No Contract Phone Plans

I just pulled the ($15) trigger on a flip phone from Virgin Mobile. It should get here in a few days...right before the end of my billing cycle for Sprint.

I suppose then all I have to do is activate the new phone by "porting" my number over. I trust that won't be too irritating an experience (no...I actually don't trust that at all).

Wish me luck. I know I'm a luddite without "data" but until such time as having data helps me make money...I'll just do without.

Once again, I do appreciate all the input!
Clem

This is kind of off-topic, but the real precipitant for all of this is that my ~3 year old Samsung craptastic phone has started "eating" my contacts. I noticed a call from my girlfriend came in without her name on it. "That's strange...I recognize the number, but why doesn't it say her name or use her ringtone?"

I looked in the phone number slot for that contact and it had jibberish.

I checked with the kids, breifly, to make sure they had not played a prank on me (they hadn't).

Over the weekend, a couple other contacts have been corrupted.

I don't know if it's the Mayan calendar thing, built-in-obsolecense...or what. But it's time for a new phone. I've been complaining about the sound quality on this thing for a year or more now, anyway. Lol.

In its defense, it lives a rough life with me as its keeper.

Clem

Port: this is switching from one company to another and bringing your number with you.

You are with Sprint now and going to VM (which is also owned by Sprint.)
You do not want a "port" you want a "migration."
To do this, you would be best off to call into VM to start service and speak directly to a person. Do not ask for a "port", ask for a "migration."

If they put in a port request it will take up to 48 hours for the port to fail before they realize it is a migration. This can leave you as a frustrated customer for 48 hours.

Again, ask for a Migration and be very clear that you are a Sprint customer currently.

ClemSparks wrote: I know I'm a luddite without "data" but until such time as having data helps me make money...I'll just do without.

Good for you!

(pulls out smart phone to google what "luddite" means...)

I've been enjoying this thread...

the wife and I are on my in-laws plan paying our portion comes out to about $100 a month... we moved to the Houston area and ATT coverage BLOWS.... we had better coverage out in the middle of hick-ville panhandle FL then we do here... thankfully the contract is up in a few months.

around here ANY of the other major carriers is better... Verzion tops, then sprint... sadly it looks like if we are to get what we have now we're looking at $150+ tax n crap... sure we'll pay a little more for a smart phone... but the $1200-1800 over the next 2 years... we could buy new Iphones and still come out ahead (granted there is a bit of $$$ up front haha)

ClemSparks wrote: I've been complaining about the sound quality on this thing for a year or more now, anyway. Lol. In its defense, it lives a rough life with me as its keeper. Clem

What you wrote above brings me to another advantage of prepaid; changing handsets or being hard on handsets.
You said above that you bought the $14 handset.
In the contract world, the first handset is often free and if you break it without warranty and outside of the timeframe for upgrade, a replacement handset can be very expensive.
In prepaid, if you break this $14 handset, you can just run to the store or head to the website and buy another $14 (or whatever price) handset.
My point being that if you are hard on handsets, replacement units are cheap too, not just the initial purchase unit.

This link should take you to VZ contract where you will see to buy a similar phone outright, VZ will charge you $199.00
http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/store/controller?item=phoneFirst&action=viewPhoneDetail&selectedPhoneId=5888
Here is another unit that is "free" with contract but they charge $249.00 if you need a replacement unit.
http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/store/controller?item=phoneFirst&action=viewPhoneDetail&selectedPhoneId=5725

Anyone know where to look for a reman iPhone 4 or 4S for a decent price? Thinking about going with the Straight Talk $45 plan if I can find a decent price on an iPhone with a warranty to use.

Try www.cowboom.com and/or www.mobilekarma.com

Both sell used handsets for all the big carriers.
Cowboom uses a grade scale where a 6 grade is a nicer phone than a 5 grade.
Karma uses a scale of used, fair, good, great, excellent(mint)

These sites will sell you a used AT&T iPhone but I do not know if they are unlock and ready to use with StraightTalk. I would inquire directly to each website.

