A Sea Of Red

Mrs. Cider and I have used pre-paid cell phones for years, to avoid a monthly bill. Is anybody else in that boat and could recommend a prepaid cell phone company?

I use AT&T GoPhone. $45 a month ($40 if you use Autopay). No contract, so I can cancel or change plans whenever I want. Gives me unlimited minutes and texts, and starting this Friday I'll have 4GB of data (bumped up from 3GB). Rollover data as well, though unused data only rolls over for one month.

They have pay by the minute plans as well and I used to use that. Didn't have a data option when I was on that but that may have changed.

Service works really well out here in the woods in the middle of nowhere on the outskirts of Farmville, get pretty good 4G LTE speeds and calls are clear.

Cider Jim wrote:Mrs. Cider and I have used pre-paid cell phones for years, to avoid a monthly bill. Is anybody else in that boat and could recommend a prepaid cell phone company?

Anthony Weiner might

Cricket Wireless. AT&T owned, $35/month for 2.5 gigs of data or $30 for 1 gig. I like them for two reasons:
1. They have brick and mortar stores. Have a problem, take it to them (one is next to the Kroger on Timberlake)
2. What you see is what you get. Most cell phone carriers taxes/fees amount to 15%. Cricket's advertised rate is just that.

Cricket is better value but service quality isn't nearly as good. Although now with AT&T bumping the $45/40 GoPhone to 4GB of data a month Cricket really isn't actually any better of a value.

Boom! Mobile, www.boom.us, has new prepaid offerings. Current 4G unlimited talk and text plans are $19.99 (500MB), $29.99 (2GB) and $39.99 (5GB). Taxes and fees are included in that price.

Total Wireless is $35 per month with 5GB. With taxes and fees it is around $37.50 Service is excellent in this area, they are on Verizon's network.

lynchburgwildcats wrote:Cricket is better value but service quality isn't nearly as good. Although now with AT&T bumping the $45/40 GoPhone to 4GB of data a month Cricket really isn't actually any better of a value.

There isn't a difference in call quality, as they are both AT&T products, so from what I can tell it's the same service. There is a difference in the speed, as Cricket is throttled at 8mbps, and GoPhones are not. Also, I believe gophone charges taxes and fees, so there's an extra $5 (although I could be wrong on that).

That being said, yes if you need the extra 1.5 gigs of data, their $40 plan seems attractive. Similar to jumping down to Cricket's $30/month plan with 1 gig. Just depends on how much you need. $30 for 1gig, $35 for 2.5gigs, or $45ish for 4 gigs. For our family 2.5 gigs per line is the sweet spot.

SumItUp wrote:Boom! Mobile, http://www.boom.us, has new prepaid offerings. Current 4G unlimited talk and text plans are $19.99 (500MB), $29.99 (2GB) and $39.99 (5GB). Taxes and fees are included in that price.

We love Boom!

rhezick wrote:

lynchburgwildcats wrote:Cricket is better value but service quality isn't nearly as good. Although now with AT&T bumping the $45/40 GoPhone to 4GB of data a month Cricket really isn't actually any better of a value.

There isn't a difference in call quality, as they are both AT&T products, so from what I can tell it's the same service. There is a difference in the speed, as Cricket is throttled at 8mbps, and GoPhones are not. Also, I believe gophone charges taxes and fees, so there's an extra $5 (although I could be wrong on that).

That being said, yes if you need the extra 1.5 gigs of data, their $40 plan seems attractive. Similar to jumping down to Cricket's $30/month plan with 1 gig. Just depends on how much you need. $30 for 1gig, $35 for 2.5gigs, or $45ish for 4 gigs. For our family 2.5 gigs per line is the sweet spot.

The fee is like a flat 50-cent fee everytime you refill on the pay per minute plans, at least it was 50 cents when I would add $25 every 3 months because the charge would always end up beign $25.50. The $40 plan is a straight up $40, no extra taxes and fees.

I'm not sure how much a second lin is on the GoPhone plan I have. I'm single with no kids so never looked into it.

That's a pretty good deal then.

Thanks for all your input, guys. Right now, I have a Net10 flip phone that charges me 10 cents per minute and 5 cents per text. I spend $100 every 6 months to get 1500 minutes (cheaper online deal). Can anybody's company beat that on a cost per minute?

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2375644,00.asp

Maybe this will help?

I've heard good things about Straight Talk...they pair off AT&T and Verizon towers and they have 5gb for $45 and 10gb for 55. Their flip/basic phone plan is $40

flamehunter wrote:http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2375644,00.asp
Maybe this will help?

GREAT article. Thank you, FH.

I read it as well...didn't realize tracfone had so many subcarriers

Straighttalk is best phone deal out there.

ballcoach15 wrote:Straighttalk is best phone deal out there.

Total Wireless is $10 cheaper and uses same network. Only difference is limited phones. If you can live without the latest greatest phone this is the better deal.

Not overly familiar from experience with the prepaid/no contract MVNOs other than Boost Mobile, which is terrible. AT&T has been good to me for like 7 years now.

Boost is powered by Sprint (who is terrible despite what their commercials try to tell you) so that makes sense

Yep, Sprint's coverage map still says it has a strong signal where I live. The signal is actually non-existent and that is the case for a several mile radius

Just get an Obamaphone while you still can.

Small correction, there is actually a 50 cent monthly fee on that $40 AT&T GoPhone plan on mine