5 ms·

Likewise, my contract with Verizon was up and I was going month-to-month. I was paying about $130/mo. at the time. A friend of mine had a pre-paid phone and m

Likewise, my contract with Verizon was up and I was going month-to-month. I was paying about $130/mo. at the time. A friend of mine had a pre-paid phone and mentioned she needed to run to Walmart to get a "refill". Turns out she was paying $45/month for unlimited calling and texts and, I think, 2 GB of data (at "unlimited" speeds; it was rate-limited after that). I was about to get the new iPhone anyways, so I went to Verizon and paid cash for it. I drove home, got on their web site and signed up for a $60/mo. pre-paid plan (unlimited calling and texting, and 3.5 GB of data) -- and I can tether now. My service is effectively the same and it's costing me half as much (and they even have a cheaper, $45/mo. plan).

copperx 11y ago
By "they" do you mean Verizon prepaid?
- jlgaddis 10y ago
  Yes.
tracker1 11y ago
I've been buying my phones outside a subsidized plan for about a decade now... up until recently, was on a cutrate plan at $100 for 3 months (2gb/month unrestricted, throttled after)... Switched to Verizon, partly because I wanted a new phone (Nexus 6p) and partly because I wanted better coverage on my road trips... in large parts of the country outside the cities, Verizon is the only coverage. I'm paying over twice as much, but have had no issues with setting up wifi tethering... though I really need to run updates on my laptop before road trips, as I killed 9gb in one day (I don't use my personal laptop much). All said though, I'm much happier with the better coverage, but miss the frugal bills I've had the past 6 years.
sokoloff 11y ago
I'm a big fan of Ting, an MVNO. www.ting.com We got our AT&T bill down from $120/mo (for two phones) to between $45 and $62/mo (for three phones). When it was just me (I was the guinea pig testing before we ported my wife's phone over), my bill would regularly be $25-30. Ting isn't "unlimited", but rather has a fairly simple "use your phone and we'll bill you fairly" mindset. They also have a calculator where you can have them login to your existing carrier, pull the billing details, and estimate your Ting bill. I was initially uncomfortable with the pay-per-use nature, but the reality has been that it's way cheaper for us. If you are a road warrior salesperson who never uses wifi, it may not be as good for you. Naturally, since it's pay-what-you-use, tethering is perfectly fine. Ting does offer a referral bonus where I think you get $25 and I get $25. I'm not shilling for them nor stumping for referrals, but if you do care to use the referral link, it's https://z9prmb2f3t5.ting.com/ https://z9prmb2f3t5.ting.com/
- veidr 11y ago
  +1 for Ting, the only US cellular provider I haven't utterly detested as a customer. (Have used all the major ones.) I am also saving hundreds of dollars per year (especially since I spend a lot of time outside the USA... If you don't use Ting during a month, the bill is like $7 or so.
  - thisisananth 11y ago
    I want to add that Cricket Wireless has great plan too with unlimited talk and text with 2.5GB data at $40 per month. And it has a group plan which is very good. If you have 5 people in a group, you will effectively pay just $20 a month for the same plan.
- AlgorithmicTime 11y ago
  My only problem with ting is that their data rates seem exorbitant. I'm currently using Project Fi instead.
- raarts 11y ago
  +1 for Ting. The US provider who came closest to what I was used in The Netherlands, service wise and money wise.
- throwanem 11y ago
  Another +1 for Ting. I signed up back in February or so and they've been just brilliant across multiple phones, including one situation where, due to a replacement for bogued hardware, the IMEI changed but the ICCID didn't - their website doesn't handle that very well, but their customer support took care of it via website chat in five minutes, which certainly counts as a win. I'm paying a third what I was with Sprint, and even buying the phone up front, I come out ahead; if you're looking for a better option, and Sprint has coverage where you are, Ting is definitely worth a look.
- Merad 11y ago
  As a former Ting customer who was happy with their service, their prices aren't really that great. It's just that most people aren't heavy users, especially on minutes and texts, so your bill looks a lot better because you only have to pay for what you use. If you do use your phone a lot, your bill can quickly become worse than Verizon, etc.
paulmd 10y ago
Probably Net10, they are bigtime partners with Walmart (but could also be Boost Mobile or a couple others with similar plans). I bought an unlocked MotoG and with Net10 I pay either $40 for 3GB or $50 for 5GB depending on my expected usage for the month (you can get bigger plans if you want at $10-for-2GB increments). If you go over you are not cut off, just restricted to 2G service (latency is horrible though). Tethering is technically against the rules but they don't really care, I've never gotten in trouble. You either get carried on T-Mobile or ATT. I do ATT and it works fine - I am up north right now in Bumfuck MI (a cabin in the middle of a National Forest) and I have 4/5 bars of 4G signal. I think coverage worries are a thing of the past unless you are using one of those carriers that is specifically city-only. I get around and it's just never been a problem for me. I buy refills through Callingmart. They don't charge all the extra fees that Net10 does directly (typically an extra $4/mo or so), they do 1% loyalty cashback for your next order, and they constantly run 3% off coupons (check retailmenot.com). So for a $50 refill that costs $54 though Net10's store I am at $46.50 out the door. They have refills for tons of carriers, worth checking out if you're monthly. I said it below and got down voted but if you aren't unlocked and monthly you are getting screwed hard. My phone is rooted and has an unlocked bootloader, so I can run CyanogenMod (i.e. I can get security updates instead of being tied to the carrier's firmware), use the radio, tether, or anything else I want. I have absolutely zero ties binding me to my carrier - if next month some other carrier offers a better deal (or my current one tries to screw me) I just buy a $2 SIM-kit, swap and activate, and point my Google Voice number at the new SIM. Takes five minutes of work and nobody else even needs to know I changed carriers. The only downside is that you need to pay for a phone upfront instead of on a phone plan since nobody will finance an unlocked phone (hello startup idea).
- jlgaddis 10y ago
  Straight Talk, another MVNO, was actually her carrier. Her "refill" was via a pre-paid card she could purchase at Walmart. You can also do it online or over-the-phone with a credit card but she preferred to just walk into Walmart and buy a card with cash (she worked right by Walmart, anyways, and often shopped there so it was convenient for her).