Better advise may be to keep an eye for the next few weeks on CL. The new iPhone5 will be out and the early adopters will be jumping over to those and selling their perfectly good 3's and 4's to fund the new purchase.

In reply to JohnRW1621:

The impending iPhone 5 is what is making me consider looking for an older one and going for Straight Talk. I travel regularly to locations where Straight Talk's Android coverage is not acceptable, so I'm not sure I have many other phone options for Straight Talk. Was just starting to look at PagePlus to stick with Verizon's network because I know it has good coverage where I go. Wife's phone is on Virgin Mobile and the problem is poor reception at our house. She has to go outside to talk on it and texts give an error about 50% of the time but go through about 90% of the time.

Just last month I switched from Virgin Optimus V at $55 per month to Droid X gotten from Cowboom for $69 and PagePlus at $55 per month. I am happy.

As for other options w/ Straight Talk... If not a unlocked GSM iPhone then an unlocked GSM Android will also work with Straight Talk.

JohnRW1621 wrote: Just last month I switched from Virgin Optimus V at $55 per month to Droid X gotten from Cowboom for $69 and PagePlus at $55 per month. I am happy. As for other options w/ Straight Talk... If not a unlocked GSM iPhone then an unlocked GSM Android will also work with Straight Talk.

Straight Talk Android coverage is not adequate for my needs according to the map shown here:

Straight Talk Map

So if I can't find a decent price on an iphone I guess I'm going to have to fall back to PagePlus.

Okay, let me clarify.
If you buy one of the Android handsets that Straight Talk (ST) sells then it will be a CDMA handset designed only to work on Sprint's towers.

If you buy an used, unlocked GSM Android handset and then buy ST's SIM card to put in that Android you will have the big coverage which is AT&T
$14.99 for the SIM card and $45 per month for the service.
http://www.shopstraighttalk.com/bpdirect/straighttalk/PhoneDetails.do?action=view&productVariantExtensionId=17638938

In reply to JohnRW1621:

Ahh...the lightbulb (CFL?) has finally come on.

By the way, I'd like to thank you for being so helpful and forthcoming about cell phone plans. I believe you work for one provider, but the information and advise you provide seems to be honest and helpful and unbiased.

So "thank you."

Just a quick update.

I ordered my $15 phone (Samsung Flip phone with NO camera...can you believe that? No camera) last week from Virgin Mobile. It showed up two days later (free shipping) and I planned to turn on the service today or tomorrow (near the end of my Sprint billing cycle).

However, my old phone just checked out the morning after I got the new phone.

How fortunate that I had JUST received my new phone (and charged it up). I activated it and within an hour or two, I had service and it seems good so far. Coverage has been adequate for me.

My $30 plan is $32.12 with sales tax...better, by comparison than, my $60 sprint $50 plan.

So...one week in, all is well. Time will tell...but it's looking good.

Thanks,
Clem

ClemSparks wrote: So...one week in, all is well. Time will tell...but it's looking good.

Well, maybe good things do happen to good people.
If you are not happy with it you do have 30 days to return the handset but you get no refund on the service. At $15, even if you do think of returning it, since it has a pretty much universal micro USB charger that could be used with a different handset, you may as well just keep the whole thing. Maybe as a present, someone could get you a snazzier handset that works with that service then on the chance you ruin a handset, you will have the simpler one in a drawer. Place a quick call to the 800 number or do it online and your calls will start to come in on that older phone. Real easy. Dont miss a beat.

As for camera, 2 mega pixels is the minimum desired type camera. At less than that, your better off just not having it.

