What do you all do for Cell Phones

[AngelinaCat]

AT&T is why we no longer have a land-line. We were perfectly happy with our land-line service, and it had unlimited free long-distance.

When we filed BK, we were with this company. In the midst of our BK, AT&T (ATack&Terminate) took over our land-line provider, and started charging for the long-distance service. We didn't know about all of this because of the Automatic Stay that was in place at the time. When we were discharged, we started getting bills for over $500.00 for long-distance service. So that was the end of the land-line, and told AT&T where they could go, and the best route to take to get there.

[ksgirl38]

I guess I am a horrible example. We're on AT&T. I have an iPhone 4s and my DD9 has an iPhone 4. Our bill is $136.10 each month. Luckily, I'm still grandfathered on the "unlimited" plan. Do I need the latest and greatest technology? Probably not. Do I want it? You bet.

My home phone has been Vonage since 2005. It is just under $20 per month.

I totally understand. I've been looking at an iphone as well, but I'm thinking I'll save a little bit by going with a droid. I'm still thinking about it. Sorry, a cell phone is one of those things I just can't give up. I guess it's more security for me, if I had car problems or whatever. I've been without a home phone for about 8 years so I guess there's no going back now.

[ksgirl38]

We have Verizon. Last month I cancelled the unlimited talk and text. Our teenage son wasn't happy about it but... oh well. He doesn't pay the bill and we can't afford it. It moves our bill from $128 a month down to $79 for the same 3 lines we've had forever. We don't have any smart phones (much to my son's disgust) but we are doing fine without them. I find myself already trying to limit the amount of time he/we spend on electronics already. With so many access points to then internet, I don't think we really need the expense/convenience of having it on our phones also.

I have to ask, how did you get a $79 plan with Verizon with 3 people? Currently I have myself and a couple years ago I got my mom a cell phone and added her to my plan for $10, we have about 700 minutes between us which we don't even use half of and we both have flip phones. My bill is around $90 including taxes. Just wondering what I'm doing wrong here.

[Floridagail]

I have a Boost (sprint service) basic phone, unlimited calls and text, 50.00 a month, It has graduated to 35.00 a month after 18 mos. S0 I cannot beat 35.00 a month pay monthly no contract. Only draw back is the paying online and paying fee to pay the bill. I sometimes run my boost store and pay 100 in advance to avoid the 3.50 fee to pay online. Otherwise it is cheap. I cannot believe i paid over 90.00 a month for the same service sprint.

[karm43]

I dropped our plan to 700 min unlimit text didn't have data but more min. only saved 20 bucks urg. However if you get walmart they have phone with unlimit text and internet for 45 dollars you pay monthly they don't send u a bill. They have phone and text for 30 a month my son has that one. You just have to make sure the phone and network u pick works where you live. Go to straight talk and u could punch your area in and see what phone available.

[john12345]

i planned to change my phone. which is best phone in market. any suggestions?

[GoingDown]

We have two Boost Mobile pay-as-you-go cell phones. We pay about $20.00 a month for each, when the 'Boost' runs out. If we don't have the money when the 'Boost' runs out--oh well. We wait until the next payday.

We also have a Verizon 'House phone' cell phone that 'Hub's brother has on his phone plan. Once that runs out, I don't know what we will do. Probably go back to the days when there were not these 'luxuries'. We cannot add any kind of additional bill or 'plan' to what we already pay out each month. The income is not there, and groceries and fuel bills keep rising.

We have not looked into Google voice, but our reception here for cells and everything else is marginal. We did have MagicJack for a while, but as I said, reception was marginal, and we finally gave up on it.

You might want to look into Net10. I have tried a lot of different pay as you go cell phones, and only Net10 had decent reception. Everywhere a cell phone can possibly work ( I went on a road trip from Arizona to Oregon and all along the way Net10 worked perfectly everywhere there were any cell phone towers), Net10 seems to work. It's 10 cents a minute, and the way it works is you have to add at least 300 minutes ($30) every 2 months (60 days of service), so it works out to be about $15 per month if you don't talk on the phone much. If you talk a lot on the phone, then they have a $50 per month unlimited card. If you have a smart phone, you have to used the unlimited card. I just have a cheap little phone from the year 2005 which I am still using. It works great, so I have no plan to upgrade it at this time. It has the old fashioned liquid crystal display, which I happen to like better than the color displays most phones have.

Oh, I forgot to mention that Google Voice merely routes the call from their server to your cell phone and/or your land phone, etc. If your cell phone gets reception, Google Voice should work fine.

[kawh]

I have two prepaid phones, one with Page Plus (Verizon-based service), the other with tracfone, also Verizon-based service (need a tracfone model ending in 'c'). If you hang out in the kitty wireless forums, you can learn a lot about frugal phone service.

I bought both phones on ebay and even bought the activation thru kittywireless on ebay. I'm on the standard plan with Pageplus, and the minimum cost for that is $10 every 4 months ($30 per year). For tracfone, I pay about $19 every 90 days for 180 minutes (with a promo code). You can get good deals on prepaid minutes at Callingmart, and I've found them to be reliable, once you get past their fraud prevention crap and use them regularly.

So basically I have the two phones for around $150 a year, since I usually talk enough to need extra minutes for the tracfone at one point or another. The other phone is only taking lots of calls and voicemails these days

[GoingDown]

I'm going to look into this. This is even cheaper than what I'm using.