copperx 11y ago

By "they" do you mean Verizon prepaid?

jlgaddis 10y ago
Yes.

tracker1 11y ago

I've been buying my phones outside a subsidized plan for about a decade now... up until recently, was on a cutrate plan at $100 for 3 months (2gb/month unrestricted, throttled after)... Switched to Verizon, partly because I wanted a new phone (Nexus 6p) and partly because I wanted better coverage on my road trips... in large parts of the country outside the cities, Verizon is the only coverage. I'm paying over twice as much, but have had no issues with setting up wifi tethering... though I really need to run updates on my laptop before road trips, as I killed 9gb in one day (I don't use my personal laptop much). All said though, I'm much happier with the better coverage, but miss the frugal bills I've had the past 6 years.

sokoloff 11y ago

I'm a big fan of Ting, an MVNO. www.ting.com We got our AT&T bill down from $120/mo (for two phones) to between $45 and $62/mo (for three phones). When it was just me (I was the guinea pig testing before we ported my wife's phone over), my bill would regularly be $25-30. Ting isn't "unlimited", but rather has a fairly simple "use your phone and we'll bill you fairly" mindset. They also have a calculator where you can have them login to your existing carrier, pull the billing details, and estimate your Ting bill. I was initially uncomfortable with the pay-per-use nature, but the reality has been that it's way cheaper for us. If you are a road warrior salesperson who never uses wifi, it may not be as good for you. Naturally, since it's pay-what-you-use, tethering is perfectly fine. Ting does offer a referral bonus where I think you get $25 and I get $25. I'm not shilling for them nor stumping for referrals, but if you do care to use the referral link, it's https://z9prmb2f3t5.ting.com/ https://z9prmb2f3t5.ting.com/

