Need a cell phone plan (any carrier, no frills)

[rippsnorter]

I've been a big fan of slickdeals for years, (recommend it to all of my friends, peruse it daily) but I've never registered 'til now

I need a cell plan. I don't do much except talk on it. I don't even do texting. No web browsing, no fancy phone, I just use it to make phone calls.

Right now I have AT&T, (contract expired so I can move to another carrier whenever I want) with 550 shared minutes between 2 phones, and we never go over. We have so many roll over minutes they just keep expiring.

The problem is that AT&T's bill is around $77 a month, even though it's only supposed to be $49 a month. The rest is "fees and taxes" they say.

We both desperately need new phones as ours are finally dying, so we figured now was a good time to get a new plan.

AT&T seems to get the best signal out here in the PacificNW boonies, but I need something cheaper. Even another carrier is fine.

Help?

[Jeadie128]

I've been a big fan of slickdeals for years, (recommend it to all of my friends, peruse it daily) but I've never registered 'til now

I need a cell plan. I don't do much except talk on it. I don't even do texting. No web browsing, no fancy phone, I just use it to make phone calls.

Right now I have AT&T, (contract expired so I can move to another carrier whenever I want) with 550 shared minutes between 2 phones, and we never go over. We have so many roll over minutes they just keep expiring.

The problem is that AT&T's bill is around $77 a month, even though it's only supposed to be $49 a month. The rest is "fees and taxes" they say.

We both desperately need new phones as ours are finally dying, so we figured now was a good time to get a new plan.

AT&T seems to get the best signal out here in the PacificNW boonies, but I need something cheaper. Even another carrier is fine.

Help?

My son uses Boost Mobile. You have to buy a phone. Some are as low as $50. They have an unlimited calls and text messages plan for $50 per month plus tax. His comes to less than $55 per month.

[RUsum1]

you need to do some more research on your bill i think. there is no way that a $50 per month plan incurs $27 of taxes each month. somehow you're being charged more than you're supposed to or you have features that you're paying for and are unaware of it. is the plan $50 per month plus $10 for the extra line? this could be part of it but then you're still paying $17 in taxes and fees which seems way too high. look thoroughly through your bills to get to the bottom of this.

if you really talk on your cell phone as little as you claim, look for the deals on here for t-mobile prepaid phones. they usually involve cashback and stuff and get you cards for 1000 minutes or something. sounds to me like this may be the best option for you. no contracts, no frills. i don't know if you would be able to port your old phone number to a prepaid line, but if you can, be sure to leave your at&t plan open until you do the port. i don't think they can port after you cancel.

of course you can probably get pre paid plans from at&t (or any carrier for that matter). i think they even do bing cashback if you order online but am not certain of this. i only mentioned t-mobile because i see the most deals for pre-paid from t-mobile.

[stufine]

i agree.. lets see a break down of the charges. seem about right for a 2 line shared plan tho. thought about the boost mobile myself. now that sprint/nextel came out with their new plan im waiting to see who does what.

[tnh]

I've been a big fan of slickdeals for years, (recommend it to all of my friends, peruse it daily) but I've never registered 'til now

I need a cell plan. I don't do much except talk on it. I don't even do texting. No web browsing, no fancy phone, I just use it to make phone calls.

Right now I have AT&T, (contract expired so I can move to another carrier whenever I want) with 550 shared minutes between 2 phones, and we never go over. We have so many roll over minutes they just keep expiring.

The problem is that AT&T's bill is around $77 a month, even though it's only supposed to be $49 a month. The rest is "fees and taxes" they say.

We both desperately need new phones as ours are finally dying, so we figured now was a good time to get a new plan.

AT&T seems to get the best signal out here in the PacificNW boonies, but I need something cheaper. Even another carrier is fine.

Help?

well boost or cricket would be at least 55 a phone = 110, your paying 77 for 2 phones i wouldnt be complaining about that. about 38.50 per phone is a pretty good deal. Are u happy with AT&T service?

[rippsnorter]

Thanks for the replies, they're much appreciated.

I think I was wrong, I think it is indeed $50, plus 10 for another phone, and then the other $17 are fees etc.

I don't have the bill in front of me, but every month they have around $8 worth of charges that aren't explained. I believe data comes out of there, but we don't even text except at the most 3 a month, so that is about $1.20. The rest is undefined, I've called them about it before and pretty much gotten a vague "its part of the fees and the rest is data" type thing.

I'm mediocre on AT&T's service. The coverage is good out here in the woods, I don't get any (or many) dropped calls, but their customer service sucks and our phones do weird things at times.

