Cell Phone Plans

[yoyoma51]

Just found out about WalMart StraightTalk. $30/month, 1000 minutes and 1000 text messages.

[lindsay2181]

We have At&t...just changed today to the 550 familytalk is $50 for first line and 9.99 for second. We've been having the 700 min familytalk plan for $60 and 9.99 for about a year now b/c that was the lowest package they had. Glad to see they've added a new one. I worked for Cingular, and got 2 free individual plans, and just stayed with them after I quit working there.

We used to live in a condo and had terrible reception, so we tried out the MagicJack thing. had a few kinks but overall satisfied. We quit using it when we moved and never paid for the new year. But I would definitely recommend it for certain situations. Cell phones are just easier for us with being away from home a lot.

[kitty]

I was with TMobile for years. Now, I use a Boost mobile. I have unlimited everything for $50 per month. Boost is on the sprint network, the coverage is pretty good. Metro PCS is also pretty comparable.

[cleanslate01]

Ugh. Cell phone bill KILLS me. My husband has a blackberry and uses the email feature, which requires a data package. I have a basic (free) cell phone and I use it to send/receive text messages and the random call here and there. I always use our landline at home since it's unlimited. I would LOVE to get him to just use a normal cell phone and drop our plan. We pay $150 a month and that's WITH the 20% discount. :-( He used to need this for work but now, with his new job, I think it can go.

I'm working on him. He has to wear down at some point.

[tigergem]

I'm switching to Page Plus. Unlimited Talk and Text for $39.95/month. I have had a verizon contract which expired now, so I can make the switch with no ETF. But the plan they want to put me on if I go with "new every 2" will cost nearly twice as much.

I suppose now that I filed BK they would want another deposit to renew. I haven't checked into it, because I wasn't planning on staying with them anyway. Page Plus uses the Verizon network and I can keep my Verizon phone, so I guess I don't need no steenkin contract.

This change will be a little helpful with my new Chapter 13 budget.

[killinstinct]

We have 4 lines, 1000 minutes family plan on T-Mobile. Marginal service and bill is typically anywhere from 170-200 a month. We're getting rid of one line, but we don't want to get locked into a contract. And the phones crap out religiously after 1 1/2 to two years. The sidekick is a piece of $hit buy the way. We made that mistake as well. Seems like we could be paying a LOT less.

[tigergem]

Wow killer, yeah. Straight Talk or Page Plus would probably save you a bunch. If you don't need unlimited you can get the $29.95/1200 minute plan with PP. So $120 total if you need 4 lines. And even though Verizon is the most arrogant network, they really are (I think) the best one -- for my area anyway, I am sure of it. And both Straight Talk and Page Plus are on the Verizon network.

[killinstinct]

Nice! Thanks for the info. We're down to three lines now, but we're not too happy with t-mobile. The coverage is sporadic, and we've had problems with the phones. I'll look into it. Frustrating to have to get a new phone every 1 1/2 to 2 years, then you're locked into a new contract. UGH!!!!

[momofthree]

We have prepaid cell phones thru T-mobile. We each spend $100 a year for 1000 minutes a piece. We basically just use them for emergencies or "hey, can you grab this from the store while you're out" type of calls. We can't afford a monthly cell phone bill, so this works out really well for us.

[killinstinct]

We bailed on T-mobile. Awful. In retrospect I would have bk'd them. Service, coverage, equipment are awful. Now with AT&T post discharge, 3 iPhones on a family plan. No problem qualifying. Outstanding And never looking back !!

[killinstinct]

Btw, paying $220/mo for family plan , 1400 rollover minutes. Unlimited text/data. Were quite happy. It's worth the extra $20/mo to stay in touch.

[wantout]

Another vote for Tracfone.

I had ATT and a 20% discount through my employer, but the monthly payment was still $50. I got tired fo paying that each month and not useing all of the minutes.

When my contract expired I shopped and asked around and got a tracfone, double minutes for life, no contract no monthly bill. Reception is great, the phone is a simle LG, no camera flip phone, but it is what I want. It does what it does, makes a call when I need to.

[researchmode]

We recently cut our ties with AT&T and went with Net 10.

Both my phone and my husband's phone came with 300 minutes and 60 days free. I paid $59.99 for each of them (normally $79.99 but it was before Christmas and Best Buy had them on sale).

Last month I saved $90.00 by not having a monthly phone bill.

We're refilling with 150 minutes for $15 each, so $30 a month. The minutes don't expire as long as you don't run out of time. If I were to add a new card today (9 days of service left) it would add the 30 days onto the 9 days so I'd have 39 days, for example.

Number transfer took 6 hours for my phone and 3 days for my husband's. I bought a phone for a friend (29.99 basic phone, 300 free minutes, so basically free phone) and his setup was extremely quick without transferring a number.

Text messages are .05 (AT&T were .20 each!!!) for most phones. We got the .03/text model with slide-out QWERTY keyboard.

I'm really happy with the service and voice quality.

Good luck!

~ResearchMode
A mom on the Gulf Coast of Florida in process of filing CH7 and blogging about it:
(link removed)

[LetItGo]

We use T-Mobile to go

Ever since we realized we didn't come anywhere close to using all of the minutes of our old contract phones we made the switch to pre-paid. For us T-Mobile is the best deal. We bought the phone for $20 on sale at Best Buy and then buy a 1000 minute card for $100 (.10/minute) this makes you a Gold member. As a gold member your minutes don't expire for a year and you get 15% extra minutes on future refills. We tend to make it about 9 months on a $100 card, so $11/month sure beats the $60 we used to pay! And as long as you refill before your minutes expire, you keep whatever is left and roll them over. This seems to be the best plan we have found as long as your in their coverage areas.

[wlonsdale]

PagePlus is a reputable, inexpensive alternative. You can get 1200 minutes talk and text for 29.95 or 44.95 for unlimited both per month. You can but 1000 minutes for $50 or 2000 for $80.