what is the best cell phone service for the money?

[scrinch]

Unfortunately the last PagePlus call center in the US just closed today. Starting Jan 16, all customer service will be handled in central America by non-native speakers. PagePlus is now owned by America Movil, like TracFone, StraightTalk, and Net10.

There is a new MVNO starting up now using primarily the Verizon system (but will have AT&T later) called Puppy Wireless. It has both monthly and pay-as-you-go plans and caters primarily to price-sensitive users (LBYM-ers). So far they only have access to the 3G Verizon network, but 4G is coming within a month or two. One attractive feature of Puppy is that you can easily manage your account online...autopay, phone swaps, plan changes, etc. It has a very easy to use control panel for each phone line you have activated with them. Monthly plans range from $8 to $55.

 

[Birdie Num Nums]

+1. DW & I switched to triple minute Tracfones (at $10 ea) and between them & dropping the old landline we're saving over $1200/yr. They piggyback on the Verizon network and work perfectly.

_B

My total bill for phone, TV and internet is $100 a year, after some initial low "startup" costs. I have triple-minute TracFone at $100/year (cellphone itself was well under $100) , free OTA TV using an antenna I got for $40 at Costco, and piggy-back on the free wireless Wi-Fi this apartment complex offers downstairs in the lobby.

 

[Sunset]

I don't use my cell phone much so normally I spend $100/yr for 1,000 minutes that are more than I need in a year.
Each year I buy another 1,000 min and the remainder rolls over.
The phone I have can use wifi, so I can surf the net and make internet calls on it from free wireless spots or home. So I only use the minutes to make phone calls when no wireless is available (like in car).
It suits me, as I really only want to browse the internet when I can do it on large 27" multiple displays

 

[aja8888]

I have a Verizon iPhone 4 (4 years old). Will that work?

Should work. DD has her 4S on PagePlus. I have had two Motorola Droids on PP with no issues.

 

[aja8888]

Unfortunately the last PagePlus call center in the US just closed today. Starting Jan 16, all customer service will be handled in central America by non-native speakers. PagePlus is now owned by America Movil, like TracFone, StraightTalk, and Net10.

There is a new MVNO starting up now using primarily the Verizon system (but will have AT&T later) called Puppy Wireless. It has both monthly and pay-as-you-go plans and caters primarily to price-sensitive users (LBYM-ers). So far they only have access to the 3G Verizon network, but 4G is coming within a month or two. One attractive feature of Puppy is that you can easily manage your account online...autopay, phone swaps, plan changes, etc. It has a very easy to use control panel for each phone line you have activated with them. Monthly plans range from $8 to $55.

Thanks, I did not know that PP sold out. The PP website is still active and we manage our service through that and have for the last two years or more. The online features you mention with Puppy are all done on PP also. Nothing special there.

 

[PatSea]

Another vote for Republic Wireless. I was very cautious about changing from Verizon, watched the reviews about Republic for at least a year. Made the plunge on my phone about 1 year ago, then changed my wife over to RW about 6 months ago. We are very pleased with the service with our Moto X's. We reduced our monthly bill from about $140 to $45!

 

[kcowan]

Koodo - great value and coverage.

 

[Disappointed]

prepaidphonenews.com has all the info you need to make a decision.


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum

 

[DallasGuy]

I use Republic Wireless. Bought a Moto X for $299 and use the $10/month ($12.70 with taxes) plan for unlimited talk and text. Great deal! So total monthly charge is $12.70.

 

[Bikerdude]

Tracfone Android smart phone w/triple minutes. $108 per year if you don't have to add minutes/data which I don't. Works for my purposes. One thing I found out when I got a smart phone was that I really don't need a smart phone although its nice to have at the price I pay.

 

[Theseus]

We were in need of replacement phones as our old ones were becoming increasingly unreliable. Did a lot of digging through the big name plans, but when getting down the bottom line all of their much ballyhooed fantastic deals were just too expensive for my frugal tastes. Considered just ditching cell phones altogether, but I did not go that far. Recently signed up with Consumer Cellular, as the Moto G 2nd edition was available for $150 a pop. For data they are 3G, not 4G LTE, but are able to utiize AT&T's "high speed" 3G, and from what I've seen with our rather limited mobile data needs I'm fine with that.

