Please, I need help from people who have personal experience concerning the best cell phone available without a contract and also maybe some suggestions on how to buy a good used phone.
I am hearing impaired and there is a vast difference for us with regard to quality. Any information on this would be helpful. I prefer a service offering a wide coverage area for travel. My minute usage is low. A good "talking" visit to me, is over a cup of coffee and in private.
By nj bartolini
We were paying 80+ a month for a regular phone. My husband did some research and we now have straight talk. We can buy time (unlimited) for one month, 3 months, 6 months or 12 months at a time. It only costs 45.00 per month if you do the monthly rate. We also bought the house phones that interact with the cell phone for less than a 100.00.
Being older we never thought cell phones were for us. It has changed our lives and helped our budget. If we go out we just pick up the phone and go.
We have friends and family say that when their plan expires they are buying straight talk. It is very much worth your time to get Straight Talk. I cannot praise them enough.
Gem
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
I am looking to get a new cell phone -- either a tracfone or a prepaid one. What have you found that works the best for you? I recently canceled my phone because I never use it and this would only be used for a few minutes each month.
Net10 Wireless. Same network as Tracfone, but 10 cents a minute if you buy 300 or 3000. Also 5 cent text messaging. The phones cost a little more but can be WELL worth it!
We use TracFone...check with them to see what their coverage area is to be sure you will get the coverage you desire. We only use it for emergencies or contacting one another when necessary and not at home. Works great for our needs.
FYI
Be sure to check if the minutes you purchase have an expiration date. My cousin's always expires before she uses them. She doesnt need a "plan" but loves the security she gets with her cell phone.
edie
tracfone's have to be re-activated if a phone card isn't purchased about every 3 months...That's the way the policy was when I had one two years ago...It was cheaper for me to get a plan with a wireless service,,The cheapest phone card I could find was $21.00...I was having to buy a phone card every week.My plan with a wireless service is only $39.00.
I've had a cricket prepaid wireless for years and I LOVE IT!! Unlimited minutes and the calls hardly ever drop. I think basic plans start around thirty dollars, and voice mail and long distance are extra.
I have a Nextel plan, but I carry a Verizon prepaid when traveling...they have the best national coverage.
I have a TracFone. The basic one. 19.99 for the phone. Minutes (at Wal Mart) start at about 18.99. When I am not charging my phone, I have it in my car. I have two special needs children, and we live in a very rural area. If I ever break down, I have a phone to call out. There is one special you can buy. For $129.99 you get 450 minutes, one year's time (meaning you do not have to renew every three months) and every card you buy in that year's time is doubled. If you buy 60 minutes, when you put it into the phone, it doubles to 120. I think that these phones are great for teens, too.
Because we use ours so seldom most cell phone plans, even the so called prepaid plans did not work for us. We originally had "Just Talk" but they raised their basic cost for minute cards so we went to "Free 2 Go" which was ATT but is now Cingular. We can buy minutes that expire in 30 days for about $10.00 but prefer to buy the $25 card which is 100 minutes for 90 days. bought the phone thru ebay for 5 bucks (total $11 with shipping) and after almost 3 years we are still happy with it.
I have had a Tracfone for about 3 years now. There are different plans to choose from, but I've always chosen the plan that you don't have to renew for a year. I think the cost is about $100 and that comes with nearly enough minutes for me to use for a year. Last time I renewed I think it came with 350 minutes. The only people who call me on it are my husband and my mom and I don't give out the number unless I have to. (I don't have a real extensive social life.) I really just have it for emergencies. When I drive out of the area near where I live it uses roaming minutes, but I'd only use it for emergencies anyway, not to talk for hours and hours to out of town relatives or anything. Also, your unused minutes rollover each time you renew. It is really good for an emergency use phone, but not for keeping in touch with lots of people all the time. If you do get one, don't buy those little cards with like 60 minutes for 20 bucks. The minutes you buy don't expire unless you don't renew the service so buy the cheapest minutes you can if you run out of initial minutes. When comparing cards, divide the cost by the number of minutes to find the cheapest cost per minute. (cost / minutes = cost per minute)
I have Net10 wirless and after doing the research, its the best bang for the buck in the prepaid market. You can get a plan for only $15 month or something with more minutes (I'm on the $60/600M) and still save - I'm saving more than $50 a month versus my previous carrier. You have international calling, cheap texting, and a great network with T-Mobile. Some people complain about the choice of phones or customer service, but I have nothing but good things to say. I've had a really positive experience and the savings are huge.
