Using a prepaid cell as your primary phone?

[Ann.without.an.e]

Toying with the idea :) 

 

If you do this, which company do you use and do you have good coverage?

 

I would love the pros and the cons :)

 

Thanks

[PeacefulChaos]

Ok, this is going to sound stupid lol, but we have Straight Talk - is that considered a prepaid cell??  

:lol:

[NicAnn]

Ok, this is going to sound stupid lol, but we have Straight Talk - is that considered a prepaid cell??

:lol:

Exactly what I was going to say. Yes I think it is.

 

I love straight talk. I have coverage everywhere, even middle of Kansas.

[ChristyB in TN]

We switched from Verizon to Virgin several months ago. The only problem I've had is sporadic coverage and that hasn't been a huge deal. I can't talk on the phone in Publix. It as sort of made grocery shopping a pleasure. :) I pay $55 a month for unlimited call, data and texting. We had to pay full price for our phones but it was worth it to jump off the contract treadmill.

[PeacefulChaos]

Ok, well we really are happy with straight talk, too.  :)

I have it deduct the money automatically for each of our phones every month - $45 unlimited everything.  We had to buy the phones at full price, but I don't really care about my phone much so I don't have a smartphone yet.  DH got a Galaxy S3 off ebay.  I'm thinking about getting myself an iPhone once I've paid for my trip to Thailand.

Coverage is excellent.  No complaints!!

[lailasmum]

My dh has for several years but we've been finding recently that it's more expensive than a cheap contract. The signal here is the same regardless of contract or pay as you go.

[Mommyof4ks]

We use Staighttalk, and though we do have a home phone (magic jack), we mainly use our cells. We are 7 months in to our run with ST, and so far so good. We lost service for a short while on I40 in New Mexico, but there may not be any cell service there for anyone as there was nothing, not even a gas station for miles and miles. My phone was previously an AT&T phone, and it is my understanding that they run off of AT&T towers here, so it is good coverage. Sprint is the only company that has bd coverage in my area, so I know they do not run off of those towers.

[elegantlion]

I switched to Virgin Mobile a few months ago. I pay 32.25 for 1500 minutes, texts and some online time. I got a basic phone, so I don't use it for online. I've been pretty happy with it. I had a few issues receiving calls when I first got it, but it hasn't been an issue now. Not sure why. 

 

I'll be getting ds a similar plan soon. I was kind of bummed we couldn't use the smart phones we already owned, but they're not compatible. Virgin uses Sprint towers and we had good Sprint coverage before we switched. 

 

We've had only cell phones for about 4-5 years. I started the prepaid in April and it's easy. I don't do automatic draft, I just pay a few days before my billing cycle is over. They even take paypal. I do like that there aren't a huge number of fees like with a contract plan. My plan is 30.00/month and 2.25 in tax and that's it. 

[Arcadia]

We use Cingular Prepaid since 2005 as our only phones. We just get the $100 per year top up card and we don't even use up $50 worth in a year. Coverage is good in the bay area.

[mom31257]

Another Straight Talk customer here! I use the $30 plan and was able to set it up for automatic billing. I have good coverage, and my phone uses Verizon towers. When I bought my phone some used AT&T or T-Mobile. I don't know if they are all on Verizon now or not, but I would ask if purchasing one.  DH doesn't talk much at all, so he uses Tracfone because he can have a phone for a little less than $7 a month. 

 

 

[mom31257]

I forgot to put the cons...

 

I've droppped my phone a few times, so a couple of buttons are difficult to push. The phone cost is totally out of your pocket.

 

My phone has a full keyboard, but the screen to use the internet is small. It can take a long time to get through emails. If I wanted easier internet access,I'd buy a better phone for it. Those require the $45 a month plan for unlimited everything.

[Luanne]

My daughter and I both have Trac phones.  They have fairly decent coverage.  We just pay $20 for 60 minutes (and that is doubled on my phone and tripled on my daughter's). 

