Cell phone carriers...WWYD?

[Tinkerbelle99]

Background: just went "monthly" from latest 2y contract with T-Mobile (been with them for years). We are carrying 4 lines (long story), but now that term is up, 2 lines are being cut this week. The remaining two belong to me and DH. T-Mobile has always served us well, no issues with call quality, etc. the pricing was good for us, as we were carrying 4 lines, mine had blackberry data and we paid equal to less than what many people we know who only carried one line. Our calling circle, where we rack up the most talk time, are with family that have t-mobile (probably a good 75% of our talk time), so our minutes are only needed for non regular calls....to talk work, bills, etc. (tmobile-to-tmobile = free; nights & weekends = free)

Dilemma: we need to cut back. the two lines are being cut (the users rarely contributed to cost and are being dropped). i loved my blackberry, it broke and while using a backup basic phone, realized that i COULD live without it, although admittedly, i dont WANT too. So in the interest of saving $$, I have dropped the blackberry data plan. I can also drop our minute package down. All these actions will bring our tmobile bill down a good 50%. which is great savings, but i would like to save more. DH does not want to commit to any more contracts, free phones or not. We do not have a home/land line.

I have heard great things about Virgin Mobile. Dh loves the no contract part and phones are not that crazily priced. (how is it that blackberry on virgin is $179 but on tmobile to buy w/o contract are at $500+ ?) Lets face it $25 per month for unilimited data/text/web & 300 minutes is hard to deny. (would have to add $10 p/m for blackberry service). i was paying extra $35 p/m JUST for the blackberry data plan on TMobile.

I know that budget wise Virgin is the way to go. But i also know that my talk time is high w/family and i would go thru 300 minutes in just days.

So DISers...would you stay non contract with Tmobile because most of your talk with with other tmobile users, you would be paying slightly more and only getting talk/text. OR, go with virgin, get more for less $ and just do the best with the minutes provided....

Virgin users....what happens if your use your minutes in a given month, are your other services (data/text/web) still active for the remainder of that month (until the new month minute alotment)? Can I 'top-up' minutes mid month? can I jog between the monthly plans? lets i say i usually do the $25 plan, but know that next month i will need more minutes and want to bump up to the $40 plan and then go back again to the $25....is that allowed?


Thanks for reading my looonnnnggggg post, but I really need some guidance!

 

[ceecee]

With the Virgin plan you lose your minutes if you don't use them. Tracfone carries them over from month to month. Tracfone is $99 for us for a year service and 1000 minutes, we have never had an issue with there being no service. DD texts A LOT and uses her minutes up fast, we are thinking of switching her to Virgin for the unlimited texting. We just bought the Tracfone Qwerty for $19.99, it's not a Blackberry but it's a great way to save $.

 

[lukenick1]

My DH and I made the switch from AT&T to Virgin and could not be happier. We both got LG Android phones and are on the $25 plan per month. We get 300 anytime minutes and unlimited text and data. To answer your questions....
If you use up your 300 minutes before the month is up you can "top up" to add more time. What I do is, add $10 extra as security so that if I use my 300 minutes before the month is up i will now go to .10 per minute(deducted from the $10). I was going to go with the $40 plan to have the 1200 minutes but there was no guarantee I was going to use all those minutes or even use more than 300 mins per month. This is more economical for us. If I go over no biggie i just add some cash for reserve. The text and data will last thru the month regardless if you go thru the 300 mins or not. Yes you can switch plans from $25 to $40 right online.
Hope that helps!

BTW whatever balance there is from my $10 top up carries over. I just have to make sure to top up $25 when my month is over.

 

[Gillennj]

My DH and I made the switch from AT&T to Virgin and could not be happier. We both got LG Android phones and are on the $25 plan per month. We get 300 anytime minutes and unlimited text and data. To answer your questions....
If you use up your 300 minutes before the month is up you can "top up" to add more time. What I do is, add $10 extra as security so that if I use my 300 minutes before the month is up i will now go to .10 per minute(deducted from the $10). I was going to go with the $40 plan to have the 1200 minutes but there was no guarantee I was going to use all those minutes or even use more than 300 mins per month. This is more economical for us. If I go over no biggie i just add some cash for reserve. The text and data will last thru the month regardless if you go thru the 300 mins or not. Yes you can switch plans from $25 to $40 right online.
Hope that helps!

BTW whatever balance there is from my $10 top up carries over. I just have to make sure to top up $25 when my month is over.

