Cheap No Contract phone wanted... Sick of it.

[brages]

Another Pageplus vote.

I bought an old Verizon Moto Razr flip phone from a local cell shop for ~$20 and put it on Pageplus. It's our kids' phone and also we use it for trips where T-Mobile coverage is spotty.

Very good coverage, low price.

 

[ARCOgraphite]

I use net10. Good customer service - Net10 will send you a sim card quickly for free for most "kicked to the curb" out of contract phones that will work on their network.
I have but a cheap, tiny,simple, reliable, pocketable LG flip phone that was free. 300mins/2 month card cost 30 bucks iirc available at most drugstores and wallymart, etc. All minutes roll over. Maybe a child's entry smart phone would be OK - that way you could have a built in MP3 player for music or books on "tape" with Bluetooth connectivity and a handy camera for those candid oilcan deal shots for a mere 19 bucks:

 

[zrxkawboy]

Another satisfied Tracfone user here.

 

[yesthatsteve]

Figure out which of the major carriers has the best coverage where you need it, and then find the prepaid re-seller of that service whose price, phones, and terms best fit your needs. Some re-sellers offer more than one carrier's service. For example, Tracfone uses T-Mobile, AT&T, or Verizon, depending on the phone you use.

There are so many re-sellers competing for business that you can find a good deal. Howardforums is the big cell phone community online. You should be able to find lots of good help there, as well.

 

[mikefxu]

Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
I use net10. Good customer service

We have 13 lines with Net10, good customer service and Net10 are two words that don't go together. Check howardforums.com and their own facebook page for descriptions of "good" customer service.

We needed a Verizon carrier for a little over a year using iPhones. Net10 was the best deal at the time, then weeks later Page Plus went from 500mb to 1gb.

The actual cell service is fine it the customer service that is atrocious.

 

[ARCOgraphite]

MY personal net10 experience has been good. That's all I can report.

13 lines? Is this a business? If personal home use, I could understand the confusion

 

[ClutchDisc]

Tracfone. I've had it for over a month now and it has been great. I have the triple minutes for life phone, so minutes end up being pretty cheap! Mine runs off of AT&T towers, and has great service coverage.

 

[datech]

yeah, i have a tracfone and it seems basically pretty good. I read it can use a variety of different cell networks, depending on where you are. I can't recall on my recent trip anywhere I lost coverage.

I had a virgin mobile, but it used only Sprint cell towers, and I think the coverage with tracfone has been better.

I have heard people complain about tracfone as well, so YMMV.

 

[mikefxu]

Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
MY personal net10 experience has been good. That's all I can report.

13 lines? Is this a business? If personal home use, I could understand the confusion

Business...13 times the fun. They even lost one of our numbers and left us with a phone that they failed to deactivate properly and was unusable for months until their system deactivated it on its own.

 

[JGmazda]

Wow... Thank you everyone for all the great advice. Lots of great suggestions and I hope to have more time this weekend to do some research.

As many have noted, my needs are fairly simple. I'm not afraid of technology... I've had all sorts of experience with building computers and installing software.

I do like to keep things "simple". I like the idea of of having an Android phone with the option of texting and web access.

I just am not one of those people who are glued to their phone all day. (We all know that person, right?)

Thank you!

 

[ClutchDisc]

If you want simple phone yet would like the option of texting and web access, check out the LG 840g and LG 306g from Tracfone. Both are very nice triple minutes for life phones. They are not smart phones, but they can do a lot. I've had the LG 840g for a little over a month and I love it.

Edit: Yes I know what you mean about the person who is glued to their phone all day... I find it ridiculous. I don't use my phone very much, and I'm glad my life isn't that boring that I would need to live 24/7 on my phone. That would be an awful life.

 

[supton]

Longtime Tracfone user. I read horror stories about their CS but I've always figured I could just toss it if I got fed up with CS. Which I've never had a problem with. Had an LG501C for several years, I thought it worked well for a dumbphone, I kinda miss the keypad for sending text messages actually. I did upgrade to an LG39C, I think they stopped selling it. But for $90 I got a GPS that I can use for hiking. Battery life is atrocious though--the dumbphone would go for a couple of weeks between charges, this new phone with everything but phone turned off is maybe two days.