[lavender's green]

I have AT&T. The phone cost about $30 and I spend maybe $10 a month on minutes. Very worth it for someone who doesn't care about gadgets and generally only uses the phone to call her mom once a week or ask DH to pick up groceries on his way home! I probably look like a tech dinosaur using the thing, though! And, I get irritated when people text because each one costs money.

[ThisIsTheDay]

We dropped our house phone and tried Cricket for several months.  It was horrible.

 

We switched to StraightTalk a year ago and bought android phones.  LOVE StraightTalk.  Depending on where you live, your StraightTalk phone will use either Verizon or Sprint networks.  I have never had any trouble with coverage.

 

Both dh and I have unlimited talk, text and data at $45/month per phone.

 

I've had two times when I needed to contact customer service.  They were really quite wonderful, especially considering that it's such a cheap phone service.

 

I am old and not so bright with technology. (I can actually turn on my tv finally but I can't get to hulu by myself.)  Dumping our hardline phone was a great decision for us.  I also appreciate the fact that dd and ds have one phone service (T-Mobile), dh and I use Sprint, and we have yet a third provider for our internet.  If a disaster caused something to go down for several days, I'm confident that at least one of these would still be working.

 

The worst I can say about StraightTalk is that it sends me four texts each month regarding the autopayment.  One tells me it's almost due, one tells me it's due, one tells me it's been made, and one thanks me.

 

 

[weddell]

I use virgin mobile. They use sprint and have good coverage where we are, but I know that's not the case everywhere. I pay $35 for 300 talk minutes, unlimited texts, and unlimited data. I have a android smart phone and a google voice number (free through google). I also have an app called grooveip. That app allows me to make phone calls from my phone with my google voice number through wifi or data so that I don't use up my plan talk minutes. When I'm calling my my mom or someone I plan to talk to a while, I use that instead of my phone minutes. It's absolutely the same as making a regular phone call but it doesn't cost anything. I have an old android phone that doesn't have service and I'm going to set the same thing up on it. Then we can use it as a home phone without having phone service. It'll work perfectly as long as it is somewhere with wifi.

[tex-mex]

Used to have Verizon prepaid and the coverage (while traveling out of state) was excellent!  Now we have Virgin Mobile and it is okay, but it is a basic plan.  It will not cover really rural areas, tho' like Verizon used to.

[Dustybug]

We have done this for years.  We use Virgin Mobile and have a monthly plan with a set number of minutes but unlimited text/data.   It is FAR cheaper than any other plan we've had.  DH and I both have one.  The only issue I've had is that sometimes I don't get a good signal inside stores. 

[Dustybug]

I should have added prices.  We pay just under $100 per month for both phones.  We each get 1500 any time minutes, plus unlimited texting and data.  This is enough for us because neither of us chat on the phone much.  We typically have minutes leftover at the end of every month, but I chose to use that amount because sometimes when I call my mom I chat for longer periods of time since she is far away.

[Mergath]

We have one phone, from NET10.  We pay $25 a month for 750 minutes of talk/text/internet, which is plenty for us.  We usually have a couple hundred minutes left over each month.  I haven't had any coverage issues, though I don't go through any rural areas most of the time.

 

The only con with using any cell as your primary phone is that you have to make sure your local police department can track your address if you call 911 through a cell.  Most places can do that now, but there are still some that can't, so it's a good thing to look into.

[Amy Jo]

Straight Talk here as well - DH has $45 plan with Android phone, and I have the $30 plan with my 'dumb' phone.

 

Cons - First one is not even against Straight Talk - for some reason walmart.com stopped working with my debit card, so I have to drive to the store to get new cards. I also had 2 months where I bought a card, but somehow Straight Talk's system "lost" it saying I had no service. And I couldn't call to straighten it out until DH came home, since my phone couldn't even dial the provider. When I finally got through to customer service they were kind, and in 2 calls straightened it out. Just odd. It was last year, no problems since.