Does it work everywhere? Or only in metro areas? Have you tried using it on a cross-country trip, and did it work everywhere they had cell phone towers?

I've tried lots of other pre-paid cells, and the main problem I usually run into is that they stop working once I leave metro Phoenix. Most of Arizona is rural, and once I leave the metro area, eventhough there are cell phone towers, they are different networks, and many of the ones I tried simply wouldn't work. They would indicate they had no signal bars, and would say "no service."

[kawh]

... Does it work everywhere? Or only in metro areas? Have you tried using it on a cross-country trip, and did it work everywhere they had cell phone towers?

If you have Net10, you might already be using Verizon towers, since Net10 & Tracfone are the same company. My phones work wherever Verizon 3G service does, which is usually better in rural areas than At&t. I can use either Verizon or AT&T where I live, but Verizon has a little better reception. I used to have a Samsung t301g, using AT&T towers, and its best feature was the ability to place a number on its reject list so the phone doesn't ring at all when that number calls. But its voice quality wasn't as good. Have not gone cross country, but when I take the Tracfone into rural areas a couple of hundred miles away, there's good reception, as long as any towers at all are within range.

The only problem I've had, is that Tracfone doesn't tell you all the fine print about the CDMA service. I found out the hard way, you have to periodically update your roaming capabilities by entering *228, then option '2' every month or so to be sure you still get service when Verizon changes a tower somewhere. Sounds like a small thing, but it isn't when you suddenly don't have service over a long weekend, and you don't know it, you just think you're not getting any calls or voicemails! But I understand this is something even the regular Verizon subscribers have to deal with.

I just thought of something, you could try entering *228 then 'send.' If you get the Verizon menu, and option 2 works for you, and your phone re-boots, it must be that your phone uses them, and not the gsm provider.

When my bk trauma is over, going to look for an Android phone to replace the current one I have with Pageplus. It's nice to have a phone that gets a wi-fi signal, but the tiny Palm screen makes it hard to read emails.

[sbatman]

I have a I-wireless phone through Fry's grocery store. It's available to any of the Kroger family of stores. Anyway, I have the $5 a month plan. Inbound texts are free. Outbound texts and calls are $0.10 each. But the catch is that I never pay for any minutes, because as I frequent shopper, I not only get the money off my gas, I also get 20 free minutes/outbound texts for every $100 I spend at the store. AND, for any prescription, mine or a family member's, I get 50 points (10 free minutes or outbound texts). You can change plans any time. This is my son's old phone. When he had it, we had the 25$/month plan: unlimited texts, 200 talk minutes and 200mgb of internet a month. And the minutes/texts and Internet roll over. And, if I want, I can buy internet "chunks", beyond the $5 a month plan. I have a smart phone for which I paid $69. I use the wireless at home/coffee shop/wherever, and use the 3G service outside the house only if necessary.

[GoingDown]

I have a I-wireless phone through Fry's grocery store. It's available to any of the Kroger family of stores. Anyway, I have the $5 a month plan. Inbound texts are free. Outbound texts and calls are $0.10 each. But the catch is that I never pay for any minutes, because as I frequent shopper, I not only get the money off my gas, I also get 20 free minutes/outbound texts for every $100 I spend at the store. AND, for any prescription, mine or a family member's, I get 50 points (10 free minutes or outbound texts). You can change plans any time. This is my son's old phone. When he had it, we had the 25$/month plan: unlimited texts, 200 talk minutes and 200mgb of internet a month. And the minutes/texts and Internet roll over. And, if I want, I can buy internet "chunks", beyond the $5 a month plan. I have a smart phone for which I paid $69. I use the wireless at home/coffee shop/wherever, and use the 3G service outside the house only if necessary.

One of my relatives shops at Fry's all the time. I'm going to tell her about this, she rarely uses her cell phone (she mainly has it for emergencies when she is out and about in her car), so why pay for it if she can get it for free? Thanks!

[GoingDown]

If you have Net10, you might already be using Verizon towers, since Net10 & Tracfone are the same company. My phones work wherever Verizon 3G service does, which is usually better in rural areas than At&t. I can use either Verizon or AT&T where I live, but Verizon has a little better reception. I used to have a Samsung t301g, using AT&T towers, and its best feature was the ability to place a number on its reject list so the phone doesn't ring at all when that number calls. But its voice quality wasn't as good. Have not gone cross country, but when I take the Tracfone into rural areas a couple of hundred miles away, there's good reception, as long as any towers at all are within range.

The only problem I've had, is that Tracfone doesn't tell you all the fine print about the CDMA service. I found out the hard way, you have to periodically update your roaming capabilities by entering *228, then option '2' every month or so to be sure you still get service when Verizon changes a tower somewhere. Sounds like a small thing, but it isn't when you suddenly don't have service over a long weekend, and you don't know it, you just think you're not getting any calls or voicemails! But I understand this is something even the regular Verizon subscribers have to deal with.

I just thought of something, you could try entering *228 then 'send.' If you get the Verizon menu, and option 2 works for you, and your phone re-boots, it must be that your phone uses them, and not the gsm provider.

When my bk trauma is over, going to look for an Android phone to replace the current one I have with Pageplus. It's nice to have a phone that gets a wi-fi signal, but the tiny Palm screen makes it hard to read emails.

I haven't had to do that *228 thing yet with my phone, and I've had it since 2003. But I will keep it in mind. Thanks.

Net10 seems like it works on almost any tower. For example, Northeastern Arizona uses Cellular One towers, and it works fine on them as well.