Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Ok, according to my kids it's come to their attention that we are one of the last families on earth using voice and text only phones!
My current Verizon contract is up in another month or two, so we are looking into smart phones for all four of us. Some of these prepaid / no contract carriers look pretty inviting. For about the same monthly price as I pay now, we can get four everything plans. Of course, I know little about these newer plans and smart phones in general. So, help me out.
I've been looking at Virgin Mobile, Boost, and even the WalMart family plan as options since Verizon looks to be kind of pricey for adding data. I checked the coverage maps and the areas that we'd be in 90% of time all have coverage with the Sprint network (Virgin & Boost use Sprint).
Virgin has unlimited text & data (apparently they throttle the 4G data after 2.5 gig's each month). Not sure how that would affect things. They have plans with 300 or 1200 voice minutes. I think we can live with 300 each. Boost has unlimited everything, but their rate is much higher than what I pay now, although they do reduce the rate at 6, 12, and 18 months.
Of course I have to buy phones with any carrier / plan.
So, what else should I be looking for in this new plan? Pro's or con's to the services I mentioned?
The shrinking payments are appealing. If price is what you're looking for, I would definitely look into boost.
Straight talk (walmart) is competitive with virgin. (I have virgin and my husband just got straighttalk this month)
I used 300-400 min when I first got virgin so I had the 1200 minutes for the longest time. I have never worried about my minutes or internet usage or texting or anything. With the iphone you can save 5 dollars a month by using autopay. So 1200 minutes, save 5 dollars, 40/month for me. Recently though, for I don't know what reason, my card on file didn't go through for the automatic payment and I paid the 45 because of it. So I "gave them the finger" and switched down to 300/month (30/month after saving 5 dollars or 35 if my card fails again). I have been using less than 300 and can keep an eye on it easy by signing in to their site. But the saving is iphone only, so if i had another phone it wouldn't have really mattered.
Straight talk - it's 45 unlimited everything. So, depending on the minutes you use, it might be worth it to just not have to worry at all. And if you want to shell the money out, you can buy one year of service and save one month (45$). One thing to know when picking out a straightalk phone - Different phones use different service towers. We wanted a Motorola Defy, but those all run off the sprint network and our issue was that our current provider was only licensed to transfer our phone number to either att or verizon. So we returned the defy and picked one out that was verizon and it's all good. You can look up about carrier/phone model info online... i had a great link let me find it. The code for the tower is on the bottom left corner front of the straight talk box. the last letter is either S, A, or V. Sprint, Att, Verizon. How to Tell Which Network (AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint or Verizon) a TracFone, NET10 or Straight Talk Phone Uses | Prepaid Phone News
If you're considering iphone vs android - I kind of like my husbands android better than my iphone. It has some nice stuff my phone doesn't. However, I take a lot of pictures with my phone and the iphone is far superior!!! And has the front facing camera for chat.
Boost, you start at 50, save 5 dollars for each 6 months of payment, bottoming at 35/month after 18 payments. By the 18th payment, you just averaged 45/month. Quit before 18 months and you end up spending more per month than if you went with 'the other guys'. So boost vs straight talk unlimited plans vs virgin mobile 1200 min plan - you would have to have 19 months of service before you saved your first 10 dollars. If you use boost for 2 years, you save 60 dollars compared. 3 years - total savings of $180. (that's 4 months of 'the other guys' service). 120 dollars saved every year which is 2.6 months of 'the other guys' service. - if you buy straight talk in 1 year increments, you're getting 1 month free ever year.
So I can't say anything for boost other than, in the long term you can have significant savings. For virgin, I've been a happy customer up until the last 6 months with a couple of failed auto payments (which I wouldn't care about if it wasn't the iphone) and Straight talk - I can say I didn't enjoy the customer service/activation (we had issues with the phone number transfer) but otherwise we are so far happy. The first time I tried to activate the phone was smooth and fine, but activating the second phone/clearing up an issue, was frustrating.
Ok, according to my kids it's come to their attention that we are one of the last families on earth using voice and text only phones!
Spoiler
My current Verizon contract is up in another month or two, so we are looking into smart phones for all four of us. Some of these prepaid / no contract carriers look pretty inviting. For about the same monthly price as I pay now, we can get four everything plans. Of course, I know little about these newer plans and smart phones in general. So, help me out.
