Pay as you go Mobile

[krazy4crusing]

Hi everyone,

I am new to the pay as you go cell phone market and I was hoping you could help.

Which carrier would offer the best pay as you go rate?

I am looking at an umlimited talk, text, data plan with a smart phone.


T mobile has a phone for $159 and a $50 phone card included. They have a $50 a month plan with unlimited talk, text and internet.


In your opinion iIs this a good deal? Any other carriers you would recommend?

Thank you so much!!

 

[DawnM]

I am planning to switch to Straight Talk. It is $45/mo for unlimited talk and text and 2GB of data. You can also bring your own device as long as it is ATT branded.

My parents are switching to Tmobile's .10/min. talk plan as they rarely use their phones.

 

[rock_doctor]

I am doing this now also.... I currently have Sprint so i am only looking at Sprint MVNO (companies that purchase time wholesale and resell it to their customers). The only real downside that i can see is, you do not get roaming. So if you frequently travel in areas where Sprint does not serve you will be out of luck. The up side, much nicer phones then the other pre-paid companies.

boost mobile
android plan is $55 a month with a $5 reduction for each 6mo of on time payments for a maximum of $15 off - voice, text and data unlimited (data slows down after 2.5gigs)

Blackberry plans is $60 a month with the same conditions as the android plan.

Virgin mobile
Beyond talk unlimited plan plan is $55 a month but you get a $5 reduction for auto payments (one permanent $5 reduction as long as you keep autopay) unlimited voice, text and data (data slows down after 2.5 gigs). They also have the iPhone 4 & 4s...

Unfortunately, we just missed their phone sale. It was 25% off all phones. Virgin has the Evo 3D with 4g data and Boost has the slightly newer Evo 4g with 4g data. The 3g is from sprint and the 4g is from a company called Clear who has a deal with sprint. As a word of notice, sprint has stopped pushing WiMax in favor of building up their own 4g system using LTE. Their contract with Clear is supposed to last until 2015. (Clear). If you want to tether your phone (shair the internet connection from the phone to something else) Virgin charges an extra $15/mo and Boost charges an extra $10/mo. Although, Virgin gives you an extra gig if high speed data for that $15, so they do not slow down until you hit 3.5gig with the tethering add on.

 

[krazy4crusing]

Virgin has some great rates, I will check out Straight talk too. I have checked At& T, Cricket, Metro PCS, Voxmobile, Flash Wireless, and T Mobile so far. Virgin is the cheapest thus far at $35 per month and $49 for an android smart phone (with bad reviews )

We only need it for trips to Florida or other states while on business. You wouln't believe the prices we have to pay in Canada for mobile. The phone plans in the US are AMAZING!!!

 

[Pigeon]

The $35 Virgin Mobile plan is not unlimited talk. It's unlimited texting and data, with whatever restrictions there really are for the data. You get 300 minutes of talk per month and the minutes don't roll over. For unlimited talk it's $55/month.

 

[DawnM]

I am not even considering Virgin or Boost because I am currently getting RID of Sprint. I no longer get service at my house or around my house since they "upgraded" their towers.

Straight Talk uses ATT towers and there is a tower right near me. I got my son a Gophone and he gets full bars.

The other thing I personally like about Straight Talk and ATT Gophone is that you can bring your own device to the plan and not have to purchase from them.

 

[joanchris]

I am not even considering Virgin or Boost because I am currently getting RID of Sprint. I no longer get service at my house or around my house since they "upgraded" their towers.

Straight Talk uses ATT towers and there is a tower right near me. I got my son a Gophone and he gets full bars.

The other thing I personally like about Straight Talk and ATT Gophone is that you can bring your own device to the plan and not have to purchase from them.

I just switched on Saturday to Straight Talk, will switch the rest of my family later this month when DD's contract is up. Coverage is great, no issues for me so far and I've spent time in my home, several days at two different hospitals (with DD) in two different cities, and had great coverage. Unlimited talk text and DATA, for $45/month (someone mentioned it was limited to 2g, that's not correct, at least here). I bought a used Tmobile branded smartphone (just had to get the correct straight talk sim card, for tmobile, $15). DD will be able to bring her ATT smart phone, and DH will get the $30 plan and a flip phone that he prefers.

