Help me replace my smartphone

[bingybear]

I updated to a moto G5 plus, unlocked. Only 32GB mem

 

[ERD50]

I updated to a moto G5 plus, unlocked. Only 32GB mem

But you can add a 32 GB u-SD card for cheap, right?

-ERD50

 

[bingybear]

there is a place to add a u-sD. so yes you can add. you can also buy the 64G version which ups the ram to 4G from 2. The u-SD add can be much more than 32G additional

 

[euro]

Not the OP, but I'm similar. I sometimes go months w/o making a call/text on my cell.

When we are home, it's the VOIP phone. When I'm out, I'm out, I rarely need to talk to anyone. If I need to call home about some shopping item or something, I do. I don't avoid using the cell phone, I just don't have any need to use it much at all.

For years I had the T-Mobile Gold plan, once you put the initial $100 on it, you only had to add $10 a year (yea, a year - like 8.3 cents/month). The minutes roll over, and I still have hundreds of minutes on it. For $10 a year, I'm keeping it active, just in case, but use a smart phone now. I occasionally do need data now (Uber mostly), so went with a cheap data plan (Ting, sharing minutes/data with DW - runs ~ $28/month for the two of us).

Obviously, this won't work for some people, but if you have a VOIP phone at home, some of us just don't need/want to gab while we are busy doing other things.

-ERD50

My DW and I share a TING plan too. $6 each phone, $3 100minutes, $3 100 messages, $3 100Mb of data (about $23 total after taxes for both phones). Between the two of us, we probably only use about half of those allowances per month.

 

[ERD50]

My DW and I share a TING plan too. $6 each phone, $3 100minutes, $3 100 messages, $3 100Mb of data (about $23 total after taxes for both phones). Between the two of us, we probably only use about half of those allowances per month.

Made me look. I said $26 from memory, but your numbers match our typical usage, and you say (small difference) $23 after tax/fees. But mine is $26 (my memory worked this time!), maybe state/local taxes vary? :

Minutes 4 minutes used $3.00
Messages 58 messages used $3.00
Megabytes 40 megabytes used $3.00
Devices 2 $12.00
Taxes and regulatory fees
Federal, state and local taxes and regulatory fees we are required to collect. $5.25
Communications Service Tax $2.47
Fed USF Cellular $0.97
Telecom Relay Surcharge (Wireless) $0.04
E911 (Wireless) $1.74
FCC Regulatory Fee (Wireless) $0.03
Mobile service $21.00
Taxes and regulatory fees $5.25
Total $26.25

Anyhow, we don't normally use much data at all, until we do use it - like this past week we spent a few days downtown, and had 5 Uber rides, the data adds up fast, ~ 50MB in three days. But we will still likely stay under the 100 MB threshold for the month. But if we don't, another occasional $7 add on is no big deal, we spend far more with all the other stuff we are doing when we are in data-using mode. But for people who regularly use much more data, the Ting plan probably isn't a good choice. For users like us, the bigger deal is the $6 to add a second device, and share the min/msg/data charges. Otherwise, I think any plan with some data is likely to run more than $13 ($26/2) per person, or even ~ $17 ($34/2) per person with more data (500MB). Heck, even 2GB is just $19/line (plus 5-6 fee&tax divide by 2?).

-ERD50

 

[rbmrtn]

With an older phone that is no longer supported you can sometimes find a custom ROM and install it to upgrade the OS. I have done this a few time with android tablets that have lost official support but you may not want to dive off into rooting your phone.

I had a free plan with ringplus for about a year but they just recently folded. FreedomPop is another free provider and Tello has a cheap pay as you go plan.

 

[ejman]

My DW and I share a TING plan too. $6 each phone, $3 100minutes, $3 100 messages, $3 100Mb of data (about $23 total after taxes for both phones). Between the two of us, we probably only use about half of those allowances per month.

It seems most of these supper frugal plans are in roughly the same ballpark. The tracfone plan I use is $99 for 1,200 minutes talk + 1200 messages + 1,200 mb data (and 1 year of service). Additional if needed texts are $5 for 1,000 and $10 for 1,000 mb data which can be bought separately. I find that most of the time I'm able to use wi-fi for calling or texting or data so my actual plan usage is limited. I bought this plan at the beginning of the year and find I've used so far 222 minutes of talk,81 texts and 110 mb of data. It looks like I better get on the phone