Both of us will get calls every few days that show up as no number (not private, just no number) when I answer, theres no one there, no breathing, nothing, but I finally hear a click of someone hanging up. AT&T says this is a glitch in their network, and it shows up on the bill as my own number calling me.

AT&T has repeatedly told us that even if we just get a new plan (with a free phone as opposed to just renewing our current one) we will lose our phone numbers and there is NO way to port them over. They've also said it's impossible to port my phone number over to another carrier.

My girlfriend's voicemail has completely stopped working. If you call her, it redirects you to your own voicemail box instead. We've been fighting with them for about 6 months to fix it.

Not at all happy with their customer service.

We've been looking at Tracfone and some of the others you guys have mentioned, I think they would be a little cheaper as little as we use the phone.

[RUsum1]

it's impossible to port a number? that i've never heard of. what i did was when i switched from verizon to sprint was tell sprint that i want to port my old phone number. they ask what the other carrier is and what the number is then they do the calling. the process takes something like 24-48 hours and then they walk you through what you have to do on your phone to finalize it. if you stay with at&t you should just be able to change your plan and keep the numbers rather than signing up for a new account.

don't settle for their "it's data" for the other charges. demand that they get specific because that's robbery. your taxes should be at MOST $10 per month (assuming it's $5 per line but i think they charge per account) and that's pretty high. i got around $6 of taxes/fees on my $45 line from verizon and get about $3 taxes/fees from sprint on my $30 line. girlfriend gets about $5 taxes/fees from t-mobile on her $45 line so i'm pretty sure a $50 or $60 line doesn't incur $17 taxes/fees.

do you ever accidentally open up the internet on your phone? maybe you're not sure that you're doing it. sometimes carriers charge you $1.99 (maybe $0.99) per megabyte of usage for each session. if you accidentally open this up three or four times per month, that could be part of the data charges. if this is the case, you can request that they block this feature on your account. i had that done on my verizon plan because i knew i would never want to use that function and didn't want the accidental charges.

if they give you the same line of lies, ask for their name and operator id then ask to speak to a supervisor because they are giving you the run-around it seems.

[tnh]

I don't have the bill in front of me, but every month they have around $8 worth of charges that aren't explained. I believe data comes out of there, but we don't even text except at the most 3 a month, so that is about $1.20. The rest is undefined, I've called them about it before and pretty much gotten a vague "its part of the fees and the rest is data" type thing.

from what i gather you are talking about taxes or surcharges..they are extra and you can find out what each one is with a little googling..

Both of us will get calls every few days that show up as no number (not private, just no number) when I answer, theres no one there, no breathing, nothing, but I finally hear a click of someone hanging up. AT&T says this is a glitch in their network, and it shows up on the bill as my own number calling me.

thats weird, did they submit trouble tickets?

AT&T has repeatedly told us that even if we just get a new plan (with a free phone as opposed to just renewing our current one) we will lose our phone numbers and there is NO way to port them over. They've also said it's impossible to port my phone number over to another carrier.

that is completely wrong, i have no idea why anybody would have said that. You can definitely port your number to another company just ask the new company about it and they will do it for you. and you shouldnt have to change your number to switch rate plans. I would call into them and speak with a MGR and outline the issues you are having. They usually have very good customer service and will give u courtesy credits to help ya out.

If you switch u will definitely pay more than 77 for two phones. you will prolly pay around 77 for one phone. Stay away from tracfone as well, if u want customer service that is..lol

[Stevem319]

It depends on the minutes you use really.

I have a net10 phone.. 10 cents per minute. i paid $49 for the phone with bluetooth.
but there is no voice dialing :(

So just get the cheapest $20 phone. and I automatically re-up 150 minutes a month for $15

Cancel anytime you want, The downfall is if you dont re-up you lose your rollover minutes. I have 800 minutes rolled over.

you can port your number to them also. tracfone and net10 are the same company so you can interuse the sim cards. a net10 sim on a tracfone phone and vice versa.

net10 is also giving 300 minutes free when you buy their phone

Also they use either t-mobiles network or cingulars network, depends on your area

[radford]

Thanks for the replies, they're much appreciated.

I think I was wrong, I think it is indeed $50, plus 10 for another phone, and then the other $17 are fees etc.



If you dont use your phone a lot and just want really basic service , no data etc. then I dont think you can get lower than a prepaid deal.

With the Tmobile deal you will have to pay a lot upfront though but it will come out to a very low number per month. The main problem with prepaid deals is the expiration of minutes. Its always a balance between getting the lowest cost for a certain amount of minutes that dont expire for the longest length of time.