 

Pros - I *know* *exactly* what the bill is. No taxes & fees creeping up like my last provider. No late fees. No small print. It just works. I LOVE simple! And no contracts - if I don't want it, I don't have to pay. Oh, and unlike my last "real" cell phone provider, I can call my Dad without weird disconnects, failures to connect, distortion and errors.

[ThisIsTheDay]

Cons - First one is not even against Straight Talk - for some reason walmart.com stopped working with my debit card, so I have to drive to the store to get new cards. I also had 2 months where I bought a card, but somehow Straight Talk's system "lost" it saying I had no service. And I couldn't call to straighten it out until DH came home, since my phone couldn't even dial the provider. When I finally got through to customer service they were kind, and in 2 calls straightened it out. Just odd. It was last year, no problems since.

 

Just to clarify for the OP or anyone else interested, you don't have to use refill cards for StraightTalk.  Ours are on autopay and charge to our credit card each month.

 

[cuckoomamma]

We use TMobile.  We purchased the phones and a refill card.  If you put $100 on the phone, your minutes will roll over.  We add $10 a year and the minutes just keep rolling over.  Neither dh nor I use our phones often.  We also purchased a phone for dd when she turned 11 and was spending all day at a ballet intensive.  This doesn't include a data plan, just phone and texting.  We used to pay $30/month for a plan for dh and me and never used the phone.  We've saved sooooo much money this way.

[Peach]

I am switching over to prepaid after my contract is done. When prepaid first appeared, it was way more expensive than contracts. Back then Tracfone was around 50 cents a minute (eons ago). Now, so many consumers are demanding no contract phones that it's gotten cheaper. My smartphone with Verizon, with the lowest amount of minutes and 2gigs of of data, was $85 a month.$15 of that was fees and taxes which is ridiculous! I had them switch my contract back over to my older phone a year into the contract and even with a dumb phone, it's still $45 and that is with no data. The only real pro to Verizon for me at this point is that husband and most of my family are on Verizon so calls to them are free - I don't have to watch my minutes. 

[ThisIsTheDay]

The only real pro to Verizon for me at this point is that husband and most of my family are on Verizon so calls to them are free - I don't have to watch my minutes. 

 

If you get a smart phone and use an app like Google Talk, you can talk through that and it won't count as minutes used by your phone plan.

 

 

[Guest A Moms Opinion]

Check out VotelMobile.com  It was the cheapest pre paid service that I found for my daughter.  I used my old Sprint Phone but they did have a free phone on their site.  I got $20 off and free activation by using the code JSnead20.  My plan was $33 with unlimited everything.  I just got the basic plan but I think the Android plan was only like $10 more.  Hope this info helps.

[cjzimmer1]

Verizon pre-paid. It's the only provider that will work where I live, or else I'd switch, because I think Verizon is a supremely sucky, sleazy company with super-ignorant and highly obnoxious customer service reps.

 

Look into Page Plus Cellular.  They run on Verizon towers and I've had good luck in the few times I've needed customer service.

 

[DawnM]

Do you need wifi to use it?

 

Does it show up as your phone number on caller ID when you call people?

 

Does it ring to your app or do you have to call back to use it?

 

Does it work with Apple products, or only Android?

 

 

If you get a smart phone and use an app like Google Talk, you can talk through that and it won't count as minutes used by your phone plan.

[DawnM]

I have StraightTalk's everything plan ($45/mo).

 

I have it on an iphone 4.

 

DH's plan is on ATT and his work pays for it.

 

I am considering switching to ATT's new everything plan (well, only 2gb data) as it is 4g/LTE compatible. It is $60/mo.

 

But for now I am fine with ST.

 

Dawn

[Alessandra]

I got an AT&T prepaid plan for ds. There are plans and phones for both smartphones and basic phones. Her's a link or you can google GoPhone®

 

http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/gophone.html?WT.srch=1&wtPaidSearchTerm=at%26t+go+phones#fbid=YTrmxc7f2vJ

 

We got a basic phone (Z431) for $30. No contract. We went to the AT&T store, because ds wanted to see the phones, but you can also get most of the phones through Amazon.