Thanks, that is a great tip on the top up. I wasn't sure how that worked. I can't wait to switch to VM after our current contract with TM is up. I REALLY hate being stuck in a contract.

 

[crazelion]

Just a FYI ATT bought T-mobile.

 

[LisaNJ25]

My DH and I made the switch from AT&T to Virgin and could not be happier. We both got LG Android phones and are on the $25 plan per month. We get 300 anytime minutes and unlimited text and data. To answer your questions....
If you use up your 300 minutes before the month is up you can "top up" to add more time. What I do is, add $10 extra as security so that if I use my 300 minutes before the month is up i will now go to .10 per minute(deducted from the $10). I was going to go with the $40 plan to have the 1200 minutes but there was no guarantee I was going to use all those minutes or even use more than 300 mins per month. This is more economical for us. If I go over no biggie i just add some cash for reserve. The text and data will last thru the month regardless if you go thru the 300 mins or not. Yes you can switch plans from $25 to $40 right online.
Hope that helps!

BTW whatever balance there is from my $10 top up carries over. I just have to make sure to top up $25 when my month is over.

Thank you for posting this. My att contract is up in August and I need to do something. Right now I am paying $205 for 4 phones. Its insane and we cant afford it.. I will only need 3 phones come August since my 18yo is going to get his own plan.

Were you able to keep your same phone numbers?

 

[LisaNJ25]

My DH and I made the switch from AT&T to Virgin and could not be happier. We both got LG Android phones and are on the $25 plan per month. We get 300 anytime minutes and unlimited text and data. To answer your questions....
If you use up your 300 minutes before the month is up you can "top up" to add more time. What I do is, add $10 extra as security so that if I use my 300 minutes before the month is up i will now go to .10 per minute(deducted from the $10). I was going to go with the $40 plan to have the 1200 minutes but there was no guarantee I was going to use all those minutes or even use more than 300 mins per month. This is more economical for us. If I go over no biggie i just add some cash for reserve. The text and data will last thru the month regardless if you go thru the 300 mins or not. Yes you can switch plans from $25 to $40 right online.
Hope that helps!

BTW whatever balance there is from my $10 top up carries over. I just have to make sure to top up $25 when my month is over.

Thank you for posting this. my att contract is up in August and I need to do something. Right now I am paying $205 for 4 months.. its insane. I will only need 3 phones come August since my 18yo is goign to get his opwn plan. Were you apple to ee

 

[lukenick1]

Thank you for posting this. My att contract is up in August and I need to do something. Right now I am paying $205 for 4 phones. Its insane and we cant afford it.. I will only need 3 phones come August since my 18yo is going to get his own plan.

Were you able to keep your same phone numbers?

Yes we had our existing cell numbers ported over from AT&T. We pay $50 per month for 2 smartphones with unlimited text, data and 300 mins. Love it! My BFF is paying $30 a month just to add data plan to her Verizon phone.

 

[shirleyb]

I was really interested to see this because it sounds like a great deal. Do you know if you can activate your existing phone through Virgin Mobile or do you need to buy one of their phones? Also, do you know if there are all of the taxes and fees on top of the $25 or just sales tax. The taxes and fees on regular cell phone bills are a killer.

 

[Judique]

I was really interested to see this because it sounds like a great deal. Do you know if you can activate your existing phone through Virgin Mobile or do you need to buy one of their phones? Also, do you know if there are all of the taxes and fees on top of the $25 or just sales tax. The taxes and fees on regular cell phone bills are a killer.

I have a $25 and a $40 plan. Just paid them online after noticing this thread.

$25 is $26.50 with tax.
$40 is $42.40 with tax.

We have LG Optimus V. The service is 3G on the sprint network.

We were paying Verizon much more for much less. We had no data plans. We couldn't get data phones through Verizon without giving up our plan and moving to a much higher price. Verizon would have been more than double what we pay now for less service.

The phone is fun! It has talk to text - one of my favorite features.

It took me a long time to give up Verizon, but they've gotten ridiculous.

 

[lukenick1]

I have a $25 and a $40 plan. Just paid them online after noticing this thread.

$25 is $26.50 with tax.
$40 is $42.40 with tax.

We have LG Optimus V. The service is 3G on the sprint network.

We were paying Verizon much more for much less. We had no data plans. We couldn't get data phones through Verizon without giving up our plan and moving to a much higher price. Verizon would have been more than double what we pay now for less service.

The phone is fun! It has talk to text - one of my favorite features.

It took me a long time to give up Verizon, but they've gotten ridiculous.