With Tmobile you can get a 1000 min card for a year which should be adequate and any cards you buy in that year also last for the year I think and you also get a bit of a bonus over the face amount of minites after buying a 1000 min card and adding other cards. They were selling the 100 buck card for 78 or so after Bing CB 35% plus shipping costs.

You can get a phone as low as 20 bucks or lower with Bing cashback. A little while ago there was a free deal and recently the Nokia was 16 bucks I think after CB.

So you can end up with a cost of 7-8 bucks a month for 1000+ min for a year. Thats 83.3 min a month minimum for the year and any unused minutes last the whole year.

The problem is you need two phones so you would have to get two, costing you maybe 16-17 bucks month for two Tmobile deals if you can get the CB 35%.

16-17 is way lower than 77 or even 50.

The other problem is Tmobile has a very limted selection of prepaid phones offered. They dont even have the Nokia 3555 in stock nowadays. If you dont mind the phones they have, then you have no problem. If you do, you could get an unlocked phone from another source and buy a sim card from Tmobile which range from 25-100 for a Motorola 370 to older Rzrs all the way to much more expensive stuff but that would double the cost if you get a 100+ phone.

Im still using a really basic Motorola 375 I got for 20 and I thought wow, it would be really snazzy getting a newer version of a Rzr someday. However I then read some articles recently about how ancient and outdated those are now, ha. People are running around with $300-$500 smartphones and other snazzy touch screen units. Im so out of it --- I didnt even know how out of it I was.

[tnh]

prepaid sucks! you will stress about going over minutes and its a pain in the arse to deal with. I would suggest you stay with a real plan, but that's just my opinion

[Bardnois]

Prepaid is great!! Get an unlimited plan and there is no "going over minutes". Even better, if you're on a prepaid service for a while and decide you don't like it, IT'S FREE TO QUIT! No ETF headaches to worry about. Personally, I will never, ever have a contract plan again.
It will be extremely hard for you to find a plan for two phones that will total less than $77 a month, but you are more likely to find it with prepaids than contract plans. As you have learned, the price you are quoted for your contract plan and the actual amount you get billed for are two very different things.
I'm on Page Plus now and it is absolutely great. For less than $40 dollars a month I get unlimited talk, text and 20 mb of data (that I rarely use but it's nice to have). Understand that, unlike your contract plan, that advertised $39.95 unlimited plan from Page Plus is the TOTAL PRICE. There are no other fees, taxes, hidden costs, etc. The most you'll have to pay is $39.95 BUT most of the online dealers offer discounts so you will typically wind up paying closer to $35 a month. As far as phones go, you'll have to buy one but any phone that works on Verizon will work on Page Plus. I've got a Motorola Q9M at the moment. You can find some good phone deals on eBay.

Page Plus and Boost Mobile are both good choices, but Page Plus is $20 cheaper a month. If you just want talk and no text or data, TMobile's prepaid works out to be the cheapest per minute. Just spend enough to get their Gold Program or whatever they call it (I think it's $100). That will get you minutes for around .06 last I heard and they don't expire for a year.
You'll need to check your coverage area to see what's the best for you. Page Plus operates on Verizon's prepaid network and Boost is on Nextel's. Also, check out howardforums.com and prepaidreviews.com. Lots of information there.

[ENFerrari]

You could get these 2 tmobile plans:
1000 mins, Mobile-to-Mobile (Free calling to all tmobile customets), Unlimited Night at 7:00 and Weekends, and My Faves (Free calling to 5 people on any network.) --- $60 a month for two lines.
If you are worried about the taxes, I have 3 phones on that plan and my bill is $75/month.
Or you can go to the 600 mins plan for $10 less a month.
You must call them to get this offer.

[I Love A Deal]

With a AAA membership, you can also get a 12% reduction in the cost of your monthly fee on TMobile. You just need to have a contract or sign up for a contract. Look for the post about AAA membership benefits here on SD and you will find more information there.

Just make sure that you block text messages or they will make you responsible for any that you get, even spam.

And if you periodically go over your minutes, call in and explain the circumstances. They are pretty good about giving you bonus minutes if you have been with them for a while.

Also, you don't have to buy the phone from them. If you do, 2 year contract. If you can get your phone elsewhere only one year contract.

[MickeyC]

I have been using AT&T (Cingular) for the past 10 years, but just switched to Net10.
The 10 cents/min is a lot cheaper - I get a 300min refill every two months.
Great reception all across the southeast and Texas.

My wife has been on Net10 for 3 years. She gets the 2000 min/ 1 year refill.

