No Contract Cell Phones / Provider Feedback

[Butter]

Anyone here have experience with any of the no contract cell phone providers?

Here's my situation:

End of February, our contract is up with Verizon. We want to switch to something cheaper. Even though I know most if not all of the no contract providers use something other than Verizon's top-notch network, I still am looking to save money. Current phone bill is about $220 / month, we are still grandfathered in under the old unlimited data plan, but I know the writing is on the wall for that.

Right now, I have a wife and 2 boys, 13 and 11. My wife and I are not super huge tech people, we would like a solid phone that works well but it doesn't have to be an iPhone or even top of the line. My wife has a Droid Charge that is showing its age, and I have a Droid 4 that has also probably outlived its usefulness. The boys have flip phones right now, and don't even need a smartphone at their age just yet... am really looking to get phones for them that would be less than $100 and they would do minimal web-surfing. My wife and I probably use 1-2 GB of data each per month, but could probably cut some of that by using our home network. I would like something that has unlimited data on principle, but mainly for she and I. I know we are looking at some amount of throttling, but would prefer it to be as minimal as we can.

I've been poking around, and there are way more no contract providers than I originally thought and it's hard to settle on one, so I am coming here to see if anybody has experiences they can share, and/or any deals that they are aware of either on service or on phones.

Having no experience with either T-Mobile or Sprint in the Dayton / Cincinnati area, I have no idea what I am in for as far as a drop in cell phone service quality either. So maybe that is something I need to consider a bit more as well.

Any guidance or discussion would be most helpful to me. Thanks!

[gstelmack]

Several years ago my wife and I were on Virgin Mobile and very happy. We had to switch to Verizon because work cut costs by putting landlines in team rooms rather than at every desk, and our work building was in a bad spot for nearly every provider BUT Verizon (with kids, we needed reliable phones). If it weren't for that, we'd probably still be on them.

[samifan24]

I'd check out Howard Forums for feedback on the prepaid MVNOs too.

[Klinglerware]

There is a dizzying array of pre-paid and MVNO companies out there, with multiple plan offerings. A few random thoughts:

1. You can go with a pre-paid, no-contract plan where you spend a set amount per month for a monthly allotment of minutes/texts/data GBs. You can find a provider with a plan that fits your needs (up to and including "monthly unlimited" plans). Alternatively, some offer true "pay as you go", where you pay for only what you use.

2. Monthly pre-paid is better for users who will use wireless services heavily but are looking for a better deal or wish to be free from a contract. Pay as you go is great for people who don't intend to use it much (e.g., as a back-up or emergency phone).

3. Don't ignore the major carriers' pre-paid offerings. It might work for you. Also, keep in mind that T-mobile is essentially no-contract now, with both pre-paid and post-paid

4. If you like Verizon, check out the offerings of MVNOs that use Verizon as their underlying network

5. Do your research comparing the companies and their base offerings. A couple of links I found helpful are:
Prepaid Compare
Updated - The Best U.S. Prepaid Voice and Text Deals | Prepaid Phone News

6. Once you have figured out what plans and pricing might work best for you, do your research (on Howard Forums, etc) on things like customer service, company stability, policy consistency, etc., to help make your decision. This can be important since some MVNOs have a terrible reputation for customer service, and several companies have gone under in recent years.

7. T-Mobile has pretty good coverage in Metro Cincinnati, especially downtown and along the I-71 and I-75 corridors. I think that the roaming agreement with Cincinnati Bell has really helped with T-mobile network reliability in recent years, though I don't have any factual evidence to prove that

8. There are some things you do give up when you go with MVNOs and even AT&T/T-Mobile pre-paids. Aside from the aforementioned instability, account policy and customer service issues for some companies, depending on the undelying network there will be some limitations placed on pre-paid customers relative to post-paid users relating to data speeds, roaming, account features such as call forwarding, etc., that will usually filter down to the MVNOs.

9. Look at your current bills and plug in the rates for the new plans you are considering. This helps to see if you are actually saving all that much, especially if you are looking at Pay as you go. Also, think about whether some of the features you use but will be losing are worth the lower cost

[CU Tiger]

If Verizon works where you are, look at Page Plus.

I have never had them, but have been researching this a bunch myself and that seem the best choicce for Verizon towers and pre paid fixed costs

[Solecismic]

I've used PagePlus for years now. I do not use my cell for regular calls - only to have something to keep in the car. PagePlus uses the Verizon network. I pay for a $10 card every 120 days. This gives me $10 at 10 cents per minute. They take 50 cents every month as an access fee. So that's essentially $30 for 240 minutes per year. It can send and receive texts, but I don't use them so I don't know what they cost. I think it has limited internet access, though I'm sure it would run through my minutes quickly. The phone cost $40 and included the first $10 card. A bit of a PITA to remember to get a $10 card - you lose your accumulated minutes and eventually your phone number if you forget. But they've always been good about this if I remember soon enough.

[sterlingice]

If someone uses someone else's network, is it literally the same access and the only difference is that you're not paying the monthly fee and 2 year contract to subsidize your phone cost?

