Yikes!? Are smart phone plans REALLY this expensive?

[mrodgers]

One way people afford the expensive cost of cell phones? Many of the people stating they pay $240 for phones are very adamant about how they would never have a car payment. $240 to be able to gab on the phone or $240 to have a reliable vehicle to get me to work? The reliable vehicle seems to be the more logical choice.

 

[delmar411]

One way people afford the expensive cost of cell phones? Many of the people stating they pay $240 for phones are very adamant about how they would never have a car payment. $240 to be able to gab on the phone or $240 to have a reliable vehicle to get me to work? The reliable vehicle seems to be the more logical choice.

I don't think it's an either or situation. I don't want a car payment but I have a great reliable car. One thing has nothing to do with the other. Nor does it reflect on someone's ability to pay for one thing or another.

 

[RitaE]

I didn't know that a car's reliability was tied to whether or not you were carrying a loan on it?

We don't have car loans because our cars are 6 and 10 years old and still both have well under 100k miles on them. Even with loan rates down at 'practically giving you the money for free' levels I'd still just keep what we have and spend the money on other stuff.

 

[JB2K]

Never knew about GSM or CDMA phones until now! This is all a lot to learn! Wish I knew a few people here in Montana who use Straight Talk. It seems like a great way to go though. Just need to figure out which phones will work. Thanks!

Chances are, the ST phones being sold at local Walmart stores in MT should all be working on the Verizon network.

 

[DawnM]

You might take a look at something like Straight Talk. $45/each per month. You can also get it for $42/mo if you pay for 3 months in advance. That would bring those phones down to $84/mo.

Yes, you would need to purchase your own phones, but with a $2,724 savings over a 2 year plan ($200 vs. $84 over 24 months) you can afford to purchase phones.

Dawn

Actually, I think $240 is a good deal for 4 smart phones... We pay $200 just for two (unlimited everything).

 

[DawnM]

I took the comment to mean that if you have to pay that much money (a car vs. cell phones) a car would be the better place to spend your money.

We haven't had car payments for over 5 years and I would like to say we won't have them ever again, but chances are, we will have something at some point. Right now we have $$ going into a car fund each month that is like a car payment so that at the very least we will have a huge downpayment.

Dawn

I didn't know that a car's reliability was tied to whether or not you were carrying a loan on it?

We don't have car loans because our cars are 6 and 10 years old and still both have well under 100k miles on them. Even with loan rates down at 'practically giving you the money for free' levels I'd still just keep what we have and spend the money on other stuff.

 

[charliesmom86]

I didn't go through this whole thread to see if Virgin Mobile was brought up. My boyfriend and I both have Virgin Mobile. We just got smartphones. He got the PCD Chaser and I got the PCD Venture. We paid $50 for each phone and we pay $25 per month for 300 minutes and unlimited web and text. So having smartphones doesn't mean you have to spend that much. We have pretty reliable service and we don't have a contract. Virgin goes through Sprint's towers by the way.

 

[Lewisc]

I didn't go through this whole thread to see if Virgin Mobile was brought up. My boyfriend and I both have Virgin Mobile. We just got smartphones. He got the PCD Chaser and I got the PCD Venture. We paid $50 for each phone and we pay $25 per month for 300 minutes and unlimited web and text. So having smartphones doesn't mean you have to spend that much. We have pretty reliable service and we don't have a contract. Virgin goes through Sprint's towers by the way.

Of course. The OP lives in an area without decent (any?) Sprint coverage. It appears VZ is the only carrier in her area with decent service, hence the suggestion of Straight Talk, making sure they select phones which Tracfone assigns to VZ.

BTW You're grandfathered. The plan is now $35/month.

 

[erin1715]

I know this thread is pretty old, but my husband and I are thinking of upgrading to iphones from standard text/talk phones with no internet. Our contract with Verizon is up this summer, so I'm researching my options. Verizon has the best coverage on our area so I was researching PagePlus, but I cant' figure out if you can use iphones with them? Does anyone have experience with this? TIA!

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

I have Virgin Mobile and pay $35.00 a month with a pay month to month. Verizon was $100 per person! Now we pay less than $80 for two! Love the coverage.

 

[JB2K]

Go to Straight Talks website. Shop for phone. Type your zip. See if the Samsung Galaxy Proclaim is available. Look at the coverage map. Everything I've read says that phone is on the VZ network.

I own this phone (through ST's sister company, Net10) and it is indeed running on the Verizon 3G network (and works extremely well!).

 

[JB2K]

Actually, I think $240 is a good deal for 4 smart phones... We pay $200 just for two (unlimited everything).