I still like the phone though, despite the horrible battery life and the itty-bitty keyboard. I can turn on the WiFi and connect to a network and get my email; or perhaps use it in a store and look something up (haven't done that yet but expect to sometime). Take a photo and store it for later. All the usual stuff. But it won't replace my iPad mini though.

Wife has PagePlus and likes it. I pay a couple bucks more for mine but it's not worth it for me to change over it yet.

 

[Mykl]

T-Mobile

Nokia Lumia 521, $64 on Amazon

I've had this combo for about a year now and it has been perfectly adequate. If you find that you need more horsepower use the *free* Wifi hotspot functionality of the phone and connect a tablet to it.

 

[Jim K]

Page Plus $12 plan at 250 minutes 250 texts and 10 mb data per month on auto-pay with Kitty Wireless. NOTHING compares in value for a not too heavy user. Kitty Wireless is soon to launch another plan that is 300 minutes, 300 texts, and 30mb data at $12 per month. These blow away anything you get from Trac phone Net 10 or any other plan . And by the way these are on Verizon network.

 

[Rand]

IF sprint has decent service you might consider TING or Republic wireless.

they spend billions recently upgrading their network so its much better than it was even a year ago.

my ting bill is 45$ for 2 smartphones with 500m/1000txt/1gb data(combined)

you pay for what you use in a tiered system.+6$ per device.

republic wireless is 10$ unlimited talk/text, 25$ unlimited talk,text,3g data, 40$ includes unlimited 4g data(if you regularly use over 5GB they will eventually throttle you iirc)


I've considered going to republic wireless, with unlimited 3g for ~~56$/2phones

Ting is a good price if you need less than 500MB data, if you go over the 1GB bucket you have to pay for 2GB!@29$

Ting rates https://ting.com/rates

 

[kozanoglu]

Amazon sells BLU phones. Smart windows 8.1 unlocked AND dual SIM phones for $174. Not bound by a contract or an operator you are free to port anytime you want between att, tmobile and their MVNOs. Or have 2 operators at the same time with 2 different phone numbers with one phone since it has dual sim ports.

Tmobile has a cheap 30 dollar a month plan that gives 100 mins and 5 gb of lte data. Extra mins are 10 cents,

Straighttalk has 30 dollars a month plan that gives you unlimited talk and text.

 

[Vikas]

Can somebody confirm or deny if Nokia Lumia 630 will work in India and Jamaica? It is a quad band phone but needs personal testimonials from users.

 

[kozanoglu]

Originally Posted By: Vikas
Can somebody confirm or deny if Nokia Lumia 630 will work in India and Jamaica? It is a quad band phone but needs personal testimonials from users.


http://www.gsmarena.com/network-bands.php3?sCountry=INDIA

If Nokia Lumia 630 has these bands it will. I have no personal experience in those countries but in Europe I used Nokia n8, e71, lumia 925, xperia z1 compact with no problem , both talk and fast data.

Phones have versions with different bands. Same phone in the US might not have the same bands when it is sold in another country. Pentaband phones better. Even then lte/4 g bands are different in different countries. You might get 3 g but not lte fır example.

 

[ToyotaNSaturn]

Another vote for Ting, especially if you're not using data. You'll be pleasantly surprised at how low the bills are, no contracts.

Pick your device (or bring your own) from here https://ting.com/shop

Then add phones on to your plan, pooled usage...so each phone doesn't rack up another set of "$40 per month charges", only $6 per month per phone, billed at the end of the month (no stupid cards to refill or any of that), then your pooled usage.

Put as many phones on the plan as you'd like.

That's it. My Ting bill was $17 with taxes last month for my iPhone.

A friend of mine has his two daughters and himself with iPhones, total bill was $55.

Ting is the real deal

 

[Cujet]

Originally Posted By: JGmazda
Whatever happened to the days where a phone was "just" a phone? Honestly, life was so much simpler (And cheaper) thirty years ago!


Nope, AT+T was just fine with charging me 17c per minute on my landline, long distance. Sometimes as much as 30c per minute "peak".

Adjusted for inflation, That's 70 cents per minute! Things were not necessarily cheaper.