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Can anyone say with experience how much it costs to use a SIM card in their Iphone or Samsung phone over a year for example?
Trying to decide whether to buy the Iphone with a plan (which I think is about $75/mo for 24 month minimum). Under this scenario, it would cost about $2K for 2 years.
If I buy the unlocked Iphone 5, it's $649 plus not sure what it would cost for SIM over 2 years.
You buy the phone from them, but then no contract necessary. Then $40 a month (save $5 if use autopay) for 1200 minutes of phone and unlimited text/data.
I think to get that many phone minutes/data you would pay more the $70 a month with the other companies. This seems to be the cheapest way to go.
I hope I understand this correctly... I have never had a smart phone so I think I may be misunderstanding the Virgin data thing....
You buy the phone from them, but then no contract necessary. Then $40 a month (save $5 if use autopay) for 1200 minutes of phone and unlimited text/data.
I think to get that many phone minutes/data you would pay more the $70 a month with the other companies. This seems to be the cheapest way to go.
I hope I understand this correctly... I have never had a smart phone so I think I may be misunderstanding the Virgin data thing....
I have the Virgin Mobile no contract iphone . If you only need 300 minutes they have a $35 ($30 autopay). They have an unlimited minutes plan for $50 as well. They also offer the older iphone 4 and iphone 4s as well as the iphone 5. If you don't want to spend $650 (iphone 4 for $350, though they may still have the $300 sale yet). I have had it a month now, and so far so good, its been better then my experience with At&t.
Data (and texting) is unlimited. BUT, data is throttled after you have used 2.5 gigs (I never use that much).
Its the cheapest way to have an iphone. Tmobile is a close second in the price department. However they have a payment plan for the iphone if you don't have the money upfront to buy the phone.
Why anyone would sign up for a contract phone anymore, I don't know, I could never get the bill below $80 a month with a contract and the service wasn't better, so it wasn't worth the extra cost.
What do you mean that data is throttled after 2.5 gigs? Forgive my ignorance.
I really appreciate your post. I just have not been able to bring myself to pay these really high monthly charges for a smart phone, and after doing the calculations myself, I did not understand why people are locking themselves into these contracts. Thought I must be missing something....
and btw, I HATE AT&T and hate myself for sticking with them all these years when I have had so many problems with bad service (customer and phone). I have always hear good things about Virgin as a company, and love their mission statement.
May I ask, which iPhone you bought, and why? Paying $650 is almost heart stopping, but when you read some of these tech reviews they make you worried that you "need" the newest one, or you should wait until the next one, 3G vs. 4G (?) etc...
I have the Virgin Mobile no contract iphone . If you only need 300 minutes they have a $35 ($30 autopay). They have an unlimited minutes plan for $50 as well. They also offer the older iphone 4 and iphone 4s as well as the iphone 5. If you don't want to spend $650 (iphone 4 for $350, though they may still have the $300 sale yet). I have had it a month now, and so far so good, its been better then my experience with At&t.
Data (and texting) is unlimited. BUT, data is throttled after you have used 2.5 gigs (I never use that much).
Its the cheapest way to have an iphone. Tmobile is a close second in the price department. However they have a payment plan for the iphone if you don't have the money upfront to buy the phone.
Why anyone would sign up for a contract phone anymore, I don't know, I could never get the bill below $80 a month with a contract and the service wasn't better, so it wasn't worth the extra cost.
According to my calculations from your data, here are the estimated costs for the purchased phone vrsus the Plan wit the Iphone 5:
1. The standard plan from AT&T, et al - $200 phone + ($80 * 24 months) = $2120
2. No contract phone - $650 for phone + ($30 * 24 months) = $1390
Am I missing something? I would also have the option of installing a foreign SIM card when I'm traveling internationally.
Data throttling is when your data comes in slower. Pages load slowly. This would be most notable for those who do a lot of streaming and video/movie watching. There is constant buffering.
Data throttling is when your data comes in slower. Pages load slowly. This would be most notable for those who do a lot of streaming and video/movie watching. There is constant buffering.
What do you mean that data is throttled after 2.5 gigs? Forgive my ignorance.
I really appreciate your post. I just have not been able to bring myself to pay these really high monthly charges for a smart phone, and after doing the calculations myself, I did not understand why people are locking themselves into these contracts. Thought I must be missing something....
and btw, I HATE AT&T and hate myself for sticking with them all these years when I have had so many problems with bad service (customer and phone). I have always hear good things about Virgin as a company, and love their mission statement.
May I ask, which iPhone you bought, and why? Paying $650 is almost heart stopping, but when you read some of these tech reviews they make you worried that you "need" the newest one, or you should wait until the next one, 3G vs. 4G (?) etc...
Thanks OP for this topic.
I bought the iphone 4 for $300. It was on sale last month for $50 off, (don't know if they are still running that sale so it may be $350). There is an iphone 4s that is costs somewhere between the 350 and 650.
You don't need the latest and greatest, especially if you haven't had a smartphone before. I couldn't stomach the $650 either and I am happy with the iphone 4. It was still an "upgrade" for me coming from a At&t iphone 3gs (i stayed with them too long too!!). I hope to get at least three years out of it, the old one almost made that (I broke it, keep it away from water!!).
I think the main reason why people don't go with the no contract phones is the upfront cost of the phone (plus the first months bill, you pay the monthly bill at the beginning rather then the end of the month). Even 300 bucks upfront is a chunk of change for most folks and they don't think about how they keep paying for that contract phone over and over.
That, and they don't know that these plans exist. Phone companies want you locked into a contract. So you aren't missing anything with a no contract phone. Maybe if they offered better service it would be worth it, but I never saw that, and I want a much smaller bill.
There is nothing in it for the consumer to sign a contract, I don't plan on using a contract phone anymore.
I think someone answered the throttled data. Basically it just gets slower after you have downloaded (and uploaded) the first 2.5 gigs of the month. I have never used more the a 1 gig of data in a month, my biggest use is likely some streamed music. I use it for email, mapping, etc. You can use your wifi at home (and the office) to lower your data use too if you want to watch a lot of video etc. Your wifi will be faster then the 3g as well.
Due keep in mind, I have only had the Virgin Mobile for a month. The service has been good so far, but I haven't traveled with it yet. They use Sprints network, since they don't have their own infrastructure.
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