SI

[CU Tiger]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

If someone uses someone else's network, is it literally the same access and the only difference is that you're not paying the monthly fee and 2 year contract to subsidize your phone cost?

SI

Yes.
The phones connect to the tower using the same radio waves.
The only potential issue is if a tower was full of access slots and you were connected the carrier would likely bump you if a call from a native customer came in. This is technically illegal (due to de regulation) but I'd wager it would happen. That said most towers peak around 20% of their availability these days so it's a non issue.

The page plus plan I'm looking at is 45/month for unlimited talk text and web and you can use your existing vzw device. Including iPhone. What I can't get a straight answer on is if lte is supported

[sterlingice]

I think we're coming up on a time when phone changes are starting to get more incremental (Galaxy S3->S4 or the last couple of iPhone iterations) rather than revolutionary. In the last few months, quite a few vendors have phones that are close to or on the same level as the leaders (HTC One, LG G2, Motorola Droid Maxx, Google Nexus 5) so it's no longer a one (Apple) or Two (plus Samsung) game any more. Phones seem poised to become commoditized so you could hang on for another year or two with the same phone.

Dumb question: what kind of phone do you need to get on one of these other networks? For instance, if I go ahead and get my HTC One from Sprint in the next couple of weeks, in 2 years could I leave Sprint for one of these other ones for a couple of years until I'm ready for a new phone? Or is there some process or a particular type of phone I need to "unlock" mine?

SI

[Klinglerware]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

If someone uses someone else's network, is it literally the same access and the only difference is that you're not paying the monthly fee and 2 year contract to subsidize your phone cost?

SI

More or less. But keep in mind that some network access may be prohibited or limited (e.g., roaming, MMS, call-forwarding, etc) depending on that MVNO's agreement with the underlying carrier and/or the MVNO's plan policies.

[stevew]

I've been using Consumer Cellular which is an ATT MVNO and it's pretty reasonable. 3 lines is like 90ish total after tax or so, if you use more than 2gb of data it's 15$/gb.

you really get dinged on buying the unlocked phones, some of the newer models are really getting cheaper though. The Nexus 5 is probably the best android phone and it's $350. I recently got a MotoG which is a pretty good phone for $200. I guess the biggest thing is figuring out which provider works best in your area.

For example, if you like verizon, you can move a verizon 3g phone over to Page Plus. if you have a sprint phone, you can switch it over to Ting. You can also buy a boost or virgin mobile phone which uses the sprint network. Republic Wireless offers an off contract MotoX for $300 with plans that are either 25/month or 40/month, but Sprint sucks in my area. If it didn't, IMO, republic would be the best prepaid option from what I've seen.

If I were butter, I'd probably transfer both of the kids lines over to PagePlus. I think the Droid Charge and Droid 4 are 4gLTE so you wouldn't be able to transfer those phones over. I believe they are unlocked for GSM, so in a pinch you could try out a TMo or ATT sim card. You'll need to probably replace those phones though.

I think though, if ATT or Tmo or even sprint are decent in your area you can make this cheaper for you(factoring in new phone purchases) in like 6months or so and after that you should be making out pretty well.

[Butter]

Appreciate the feedback. I think my wife and I are both about done with our phones, we would like to upgrade. I SHOULD be getting some kind of bonus around the time my contract is up (end of Feb.) which would make the new phone cost issue somewhat moot. I think we are both going to get new ones... maybe not the most brand new model, but something pretty recent (Samsung Galaxy S 3 is a front-runner). I'm not going to pay $650 for a new phone, but would likely be willing to go $300-400 each.

I saw Page Plus, but my issue there is 500 MB of data on the $40/month plan. My wife has a job that requires a lot of local travel, and she uses the GPS on her phone quite a bit to get directions / navigation to a place.

Right now, we are probably leaning towards T-Mobile or one of the Sprint MVNO's... likely Virgin Mobile.

That said, how can I tell how good the service is in an area? I know each provider has a coverage map, but is there really any way for me to tell how good their service really is in my area without relying on apocryphal stories of supposedly local users?

[stevew]

I think you're pretty much screwed on the actual evidence unless someone let's you borrow their phone. You could probably get a T-Mobile Sim and try out that service with one of your Verizon 4g phones. Those phones with a Sim card will most certainly work on GSM as long as they are 4.1 android(unsure if so). I tested out a tmo Sim and found it to be horrible, but considered it worth $40 to find out.

All the Sprint stuff is pretty much locked down. You buy a boost phone it pretty much only works on boost, etc. Deciding to go To you just gotta make sure the phone you buy has the right bands. IMO the phone with the most flexibility is probably the Nexus 5. You can run it on Ting, Sprint, Att and Tmo. Ting uses sprint. Might be worth looking into. Unsure if a Boost phone can be activated on Ting tho

[johneh]

I've used Page Plus for a year or so and I have zero problems with it.

They always send me a text message a couple days before it expires so I don't forget to renew. When it's time to renew you can buy online from callingmart or similar places with a small discount over retail and no sales tax.