[jonathag]

Prepaid is great!! Get an unlimited plan and there is no "going over minutes". Even better, if you're on a prepaid service for a while and decide you don't like it, IT'S FREE TO QUIT! No ETF headaches to worry about. Personally, I will never, ever have a contract plan again.
It will be extremely hard for you to find a plan for two phones that will total less than $77 a month, but you are more likely to find it with prepaids than contract plans. As you have learned, the price you are quoted for your contract plan and the actual amount you get billed for are two very different things.
I'm on Page Plus now and it is absolutely great. For less than $40 dollars a month I get unlimited talk, text and 20 mb of data (that I rarely use but it's nice to have). Understand that, unlike your contract plan, that advertised $39.95 unlimited plan from Page Plus is the TOTAL PRICE. There are no other fees, taxes, hidden costs, etc. The most you'll have to pay is $39.95 BUT most of the online dealers offer discounts so you will typically wind up paying closer to $35 a month. As far as phones go, you'll have to buy one but any phone that works on Verizon will work on Page Plus. I've got a Motorola Q9M at the moment. You can find some good phone deals on eBay.

Page Plus and Boost Mobile are both good choices, but Page Plus is $20 cheaper a month. If you just want talk and no text or data, TMobile's prepaid works out to be the cheapest per minute. Just spend enough to get their Gold Program or whatever they call it (I think it's $100). That will get you minutes for around .06 last I heard and they don't expire for a year.
You'll need to check your coverage area to see what's the best for you. Page Plus operates on Verizon's prepaid network and Boost is on Nextel's. Also, check out howardforums.com and prepaidreviews.com. Lots of information there.



Big rep to you! Thanks for the page plus tip! I just got a new job and my new employer gave me a new at&t phone so we were getting ready to have to get my wife a new cell plan. We're on verizon now and it sounds like page plus is the perfect answer for us! Thanks!

[nahdogg]

If you dont use your phone a lot and just want really basic service , no data etc. then I dont think you can get lower than a prepaid deal.

With the Tmobile deal you will have to pay a lot upfront though but it will come out to a very low number per month. The main problem with prepaid deals is the expiration of minutes. Its always a balance between getting the lowest cost for a certain amount of minutes that dont expire for the longest length of time.

With Tmobile you can get a 1000 min card for a year which should be adequate and any cards you buy in that year also last for the year I think and you also get a bit of a bonus over the face amount of minites after buying a 1000 min card and adding other cards. They were selling the 100 buck card for 78 or so after Bing CB 35% plus shipping costs.

You can get a phone as low as 20 bucks or lower with Bing cashback. A little while ago there was a free deal and recently the Nokia was 16 bucks I think after CB.

So you can end up with a cost of 7-8 bucks a month for 1000+ min for a year. Thats 83.3 min a month minimum for the year and any unused minutes last the whole year.

The problem is you need two phones so you would have to get two, costing you maybe 16-17 bucks month for two Tmobile deals if you can get the CB 35%.

16-17 is way lower than 77 or even 50.

The other problem is Tmobile has a very limted selection of prepaid phones offered. They dont even have the Nokia 3555 in stock nowadays. If you dont mind the phones they have, then you have no problem. If you do, you could get an unlocked phone from another source and buy a sim card from Tmobile which range from 25-100 for a Motorola 370 to older Rzrs all the way to much more expensive stuff but that would double the cost if you get a 100+ phone.

Im still using a really basic Motorola 375 I got for 20 and I thought wow, it would be really snazzy getting a newer version of a Rzr someday. However I then read some articles recently about how ancient and outdated those are now, ha. People are running around with $300-$500 smartphones and other snazzy touch screen units. Im so out of it --- I didnt even know how out of it I was.

I agree with this post. T-Mobile Prepaid is money if you are a light talker. 90 min/month for about 8$/month if you do the 100$ card. My wife talks more than I do so I buy her 180/min per month and we're still paying less than the 400$ per year for just her line under previous contract and we have 2 phones now. I'm entering month 12 of my first year on prepaid and have just enough minutes left. This time I renewed using the 35% Bing Cashback. I'll be doing that from now on.

[jwally063]

I have AT+T since january 2007 with three phones (I pay $78 includes tax with a job discount of about 18%) ($50+$10+$10+tax) good price and rollover minutes but whats the sense when you can't talk because of poor reception in the NorthEast and don't use much minutes, probably would use it more if reception was better,AT+T poor reception and sends you refurb crap phones when under warranty. looking for prepaid
I have the Razor's I think V1 or V2 and a Sony erickson like to use the phones with a prepaid,guessing the only one might be AT+T but really like to get rid of them.

[mkoyle]

I know everyone is saying taxes can't be that much, but if your state, county, and city all get in on it, they can start to really add up. It could be taxes and mandatory fees... of course it could also be AT&T being sneaky.