Need recomandation for cell phone service (Chapel Hill, Star: chapel, no credit check, home)

[meimei88]

I will move here in June and need a local cell phone. I don't talk much on the phone, so the plan I need is as basic as possible. Any input regarding the plans and phone companies will be appreciated!

[Trevor92]

Originally Posted by meimei88

I will move here in June and need a local cell phone. I don't talk much on the phone, so the plan I need is as basic as possible. Any input regarding the plans and phone companies will be appreciated!

If you don't talk much on the phone, here is the strategy I would take...

Start off with pre-paid. I do know that alltel has pre-paid, post-paid, very good coverage, and decently priced plans for most plan levels which may make them a very good fit for you. Between my alltel line and Verizon line, it's actually alltel that seems to do a little better overall for me in the triangle. But you can start off with a pre-paid plan, they do it pay-per-minute (15 cents/min) or pay-per-day (75 cents). With pay-per-day you can select 2 of the 4: unlimited nights/unlimited text/unlimited calling to one number/mobile-to-mobile. So there are, even on pre-paid, a few plans to choose from. And if you don't talk on the phone much, this is probably by far, the cheapest option for you, and you should still have very good coverage. The only downside to going with a pre-paid is that, no matter which pre-paid you talk about, you have to keep up with when your minutes will expire, if a deposit isn't made on your account every so often, usually 30-90 days. But this can often be avoided with larger initial deposits, such as $100 for a year.

The brilliance in doing this, is that you're not under contract. And if you start using the phone more in the future, you can switch over to a post-paid plan, and you still won't be under contract and you won't have to buy a new phone. They generally have very good plans that throw in my circle to so many numbers (depending on the price of your plan) if you ever need all the features of a regular plan. Before too long you may even be inclined to give up your home phone and switch completely over to the cell as many others have done, and having some unlimited calling, such as with my circle makes many people feel comfortable in doing that. That makes me recommend that approach over ... Tracfone for instance. If you have a pre-paid Tracfone, and want to step up to a regular post-paid provider, you'll have to go get a new phone, new contract, etc.

At&t also has a GoPhone, pre-paid plans, and it's structured very similarly to alltel's. But the pay-per minute is 25 cents and the pay-per-day is $1 so it's a little more expensive. I'm also not sure how easy it is under their terms and conditions to transfer the phone from pre-paid to post-paid and how a contract might apply, but it wouldn't seem as though it should be hard to do. Verizon also has InPulse pre-paid, for $1, $2, or $3/day, depending on the features you want.

These websites are links to those 3 options so you can directly compare them, with some of them you may need to enter your zip:
Alltel: Alltel U
At&t: Prepaid cell phone, GoPhone® - | Wireless from AT&T, formerly Cingular
Verizon: Enter your location

But those are 3 pre-paid options, with carriers, that seem to suit your needs, and leave you options for the future.

[slynn41072]

If you hardly use the phone I would do a pre pay phone.

[adlnc07]

I've been using a Suncom "Pay as you Go" phone for a while now - it's pretty cheap. They've just added an option where you buy $100 worth of minutes ($.10 per minute) at once and the minutes don't expire for a year.

[Vnyrd]

This web site by someone in Chapel Hill is very informative.

Best prepaid cell phone plans

We went with Net10. It is a great plan and they have nice phones.

[mia78]

I'm also using Suncom Goodcall prepaid phone and after doing my research it was the best to fit my cell phone usage. No other company could beat the price. I wrote a detailed article about my experience here:

Review of Suncom Goodcall Prepaid Cell Phone Service

I did tons and tons of research looking for the best prepaid cell phone plan available in my area and after looking at every plan that I knew existed, I went with Suncom Goodcall. Suncom is a small regional carrier with offices in N. Carolina, S. Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Puerto Rico. Prepaid service is a good option for me because I didn't need a bill hanging over my head. So if things got tight and I couldn't afford it anymore, I wouldn't have a contract termination fee hanging over me. Also, I checked out many different prepaid phones like Virgin, Boost, and the others that you can buy minutes at the gas station and stuff. Those per minute rates were absolutely ridiculous! You'd be broke even though the intent behind prepaid is to save money, not waste it. Actually these types of ripoffs cost more in the long run than a monthly plan. The main advantage for people who use these services is that there's no credit check necessary. I say, don't waste your money on that. Don't skimp on your research to make sure you get the best deal.