En mi casa se usa para todo Straight Talk Celular. Yo tenia contrato con la otra compania de celular, con ST no hay contratos. Tambien mi telefono de la casa es un ST celular que me lo llevo conmigo a todos lados por si la alarma suena y me llaman. Yo tengo el plan ilimitado de $45 y es fantastico los ahorros que he recibido. Cambiese y ahorre no bote su dinero. Straight Talk Celular es buenisimo.
Different cellphones for different people. I decided to choose Straight Talk as my pre-paid cellphone provider and Am just so glad I switched. Been in a contract company for so long, I didn't know how it felt not having the large amount of bill each month. For just $45 a month all my services are unlimited. Wal-mart gave me my path to savings and found Straight Talk.
Wow, OK, I SERIOUSLY recommend Straight Talk's $45 a month deal. I have saved so much money and with that price you get unlimited calls and messages. It is seriously brilliant! I did a lot of research before moving to them and they are definitely the best priced company out there right now!
It is difficult to make the right choice the first time around when it comes to cell phone providers, I had really bad teething problems and had to pay hecticly to get out of a contract I had signed two months prior. If these contract cell phone providers know that your town is seen as a dead zone then how can they still rope you into a contract. I went to visit my mom and she went and got me a cell phone with NET10. I must be honest I was extremely apprehensive but when returning to my town I realized I for the first time in nearly three months I could make and receive calls. NET10 uses Verizon and AT&T towers which is the best out there.
Well since Net10 is owned by Tracfone I have decided to post here as well as several other sites, I was a customer of Net10 for the past 12 years and recently around January of 2022 Net10/Tracfone made changes to their network as most carriers have going to the Volte standard.
We received a notification from Net10/Tracfone telling us that in February our phones would no longer work with their network and we would have to purchase new phones, we found this odd as the phones were Galaxy S9+ 2019 and were unlocked so we called them to inquire about it, this is when the nightmare started.
After doing some research online everything we read said that our phones are in fact Volte compatible so we called customer service, after about a 30-minute wait, we were finally connected to an agent, the agent checked the phones and said yes, they (our phones) are compatible but we would need new sims card and that Net10/Tracfone would send them to us free of charge.
I said great and we waited about 4 days and finally received them, I contact customer support to setup the new cards and after another 40 minutes the agent came back on and said our phones are not compatible with the new network and we would have to purchase new phones, I explained to the agent that the previous agent said that the phones were comparable and that is why they sent us new sims.
The agent then put me on hold and said he would check, the agent then came back on and asked me for the IMIE number of my phone and the number of the new sims card, after providing him with the information he wanted he then said that the sims card we have are the wrong onces and they are Verizon sims cards and not AT&T and we would have to go purchase new sims cards.
At this point you understand we were getting a bit frustrated, with that said I hung up the phone and went to nine deferent locations till I found Net10 sims kits, I returned home and called customer service yet again after about another 30 minutes on hold an agent came on and walked me though the prosses of installing the new AT&T sims cards and getting the phone updated.
The phones seemed to be working fine and the agent said we should be good to go.
Well, you would think our phones were updated and good to go but you like myself would be wrong, on February 24th 2022 we went to bed got up the next morning neither my phone or my wifes phone would not work, would not send or receive calls or text, at first, we thought there was an outage in our area and I used the net10 chat support to contact them.
The agent in chat checked and said yes there was an outage reported in our area to wait two hours and try them again, after about 3 hours our phone still did not work so I went to my moms and got her phone to call them yet again, after about 45 minutes on hold an agent came on and I explained that our phones had stopped working.
After the agent put me on hold for about 5 minutes the agent came back and asked for the IMIE and the sims number, I provided her with those numbers she put me on hold again while she checked, she then came back on and said that the sims cards are for new Net10/TracFone phones.
