Cell phones?

[Seripmav]

Because the cable-free topic was so much fun lets do the same for cell phones!

I currently have US Cellular. The call service is fine but if I have to go into their store to change something it's a major pain in the ass. Literally I have to block a solid hour+ because everything takes forever to do there.

After looking around a little bit I'm sure I'm paying too much. Currently my bill is about $250 a month! WTH?! But I don't know, maybe all plans run about the same. I have 5 phones on my plan and 3 have data (2 gig/mo?). We'd probably want to keep three on data but could drop to two. I'm thinking of switching over to something generic. Has anyone done this? (GT)

So, what do you use? What do you pay? How do you like your plan?

[Skittlebrau]

D_E seems to have a good thing going recently. We talked about it a few months ago and it sounded interesting for then tnext time my contract is up.

[Harbinger]

Mrs. Harb uses Virgin Mobile- $25 a month. I think it is normally $35. You have to use a select group of phones though, and it is tied to Sprint, so coverage is spotty- but should be good close to major corridors.
Cricket Wireless has some sort of added lines reduces the cost per, but I don't know the details.

[Seripmav]

What do you use? Or is it a company provided phone.

[Harbinger]

Verizon through work. I have no concept of how much my plan costs. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to pay it.

[Guardtroll]

I use Tracfone. I had not upgraded from my touch screen (non-smartphone) to a smartphone yet, but that has a better deal. You only pay for what you use, monthly if need be. But my usage is probably lower than most.

The smartphone time calculation is; you buy minutes and the are tripled (add a 60 minute Airtime Card and get 180 Minutes Talk Time + 180 Texts + 180 MB Data). Each category is used separately, so data is not used in calls or texting, etc. there are monthly plans and pay as you go.

30 minutes = $10
60 minutes = $20
120 minutes = $30
200 minutes = $40
(Then tripled...)
Etc.

The monthly rates are cheaper. You keep unused minutes/texting/data, but hold no monthly time. They introduced a inexpensive family plan(1st phone $10, each additional phone $6 per month, still tripled), but that again would be too low minutes for most people, but you cannot beat the price. You could always add minutes (still tripled) after that for the higher users. However, you would get an ass-load of time for the family for $250 a month.

The downside for me is they only 'officially' support android phones. But I hear there is a trick to use iPhones.

[Seripmav]

I think the Tracfone would be fine if we didn't use it much but it seems to not be much savings on heavy usage months. That is, if I understand it.

Sprint does look more concentrated to urban areas, which I suppose is fine for 90% of where I am.

[Lartarin]

I have 5 phones on my plan

5 phones for 4 people?




Link


--Matt

[Seripmav]

Hahaha

Mrs S's mother is on our plan for convenience.

[D Erasmus]

I spend $200 a year for my service plan on two Android smart phones using AT&T go-Phone service. I had to buy the phones myself for about $100 each.

This is a pre-pay plan like a track phone, but the minutes rollover as long as re-up with $100 purchases for minutes each year. Currently my phones have over $100 in pre-pay minutes because neither of us are really phone talkers and it is free as long as I can find Wi-Fi service (like at my house).

How is it free? I use Google Voice/Hang-Outs as my cell phone number. I can send texts or send-receive phone calls through their service for free as long as I have an internet connection. The only limitation is that if you are a heavy data user on the go, the per MB price against the pre-pay is very large. Therefore, I'm always hunting for WIFI services wherever I go, but I can use the 4G network if I have to.

[ratpfink]

The way to go is to find a MVNO for your carrier that has a decent deal. Maybe start at the Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Un ... _operators. I have an unlocked T-Mobile smartphone so I can pick and choose between any GSM carrier(so anything w/ T-Mobile or AT&T). I was using Straight Talk for awhile, but their e-mail to text gateway stopped forwarding me alerts from work when servers blew up, so I switched to AT&T because they are less likely to screw with the e-mail to text stuff... if I didn't need that to be totally reliable for work I would be more likely to have a slightly cheaper plan on a MVNO.

My parents use Ting Mobile - on Sprint network and you pay for only what you use. So they have a smartphone w/ data for any emergency...

DE is right on with Google Voice - that's what I did when I just switched carriers. Now I don't care what # any carrier assigns me and I don't have to worry about porting it. I just bought a Google Voice # and that can follow me around for the rest of my life - I can have it ring any other # and it handles my voice mail and has tons of other nifty features.