New Ting plans / other alternatives

[GalaxyBoy]

I discovered Ting here on the forum and have been using them for the last couple of years. Until recently, their model was to charge a fee per line, and then charge varying amounts depending on the number of minutes, messages, and bytes used. My monthly bill has been running around $40 for two iPhones. Recently for some reason I'm still investigating, my phone has suddenly started using much more data than usual, and my bill spiked to $70 last month. But that would be a different forum post.

Ting has changed their plans to give unlimited talk and text for all, plus differing included amounts of data. I could change to the 5GB per line plan for $50 for two phones. OTOH, I can keep the existing plan although they aren't selling those plans to new users now.

What are other Ting users here deciding with regards to the new plans?

One alternative I'm considering is Red Pocket (also learned of that here, thanks forum!). I could get their family plan for $50 for two phones, and get 8GB per line. That sounds better than Ting's new plan to me.

Then again, lots of people here use T-mobile's unlimited over-55 plan, which is $55 for two phones.

Comparing all these prices is also complicated by unknown fees.

 

[Cobra9777]

We were long-time Ting users until mid-2019 when we switched to RedPocket. Ting's old pricing structure was very innovative in the beginning but had become obsolete... incremental charges for voice/text when everyone else provides unlimited. Also, their data prices were too high compared to others. So I'm glad to see them change. I like the company. But we'll stay with RedPocket for now. Based on my research, RedPocket has the best pricing and the most options, with access to all 4 major networks.

DMIL is still on one of the old Ting plans. We decided to leave her on the old rate structure. She's 86 and stays at home most of the time using her own WiFi and home phone. She texts using Hangouts, Messenger, and other apps. So, she rarely pays more than $10-12/mo on Ting.

On Redpocket, we pay $36.50/mo combined for two phones. I'm on an annual prepaid plan for $210 ($17.50/mo) on AT&T. That's for unlimited talk/text and 5GB of 4G LTE per month. DW has a monthly plan for $19 on Verizon. She gets unlimited talk/text and 3GB of 4G LTE per month.

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

Tello ( Sprint) is in the process of transitioning to T-mobile 4/5G network due to the Sprint merger. I'm pretty sure all new users that sign up now are being added to the T-mobile network while all us active Tello customer are still on the old Sprint system till the beginning of the year. You can build your own plan or use one of theirs. No contracts and you can change plan up or down whenever you want. I've been with them for three years now and love them. Minutes can be used for calls to US, Canada, Mexico, China & Romania and every plan option comes with free unlimited text, even data only plans
https://tello.com/buy/custom_plans

$10 new user Referral link if interested
https://tello.com/account/register?_referral=P315DXRZ

 

[athena53]

Thanks for this- I hadn't seen it. I'll definitely switch to the new plan- it's just me so I'll be paying $15 before taxes for unlimited talk and text and 5 gb of data- up to now I tried very hard to keep usage down to 100mb to avoid going into the next tier. (Yes, I can be VERY cheap.)

 

[REWahoo]

Thought of this thread when I ran across this on Clark Howard's website: https://clark.com/cell-phones/best-cell-phone-plans-deals/

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

I have been using the AT&T prepaid annual plan and have been very happy. It's $300 for the year and includes 8gig of data per month. It will also "roll over" the last months unused data to the next month (but that's all...you can't keep banking for months on end).

I have used it in Mexico with no issues and no additional charges. DW is on Republic right now but is getting ready to move over to AT&T as well since Republic isn't as good a deal as it was a few years ago.

 

[Cobra9777]

I have been using the AT&T prepaid annual plan and have been very happy. It's $300 for the year and includes 8gig of data per month. It will also "roll over" the last months unused data to the next month (but that's all...you can't keep banking for months on end)...

That exact 8GB plan on AT&T is $205/yr through RedPocket (minus the data rollover).

 

[teetee]

RingPlus was ok (totally free but out of business a couple of years after I signed up). My account got moved to Ting. I stayed with them for a week then decided to move to Tello. Ting's billing sucks big time. Tello was fine for low usage user like me until this Sept. when they reduced the expiration period for their prepaid credits from none to three months and raised the minimum refill to $20 so I moved to red pocket which has $2.5/mo prepaid plan on their ebay seller account.