Last week Target had $25 top ups cards for Virgin on sale. Paid $23.74 each!

 

[MickeyDisneyFan]

I too have virgin mobile with the optimus v, its been great you can also get the cards from callingmart.com for 24.75 with no tax.

Use ca3p-1207 coupon and its 24.01

Also read http://forum.androidcentral.com/optimus-v/ theres tons of info about the phone.

If 300 minutes isnt enough you can try https://market.android.com/details?id=com.gvoip its 3.99 but uses your data/wifi to make calls.

 

[Coll0610]

DS has had the $25 / month Virgin Mobile plan for almost a year and we've had no trouble. This was his first phone, so no phone number to port over.

I tried to switch from Tracfone to Virgin a couple months after DS got his phone. Virgin was never able to port my number over and the customer service was HORIFFIC. I spent an hour a day on the phone with them for almost three weeks, and each time I was told that the problem would fixed in "24-48 hours". I even emailed all the Virgin Mobile executives I could find names for. One of them got involved, and they still couldn't get my service working. One day I just got sick of it and went out and bought an iPhone (which I LOVE!!!).

So, I think the Virgin Mobile is a great deal as long as you don't have to call them for service.

 

[DawnM]

That isn't bad.

So, unlimited data?

So, if they use the Sprint 3G, why can't Sprint just give me a better deal on adding data to my current plan?

Ok, more questions: 300 minutes per phone or shared? Are there also nights and weekends free or are all minutes counted?

I only have 500 min. shared with 3 phones, but with Sprint to Sprint and nights and weekends, it is doable. Not sure I could do only 300 minutes total.

Dawn

Yes we had our existing cell numbers ported over from AT&T. We pay $50 per month for 2 smartphones with unlimited text, data and 300 mins. Love it! My BFF is paying $30 a month just to add data plan to her Verizon phone.

 

[lukenick1]

That isn't bad.

So, unlimited data?

So, if they use the Sprint 3G, why can't Sprint just give me a better deal on adding data to my current plan?

Ok, more questions: 300 minutes per phone or shared? Are there also nights and weekends free or are all minutes counted?

I only have 500 min. shared with 3 phones, but with Sprint to Sprint and nights and weekends, it is doable. Not sure I could do only 300 minutes total.

Dawn

Yes unlimited data.
They do use Sprint's 3g network but not all towers are available. So you may not get reception in some places. I have not had a problem but I live close to the city.

300 minutes per phone. There is no family plan or sharing and it is anytime minutes. No free nights and weekends. If you go over your 300 minutes within the month if you keep a balance on the phone you will go to .10 per minute until the next month. Every phone will have it's own plan. So you would pay $25 x 3 per month for 3 phones.

 

[DawnM]

I see. .10 a min. isn't too bad, although I am the one who goes over, the kids barely use their phone and my dad barely uses his, so the 550 minutes plus nights and weekends are used primarily by me

I would maybe consider getting this as a 2nd phone for me (for the data and texting) and keep my cell plan.

I currently pay $35 plus $7 in tax for three phones. It is called the Free and Clear 350 plan (so we share 350 min.) but he added 200 extra free min. on my phone and on my dad's phone each. The 200 min. extra are for specific phone use and not shared, if that makes sense.

I haven't been able to add anything to the plan (like data) without changing the entire plan and upping my charge by over $100/mo. Data is nice but not for over $100/mo.

Last Dec. Sprint told me I could add data for $25/mo for just my phone. I went in to do just that in Feb. and they told me it was no longer available, that I would have to change my entire plan! I refused.

Dawn

Yes unlimited data.
They do use Sprint's 3g network but not all towers are available. So you may not get reception in some places. I have not had a problem but I live close to the city.

300 minutes per phone. There is no family plan or sharing and it is anytime minutes. No free nights and weekends. If you go over your 300 minutes within the month if you keep a balance on the phone you will go to .10 per minute until the next month. Every phone will have it's own plan. So you would pay $25 x 3 per month for 3 phones.

 

[lukenick1]

I see. .10 a min. isn't too bad, although I am the one who goes over, the kids barely use their phone and my dad barely uses his, so the 550 minutes plus nights and weekends are used primarily by me

I would maybe consider getting this as a 2nd phone for me (for the data and texting) and keep my cell plan.

I currently pay $35 plus $7 in tax for three phones. It is called the Free and Clear 350 plan (so we share 350 min.) but he added 200 extra free min. on my phone and on my dad's phone each. The 200 min. extra are for specific phone use and not shared, if that makes sense.