I've been looking at Virgin Mobile, Boost, and even the WalMart family plan as options since Verizon looks to be kind of pricey for adding data. I checked the coverage maps and the areas that we'd be in 90% of time all have coverage with the Sprint network (Virgin & Boost use Sprint).
Virgin has unlimited text & data (apparently they throttle the 4G data after 2.5 gig's each month). Not sure how that would affect things. They have plans with 300 or 1200 voice minutes. I think we can live with 300 each. Boost has unlimited everything, but their rate is much higher than what I pay now, although they do reduce the rate at 6, 12, and 18 months.
Of course I have to buy phones with any carrier / plan.
So, what else should I be looking for in this new plan? Pro's or con's to the services I mentioned?
This is a Verizon reseller... so essentially Verizon. You may be able to move your current Vz phone to Page Plus. I use my Vz android.
You can limit your Vz network data needs by using your home (or other) Wifi. A smartphone will have the option to turn either on/off. I keep my Vz data network turned off, and use Wifi exclusively. Verizon has NO idea about the data usage on Wifi. I do have an app that monitors data use, whether Network or Wifi... just to make sure I don't accidentally use network data.
At home, your smartphone will just login to your router. Grocery, library, gas station, home depot... it's just an open wifi.
Don't forget to check coverage, if that's important to you. Verizon generally has the best coverage, but if you don't need your phones to work in non-urban areas that may not matter.
The shrinking payments are appealing. If price is what you're looking for, I would definitely look into boost.
Straight talk (walmart) is competitive with virgin. (I have virgin and my husband just got straighttalk this month)
I used 300-400 min when I first got virgin so I had the 1200 minutes for the longest time. I have never worried about my minutes or internet usage or texting or anything. With the iphone you can save 5 dollars a month by using autopay. So 1200 minutes, save 5 dollars, 40/month for me. Recently though, for I don't know what reason, my card on file didn't go through for the automatic payment and I paid the 45 because of it. So I "gave them the finger" and switched down to 300/month (30/month after saving 5 dollars or 35 if my card fails again). I have been using less than 300 and can keep an eye on it easy by signing in to their site. But the saving is iphone only, so if i had another phone it wouldn't have really mattered.
Straight talk - it's 45 unlimited everything. So, depending on the minutes you use, it might be worth it to just not have to worry at all. And if you want to shell the money out, you can buy one year of service and save one month (45$). One thing to know when picking out a straightalk phone - Different phones use different service towers. We wanted a Motorola Defy, but those all run off the sprint network and our issue was that our current provider was only licensed to transfer our phone number to either att or verizon. So we returned the defy and picked one out that was verizon and it's all good. You can look up about carrier/phone model info online... i had a great link let me find it. The code for the tower is on the bottom left corner front of the straight talk box. the last letter is either S, A, or V. Sprint, Att, Verizon. How to Tell Which Network (AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint or Verizon) a TracFone, NET10 or Straight Talk Phone Uses | Prepaid Phone News
If you're considering iphone vs android - I kind of like my husbands android better than my iphone. It has some nice stuff my phone doesn't. However, I take a lot of pictures with my phone and the iphone is far superior!!! And has the front facing camera for chat.
Boost, you start at 50, save 5 dollars for each 6 months of payment, bottoming at 35/month after 18 payments. By the 18th payment, you just averaged 45/month. Quit before 18 months and you end up spending more per month than if you went with 'the other guys'. So boost vs straight talk unlimited plans vs virgin mobile 1200 min plan - you would have to have 19 months of service before you saved your first 10 dollars. If you use boost for 2 years, you save 60 dollars compared. 3 years - total savings of $180. (that's 4 months of 'the other guys' service). 120 dollars saved every year which is 2.6 months of 'the other guys' service. - if you buy straight talk in 1 year increments, you're getting 1 month free ever year.
So I can't say anything for boost other than, in the long term you can have significant savings. For virgin, I've been a happy customer up until the last 6 months with a couple of failed auto payments (which I wouldn't care about if it wasn't the iphone) and Straight talk - I can say I didn't enjoy the customer service/activation (we had issues with the phone number transfer) but otherwise we are so far happy. The first time I tried to activate the phone was smooth and fine, but activating the second phone/clearing up an issue, was frustrating.
i love my galaxy s4 the cam is aswome and makes the iphone look like crap
Don't forget to check coverage, if that's important to you. Verizon generally has the best coverage, but if you don't need your phones to work in non-urban areas that may not matter.
verizon best service
coolest phones
biggest bill
oh and customer service thats NOT outsourced
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
