Tell me about GoPhones with AT&T

[shopnfun2me2]

12yo DD is BEGGING for a smartphone for her 13th birthday that is coming up. Of course, she is the ONLY one in her class that doesn't have an iphone4s. I tried to research the Gophones but am confused about the rates. Do you have to pay a monthly rate of $50 or $25 or am I missing something???

I need a budget smartphone. Is that even possible?

 

[lindsmom]

12yo DD is BEGGING for a smartphone for her 13th birthday that is coming up. Of course, she is the ONLY one in her class that doesn't have an iphone4s. I tried to research the Gophones but am confused about the rates. Do you have to pay a monthly rate of $50 or $25 or am I missing something???

I need a budget smartphone. Is that even possible?

We got the gophone for our daughter (10 1/2) for walking home from school, etc. We got her the cheapest one they had, I think it was like $10. Every three months or so we put $25 on the phone. It's good until it gets used or for 90 days (I think - maybe a month longer) then it will expire. It costs $2 per day of unlimited use for that day. If she doesn't use it, it doesn't cost anything. So we can send her a hundred texts in one day and it only costs $2 or we can call her once and it costs $2. But since she doesn't use it very often it's perfect for our situation and peace of mind.

I believe the higher values that you put on last longer, but we only do the $25 payments.

ETA: we didn't get her a smartphone, just a basic flip. I see on the website that in addition to whichever plan you get, you need to get a data plan for the smartphone. Sorry, I don't know much about that.

 

[crazelion]

You may want hit up howardfourums boards and read up on ATT go smartphones because it getting hard get the 10 cent minute plan and buy data for.

Here what I did. I got a cheap and dirt cheap brand new android phone from cricket Samsung Vitality that bought at Best Buy for 39.99 on sale. I use my phone with the free grooveip lite app and gmail app account so I can make calls for free on wifi and text for free too. I get smartphone without contract and data plan as along I am near wi-fi. I have drop my internet on my ATt phone.

 

[mrodgers]

AT&T GoPhone was a little complicated to think about at first. I have 2 Android phones.

First off, accounts are individual, so if you want multiple phones, each will have it's own account.

You upload money to the AT&T account. The amount expires depending on how much you upload.

• $15 - 30 days
  $25 - 90 days
  $50 - 90 days
  $60 - 90 days
  $75 - 90 days
  $100 - 365 days

Next is the features (call, text, data)

• The unlimited plan talk, text, and data for $50
  
  $25 gives you 250 minutes and unlimited text, no data
  
  $2 daily gives you unlimited talk and text for the day, pay $2 only on the day you use it.
  
  $0.10 per minute gives you, obviously, $0.10/minute of talk.

Without going unlimited, you need to select a text and data package. These roll over when you continue before the due date of the next month on both text and data.

Texts

• 200 texts - $4.99
  1000 texts - $9.99
  unlimited texts - $19.99

Data

• 10mb - $5
  100mb - $15
  500mb - $25

I don't know what the maximum texts are that can be rolled over each month, but I know you have a maximum of 1.5gb of data.

We don't use data as we are on wireless at home and I am on wireless at work. My wife doesn't have the chance to be on her phone at work. We have a switch on the home screen to turn data off, but it is available if we need it when out and about. We also don't ever make phone calls on cell (about 3 calls per year in "emergency" situations.) My wife uses about 700 texts and I use about 300 texts per month.


I initially uploaded 500mb of data on each phone for $25 and 1000 texts for $10 each. I add 10mb data for $5 to keep the data rolling over and 200 texts for $5. About every 2 months, I put the 1000 texts on my wife's phone and 1000 on mine about every 4 months. I will pay about 2 month's cost of a 2 Android phone contract for the entire year. I uploaded $25 in February to each account and another $15 last night. So far, I've got a total of $180 uploaded in the last 5 months including the initial top-off of data. After buying my packages, I have $25 left combined on the accounts, so I've spent $155 from December through May.

 

[JB2K]

I need a budget smartphone. Is that even possible?

Yes -- Boost Mobile (which operates on Sprint's national network) sells several Android-based smartphones. Most are priced in the mid-$100s, but it's not uncommon to see HSN or Target sell them for under $100.

What differentiates Boost from other prepaid operators is they have something called "Shrinkage", where your monthly bill drops by 5 dollars for every 6 months of on-time "re-boost" payments.

For example, the monthly rate for any Android is $55 (unlimited everything) --pay 6 months, it drops to $50, 6 more months, it drops to $45...and 6 more months after that will get you down to $40 a month!

More information can be found here.

 

[robinb]

You may want hit up howardfourums boards and read up on ATT go smartphones because it getting hard get the 10 cent minute plan and buy data for.

Here what I did. I got a cheap and dirt cheap brand new android phone from cricket Samsung Vitality that bought at Best Buy for 39.99 on sale. I use my phone with the free grooveip lite app and gmail app account so I can make calls for free on wifi and text for free too. I get smartphone without contract and data plan as along I am near wi-fi. I have drop my internet on my ATt phone.

So, you carry two phones?

The Howard Forums is a great place! Thanks for them, I bought my 12-year old a Verizon LG VX9100 (Env2) from eBay and set it up with Page Plus Cellular. Page Plus has a longer time between needing to add $$ to your PAYG account than AT&T, Net10 or Tracfone so I don't have to keep on adding money onto a phone that is not used often and the minutes are very cheap. Page Plus also offers 2000 texts per month for only $10 ... a lot less than PAYG texts which were starting to kill us. No, the LG VX9100 is not a smart phone and my DD wants one too but she already has an iPod Touch. You *can* activate a Verizon smart phone on Page Plus and if you look at the Howard Forums they will tell you which ones work with the PP service.

 

[crazelion]

So, you carry two phones?

The Howard Forums is a great place! Thanks for them, I bought my 12-year old a Verizon LG VX9100 (Env2) from eBay and set it up with Page Plus Cellular. Page Plus has a longer time between needing to add $$ to your PAYG account than AT&T, Net10 or Tracfone so I don't have to keep on adding money onto a phone that is not used often and the minutes are very cheap. Page Plus also offers 2000 texts per month for only $10 ... a lot less than PAYG texts which were starting to kill us. No, the LG VX9100 is not a smart phone and my DD wants one too but she already has an iPod Touch. You *can* activate a Verizon smart phone on Page Plus and if you look at the Howard Forums they will tell you which ones work with the PP service.

Yes I carry two phones sometimes. I a have ATT family voice plan and I have drop data and everything else that drive up the bill. I mostly use the phone music, movies, play games and sometimes make a phone call. I mainly bought it just have android device for cheap besides playing a full blown tablet. It perfect for my needs because of the portability too.

I am thinking that I don't need a ipod touch now since I have the android device.

 

[mrodgers]

Changes for AT&T GoPhone data service as of yesterday.

Now, to have data on an Android phone, you must have a monthly calling plan. Data service is no longer available on the $0.10/minute plan. You have to either have the $25 250 minute/month plan or the $50 unlimited.

Data amounts changed also from the figures I posted above. Now it is:

• 50mb - $5
  200mb - $10
  1gb - $25
  
  Doesn't bother me, I haven't used any data since getting my phone except for the accidental usage when the wifi signal was weak at work. I make about 2 phone calls per year on the cell phone, so I use the $0.10/minute. Saves me money since I've only used the internet when either at home or at work on wifi. So, my 2 cell phones will cost me $5 for mine and $10 for my wife per month for the texting.
  
  I've just been putting $5 on data just to roll over the initial 500mb since getting the phone. I lose that all now.