Who to use for Iphone service?

[havaneselover]

My parents are in their early 70s and can use computers and Ipads but aren't particularly tech savvy. Today my dad told me he wanted a Blackberry so he has email when traveling. I've suggested an IPhone. My mom (who uses an IPad regularly) may want one too. They currently both have 10 year old dumb phones through Verizon and pay $80/month. They live in SW FL in the Winter and Northern MI in the summer.

Since they need two new phones, it seems like the options would be:

1) Verizon
2) Straight Talk (which I have) and
3) Virgin (probably the cheapest per month, just not sure how service would be in Northern Michigan).

Am I missing anything? Any recommendations?

 

[mrsklamc]

AT&T is another option.

 

[havaneselover]

My mom doesn't think AT&T would have good reception Up North : ) Which probably rules out Virgin Mobile.

 

[descovy]

That is a whole heck of a lot of money to be spending on 10 yr old "dumb phones"!

Give Verizon a shot first. You might even be able to inquire. Prices for plans have gone down in those 10 years so you might be pleasantly surprised.

Also, I'd give ATT another look, unless you KNOW it won't work for their specific area. My parents and my aunt & uncle are full time RVers... which means they "live" everywhere (and often in the boonies) Both couples swear by att for reliability.

Coverage maps have likely improved since they shopped for those 10 yr old phones too! Just because att didn't work for them 10 years ago, doesn't mean it won't today!

 

[DaretoDis]

I would bet they don't need unlimited anything, so how about a LG Dynamic II from Tracfone? It's a pretty decent phone, and sometimes they have them for sale on HSN or QVC with 1200 mins. talk,1200 texts, 1.2 gig data. Their smartphones use Verizon towers.

 

[MillauFr]

In a rural area the most important criteria is finding a carrier that provides good coverage.

I do not understand why a previous poster was connecting AT&T with Virgin. I though Virgin was using the Sprint network.

 

[havaneselover]

That is a whole heck of a lot of money to be spending on 10 yr old "dumb phones"!

Give Verizon a shot first. You might even be able to inquire. Prices for plans have gone down in those 10 years so you might be pleasantly surprised.

Also, I'd give ATT another look, unless you KNOW it won't work for their specific area. My parents and my aunt & uncle are full time RVers... which means they "live" everywhere (and often in the boonies) Both couples swear by att for reliability.

Coverage maps have likely improved since they shopped for those 10 yr old phones too! Just because att didn't work for them 10 years ago, doesn't mean it won't today!

I know. The only reason they even have phones is because they were in NYC on 9/11 and had huge bills for using the hotel's phones trying to get in touch with everyone and get out of NYC. Now that I'm thinking about it I bet their phones are 13 years old. But my mom occasionally uses hers. My dad's is really more for emergencies (car breaks down). My mom would learn to text and she uses her ipad so I think she'd have no issues. The funny thing is my dad really wants email when he travels because he plays rotisserie baseball and recently went out of town and missed some potential trades.

I think my mom's concern is she has AT&T service on her IPad and it's fine in FL but not so great up here.

I'll take her to Verizon and then try to explain the options. It looks like two smart phones are about $130/month on Verizon but you can get a 5s at Walmart for $79 (they might as well get the most update phone since they'll keep it for ever plus that way they have LTE). My dad's not sure my mom needs an iphone (she doesn't play rotisserie baseball after all but it seems like there isn't a huge price difference between two iphones and one iphone and a dumb phone.

 

[havaneselover]

In a rural area the most important criteria is finding a carrier that provides good coverage.

I do not understand why a previous poster was connecting AT&T with Virgin. I though Virgin was using the Sprint network.

That's my fault. I guess I'm assuming anything that isn't Verizon may not work well up here.

 

[havaneselover]

I would bet they don't need unlimited anything, so how about a LG Dynamic II from Tracfone? It's a pretty decent phone, and sometimes they have them for sale on HSN or QVC with 1200 mins. talk,1200 texts, 1.2 gig data. Their smartphones use Verizon towers.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll check that out. I just need something simple to explain to them or I'll be getting a lot of phone calls : )

 

[bigbabyblues]

We went from 2 dumb phones with AT&T to 2 iphones with Verizon, and our bill changed by about $5 a month. We have a kong history of terrible service and lots of problems with AT&T and were dropping thrm at any cost. My husband went to Best Buy and told them what we needed and they came up with plans from a few carriers and made rercommendations.

 

[skysmom99]

I live on the eastern side of northern Michigan and have found Verizon to work best. I think ATT is getting better up here but I haven't tried it myself in years.

 

[havaneselover]

I live on the eastern side of northern Michigan and have found Verizon to work best. I think ATT is getting better up here but I haven't tried it myself in years.

Thanks for the feedback! They're on the western side (but originally from the eastern side : ) Verizon seems to be the safe bet.

 

[havaneselover]

We went from 2 dumb phones with AT&T to 2 iphones with Verizon, and our bill changed by about $5 a month. We have a kong history of terrible service and lots of problems with AT&T and were dropping thrm at any cost. My husband went to Best Buy and told them what we needed and they came up with plans from a few carriers and made rercommendations.

That's a good suggestion. The nearest Best Buy is 60 miles away but might be worth the trip.

 

[sarahk0204]

That's a good suggestion. The nearest Best Buy is 60 miles away but might be worth the trip.

We are much less rural, but we found Best Buy to be very helpful. We have a stand alone Best Buy Mobile, and they were great. We knew we were staying with Verizon, and DH got much better customer service there than at the Verizon store for his iPhone.

 

[havaneselover]

We did go to Verizon and their plan would increase $37/month to move to Iphones (data plan has 500 mb which is all they would likely need). Iphone 5s is $99 at Verizon, 5c is $49.

My brother suggested they might want to wait for a 6 because email would be easier to read but my dad could read my email on my 4 with no problem. Plus if they get them this week I can show them how to use them. Thank goodness my mom knows how to use an Ipad.

 

[natfrac]

Have you checked out TMobile? We have two iphones and pay $80 per month for service only. You can finance the the phones through them, which would add about another $20 per phone per month.

 

[momof2n2]

I've been using Virgin in semi-rural NY. For $30/mo I can tolerate losing service on the rare occasion I am WAAAAY out yonder. It's been great for me.

<><

 

[Sandi]

If your dad wants this for e-mail, why can't he just use your mom's iPad for e-mail? If you want them both to get more up to date phones, that's fine, but I just wanted to through that out there. My DH still uses a flip phone and that's all he wants for a phone. But, he uses his iPad for e-mail, etc. I think his fingers are too big to operate my iPhone and I know my dad couldn't do it -- little feeling in his hands so he need something more like a keyboard.

Oh, and I live in East Lansing, Michigan and spend a bit of time in the northern part of the state. I have Verizon and like it a lot. We switched from Sprint a few years ago. It was a good change.

 

[havaneselover]

They travel separately often and the ipad is the only way she gets on the internet. The iPad actually was a gift from her to him but he never used it. Now that he is asking for a blackberry I figure this would be a good time to teach him.

I think he wants something small.

 

[KaTinkerbell]

I bought an iPhone 4S (reconditioned but it works great) thru Verizon prepaid plan in Feb. I hate contracts and don't want to pay over $150 for a phone so in another year or so I might get a newer phone. I love that my bill is $66.15 per month (taxes included) for unlimited talk & text w/2g of data (I never seem to go much over 1g). I wanted to try Straight Talk but they ran out of the iPhones.