 

[DawnM]

The reason I said it is 2gb only is because people are getting CANNED for going over. They advertise "unlimited" but it is conditional. If you go to the HowardForums.com forum many, many are reporting that Straight Talk stopped their service for going over.

Most are saying to install a watchdog app to monitor your use of data.

A personal friend of mine came back from vacation and got a notice that she was being dropped for using 2.3gb of data.

just be aware that what they advertise isn't exactly what you get. Otherwise it is a great service from what I am reading.

Dawn

I just switched on Saturday to Straight Talk, will switch the rest of my family later this month when DD's contract is up. Coverage is great, no issues for me so far and I've spent time in my home, several days at two different hospitals (with DD) in two different cities, and had great coverage. Unlimited talk text and DATA, for $45/month (someone mentioned it was limited to 2g, that's not correct, at least here). I bought a used Tmobile branded smartphone (just had to get the correct straight talk sim card, for tmobile, $15). DD will be able to bring her ATT smart phone, and DH will get the $30 plan and a flip phone that he prefers.

 

[rock_doctor]

The $35 Virgin Mobile plan is not unlimited talk. It's unlimited texting and data, with whatever restrictions there really are for the data. You get 300 minutes of talk per month and the minutes don't roll over. For unlimited talk it's $55/month.

I should state that once you hit you data limit you just slow down to 1RTT speeds i.e. you loose 3g/4g access. This holds true for both boost and virgin. Some have reported using more then 8gb of data with out stoppage although i would assume that if you do this often you will get a letter....with a frowny face on it... 1RTT are modem dial up speeds, it still works but will take a while...

Virgin has two limited plans and one unlimited:

300 minutes with unlimited text and data using the data limits i stated earlier for $35 with the $5 auto pay reduction

1200 minutes with unlimited text and data using the data limits i stated earlier for $45 with the $5 auto pay reduction

unlimited minutes plus unlimited text and data using the data limits i stated earlier for $55 with the $5 auto pay reduction

Now if the OP uses their phone mostly for data and text, then a limited minutes plan may be better and the text and data usage do not count against minutes. They are separate.

Personally, i am going with boost due to the $5 every 6mo reduction. After a year and half their unlimited plan will cost $40 a month. This is how they keep customers rather then using a contract for two years.

Believe it or not i actually did the math on it...

boost will cost after two years: (including tethering $10 and taxes for my state)
unlimited-$1642

Virgin will cost after two years: (including tethering $15 and taxes for my state)
300 min-$1285
1200 min-$1571
unlimited-$1857

Each state pays a different tax rate, i don't know what you would pay in Canada. Here in the US they charge a state tax, federal tax (usage tax) and a 911 tax all of which folds into the state tax rate. Oregon has the lowest at 6% (although some companies don't charge it at all) and Nebraska has the highest at 23.69%.

If you pay for you account with a boost or VM cards they don't charge the tax when you pay for your plan. Such that if you plan is $50 a month then you pay $50 for the plan because when you bought the card you paid the taxes up front. So it is not really cheaper on the taxes but you can sometimes get cheaper cards... A $50 card for $48.... You can shop around, get them on sale or off the web...

There is a lot to learn. I have been cranking though it for a week and am still going strong. But then again i want to know how much it will cost down to the penny as well as which phones are giving them issues to how good is the customer service and if problems are solved quickly or take a while...

Boost has a better customer service reputation as virgin has out sources all of its lower level reps. You can get kicked up higher in the food chain and get people who are in the US who can take care of the problem (some speculate that these are actually Sprint reps pretending to be Virgin reps - remember Virgin is owned by Sprint). In some forum posts members suggest to people having repeat issues to call Sprint directly for help and skip Virgin reps all together... Don't know if this was successful, they never posted back.

Good luck...