Contract/No Contract Cell Phone

[DJT]

I need more available texts to keep family in the know about my parents and their failing health. I've been with T-Mobile for nine years and am out of contract, paying month to month though. To get more texts I can do their No Contract plan for $30 a month for 1500 talk and text, or I can do a two year contract for $29.99 (it is actually $39.99 but they are giving me $10 off per month for "loyalty") and get 500 minutes a month, unlimited nights and weekends, and unlimited texting. I have thought about this so much that my brain is mush. Do you see an upside or downside to either one of these choices? I'm really ready to take the plunge and just don't want to make a mistake. TIA.

Donna

 

[JB2K]

If texting is important to you, you may want to take a serious look at a couple of prepaid/no-contract carriers:

Boost Mobile - offers unlimited monthly no-contract plans ($50 for nationwide talk/text/web, $55 for unlimited on an Android handset, or $60 for unlimited BlackBerry service). Big Budget Tip - after 6 months of on-time payments, your bill is reduced $5 per month, which means you could have a monthly bill with unlimited talk/text for as little as $35 a month.

Virgin Mobile - offers a 1,500 minutes/1,500 text messages per month package for $30 a month (30 MB of web access is also invluded).

Both Boost and Virgin Mobile operate on Sprint's nationwide network.

Others to consider are "Walmart Family Mobile", which uses T-Mobile's national network and "Straight Talk", who uses a variety of carriers -- both are exclusive to Walmart stores.

Hope this helps...

 

[North of Mouse]

There are pros and cons to any company or plans, but we have AT&T, renew every two years, and get new free phones at that time. We're going to use them (they have the best signals for our needs and area) anyway, so we don't have a problem with the two year contract to get updated phones. You just have to research what meets your needs the best.

 

[mrodgers]

I don't make phone calls. AT&T GoPhone, $5 - 200 texts, $10 - 1000 texts, $20 - unlimited texts.

I use about 300/month, my wife uses about 700. I initially started out 1000 on each phone, $20 for 2 phones. This is my 3rd month with the phones, put 1000 on Wifey's month 2, and 200 in month 3. I put 200 on mine both months. Cost me $15 last month and $10 the current month. If unlimited, then it would just cost $40 for both phones. I will probably put 1000 ($10) on my wife's phone every other month. I shouldn't need to put the $10 worth on my phone again until September.

Voice plan I have is $0.10/minute since I make about 3 phone calls per 6 months.

There is a $25 plan for 250 minutes and new since Christmas time, $50 unlimited talk, text, and data (just like all the other prepaid companies.)

The GoPhone is not a shared thing or anything. The phones are separate and the plans are completely separate. We each have an account that we (or I actually) have to keep up to date every month.

Cost of texting for my 2 phones, I estimate will be $175 for the year. Cheaper than the majority of 1 month's charge for most people I know who have 2 phones in the family.

 

[StephMK]

I don't make phone calls. AT&T GoPhone, $5 - 200 texts, $10 - 1000 texts, $20 - unlimited texts.

I use about 300/month, my wife uses about 700. I initially started out 1000 on each phone, $20 for 2 phones. This is my 3rd month with the phones, put 1000 on Wifey's month 2, and 200 in month 3. I put 200 on mine both months. Cost me $15 last month and $10 the current month. If unlimited, then it would just cost $40 for both phones. I will probably put 1000 ($10) on my wife's phone every other month. I shouldn't need to put the $10 worth on my phone again until September.

Voice plan I have is $0.10/minute since I make about 3 phone calls per 6 months.

There is a $25 plan for 250 minutes and new since Christmas time, $50 unlimited talk, text, and data (just like all the other prepaid companies.)

The GoPhone is not a shared thing or anything. The phones are separate and the plans are completely separate. We each have an account that we (or I actually) have to keep up to date every month.

Cost of texting for my 2 phones, I estimate will be $175 for the year. Cheaper than the majority of 1 month's charge for most people I know who have 2 phones in the family.

That's the plan we use for DD18 too. I just look to see how many texts she uses, we usually do the 1000 but can sometimes just do 200. DH & I use tracfones but may switch over to gophones when she goes to college in August so we can text her more often.

 

[Diet Dr Chill]

I have VM and love it.

 

[mrodgers]

That's the plan we use for DD18 too. I just look to see how many texts she uses, we usually do the 1000 but can sometimes just do 200. DH & I use tracfones but may switch over to gophones when she goes to college in August so we can text her more often.

We switched from Tracfones. We had 3 phones on the monthly plan, $23.66/month. My wife and I wanted to get the new touch screen phones so we could communicate through text easier while working. I looked at AT&T GoPhone and getting 2 real Android phones and costing us $25/month total for texting and data looked like a better way to go than Tracfone. We still have my daughter's Tracfone, but since my debit card was canceled from fraud use, it didn't update and get paid and kicked us off the monthly plan. She is only 11 and doesn't use it, has a ton of minutes and quite a bit of time left on it, so we'll just let it ride for a while. She only uses it when she does after school stuff, or if we both work during the day so we can let her know if I'm going to be late coming home or not (I get home earlier than Wifey unless I'm stuck finishing something up on overtime.)

 

[MomToOne]

Also check out platinumtel.com - I use their Real Paygo plan for DD11's cell phone. I've been very happy with that plan, and reviews in general on that plan are very favorable. Costs are dirt cheap - $.02 text/$.05 per minute calls (I wouldn't recommend their other plans, esp. the unlimited. From what I've read, they like to throttle and/or cancel you if they deem your usage "excessive", despite the "unlimited' label on the plan. )

But to determine the best plan for you, esp. if you are looking at pay-as-you-go plans, you need to figure out how many texts per month you need and how many talk minutes. And of course if you want data, then that complicates the calculation even more. I not a big phone talker, and only send the occassional text, so a pay-as-you-go is perfect for me. And I purposely want to keep my daughter's usage under control, so a pay-as-you-go works well for that too - she knows she will have to pay for more time herself if she eats through the time I pay for too fast, which keeps her from going crazy with it.