Cell Phone Service (Charlotte, Cricket, Earl: credit check, month to, transfer)

[travlingrlclt]

New to the area. What are some of the cell phone companies in Charlotte that most people use. I need one that I can do month to month or just a short term contract, do those exist? (still need to transfer my # so I can keep it as well). I only need a cell phone for a short period of time as i'm trasitioning off a company provided phone and no longer w/ that company. I would assume my next job would provide me a cell phone as well.

[nkjaws]

Originally Posted by travlingrlclt

New to the area. What are some of the cell phone companies in Charlotte that most people use. I need one that I can do month to month or just a short term contract, do those exist? (still need to transfer my # so I can keep it as well).

I think most reputable cell phone companies require a contract unless you were to have a prepaid cell. WE use verizon as it gets the best reception in our area of Charlotte and nationwide. we had Cingular but most of our calls were dropped or we had bad reception in this area.

[southbound_295]

Originally Posted by travlingrlclt

New to the area. What are some of the cell phone companies in Charlotte that most people use. I need one that I can do month to month or just a short term contract, do those exist? (still need to transfer my # so I can keep it as well). I only need a cell phone for a short period of time as i'm trasitioning off a company provided phone and no longer w/ that company. I would assume my next job would provide me a cell phone as well.

You're talking about pay as you go phones. I've never seen any of the better companies who offer that option say that you can transfer your number. Maybe I just missed it. Usually a phone number can be held for 6 months.

[travlingrlclt]

I don't specifically need a pay as you go but I don't want a 2 year contract that i'll have to break and pay $200. I have to keep my same phone # though.

[VickiT]

I think that there are websites dedicated to transferring existing cell-phone contracts. If you do a search, maybe you can find one with a contract that doesn't have much time left on it.
You could always go to Target and get a temporary pay-as-you-go phone. They have Verizon phones there too.
I don't know much about transferrring numbers.

[southbound_295]

Originally Posted by travlingrlclt

I don't specifically need a pay as you go but I don't want a 2 year contract that i'll have to break and pay $200. I have to keep my same phone # though.

I know that some companies offer 1 year contracts. A new employer might be agreeable to fund what their cost would be in their own network for a few months. It would probably depend on how important keeping the old phone number would be to a company. If it's important to them, they'll work with you..

[Stripes17]

You may want to check out Cricket. I don't know anything about them except their TV claims no contracts and they have the typical features of the major carriers. My family uses Verizon on a rolling 2 year deal.

[Trevor92]

To not have a contract, afaik, there's only 2 real options that you have if you want to keep your cell number and not lose it.

The first is Tracfone. It's a pre-paid pay-as-you go and it's sold just about everywhere. The phones are pretty cheap but you don't get the features of a contract provider such as unlimited nights. Tracfone is the only pre-paid that I know of that allows you to port in your number so that you can keep your old number.

The second option is to provide your own phone (this won't work with Verizon or AT&T as they require a contract just to activate a line). With a provider such as Cricket or Alltel, you can bring your own phone (from a friend, from eBay, even your old phone depending on if you must turn in your old phone to your company). You can even buy one in the store, but in most cases they cost more than the $200 Early Termination Fee it would cost to break the contract. These can be activated without a contract with most providers, and you can still be on a contract plan.

edit (added): You could also check with the company you're leaving to see if they minded transferring your current line to your name so that you could keep the number and take over the responsibility of paying the bill. Hopefully they would be willing to work with you on it.

Now days, (at least among people I know) it seems like very few employers will actually pay for a line though because they'll stop at trying to set up a deal with a number of providers for a discount. My employer stopped paying for lines within the past year for new employees and just started offering discounts, and it sounded like most companies were moving in this direction. So that's just something to be aware of depending on your line of work. Luckily, for me the policy didn't apply to existing employees as I now have a work line through Verizon and personal line through alltel. And from my experience since you're new to the area, if you reach the point where you have to get your own plan, alltel provides the best service in this area and has far better plans that Verizon. Verizon is a close second (and advertises a lot more to try to convince people they're the best), and Sprint, AT&T, Cricket, and SunCom/T-Mobile are also options, though they generally don't have near as good of reviews from most customers.

Also, port out your number to your new provider BEFORE your old line is cancelled, or you will lose your phone number. It is up to the provider you are switching to, to complete the process. If your old line is cancelled first, the number will be thrown back into the pool for new lines and will be lost.

[SmoothGuy]

Originally Posted by travlingrlclt

New to the area. What are some of the cell phone companies in Charlotte that most people use. I need one that I can do month to month or just a short term contract, do those exist? (still need to transfer my # so I can keep it as well). I only need a cell phone for a short period of time as i'm trasitioning off a company provided phone and no longer w/ that company. I would assume my next job would provide me a cell phone as well.

I have Sprint and my service is great everywhere in Charlotte, but for what your looking for Cricket or a Virgin Mobile phone may be your best option. Cricket just does not work well if you leave Charlotte, and the phones are expensive, but you don't have to sign a contract or go through a credit check and they have unlimited plans for less than $45 a month. Virgin Mobile phones are really cheap and it provides nationwide coverage they also have plans with unlimited nights and weekends that start at 7pm they just deduct money out of your checking account per month. You can go to Best Buy or somewhere and pick up a phone for around $20. Check out their site: Prepaid Cell Phone Service and Pay as You Go from Virgin Mobile ® USA - Official Site I think they can transfer your old number too, you need your account number though.

[the 7 oh 4]

Verizon!