Best Non-Contract Cellular Plans

[Enoch]

I'd like to save some $ and get out from under my present mobile phone contract. I've read about several non-contract providers including Straight Talk, Virgin Mobile, Boost Mobile, Cricket Wireless and Metro PCS. I guess T-Mobile offers that service too.

What experience has anyone had with a monthly cellular plan (quality/reliability, ease of setup/switch, features, overall cost savings, etc.)? Thanks!

[Enoch]

I found this review of Cricket Wireless today. Have heard about a good deal from Republic Wireless too.

[Nyx]

I've been using Page Plus Cellular for about three months now, and have been happy with them.  They run off Verizon's network, and we were able to port our numbers and keep using our old Verizon phones without much trouble.  Quality and reliability have been good (same as Verizon).  The switch was not as smooth as it could have been, because I thought that I would get an alert after they finished porting my number, but I had to call and check up on it and then they instructed me on how to finish it out.  But that's a one-time thing, so I didn't think it was a huge deal.  Cost savings have been great - I think we're saving about $80 a month (2 smart phones) for practically the same service.

 

There are cheaper deals out there, but we wanted to keep using our phones, plus my husband sometimes travels for work and knows that the places he goes have good Verizon coverage.

 

We waited until the day after our contact ended, because the termination fee would have negated any savings.  Just look into that so that you know what you're dealing with.

[Enoch]

Thanks Nyx. I'll check out Page Plus and another one I learned of today, FreedomPop, which apparently has a "free" service option!

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk

[j-squared]

I've got 3 phones for the family on T-Mobile. We get 1000 shared minutes, unlimited data (each phone is 2GB high speed data, then it throttles down) and unlimited texting all for a total of $106 (including taxes) per month. We bring our own phones to the plan (Yeah Google Nexus phones)

 

Their coverage is not as good as Verizon or ATT, but service and data are way better than Sprint (previous carrier), and we've not had any problems.

 

Plus their new Global option is appealing to me. Data and texting are free in their global area, only calling (which I rarely do) is not.

[Enoch]

Right now, the unlimited data and texts are big selling points with me. Thanks j-squared.

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk

[Enoch]

I settled on Virgin Mobile. The plan offers unlimited text and data, and 300 phone minutes for $35/month on Sprint network, w/no activation fee. Hard to beat that cost for the features ... got a great Black Friday (online) deal on a phone too. I expect as my family plan phones come out of contract that we'll be switching to the best non-contract deal available.

[Cantre15]

I switched over to virgin mobile from att prepaid. About a year ago I got rid of my smart phone and hacked down my plan. Once contract was over switched to prepaid with att but the service was terrible. Moved to virgin mobile and have no complaints. I pay 35.00/month for 1500 minutes and 1500 texts for basic phone. If you want to go full unlimited for a smart phone I believe it's 55.00/month, which would be about half of what I was spending at att. 

[WillBlackrose]

We tried a lot of the pre-pay phones before finding one we liked. My wife and I have been with Boost Mobile for close to three years now and have nothing but positives to say about it. We never have signal issues and with it being a pre-pay service, we never have to worry about being hounded by bill collectors. Just my own thoughts, but Boost has always been good to us.

 

Just my own two cents, take it as you will...