). Whether it is unlocked or not, that doesn't change. What unlocking accomplishes, from what I understand, is to allow the phone to be used in OTHER COUNTRIES on the carriers in those countries. So it won't be an immediate benefit to you unless you are leaving the country, but it won't be a bother for you either, and it makes your phone worth more should you decide to sell it. And since it can't be done AFTER you are no longer a Verizon customer, it makes sense to make the call and do it while you still ARE on Verizon.

There is more info here: https://community.verizonwireless.com/message/696707

 

[kiki02]

TracFone is cheap if you really want to budget. DH and I have the LG 800 with camera and touch screen, we got his for $5 (refurbished from the website) it has triple minutes and there's always a code for 200 extra, so he gets 1500 minutes and a year of service for $100.00. He has about 3000 from carry over minutes, I tend to use more. DD has an iPhone and we got her the Virgin plan that has unlimited texting and 300 minutes per month and it is $30. The Tracfones get better reception and we have used them while traveling and have never had any issues.

thanks see cee. but if you see the tracfone site, they now do not have the cheap phone without browser....

do you think i can use my tmobile iPhone on virgin?

 

[DawnM]

This.

My data and MMS would go out all the time. I had to reset the APN settings on a regular basis.

However, the last straw for me was when I was on vacation, away from family, and wanted to MMS pics to the family. It didn't work, even with an APN reset. It was out for over a month.

I switched to ATT GoPhone for $60/mo ($55 or so at CallingMart.com)and love it, although the price is a little more.

I can go into the ATT store just like a regular customer and get customer service.

Dawn

Most of the problems are with the GSM varients of the Iphones and bringing your own phone phone for use on AT&T or T-mobile towers with straight talk. First, you need to jailbreak or do what's know as the sim swap method to set the APN. Even then, Apple seems to do an update that switches things back to the native carrier.

If you're buying a Straight Talk Iphone, which uses Verizon's towers you shouldn't have these problems.

 

[crazelion]

thanks see cee. but if you see the tracfone site, they now do not have the cheap phone without browser....

do you think i can use my tmobile iPhone on virgin?

Yes they do. It call LG 840g . I have thinking serious get mom one these. The can be use Wi-fi and if download opera mini and runs great.

 

[DaretoDis]

Had to subscribe to respond to this thread.

Just recently bought a Tracfone Samsung Centura smartphone from HSN that came with 600 minutes of talk, 600 texts, and 600MB or data, $25 Play Store Credit, phone cover, and car charger. Still had about 600 minutes left on my old phone and after I transferred that over, I had 1200 minutes of talk, 1200 texts, and 1.2GB of data. It is a triple minute phone

Tracfone will eventually be offering a few smart phones, and it's nice to be able to stand toe to toe with my Iphone user friends. They (Tracfone) will also be offering just data cards to add to the phones as needed, but also being a wifi phone, I don't really use much data.

The deal I got from HSN at the time was $129, and I think it's $149 now. Tracfone is also offering these phones on their website.

I usually put on a 450 minute card...X3 ($80) every 4 months, so I figure my cost is about $20 per month.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

How much is it a month with all the taxes and fees added on?

29.95 per month, that's the total. Not paying any taxes or extra fees. There are actually re-sellers online that you might be able to shave off a dollar or two. I don't feel like going through a re-seller so we just go directly through PagePlus.

 

[jm0925]

My only prepaid carrier experience was Virgin Mobile. I was with Sprint for 12 years and thought downgrading to VM wouldn't be so bad since Virgin Mobile operates on Sprints network. I was with Virgin Mobile for the last 3 months and decided to switch to T-Mobile. The call quality with VM was poor. My phone seemed to have frequent issues finding internet connection. The phone I bought for $60 was lousy quality. I definitely wouldn't recommend VM if you like to use your phone frequently for internet and social networking. The speed is just too slow for that kind of use. Mind you I had all these issues and I live in a major city. I'm actually quite happy with T-Mobile now.

 

[DawnM]

That may have been because you had a poor quality phone. There are many phone options with VM.

Dawn

My only prepaid carrier experience was Virgin Mobile. I was with Sprint for 12 years and thought downgrading to VM wouldn't be so bad since Virgin Mobile operates on Sprints network. I was with Virgin Mobile for the last 3 months and decided to switch to T-Mobile. The call quality with VM was poor. My phone seemed to have frequent issues finding internet connection. The phone I bought for $60 was lousy quality. I definitely wouldn't recommend VM if you like to use your phone frequently for internet and social networking. The speed is just too slow for that kind of use. Mind you I had all these issues and I live in a major city. I'm actually quite happy with T-Mobile now.

 

[Disneyplanners]

We are currently with verizon and our 2 year contract is up, now just doing month to month. We want to switch to page plus and use the same phone. Do we cancel with verizon first, then sign up for page plus, or sign up with page plus first? How does activating the phone under the new company work? thank you!!

 

[kajs22]

We went from a pricey Verizon plan to Page Plus -paying about 30% of what our last bill was and we all have iphones - have had no issues. Look up Kitty wireless - their customer service is tops!

 

[My3Princez]

We are currently with verizon and our 2 year contract is up, now just doing month to month. We want to switch to page plus and use the same phone. Do we cancel with verizon first, then sign up for page plus, or sign up with page plus first? How does activating the phone under the new company work? thank you!!

Make sure your phones will work on page plus first. (As a side note, if you have iphones, make sure to call Verizon and ask to have them unlocked. It's free and makes your phones more valuable should you want to sell them later.) If they will indeed work on page plus, sign up for page plus and port your number over to them. After it is working on page plus, then cancel with Verizon - not before.

 

[JB2K]

Straight talk gives you a lot for 45.00 per month, but I hear a lot of negatives about them.... (I don't like tracfone)

Those "negatives" aren't really justified -- these are coming from people who do the following with their Straight Talk/NET10/Tracfones:

• Steam Pandora (or something similar 18 hours a day) on the cellular network
• Steam movies several hours a day on the cellular network
• Attempt to use their phone as a Wi-Fi enabler/hotspot (against the TOS)

As long as you don't do those things (and if you really must stream, do it on a Wi-Fi connection at home, or elsewhere), you're good to go with Straight Talk/NET10/Tracfone...