Cell phone issues, provider, phone, etc

[Janeway]

We have had AT&T for years, since the beginning really. We have always had a phone under some sort of contract so we always stayed with them. In the beginning, they were Cingular, at least in our area.

 

Now all phones are out of contract. Fine. No biggie. But now, my phone is having big issues. It won't make calls. It functions now as basically, a very small ipad. We have three phones in the family, so have a family plan. With everything being out of contract, I feel like I should compare various providers rather than just assuming we should continue with AT&T. 

 

I am fine with going without a phone for a while. I would prefer to get a new phone when there is a sale or special deals. Do they do that anymore? And about providers..are they all pretty much the same? Or should I look at some different ones? And while our family plan has 3 phones on it now, we will expand that to four over the next few years. I am unsure when though. It could be sooner, or later, depending on need. 

 

So the questions are...are all providers the same or would it be worth my time to look at others? AND..are there ever deals or sales on phones anymore? Or does it pretty much stay the same all year?

[PinkyandtheBrains.]

I  would look at coverage in your area for a variety of providers in your area and price compare.  As for the cost of the phone, they don't really subsidize that anymore. The primary choices now are to buy a phone outright, pay it over the life of the contract, or lease to get more frequent upgrades.  If you don't want to have to sign a contract, buying a phone outright is the best plan.   At least for iPhones, there doesn't seem to be any true discounts/deals on them anymore. 

[Ottakee]

For us the main issue is coverage. We live in an area where Verizon rules, AT&T has fair coverage and many others have a lot of dead zones. That really limits our choices. Verizon has a new unlimited plan that works well for our family as we have 9 lines between our extended family.

 

Page plus can be a great deal.

 

So much depends on what type of phone you have...Or want...The latest iPhone, fanciest Droid, or just a much cheaper basic model. Do you want/need unlimited talk and text? How about data? Just a bit or unlimited?

[Guest]

Cricket is owned by AT&T so they use the same towers. We have five phones on our plan for $100. Granted, we have a low data plan (3 gig) because we have home wifi, but it's been fine for us.

[Lanny]

All providers are NOT the same.  There are web sites that can help you compare plans and what you get in the plan and what the plan will cost you.  We would *never* buy a phone from a provider again. Now, we buy phones that left the factory Unlocked and not Branded to any particular carrier.  In our case, after having plans where we got a subsidized phone from the provider, and had to sign a contract (at that time the contracts were for one year) and every year, our monthly bill went up, the number of minutes we could use, but did not use, went up, and we were less and less satisfied.  When we cancelled my plan and my wife's plan, that was the ONLY time they were interested in us.  Just before that, when my phone had a problem and they sent it for repair (for years they had one or 2 technicians in that office) they told me it could not be fixed. I got it back and fixed it for USD $7 with Software that was on a web site and it worked for several years after that.

 

Buy the service you need and only what you need. Now, we are with a "Virtual" provider (Virgin Mobile Colombia) and we have a non-plan that we can change every 30 days, if we want to or need to and our plan is not obligatory.  They run on the Movistar network and Movistar has a tower about one block from our house on HOA land.  Our plans are for 100 minutes of talk, 550 MB of Data and 10 messages. If we need more than that, we can pay and we have it.

 

In a large superstore (Alkosto in Cali, Colombia) we have purchased 4 phones, starting at the end of January 2016. All of them work perfectly. 3 are Motorola and 1 is a Lenovo (Lenovo owns Motorola Mobility).   They all have factory warranties for one year here in Colombia. The most recent one was purchased for my DD, 3 or 4 weeks ago.

 

Suggestion: Write down, on a piece of paper, what service you need: How many minutes of talk, how much Data and how many SMS/Text messages.  Some of the providers in the USA (I looked at US Mobile for a trip) will let you package, from a Menu, like selecting food in a cafeteria.   Pay for what you need and only what you need and you will save money.

 

I read an article online that said that people who Pay in Advance, as we do now, are happier, in general, than people who have a bill sent to them each month. I suspect the satisfaction of Prepaid customers is higher than that of Post Pay customers, as the article stated.

 

I think we switched from Post Pay to Prepaid in 2008? We have saved a ton of money since doing that...

 

GL with your choice of carrier and plans.  Be sure to look at the "Virtual" carriers, like Virgin Mobile and others.   

[Lanny]

@Janeway  Here are URLs for a couple of articles to help you begin thinking about different providers and their plans.  If you Google, you will probably find many others:

 

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2375644,00.asp

 

https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/utilities/prepaid-cell-phone-plans/  (I don't know this web site. The URL above is for PC Magazine, which I read for many years)

 

About the prices of cell phones.  They do vary somewhat.  The superstore where we buy them usually has them on sale. My wife has a Credit Card with them and sometimes, certain models are lower in price, if you pay with their credit card. My wife and DD went 3 or 4 weeks ago, on a Sunday and the phone they bought for DD was approximately $595000 Colombian Pesos.  But, if you paid for it with their credit card, as my wife did, it was $515000 Pesos.  Last week, I looked on their web site and it was $800000 (?) Pesos.  I told my wife (and I suspect this is true) that I think they need to occasionally price it at what they show is the "normal" price, so that when they sell it at a discounted price, they can prove that the "normal" price is not a price that they have never priced it at.  Prices here include 16% VAT tax (or is it now 19% so we can support the guerrilla?)   