Many other prepaid plans want to charge a daily usage fee around a dollar a day no matter how many minutes you talk. So if I talk for one minute a day, I have to pay a minimum of $30 in addition to the per minute rate. That was not working for me.

The main reason I like Suncom Goodcall is the price was excellent for the type of caller I am. I'm a stay at home mom and don't do much talking on my cell phone, so I didn't need some $40 a month traditional plan with 600 minutes or the like. When you first sign up, you can go to SunCom Wireless and choose the type of phone you'd like to get. When getting prepaid service, you don't get those cool free phone deals or rebates like the one or two year contract plans. You pay for your phone upfront which includes activation and 50 minutes of talk time. It’s a fairly simple process. You get your phone shipped in a few days. You can easily refill your minutes with a quick free call to 611 from your phone and pay with a debit card. Another great thing about Suncom Goodcall is that the minute quantities are very versatile. If you only need a little, you can get a little and if you need a lot, you can get a lot. For example: You can buy the smallest number of minutes which is 100 minutes for $10 (plus tax) that expire in 15 days. 200 minutes costs $20 (plus tax) that expire in 30 days and so on. There is a low 10 cents per day service fee. Also, your minutes rollover if you don't use them all before your airtime expires. At one time I had well over $60 on my phone because I barely used them. Those extra minutes came in handy eventually.

While I love my Suncom Goodcall service, it wasn't without problems. I have to give it to them in that I haven't had a problem with reception or dropped calls at all, but then again, I'm not a heavy user. When I got my first phone which was the cheapest one available for $39.99, I had a problem with it and customer service was not able to get the situation resolved. I ended up calling the Better Business Bureau to make a complaint. After this, a very helpful employee of Suncom contacted me and worked with me to make sure I got the situation resolved to my satisfaction. I was very happy to get it resolved as I really didn't want to 'take my business elsewhere'.

Also, I had a problem with not being able to make calls from my phone when I left my home in N. Carolina to travel to NJ and MD. According to the coverage map on the website, these states should have full coverage. It was strange because I could receive calls, but not make them. What was even stranger was that I had used my phone the previous year in NJ just fine and the night before when it died on me the next day. At first, T-Mobile (whose network I was on) said they were having a problem with the tower. That wasn't true because others with T-Mobile had no problems in that area. I tested the phone as we were traveling back home and sure enough; it was working again once we were in NC. When I contacted Suncom about it when I got home and all they could tell me is service on another network wasn't guaranteed. So much for accuracy of the coverage map on the website. I don't travel too often, so this wasn't too much of an issue, however, if you're a frequent traveler, Suncom Goodcall may not be a good option for you.

Overall, I'd definitely recommend Suncom Goodcall as an inexpensive option for residents of the states they serve. As with all cell phone companies, no one has a perfect track record in handling customer service issues. Some people have a good experience and others have a terrible one with the same company. It's important to keep this fact of life in perspective.

Another thing is that we have stopped using Verizon's unlimited plan and only use my cell phone for long distance.

[meimei88]

Thank you for all the input! Pre-pay seems the right choice for me!

[Moonwalkr]

I used to have Cingular GoPhone (now AT&T?), it worked well until I decided to get rid of my landline and ended up with traditional Verizon wireless plan, which I'm pleased with. Prepay definitely if you don't use it much, no need to lock yourself in a contract and pay tons for minutes you don't really need to use.