I guess I am cheap too. I just don't want to be hooked to the mentality that it is ok for my communication monthly charge is more than what I actually use and the minutes/data disappear like I flush my money away. I still have a Tello line for my relative and I change to the same plan manually a day before they renew the plan automatically every month so the unused min/data get rolled over and accumulate. That is how cheap I am.

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

I also rode the free RingPlus train all the way to the bottom before joining Tello.
I have the $5 Tello data plan with about $12 left on my Pay As You Go account for any calls, I think I added $20 well over a year ago. I'm a texter not a talker and texts are free with my plan so there is no cost there. With Covid I'm rarely out of the house this year so have not been using much of my 500MB data. Tello doubled the data allowance for 3 months as a gift at the beginning of Covid and I manually renew my plan to rollover my unused data. Currently I have 6.92GB saved on a 500MB plan. I also have not paid my $5 monthly bill since August 2019, my referrals pay for it and I currently have a referral credit of $150.00. I think i may be even cheaper than you.
By the way did you ever get the $100 Amazon credit for the new phone you bought. I'm still mulling over jumping on that Amazon stack promo deal, if I understand it correctly, I just have to activate and buy a new phone, Tracphone $15 refill card and sim to qualify and I think it's good till the end of the year.

 

[ERD50]

plans[/URL] to give unlimited talk and text for all, plus differing included amounts of data. I could change to the 5GB per line plan for $50 for two phones. OTOH, I can keep the existing plan although they aren't selling those plans to new users now.

What are other Ting users here deciding with regards to the new plans? ....

We've used Ting for a couple years, it fits our low usage profile pretty well. We rarely go over the 100MB/month data between the 2 of us (stick to wi-fi and our home VOIP phone for most stuff), so it works for us. Not so good for regular data users. I wasn't aware there were new plans.

But I wonder about that new Ting Flex plan?

$10/mo + $5 per shared GB

Unlimited talk + text
Nationwide LTE & 5G coverage
Shared data across lines

I assume that's like their old plans, if you make one call/text, or use one byte of data, you get the minimum charge for that category (? So any data at all ( a simple picture text or group text ) would put you in the $15/month area? Still a good deal for many, but just about any smart phone usage at all will use some data (some apps just do some checking it seems), so it would be almost impossible to have a $10 bill. Or is some data included?

I couldn't find details on the site. Anyone know?


-ERD50

 

[teetee]

I also rode the free RingPlus train all the way to the bottom before joining Tello.
I have the $5 Tello data plan with about $12 left on my Pay As You Go account for any calls, I think I added $20 well over a year ago. I'm a texter not a talker and texts are free with my plan so there is no cost there. With Covid I'm rarely out of the house this year so have not been using much of my 500MB data. Tello doubled the data allowance for 3 months as a gift at the beginning of Covid and I manually renew my plan to rollover my unused data. Currently I have 6.92GB saved on a 500MB plan. I also have not paid my $5 monthly bill since August 2019, my referrals pay for it and I currently have a referral credit of $150.00. I think i may be even cheaper than you.
By the way did you ever get the $100 Amazon credit for the new phone you bought. I'm still mulling over jumping on that Amazon stack promo deal, if I understand it correctly, I just have to activate and buy a new phone, Tracphone $15 refill card and sim to qualify and I think it's good till the end of the year.

I agree that you are cheaper than me. I have no Tello referral credits and my paygo credits is like $2.5..

Yes I got the $100 back from the tracfone deal via venmo a few days after activating the unlocked phone with tracfone using the att network. The 3-in-1 sim card kit comes with att, t-mobile, and verizon, att is the one that is the easiest to activate and had the least problems for rebate submission according to the long thread on slickdeals forum.

The deal ends on the new years eve so as long as your order is in before it, you are good. It would be nice to get another unlocked Moto g power for less than $50 for myself but I don't need it. My g5 plus from 2017 has been working exceptionally well and trouble-free for the last three years.

 

[euro]

I assume that's like their old plans, if you make one call/text, or use one byte of data, you get the minimum charge for that category (? So any data at all ( a simple picture text or group text ) would put you in the $15/month area? Still a good deal for many, but just about any smart phone usage at all will use some data (some apps just do some checking it seems), so it would be almost impossible to have a $10 bill. Or is some data included?

I couldn't find details on the site. Anyone know?


-ERD50

I think you are correct in that there always will be the $5 data charge. But you can share that $5 across two or more lines, so the bill will drop to $12.50 per line for 2 lines.
DW and I are still on the old plan, but I might consider switching eventually