I haven't been able to add anything to the plan (like data) without changing the entire plan and upping my charge by over $100/mo. Data is nice but not for over $100/mo.

Last Dec. Sprint told me I could add data for $25/mo for just my phone. I went in to do just that in Feb. and they told me it was no longer available, that I would have to change my entire plan! I refused.

Dawn

Just so you know.....you would need to get a phone from Virgin in order to use their data plan. They also offer a $40 plan which gives you 1200 talk minutes, unlimited text and data.

 

[starry_solo]

I have Sprint. For 4 phones with 1500 minutes, free night & weekend minutes (which start after 7 pm instead of 9 pm like other carriers) and unlimited texting (no data b/c we don't do that), it costs $110/month (includes taxes). that's with an employee discount.

I am considering going back to a non-contract phone but we want at least 3 phone lines. Even if I go with Virgin, T-Mobile, etc., I'm not sure if it's worth it.

 

[Judique]

I have Sprint. For 4 phones with 1500 minutes, free night & weekend minutes (which start after 7 pm instead of 9 pm like other carriers) and unlimited texting (no data b/c we don't do that), it costs $110/month (includes taxes). that's with an employee discount.

I am considering going back to a non-contract phone but we want at least 3 phone lines. Even if I go with Virgin, T-Mobile, etc., I'm not sure if it's worth it.

I felt like this for SOOOOO LONNNNNGGGGGG!!!!

I felt that if if I paid more, I was probably getting more and maybe better service.

I felt that the no contract phones were probably inferior.

I felt that somewhere there was a catch.

I now wish I'd changed earlier.

Also - porting my number for the one person above: I was really worried about this. I'd had my cell number since 1990. I didn't want to give it up. I made my change just a couple of months back - I think maybe 3 times I've paid so this is my 3rd month, I believe. Radio Shack warned me that it might take a while to get our numbers ported. So, I came home and looked at the phones for a couple of hours before I decided to open them up and call customer service. I reached customer service in El Salvador. The guy asked me what part of Maryland are you in? He than told me where he used to work in Maryland! English was perfect. He ported our numbers and activated our phones and then said we would have to wait for Verizon, our former carrier. Maybe a half hour later our phones were working and my Verizon service was gone.

Verizon's final communication to me was to send a bill for 45 cents, with a do not pay instruction - just for info purposes. Why would you bother sending me this?

I can do so much with my new phone - for so much less money. It also has a gps type thing built in....did I tell you I love this phone!

I Phone may be superior, but it's also way more pricey. What I have suits my needs and so far my families needs.

 

[starry_solo]

I guess I should start with, I started with a pre-paid phone years ago, first with AT&T (horrible service, they double charged me for the phone and when I disputed it, they disconnected the service) THEN with T-Mobile (1000 minutes, good for 1 year, for $100). A good deal since I only used the phone for emergencies.

Sis had the same service, as did our parents.

Then, 2 years ago, sis started going through $100 in phone cards in 1 month (texting a lot with bf) So, I was still paying $100/year, she was paying $100/month. That's when we decided to go with a contract phone.

Verizon, 750 shares minutes, 15% discount for my employer (but only on the single line even though we had a family plan). Came out to about $92 per month with taxes. 2 year plan. She killed her phone w/in 6 months so we got her a cheaper phone until contract ended

Then, I looked into Sprint. Figured, hey for $10 more, could get 4 phones, 1500 shared minutes, night & weekend minutes start at 7 pm (instead of 9 pm). They wouldn't honor what they had offered (free phone activation) so I was considering cancelling and going back to Verizon (already ported #s over). But then, we had already given up the non-contract #s for our parents.

So, we're stuck with Sprint for another 15 months (started August 2010 so ends August 2010). Trying to decide if our parents should go back to the non-contract T-Mobile ($100 for 1000 minutes good for a year) but then if the AT&T purchase of T-Mobile goes through (I really HATE AT&T for cell phone service), I'm not sure if we will do that.

Thought about Metro PCS but the coverage seems spotty. Maybe we'll go back to Verizon, but the reason why we left Verizon is we wanted QWERTY-keyboards and all but 1 of the phones (that had this available) required a minimum $10 data plan per month, per phone. Thought about Page Plus until I read all the reviews about crappy customer service.

I have time to think about who I will change to (if I do). But, I am still thinking about a pre-paid phone on a different carrier/network for my parents so they will have phones with 2 carriers/networks if they go traveling domestically (just in case).