Cell Phone Service - who do you use and how much you pay?

[chicagoannie]

Does anyone have those Walmart plans - straight talk and family talk? I think they are no contract - are they any good?

[catleg]

For any plan like Walmart's the trick is to determine who is the real underlying carrier?
This is easiest to do by checking what type of phone comes with the plan.
Straight Talk is I believe a rebranded TracFone, which means it is mostly Sprint with possibly some Verizon coverage.
If your cell plan is SIM card based it uses Tmobile or AT&T. (GSM; often a Moto or Nokia phone).
It there is no SIM card (serial # is in the phone) it is Sprint or Verizon (CDMA; usually a Korean phone).
If you are in a state like NJ that charges sales tax on refills you can save by buying refill cards over the internet. I used callingmart.com for my last refill purchase on Tmobile to go.

[sunshinepa]

Does anyone have those Walmart plans - straight talk and family talk? I think they are no contract - are they any good?

I personally don't, see my cheap post below.....LOL. However, my son uses straight talk and he loves it. Doesn't spend anymore than he did for a contract (think it's 45.00 mo) and he abosolutely raves about it.

Hope that helps.

[oregonpilot]

WE both use Virgin Mobile...20 cents a minute and top up every 90 days for 20.00
hub doesn't use it hardly at all so he accumulates lots on minutes on his.

Minutes don't go away month to month. Rather than the 25 a month with US Cellular whether it got used or not. I compared past history how much i paid to my 20 cnts and i'm coming out quite a bit ahead. I use it mostly for business and business HAS been slow but it's picking up so i will have to re-assess later.
VM is thru Sprint and as long as i stay fairly close to I 5 the service is OK.
I was able to port-in my old number that i had had for 15 yrs with U S Cellular .

[GoingDown]

I use Net10 and if I am very careful I can pay as little as $15 per month. I mainly use my cell phone for getting temp jobs. If I want to talk to friends and family, I try to talk to them in person, or email them if I can't talk to them in person.

And all calls go through my Google Voice number first, and then get forwarded to my cell phone. That way I can block any unwanted callers from ever calling me again.

[AngelinaCatHub]

Mrs. and I use Boost. Pay as you go. If not paid, it don't go. No bill, no arrears. Granted we mostly use the peeper part of it. My bro gifted us a phone to use lightly as our home phone and when that ends, I shall do a very short home type of cell. Who uses land lines anymore? 'Hub

[Logan]

Mrs. and I use Boost. Pay as you go. If not paid, it don't go. No bill, no arrears. Granted we mostly use the peeper part of it. My bro gifted us a phone to use lightly as our home phone and when that ends, I shall do a very short home type of cell. Who uses land lines anymore? 'Hub

I bought OOMA for $200 2 years ago as my land line and now have NO phone bill and this enables me to keep my cell phone minutes down to the lowest price plan. So I use a land line.
Logan

[dman]

Tracfone. Around $20 every five months. Also AT&T Gophone (for my android phone), a $100 card should last 8-9 months or more.

[catleg]

You know there are doubler cards for tracfone.
I buy my Tmo to go refills thru callingmart.com.
It's 5% less and I save NJ sales tax.
Just a happy customer.