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Hey all-
I wish to reduce my cell phone bill for a family of four. Wondering if any of you have switched from Verizon Wireless to another carrier and how the experience worked for you. We've been with Verizon for easily over 10 years, so I'm hesitant but - lowering this monthly payment could really help manage our household budget better. Thanks for your insights.
I previously had Verizon for a long time. Liking their coverage (best nationwide and in NC) but not liking my bill, I switched to Net10 which is a prepaid carrier utilizing Verizon towers. Over time a new division from the same overall head Co (Tracfone) was created called Total Wireless which was less than Net10. It uses Verizon towers exclusively.
For a four line family line you're looking at around $100 give or take including taxes for unlimited talk/text and 100 gb shared data. Taxes on prepaid lines are significantly less than taxes on post paid. You can even put your account in OR and pay under a $1 per line in taxes...
You can either use unlocked Verizon phones or purchase Total's phones. My iPhone SE was bought brand new from Walmart for $129 a few years ago. What's cool is after a year, Total unlocks the phones and if you want to get a new one, you can sell the unlocked phone on eBay for as much or more than what you paid for it. There is almost no depreciation loss.
There is a gotcha. The initial startup up period can be rough. The CS reps are not US based and there are no local stores. If you are ok with new numbers, it is painless. Otherwise, transferring your number can be a bit involved but utilizing the online process is the best way. I had my number transferred in under 5 mins and up and working. My wife, went a day without texting working. I can't remember what fixed it. Actually, after the first month was up her phone stopped working and I had to call and rejigger the phones and reset it. So it can have it's headaches. But that only happens at the beginning. Just use autopay and it's completely indistinguishable from post paid after the spin up process.
What I kept telling myself, and now it's been years, is each year I save $600. So over the past three years it's $1,800 in my pocket and not Verizon's.
I also use Total Wireless and have been happy with them. The only issue I have is since it's CDMA-only (or at least was in the past), it makes it a little bit of a pain to change phones.
I had Ting in the past on Sprint CDMA, as well as I believe T-Mobile GSM. Both were fine, I only switched because I wanted to be on the Verizon network.
Verizon family here. We tried T-Mo and AT&T before we moved down. Just couldn't cut it with the sub par service (can't speak to the quality of either here). I wouldn't touch Sprint with a 10 foot pole (although they may be better than they were in 2008)
2 lines (iPhone 11 Pro Max financed, iPhone X paid off), unlimited data, hot spot, Robo blocker. 40% employer discount. I'm sure I could find a way to save another 40 bucks by switching, just isn't worth the hassle. Dave Ramsey would probably disagree.
How often do you venture to more rural areas? One advantage for Verizon is they bought Alltel, who already had most of the rural areas of NC covered. As such, VZW's coverage is great throughout the state.
2 years ago, we switched to TMobile - $70/month for 2 phones with unlimited everything (plus free data overseas). The one disadvantage is coverage is sometimes spotty in very rural locations. Other than that, we have been happy.
We are a 5 phone family and use Cricket Wireless. We pay $125 a month for unlimited call, text, and data. A 4 person family would be $100. We use our own unlocked phones and have the free ones as an emergency backup.
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