Cheap Cell Phone Plans - Yay or Nay

[klindstedt]

I want to try to get off the two-year contract cycle with Verizon when my family's current plan ends. Has anyone here tried Virgin Mobile, Straight Talk or Simple Mobile? Curious about call quality and data speed / availability. One obvious con right off the bat is having to purchase the phone outright. However, the monthly savings pays that off pretty quickly.

Thoughts, rants, raves...?

 

[thoffman]

Cell phone are like drugs...One you have 'em you can't get away from 'em. Onece you figure out the cheapest way to have 'em let me know!

 

[mgonitzke]

From 2005-2007ish I had Virgin Mobile...at the time, their network was terrible. You had to be in a major city or near a major highway to get reception. I've since switched to Verizon and haven't looked back. It's nice having a phone that works practically anywhere. Perhaps things have gotten better in the past 5 years, but at the time, they were worse than AT&T as far as coverage.

 

[thoffman]

I have At&T with NO problems with coverage but still $$.

 

[digger]

Tom H.
Back in the mid 70's, I had a cell phone on the dash of my IH 1700 pulling farm machinery out of Kremlin Ok.
If you wanted to call someone, you had to stop. pull out the little flip tab book, locate where you were, pick the CELL that you were in or close to.
THEN, to make a call, you had to enter in the cell number. punch in 97701, wait 5 seconds, dial the number you wanted to call and hope that the wind was blowing in the direction of the person you wanted to talk to.

You had 7 minutes and it would cut you off and you had to go through that crap all over again if you had more to say!

 

[lhinds]

Most of the discount phone services rent tower space from the bigger servers. That is why Verizon ect has better service. If all the tower switches ,space, is busy you won't get service or you will get dropped with the discount plans.
Most major cell companys are owned by land line telephone companys. That is why you get perfect service on lakes and in national parks ect where there is no phone lines. Just my 01c

 

[kide]

Kevin:
Back in the dark ages, I carried work phones, didn't need a personal, so got a Verizon contract just for my wife (with a Motorola flip "brick"). After a couple of years, I figured out that it rode in her purse and was only going to be used if the car was burning to the ground, or some similar dire emergency, so I talked her into a "pay as you go" phone, this one from Tracfone. I can't guarantee what systems TF uses where you are, but in Michigan, they used Verizon and we had as good a coverage as her brick had.

Ironically, once she "had" to use those TF minutes or lose 'em (IIRC it's after 90 days or something like that) she started using her cell more, so when I retired, we went back to a regular Verizon plan for both of us (LOL). The only drawbacks to TF as far as I could see were use 'em or lose 'em (or add a minimum more to save 'em) and also the minutes were expen$ive.

 

[wshytle]

I'm one of about three people in NC that does not have a cell phone. I've had them but I can't tolerate being cut off time and time again. I feel that man put the goods on the table too soon...way before the technology had all of the worms worked out. It would be nice to have a cp while traveling but I figure all I'd have to do is carry a sign "Need Phone" should I break down.

Another thing I can't stand about this technology is when someone comes over and I'm in the middle of a conversation when their d**n phone rings. Nowadays people seem to think a phone call is the most important thing. I have to stop talking and wait until they are finished (or get cut off). By that time I've forgotten what I was talking about in the first place. People have become downright rude because of these things. You don't hear "excuse me" or them telling the calling party they are in conversation with a real live person and will call back. They just keep walking away and talking like they haven't heard from that person in years. And it's usually the wife just "checking in"..."I haven't heard from you in twenty minutes and I was getting worried".

How the hell did we go two hundred years without these contraptions? I also feel a certain quality of life is gone now. "Absense makes the heart grow fonder" is out the window.

One other thing, if it were to be known by the public how many car wrecks were actually caused by these things I think some more eyes would be opened. I heard the other day on the news where a man was texting and wrote "I have to get off here before I die in a wreck". Guess what happened in the next few minutes. It was his last text. I just don't think that kind of importance should be placed on a phone call. I've seen young boys and girls driving the interstates at 65+ mph with a phone glued to their heads.

I've had the same land line phone number for 28 years and have a wonderful device called an answering machine ($10 from Wally World) should I miss a call. Imagine that!

So...my vote is to just not get one at all.

 

[dfrisk]

I've had Verizon phones for probably 15 yrs. Used to be I had to stand in a certain spot in the back yard to talk on the phone, and I can see the cell tower maybe a mile away. The service has got MUCH better since then. I can't think of the last time I had a dropped call, been at least 5-6 years, maybe longer. Most times my battery in the phone dies.

Just about ALL our friends & family have Verison, and Verison-to-Verison calls are free minutes, so we never even come close to using all our minutes. Some day our land line phone will go away, one less bill to pay every month.

I like the contract because all I have is just a phone, although SON has had two new Droid phones and they are AWESOME, but I get the cheap "Free" phone with the two year contract every two years. They are making phones better all the time, and that way you get the newer better equipment.

I just wish Verison's wireless internet service was as good. I upgraded about a year ago to their new 4G service and lost our unlimited data plan, which wouldn't have been so bad except the 4G service was actually slower most days than the old 3G service. I had a couple nice L-O-N-G conversations with the local Verison store manager, and strangely enough, the service got better.