Picking data/voice/text levels are very dependent on what the user wants, but I'm happy to have been able to upgrade phones while cutting monthly costs by about half - and now getting better reception, higher data and text limits to boot. Fewer talk minutes, but neither of us are talkaholics. Analyzed 3 years worth of bills and discovered 200 minutes a month was more than adequate. One needs to weigh the carrier and local towers, coverage in areas one might travel, and roaming capabilities also if that might be important. For us CC fit the bill, and I finally got to use my AARP card to get a discount!

 

[ERD50]

...
Picking data/voice/text levels are very dependent on what the user wants, ...

This is key. And unless I missed it, the OP (frank) did not tell us what he needs/wants. That didn't seem to stop people from making suggestions though.

The first step in solving a problem is defining the problem. frank - what do you want/need in terms of data/voice/text levels?

I'm doing just fine with an 83 cents per month plan. And I have a smartphone and a tablet (that I only use data with available wi-fi), but use my dumb-phone for occasional voice & text. But that doesn't make it the right choice for others.

I pay 83 cents per month on T-Mobile's Gold Plan. The first year, you need to add $100 ($8.33/month), and get 100 minutes, but following years you can extend for 1 year for just adding $10 (~ 100 minutes added). The minutes roll over, so that first year's 1000 is still holding me. DW started texting more, but we are still about $10/month for her.

You can also turn unlimited data on for $3/day, (or unlimited voice/text for $2/day). So if data is an occasional thing, that an be cheap as well. We have yet to turn on data, we've been able to get wifi when we need it, but it's there if we do need it.

BTW, there is an updated little unit by 'Karma' to provide a wi-fi hot-spot through the Sprint network with no contract, and data rolls over forever. It's not released yet, but it could be perfect for occasional users like me. I like that by being a hot-spot, I could use it with any phone, or tablet or laptop. Data is something like $14/GB, high for regular users, but for occasional users the no-contract and rollover is the key.

https://yourkarma.com/how-it-works

-ERD50

 

[Disappointed]

ERD50, we have a spare phone with the same T-MO plan as yours. I am on regular T-MO plan at $45/mo, 2.5GB of 4GLTE and unlimited voice and text, never come close to the limit but want to keep the plan just in case I need to use the map function or watching TV when I travel (through place shift device).

My wife is on Airvoice pay as you go plan, $10/mo, 10c per min voice, 10c per text, and .0666cents per MB of data, service charge of $1.00 per month. Unused $$ rolls over if you set up auto pay, this type of account gives her access to data whenever she needs it. Her balance keeps growing as she rarely uses her phone. Airvoice uses ATT network.

Look up prepaidphonenews.com for comprehensive coverage of plans.




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[frank]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Theseus View Post
...
Picking data/voice/text levels are very dependent on what the user wants, ...

I only need about 300 minutes a month and the same for the wife. when I first got a cell phone we had 500 minutes for the family package and never ran over. I really don't do any texting or use data. though some time in the future I might. I understand that with some of these phones you can use the phone minutes and use internet on the phones in hotspots or where wifi or wireless is available. I have wireless at home. my problem is I don't want to pay a ton of money for a phone and services that I will not use. it seems though that flip phones are becoming obsolete and if you want to upgrade you will end up with a smartphone like it or not.

 

[Dimsumkid]

RingPlus is offering their free plan (200 min talk,50 text, 10mb 3g data) again. Don't know how long it will last, but if you have a Sprint based phone laying around, you can try it for free. I had 3 old, supposedly locked and non transferable Virgin Mobile phones that I was able to use on their service. Here's their link:

www.ringplus.net

 

[Birdie Num Nums]

Renewed my Tracfone the other day for $150 for two years! It's $99.99 for triple minutes (1,200) for one year, then another $49.99 for an extra year. I'm good till July 2017 and now have some 3,400 minutes (with the carryover)--for about $6.25/month.

 

[Nunthewiser]

RingPlus is offering their free plan (200 min talk,50 text, 10mb 3g data) again. Don't know how long it will last, but if you have a Sprint based phone laying around, you can try it for free. I had 3 old, supposedly locked and non transferable Virgin Mobile phones that I was able to use on their service. Here's their link:

www.ringplus.net

I have had this for over a year, no regrets. The nice thing is that overages are 2 cents/call/text/mb . I might spend about $1 mo extra but it works for me just fine.