But with Straight Talk/Net10, how does $180 a month for 4 smartphones sound?

A heckuva lot better than $240 a month -- $60 a month savings over a 2-year period one spends being handcuffed to a contract comes-out to $1,440 -- that's real money that could be better-spent on many different things!

 

[JB2K]

I know this thread is pretty old, but my husband and I are thinking of upgrading to iphones from standard text/talk phones with no internet. Our contract with Verizon is up this summer, so I'm researching my options. Verizon has the best coverage on our area so I was researching PagePlus, but I cant' figure out if you can use iphones with them? Does anyone have experience with this? TIA!

The deal with Verizon and PagePlus is in theory, you can activate an older VZW iPhone (4/4S) at PagePlus, but since they officially don't support the iPhone (and make that known to customers), you run the risk of being shut-off without warning/compensation.

I wouldn't even attempt to activate an iPhone 5 at PP, since that device is 4G/LTE, which isn't supported by PP.

 

[OklahomaTourist]

I'll offer my alternative:

We're on a T-Mobile value (non-subsidized) plan, which means you can use any phone that works on the T-Mobile network, and here's what we've got:

* Five lines w/1000 minutes talk time
* Unlimited texting
* 2GB data (on three phones, all Android, not shared)
Data rate throttled if 2GB exceeded, but no surcharges

We have three "smartphones" and two "regular" phones.

Cost: $112/month.

 

[erin1715]

I have viewed both coverage maps for t-mobile and virgin mobile in my area and its terrible. I would be willing to get an iphone 4s if it would work on page plus. I really would love to find an alternative with getting an iphone other than Verizon, but with the same good coverage.

 

[Mic]

We have a Verizon plan with 5 phones, 4 smart ones and one dumb one. I refused to let me daughter take an upgrade in December because Verizon would switch us to the "share everything" plan. The new plan would cost me an extra $50-70 per month for less data, and we are already paying paying $250 a month. We told our son that if he wanted a smart phone we had to purchase it in early June last year before the share everythng plan was rolled out, and he declined our offer. Well, guess who wants an iphone now? And guess who will not be getting one? My oldest daughter and her husband are with Verizon as well, and if they upgrade their phones and switch to the new plan, their bill will only increase by @$10 a month, but for those of us with more than 2 phones on the same plan, it is hard to find a good deal anywhere. We had a seperate plan for my son when my oldest daughter was still on our family plan and Verizon would not allow more than 5 lines per plan. We went through Page plus cellular because they used the Verizon network and we could set it up and pay online for 3 months at a time. You may want to check into that if Verizon service is good in your area.

 

[MSSANDRA]

Ok, not a popular line of thought on the budget board but it is worth the cost for us. We are Verizon, so not cheap. Our phone bill is our highest utility type bill BUT we do not have car or house payments and it is very much in our budget.

We just really like having everything at our finger tips. Our collage age son uses his all the time in class and to goggle things. We travel a lot and love the GPS feature as well as being able to google anything anytime.

When we were in the store last time the guy we always deal with tried to sell us on the new smart phones geared to kids for our 6 year old. We however firmly told him no. We are an iphone family......but really???

 

[i like stitch]

After 13 yrs with sprint, I made the leap to getting a smart phone with virgin mobile. The coverage is good in my area, & I use the phone to find out the cheapest gas stations/get coupons to use while grocery shopping, read the news while I'm waiting on whatever, occaisionally play games, use the calculator, use the calendar for appts/birthday reminders, use an app to look for restaurants/stores in the area when out of town, etc. The gps feature is nice too. My phone and tablet are in synch so that has been handy as well.

Not only do I get all the new features of a smart phone but I have unlimited texting, which I didn't have before, all for less than what I was paying. I stock up on top-up cards when they are on sale so I end up paying less than $35 a month. My teen daughter has the same phone and plan and we've been satisfied with the switch to virgin mobile.

 

[Ametista]

After 13 yrs with sprint, I made the leap to getting a smart phone with virgin mobile.

We did the exact same thing. We had to buy smart phones from Amazon ($95/each on Amazon) but we are saving $100 month over verizon prices for 3 phones with unlimited data. For teens especially all they need is data and a few talk minutes for emergencies, our son's phone and mine are only $35 each per month. My husband's is $45 because he needs more minutes for actual talking.

 

[kelcoppens]

I think it must be 98% of people in 98% of America because we don't live in the boonies and our Sprint service was AWFUL. We dropped them about a year early on our contract because we just couldn't justify paying each month for service we couldn't even use.

Sprint has a device called an Airwave that they will give their customers totally free of charge if their customer does not get good service where they live. I have one and it works great. Its like having my own sprint tower.