family of 5 cell phone plan? We are switching from Sprint...

[TnTWalter]

we live in Indiana and Sprint is spotty where we are and where my oldest goes to college.

Thinking of switching to AT&T or Verizon or ?

2 of us use a lot of data but it's nice to not worry about it...

We pay just over $150 with unlimited talk text data for 5. Contract up early December.

I think both AT&T and Verizon will be more expensive [$200?] but hard to tell...do any help with early termination fee or should we wait?

what do you all have? Any ideas for me? I think Verizon has credits promotion where you get money back per month for phones...

at least 3 will need new phones...

Thanks.

Trish

 

[verleniahall]

We love verizion -

when you reach $300 that you have paid, you get a "credit" to spend on what they have in stock that month - i have gotten everything from Starbucks to Panera to Nike (which i don't do anymore) giftcards in $5 incremints - i put the starbucks on a seperate GC in my acct and save it towards vacation

 

[mjkacmom]

We love verizion -

when you reach $300 that you have paid, you get a "credit" to spend on what they have in stock that month - i have gotten everything from Starbucks to Panera to Nike (which i don't do anymore) giftcards in $5 incremints - i put the starbucks on a seperate GC in my acct and save it towards vacation

Hmm, I have Verizon with a family of 7 with unlimited data, I spend more than $300 a month, I haven’t seen this.

 

[Lvsdisney]

Hmm, I have Verizon with a family of 7 with unlimited data, I spend more than $300 a month, I haven’t seen this.

It's the Verizon Up rewards. If you have the app, see if you're signed up! You may have some credits you didn't know about.

 

[Lvsdisney]

I've been a Verizon customer for almost 20 years and even though they more expensive than other carriers, I think they are worth it. Only a few places have I ever experienced poor service, otherwise clear as a bell. We also have FiOS and get a credit on our bill for having both. It's a nice little perk.

 

[StephMK]

Is there a way to get Starbucks to be an option? I have not seen that one. Thanks for the reminder to use my credits!

 

[mommy2twingles]

We are also a family of 5 and have Cricket. Runs off the ATT network. We have had no issues and have had them for about 3 years now

 

[foodiddiedoo]

Is there a way to get Starbucks to be an option? I have not seen that one. Thanks for the reminder to use my credits!

The credits change on a regular basis, so Starbucks isn't available every month.
As for the original poster, yes you can build up 10 dollars credits toward the purchase of new phones, but I'd rather get a small gift card more regularly (or a free movie download which is often offered).

 

[Klayfish]

We are also a family of 5 and have Cricket. Runs off the ATT network. We have had no issues and have had them for about 3 years now

Yep. We've got 5 lines as well, with Cricket. $125/month including all fees/taxes, unlimited data. Coverage is terrific, I'd highly recommend them.

 

[tvguy]

It's all a trade off. Our company kept switching around from Verizon, to Sprint to A-T & T, back to Sprint back to A-T & T trying to avoid Verizon's higher costs. It just got to be a safety issue. In our area Verizon having a much wider coverage area. Talk to friends, compare prices, and made your best informed decision.
It is amazing to me that there is now a generation that has grown up mostly with cell phones, with the advantage of being mobile, but they don't know what it is like to have a reliable, clear phone connection like landlines provide.

 

[elgerber]

I've been a Verizon customer for almost 20 years and even though they more expensive than other carriers, I think they are worth it. Only a few places have I ever experienced poor service, otherwise clear as a bell. We also have FiOS and get a credit on our bill for having both. It's a nice little perk.

Yep, unfortunately I agree. They are running fewer and fewer offers these days, because they are the best and they know it LOL. Two years ago they practically gave away the new iPhone 7 line, now they offer pretty much no incentives. But I don't dare switch, because I have been unhappy with anyone else I have ever tried.

 

[FQLover]

Trish, we are in Indiana, too. By any chance does your oldest go to Ball State? We did a college visit a few weeks ago, and our Boost phones barely worked while there. Yet, the week before, they worked just fine at IU Bloomington. We are from northern Indiana.

I really don't want to change it up. We had Verizon before which worked great at my job (basement classroom and basement office in two different buildings) but it didn't work at all at my DD's high school. Prior to that, we had AT & T which did not work at all at my job but worked fine at her school. Ugh!

Boost (connected to Sprint) is giving us unlimited everything for the two of us for $80.00 a month. I want to stay with it--but not if my DD won't get good reception anywhere at her school next year. Guess I will have to wait and see where she is going to go.

 

[Sleepy425]

I use Total Wireless. It runs off the Verizon towers from what I understand. I haven't had any problems - I pay $25/month (with the 5% autopay discount taken off and taxes added on, I think it is about $26 for the month). Since I don't use much data, I buy 5g for $10 whenever I need it (it's actually $9.50 with my RedCard discount). I've been very happy with my switch from Verizon, I save at least $30/month.

 

[kydisneyfans]

You really need to find others in the area where you need service and find out who they have.
My former employer had company phones with Sprint. I always had to tell them where I would be for the day and if I thought they could reach me or not.
They switched to another of the "off" brand providers, in which I was at home(in the middle of a town of 35,000), and they could not reach me at all.
3 days later they gave me a Verizon phone and never missed another call.

We pay more to stay with Verizon as there is no use in paying for a phone that has no service where you are located.

 

[Moramoon]

I'm in Indy. We were with Sprint and about a month ago DH started having issues with his phone connecting. He could only get calls when he was on WiFi then would only get 3G when he was able to connect to their network. He took it to the Sprint store and they said they had been seeing several of the same issues, but didn't know what was causing it. They did a reboot and replaced the SIM and nothing worked. They had us take it to one of their tech stores and they said all they could do would be to upgrade (at our cost). We're planning on moving to Florida next year and have heard Sprint is pretty bad down there so we went ahead and switched to Verizon. Honestly price wise it's pretty similar to what we were paying with Sprint. I also like that at the end of the term agreement you actually own your phone instead of Sprints deal where you have the option to turn it in and upgrade or pay the additional cost to buy it.

For the Ball State question I went there back in 2005 and had AT&T at the time. I never had issues with service there. Sometimes I'd lose service when I'd go into the basement of one of the buildings, but it always came back once I moved floors/went outside. Can't speak on any other carriers though.

 

[zoo2tycoon]

I live an hour north of Indy and we have Verizon. We’ve had for years. All the other plans are very spotty here.

 

[samandryanmom]

Yep. We've got 5 lines as well, with Cricket. $125/month including all fees/taxes, unlimited data. Coverage is terrific, I'd highly recommend them.

We left ATT in August for Cricket. Three lines, two with insurance, unlimited data. 100 per month. No issues so far.

 

[missnic]

For phones, right now Best Buy has $300 off Verizon Galaxy/Note 9s. I upgraded my S7s and I'm paying less now. I also just called to see how much an unlimited plan would be (currently have 16gb, but it's not enough lately, split between 2 lines), and I got a promo or something for $90/mo for 2 lines. So, I upgraded phones and plan and I'm paying about $20 less per month. For us, Verizon service is WAY better than AT&T, who we had had forever.

Basically, call them. See what they can offer you to switch. Never hurts to ask