 

[easysurfer]

I've had a Tracfone for well over 10 years, and wouldn't change it for anything. I have a Motorola W370 flip-phone....no camera, no frills....I don't text or access the internet on it, although you can...

I have the same model phone. Really all I need.

 

[target2019]

Thinking of switching to Tracfone. I was headed in the direction of Republic, but I noticed the cheapest phone is now a $149 android.

The one requirement I have is porting our landline number. If I understand this correctly, when I buy the tracfone and activate it, it will assign me a number in my area code (123)XXX-XXXX. Then I will be able to go online and port our current (123)XXX-YYYY number. Am I clear on this?

I'll have to search through tracfone phones to see what I am missing if I go low end. I guess having one that connects to our wireless internet would be a plus.

 

[easysurfer]

I've had a Tracfone for well over 10 years, and wouldn't change it for anything. I have a Motorola W370 flip-phone....no camera, no frills.....

Actually, I have a Motorola W260g model and am quite happy with that .

 

[Texas Proud]

Thinking of switching to Tracfone. I was headed in the direction of Republic, but I noticed the cheapest phone is now a $149 android.

The one requirement I have is porting our landline number. If I understand this correctly, when I buy the tracfone and activate it, it will assign me a number in my area code (123)XXX-XXXX. Then I will be able to go online and port our current (123)XXX-YYYY number. Am I clear on this?

I'll have to search through tracfone phones to see what I am missing if I go low end. I guess having one that connects to our wireless internet would be a plus.

When I moved from Virgin to Tracfone I had my number moved with the activation... I did not get a new number. You might want to give them a call to make sure. I do not think you can port after activation.

The other thing is that for some reason not all numbers are portable... they sent me something telling me my number was... so that would mean that some are not...

 

[target2019]

I ordered a Tracfone, and it arrived yesterday. I started the porting process for my landline number.

The LG Ultimate 2™ Android was $99, and I bought a 60-minute card to start things off. The port will take 2 hours to 2 days, they say.

What pushed me to finally act was our landline going ker-flooey again. There is really no hope for the aging infrastructure in our development. Combine all those fragile 50-year old copper lines with lazy repair workers, and the future is bleak.

Frontier is going to take over this mess eventually, from Verizon.

 

[target2019]

When I moved from Virgin to Tracfone I had my number moved with the activation... I did not get a new number. You might want to give them a call to make sure. I do not think you can port after activation.

The other thing is that for some reason not all numbers are portable... they sent me something telling me my number was... so that would mean that some are not...

You are correct on that point. Do not activate the phone, then try to port. The instructions for Tracfone are pretty clear on this. You start the porting process, and when that is effective, you activate. I'm doing this through the Tracfone website. What could go wrong? LOL.

I checked before buying the Tracfone, and their web page told me my number was portable.

The challenge is that there is no feedback loop for this, at least for going from VZ landline to Tracfone. The FAQ says something like, when your old number stops working, you can activate the new phone.

 

[samclem]

Thinking of switching to Tracfone. I was headed in the direction of Republic, but I noticed the cheapest phone is now a $149 android.

The phones are now priced at $99, $129, and $229. They are good phones, too (Android smart phones--Moto G, Moto E, Moto X).

I've been very happy with Republic Wireless. And they are now starting a new program that pays you back for cell data you don't use. This, coupled with their already low rates and good service (at least where I live and travel) means I won't be looking elsewhere soon. Of course, once you've bought the Republic-specific phone, you are loathe to abandon it and start over with another provider, but I saved enough over my old Verizon service to pay for the phone within a few months.

Before I switched, I was aspiring to be the last holdout flip-phone user on planet earth. Now I'm fairly well hooked on the voice-command "Google Now" function and all the other conveniences of a smartphone.

 

[MBSC]

(snip)...The challenge is that there is no feedback loop for this, at least for going from VZ landline to Tracfone. The FAQ says something like, when your old number stops working, you can activate the new phone.

When I ported to Tracfone, I signed back into my new account on their website about 3 hours later and it said the port was complete and I could continue with the activation process.