 

This is the phone DD has. Today it is approximately USD$185.38 including the VAT tax.  This is a very nice phone. They also are including at this time some type of insurance. I think it is in case the phone is lost or damaged, but I am not sure what that covers. It is a Motorola Moto G4.  

http://www.alkosto.com/celular-motorola-moto-g-4ta-generacion-ds-ng

 

 

 

[HSmomof2]

We've also had AT&T for many years. Where we live only AT&T and Verizon provide decent coverage. We recently added ds to our plan, so I looked around at different providers. I still found AT&T to offer the best family plan prices and coverage for what we need.

 

ETA: We have 3 phones (2 that we're paying for), unlimited talk/text, and 5 GB data (which is more than enough because we use wifi whenever possible). Our bill is about $120/mo.

Edited March 13, 2017 by Bethany Grace

[Janeway]

We need data, but not a ton. I looked at our bills and we only use less than 4GB per month. However, should we ever take a vacation again, I would assume that would go up. Other than that, it is all talk and text. And not even much texting. Not even sure if there is much talking. Let me put it this way, my phone is only working when connected to wifi for the last couple weeks and I am suffering a little, but not a lot.

Edited March 12, 2017 by Janeway

[Guest]

Coverage only matters for the area you travel in.  If you have good coverage where you spend 90% of your time, who cares how great the coverage is in Podunk, (name your state)?  And if you are on vacation, who cares that much about how great your coverage is in your vacation spot?

 

I have 4 people on my phone plan.  I want one of them to go away.  He could actually get the coverage he needs (massive data, never leaves the area) for $40, and save me $60 a month, but we are still sponsoring him.  Another one, she never goes anywhere and uses very little data, and could do the same...but I am gifting her a certain amount, so I can't do that yet.  

 

My dh and I travel so we need fantastic coverage, but not massive data.  

 

Basically, I could go from one plan with 4 phones at $180 to three plans for 4 phones for $150 because each of us has completely different needs.  And if I were willing to pay three bills instead of one, and go through the hassle of setting it all up, I might do it.  

 

In a year, it will happen organically. 

 

[Calm37]

Our US Cellular doesn't have coverage in some areas, but when that happens it lets us pay for roaming, so in an emergency the phone is still usable.

 

The Tracfones, however, don't allow roaming, so they are useless in the lower 1/2 of our state. As we travel through there at least once a month (and generally driving beater cars) that is a problem!

 

 

[cjzimmer1]

We have 4 phones with 4 different service providers.  I pick the option that provides the best coverage at the cheapest price for each individual.  The family plans only save money if everyone haves the same needs.  We don't so it makes a lot more sense to separate them out.  Everything is on autobill so it's not like I have to physically pay 4 different bills a month.  But our total for all 4 phones works out to less than $50 a month total.  But we don't have high data needs (it seems that is the part that gets the most expensive)

[Zinnia]

We use Ting and are very happy.

[justasque]

All providers are NOT the same.  There are web sites that can help you compare plans and what you get in the plan and what the plan will cost you.  We would *never* buy a phone from a provider again. Now, we buy phones that left the factory Unlocked and not Branded to any particular carrier. ....

Buy the service you need and only what you need. ...

Suggestion: Write down, on a piece of paper, what service you need: How many minutes of talk, how much Data and how many SMS/Text messages.  Some of the providers in the USA (I looked at US Mobile for a trip) will let you package, from a Menu, like selecting food in a cafeteria.   Pay for what you need and only what you need and you will save money.

 

I read an article online that said that people who Pay in Advance, as we do now, are happier, in general, than people who have a bill sent to them each month. I suspect the satisfaction of Prepaid customers is higher than that of Post Pay customers, as the article stated.

 

...

 

I agree with this.  If you know about how many minutes, texts, and data you use on average each month, you can price out various options.  Tracfone covers my area well, and with a pay as you go plan, I can buy only what I need.  It works out to around $15/month or less, but I don't need to buy more if I've got enough for the next month, and I can top up, say, just texts if I need to.  Pay as you go also makes it easier to spin off older kids, and easier for them to be aware of how much in the way of minutes, texts, and data they are using and what it costs.  It's all so much less complicated and less stressful than a family plan on Verizon.

[dirty ethel rackham]

I would definitely look at your needs to decide what works for you.  While Verizon has the best coverage, it would cost our family double what we are paying on T-Mobile.  Where we live, T-Mobile works quite nicely.  However, one of my kids was going to school in an area that did not get coverage so we ended up getting a pay as you go phone from Virgin Mobile, because it had a plan that worked and coverage in the areas where it was needed. 

 

I have to say that any time I travel, I do need to check the coverage map ... not just for roaming, but that the phone will work at all.     While many think they don't need a phone for vacation, it all depends on what you use it for.  It can be an issue if I am relying on GPS navigation on my phone and we don't have data.  If I turn off navigation to save battery, I have to remember to make sure I save the route.  If you are traveling and you need to keep in touch with people (like the people you are traveling with or with teens/young adults) then having the coverage you need can be essential.  Dd and I were traveling for a competition and I didn't realize that her phone was not working where she was.  I was getting quite concerned because she was in a strange city and got separated from me.  I have nightmares about this kind of thing. 

[Guest]

We have 4 phones with 4 different service providers.  I pick the option that provides the best coverage at the cheapest price for each individual.  The family plans only save money if everyone haves the same needs.  We don't so it makes a lot more sense to separate them out.  Everything is on autobill so it's not like I have to physically pay 4 different bills a month.  But our total for all 4 phones works out to less than $50 a month total.  But we don't have high data needs (it seems that is the part that gets the most expensive)

 

You just took me to the woodshed.  

 

Thank you.