veidr 11y ago
+1 for Ting, the only US cellular provider I haven't utterly detested as a customer. (Have used all the major ones.) I am also saving hundreds of dollars per year (especially since I spend a lot of time outside the USA... If you don't use Ting during a month, the bill is like $7 or so.
- thisisananth 11y ago
  I want to add that Cricket Wireless has great plan too with unlimited talk and text with 2.5GB data at $40 per month. And it has a group plan which is very good. If you have 5 people in a group, you will effectively pay just $20 a month for the same plan.
AlgorithmicTime 11y ago
My only problem with ting is that their data rates seem exorbitant. I'm currently using Project Fi instead.
raarts 11y ago
+1 for Ting. The US provider who came closest to what I was used in The Netherlands, service wise and money wise.
throwanem 11y ago
Another +1 for Ting. I signed up back in February or so and they've been just brilliant across multiple phones, including one situation where, due to a replacement for bogued hardware, the IMEI changed but the ICCID didn't - their website doesn't handle that very well, but their customer support took care of it via website chat in five minutes, which certainly counts as a win. I'm paying a third what I was with Sprint, and even buying the phone up front, I come out ahead; if you're looking for a better option, and Sprint has coverage where you are, Ting is definitely worth a look.
Merad 11y ago
As a former Ting customer who was happy with their service, their prices aren't really that great. It's just that most people aren't heavy users, especially on minutes and texts, so your bill looks a lot better because you only have to pay for what you use. If you do use your phone a lot, your bill can quickly become worse than Verizon, etc.

paulmd 10y ago

Probably Net10, they are bigtime partners with Walmart (but could also be Boost Mobile or a couple others with similar plans). I bought an unlocked MotoG and with Net10 I pay either $40 for 3GB or $50 for 5GB depending on my expected usage for the month (you can get bigger plans if you want at $10-for-2GB increments). If you go over you are not cut off, just restricted to 2G service (latency is horrible though). Tethering is technically against the rules but they don't really care, I've never gotten in trouble. You either get carried on T-Mobile or ATT. I do ATT and it works fine - I am up north right now in Bumfuck MI (a cabin in the middle of a National Forest) and I have 4/5 bars of 4G signal. I think coverage worries are a thing of the past unless you are using one of those carriers that is specifically city-only. I get around and it's just never been a problem for me. I buy refills through Callingmart. They don't charge all the extra fees that Net10 does directly (typically an extra $4/mo or so), they do 1% loyalty cashback for your next order, and they constantly run 3% off coupons (check retailmenot.com). So for a $50 refill that costs $54 though Net10's store I am at $46.50 out the door. They have refills for tons of carriers, worth checking out if you're monthly. I said it below and got down voted but if you aren't unlocked and monthly you are getting screwed hard. My phone is rooted and has an unlocked bootloader, so I can run CyanogenMod (i.e. I can get security updates instead of being tied to the carrier's firmware), use the radio, tether, or anything else I want. I have absolutely zero ties binding me to my carrier - if next month some other carrier offers a better deal (or my current one tries to screw me) I just buy a $2 SIM-kit, swap and activate, and point my Google Voice number at the new SIM. Takes five minutes of work and nobody else even needs to know I changed carriers. The only downside is that you need to pay for a phone upfront instead of on a phone plan since nobody will finance an unlocked phone (hello startup idea).

jlgaddis 10y ago
Straight Talk, another MVNO, was actually her carrier. Her "refill" was via a pre-paid card she could purchase at Walmart. You can also do it online or over-the-phone with a credit card but she preferred to just walk into Walmart and buy a card with cash (she worked right by Walmart, anyways, and often shopped there so it was convenient for her).