JohnRW1621 wrote: Okay, let me clarify. If you buy one of the Android handsets that Straight Talk (ST) sells then it will be a CDMA handset designed only to work on Sprint's towers. If you buy an used, unlocked GSM Android handset and then buy ST's SIM card to put in that Android you will have the big coverage which is AT&T $14.99 for the SIM card and $45 per month for the service. http://www.shopstraighttalk.com/bpdirect/straighttalk/PhoneDetails.do?action=view&productVariantExtensionId=17638938

are you sure it is ATT?... I only ask because http://www.straighttalksim.com/ talks about "Bring your T-Mobile compatible 4G phone and keep your 4G service" which would seem to indicate it uses the tmobile network?

From the website:

"Bring an AT&T or T-mobile compatible GSM phone, or an unlocked GSM phone make sure it operates on our compatible frequencies"

JohnRW1621 wrote: Well, maybe good things do happen to good people. If you are not happy with it you do have 30 days to return the handset but you get no refund on the service. At $15, even if you do think of returning it, since it has a pretty much universal micro USB charger that could be used with a different handset, you may as well just keep the whole thing. Maybe as a present, someone could get you a snazzier handset that works with that service then on the chance you ruin a handset, you will have the simpler one in a drawer. Place a quick call to the 800 number or do it online and your calls will start to come in on that older phone. Real easy. Dont miss a beat. As for camera, 2 mega pixels is the minimum desired type camera. At less than that, your better off just not having it.

I'm quite happy with the phone (for $15) so far. I have no use for a camera...I was actually impressed that it doesn't have one.

If this phone breaks, spends the night in the river, gets stuffed full of pocket lint, etc...I'll just order up another one. And yes, I love the fact that I can spend $15 or so and have a back up phone for when the inevitable "Hey hold my beer (but not my phone) and watch this!" moment occurs and leaves me wanting.

This isn't the right plan for everyone...but it fits my needs nicely so far. Others may find other plans meet their needs more appropriately.

And if/when I'm ready to step up to modern phones with internets and such...I can just spend a little more (still less than I was on a contract) and have that.

Clem

Rusted_Busted_Spit wrote: From the website: "Bring an AT&T or T-mobile compatible GSM phone, or an unlocked GSM phone make sure it operates on our compatible frequencies"

ya thats because they run on the same basic GSM network... but when you get into the 4g side of things ATT and Tmobile are slightly different so ATT 4g phones don't work with tmobile 4g network or vice versa...

maybe they work on both att and tmobiles 3g/edge network but was only able to work out a deal with tmobile for their 4g?...

just wondering... around here tmobile is at least a bit better then att... and I like my att phone... so I might try it out when my contract is up

In reply to donalson:

Oh, well in that case I have no idea. The only smartphone I have is my work BB that I can not download anything to.

Here is what I wrote in a previous thread on this topic

jrw1621 wrote: Straight Talk, which is a brand of TracPhone uses either T-Mobile or ATT; whichever benefits TracPhone (for GSM services.) You have no input into which is chosen. It could be one for 6 months and then the other after that. It tends to vary by call as well. My guess is that you will get T-mobile in the heavy urban areas and ATT in the rural areas that T-Mo does not support. In reality, your calls and data will go through and all should work fine. The management of sending the calls over the lowest cost is much of what makes TracPhone profitable. The parent company of TracPhone (Straight Talk) is América Móvil of Mexico. The "owner" of the company (and more), Carlos Slim, is well known for often being the richest man in THE WORLD http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Slim

In addition, it seems that if you bring an AT&T 4G style handset to ST, you will only get 3G services.
If you bring a T-Mobile 4G style handset then you can get 4G services via T-Mo but only where T-Mo has 4G capability.
As mentioned by Donaldson, this is likely due to AT&T and ST working out a favorable pricing. The reality is that the big carriers have to keep something as "contract only" to still lure customers in.

Other option:
Simple Mobile
A reseller of T-Mobile services.

I've enjoyed my AT&T Prepaid Plan.  I pay a yearly fee to get it to 25/month for 4gb and unlimited talk/text.  

This zombie canoe thread is from 2012 or nearly 10 years ago. Proceed with caution.