 

[kide]

Wayne - apparently you weren't a fan of Star Trek

I'll bet texting ON a cell phone to other people ON cell phones doesn't make a lot of sense to you, either. (me neither, but I end up doing it, out of desperation to communicate with my adult children that usually don't know how to "dial", but do know a hundred different abbreviations for everything from "roll on the floor, laughing" to "does it look like I give "fig" ).

 

[jharvey]

Wayne
There's at least one in Illinois too!

 

[kide]

Dennis: I converted from the Verizon (actually Frontier now) landline to our local cable for my home phone. It used to be noisy every time it rained or when it really got dry like it is now. Only problem with the Cable Co is their UPSs last about 4 hours and the typical power outages here in Central MI these days is like a day or day and 1/2.. Telco always had their own battery on the lines, from the CO, so that was never a problem for them. I currently am getting landline and Internet (15 Mbps) from the cable, but no TV (LOL). I recently told Dish to take a permanent hike and I may sign on for TV services from the Cable people if I really feel the need for **** tube entertainment - (WOW just bought our local Broadstripe).

Now for the cell service...... I chose Verizon due to their nationwide coverage. Unfortunately that doesn't extend to my home - I'm equidistant from three towers and on the fringe of all of 'em. To get one bar means going outside, standing with two fingers forked in the air and praying for a wind blowing in my direction. To take care of this, we tried one of Verizon's mini cell site equipment, but along with a clear shot at the GPS satellites (for timing), it required a good 'net connection... Took it back after about three days.. At that point, my brother in law told me about the zBoost product, which is essentially a repeater with an outside antenna and an inside repeater setup with a small inside antenna. To get a decent signal, I had to go with a directional outside antenna, but at least I get three bars inside - one of the issues is the less bars, the shorter your cell battery lasts, so this was a win/win solution. I've had it about three years and other than it not liking power outages (goes crazy and needs to be reset), it's worked great...

Sorry for taking the thread off the specific track... (actually it's Dennis's fault)

 

[thoffman]

Rather than paying a $35. p/month for the basic land line <font size="-2">(remember that term)</font> I switched my home phone # to a cell phone for $10.p/month on the family plan

 

[dfrisk]

GERRY - I take FULL BLAME for getting this discussion off topic... as usual.

Our Frontier land line gets noisy about once a year, like you say, during the rainy season. I call, the tech plays with the lines in the junction box for a couple hours both here at the house and up the road a mile and it goes away.

No chance of us getting cable here any time soon, we're too rural. We've had Direct TV for about 15 yrs. So most nights it's 175 stations of HD "Nothing to watch". Wish we had DVR capabilities, then I could watch my favorite reruns.

SON's girlfriend is a CSR for AT&T, and my wife just started with TDS who owns US Cellular, so our next phone may NOT be with Verison.

 

[klindstedt]

I'm continuing to look into the various "pay-as-you-go" providers/plans and I found something interesting last night - Ting. This is run by the people that bring you Tucows and Hover. They run on the Sprint network. You pay just for what you use AND they will refund any overpayhment for unused minutes/messages/MB. How extensive of coverage does the Sprint network provide?

 

[mgwin]

Wayne S.,

Just read your post, and I agree about people being rude and disrespectable (if there is respect anymore) on a cell phone. Just the other day we went to a restaurant to eat and we were entertained by a person's musical ring tone three times. He had it way down in his pocket, so by the time he got to it the music was starting over. I believe he had the volume all the way up too.

I have a cell phone, but it stays cut off until I get ready to use it. It may get used three times a month.
The most inexpensive phone I could find is a Tracfone. I bought a phone which includes a carry case, home charger, and car charger for 10 bucks.
The best way to keep the phone activated for an entire year is to buy four 60 minute cards for around $19.95ea.+tax. Each card activates the phone for 90 days, and the minutes never expire. The phone has double minutes for life, so you will get 120 minutes for each card.
Phone ($10) + four cards ($80) +tax = aprox. $97.00/12mo.= $8.08 a month. With a total of 480 minutes (8 hours) or 40 min. per month.
I figured that wasn't too bad for an emergency phone. Comes in real handy when travelling. Perfect setup for non-talkers like me.

P.S. after that, the cost would be about 85 bucks a year. ($7.08/mo.)

 

[cmcleod]

I have to say I can't tolerate folks who have a cell phone to their ear no matter where they are,and I'm forced to listen to their private conversations.! I don't want to.! PLEASE stop the madness...lol, and what really concerns me are folks who are driving. I know it is a distraction, and should be outlawed. At least here in Iowa it is against the law to text and drive. I find even having the radio on a distraction and never use the radio. I've only had one accident in 41 years.!!

We have verizon. Marlin uses his a lot with all his cubby goings on..lol. I never thought about getting a cell phone, but back in 2004 when I fell and fractured my pelvis,my daughter said we really needed cell phones, so on Mothers day she took us into Best Buy and got it set up for us to get cell phones, and took care of the inital expenses since you have to have a credit card and we don't believe in credit cards.! I do like the 2 year contract and a new phone every two. The phones we are offered aren't cheapies either. Marlin had his phone for 8 years and he didnt want a new one, but I snuck a really nice upgraded phone for him at Best Buy and he really likes it.! When he says no to something I won't go against him but this time I did and he was actually GLAD I did..LOL. We have never had dropped calls or poor reception either and we live in the boonies in Iowa, so that really surprises me, when I hear others complaining where I would think they would have better reception.

well just my two cents.