I informed her that the kits were BYOP kits, she said that they are not compatible and that we would have to purchase new cards, at this point I was getting pissed as our phones would not work, and now I have to order sims card yet again, I proceeded to order the card though her and she said they would be there is a few days.
After a few days the new sims cards arrived and I contacted customer support again this time it was only about a 15-minute wait, an agent came on and I explained to him what had happen and that I now have the new sims card they just sent me.
He asked me for my IMIE and to open the sims cards and give him the number on the sims card, but without a blink I notice that the sims cards were T-Mobile cards and I new right there that they were not going to work because we were told we needed the AT&T cards and I told him they said T-Mobile.
He said let me check after about 5 minutes he came back and said no those cards will not work, I asked him why they have sent us the wrong cards twice, and we have been almost a month without our phones working properly.
He continued by saying the only thing he can do is send us replacement cards, well this was the last straw I told him thank you and hung up.
This is not were it stops, we went looking for a new carrier and found one (NON TRACFONE), the new carrier sent us new sims cards and we received them in a couple of days, with the new carrier I did not have to contact anyone I inserted the cards and went online and activated our phone.
After activating our phones with the new carrier what know our phones now have VoLTE, WIFI calling etc., so it looks like our phones are compatible, ok so now comes porting our numbers over, we went through the prosses and waited on the porting to complete.
Our new carrier informed us the next day that Net10/TracFone rejected our port because the account numbers were wrong, and that I needed to contact them and have them release the numbers for porting because they could not submit them again.
Well, here I am calling Net10/Tracfone yet again, I finally got someone on the phone after on hold for yet another 30 minutes, I told the lady that I wanted our numbers released so we could port them to our new carrier, the agent then said we need to send you a text with a validation code, I said wait how are you going to do that when the phones have not worked in almost a month.
She then said she could send the code via our email accounts on file, I said fine I proceeded to give her the codes and she released the number, I thanked her hung up and within3 minutes got a text from our new carrier saying our ports were completed and our numbers have been updated.
Woo-hoo our phones are now working and everything is awesome we can now text send and receive calls and in HD quality at that, but wait it is not over yet.
After getting our phones updated and getting our old numbers working with our new carrier I still got screwed by Net10/Tracfone, my wife had her phone set to autopay every month so hers was easy I just logged into Net10 and canceled her autopay and removed her payment method.
My on the other hand was paid for six months in advance, I paid it like this so I did not have to worry about the bill ever month, I yet again contacted Net10/Tracfone after holding around 20 minute I asked the agent about getting a refund and the agent transferred me to the refund department.
Right away a refund agent came on the line and I explained that we switch carriers and that I was paid ahead for about 4 more months and would like a refund, she then took my number and said please hold, after a few minutes she came back on and said when you ported your number out to a new carrier you have forfeited any refund, I asked her to point out the policy to me and she refused and hung up on me.
Needless to say, Net10/Tracfone screwed me out of around $200 bucks plus all the time waisted I did contact a lawyer and he said he would look into it but I am not going to hold my breath.
After 12 years this is what you get, this is exactly why I by unlock unbranded phones.
My contact with AT&T was up over a year ago and I'm considering going with a prepaid in order to save money. I don't want to purchase multiple prepaid phones just to find the best carrier for my needs (dropped calls, no service, etc.) especially while traveling within Texas. I'm currently using an ATT Samsung phone and I have a T-Mobile phone my daughter has given me.
Neither of these phones are Android or I-phones. All I do is call and text. My question is: Can I get either of these phones unlocked and go with one of the prepaid carriers without having to buy one of their phones?By Betty
AT&T in NY state has a pay by the quarter-$25- or by the year -$100- that I use. I also do not have a smart phone, but then I don't want one. Check with your AT&T store to see if they offer such a plan. I am committed to 1 year, but have the good service they provide. After each use of the phone, it tells me how much of a balance I have, and reminds when it is time to make a deposit in the account.
Can you remove a chip from a cell phone and put it in a pre-paid phone?
By Dee Sellers from Shallotte, NC
Yes. You can put a sim card into a prepaid phone as long as the phone is under the same provider, like Verizon, AT&T, etc. If you're using a sim card that was once under contract and move it to a prepaid phone to only have prepaid service, you may have to contact the company.
