Cell phones....to contract or not...

[Schmoe]

Got to move up in the world. I have two Samsung M-500's that are just that, telephone use only. No text, email, web, etc. etc. Wife has been nagging me to move up to smartphones but with her back in school and not working, not looking forward to paying around 130-ish a month (Sprint) for two smartphones when I'm currently paying about 65 a month for both of ours.
Anyway, been reading on the advantages/disadvantages of cell phone contracts, specifically Boost Mobile, which is owned by Sprint. Is it cheaper, service wise, and still get all the bells and whistles? I know I'll have to pay a larger up front costs, but within a year, from what all I read, it would be cheaper to go with a no contract cell service. I'm really confused.

 

[Bill in Utah]

I've got 3 phones (Android) on Virgin Mobile and 1 "normal" phone on Net10.

Love all of them as far as coverage (where they do have it) and I've been all over the USA. The 3G on the Virgin Mobile phones work great and I like the phones (2 Samsung and 1 Motorola) with the Android system.

VM does operate on Sprint network and is owned by them. Boost does have the program that does lower the monthly rate after 6,12,18 months and I like that. Right now I'm paying $25 per phone for unlimited data, texts and 300 minutes (which we hardly use) and $15 for the Net10 which costs 10 cents a minute and 3 cents per text. Right now its working well for my youngest Daughter but I can see that I will be moving her to a Android phone sooner than later.

I've never had a contract phone and never will. With Smart talk, Boost and VM they cover whatever I will ever use for a reasonable cost. Love that $25 is $25 and $15 is $15. No fed taxes, no fees added on. No roaming charges. No long distance charges and so on.

Bill

 

[azjake]

We've had a prepaid cell phone from T-Mobile for several years now. After you spend $100 in prepaid cards it's only 10 cents a minute and your minutes last for a year. We only use it for calls when we're traveling or out and about so most months it's costing us less than $10.

 

[crw]

I have a family plan contract with five phones, and a monthly bill runs about $125. But the key is, unlimited text. My kids use text out the wazoo,... and hardly talk on the phone. I suppose it's nearly a wash compared to the Virgin Mobile numbers above. I might have to look into that.

Ah... update. I think the VM rate for unlimited data is now $35. Those who got in early can be grandfather'ed at the $25 rate. Bill, don't miss a payment!

 

[scurvy]

I just switched my unlocked, out of contract T-Mobile MyTouch 3G (HTC Magic) over to Straight Talk. $45/month, unlimited everything - it's a solid $30 less per month than T-Mobile with no contract or extra fees. So far so good.

IMO there's little reason to have a contract these days with a smartphone.

 

[rshaw125]

Pageplus. $29.95 a month.1200 minutes. 3000 texts, 100 mb data.

Pay your bill through ebay and save the tax.

I never come close in using all my allowance.

Unlimited is $39.95 a month. Runs on Verizon.

 

[frank2009]

Another vote for page plus. Get page plus through kitty wireless.com and you get the same price as page plus and great customer service. Hopefully one of the plans fit your usage. A possible downside is you do need to buy a phone.

 

[opus1]

Long story short, you'll get most of the bells and a whistle or two. I'm on Virgin Mobile, actually have 2 phones; one is a straight phone, no data and I'm thrilled with it. The other is the Optimus V and I'm OK with it. The phone has issues with mandatory bloatware from VM that uses up your internal memory, and when you hit about 20Mb left, you start getting low memory messages -- and you can't send or receive texts. And you'll get the message when you do things like try to download software updates. I also have frustrations where people around me using full-price phones have 3G coverage and I don't. Truth be told, nothing I do on the phone is mission-critical so I live with it and pocket the savings. If you can do the same, go for it.

Like I said somewhere else, though, you get what you pay for, and not much more.

 

[DrinkDuff77]

Wife and I are on Page Plus and could not be happier. There is a learning curve when switching but once you get use to all the rules it's great. It costs me $25 every 4 months for my phone and $29.95 per month for my wife. She has an android smartphone and if she watches her 3g usage, 100 MB is enough for her.

 

[Schmoe]

Haven't heard of pageplus around these parts. I have learned that you don't get all the stuff on a phone that a contracted offer may have. But, it's not enough to sway me to jump over to a contract.