comparing and complaining phone plans and such

[sonya123]

In order to not sidetrack the rant thread completely I will post this here after being ripped off by Verizon ( see Rant thread for details)
Basically, they give you a cheap phone but then you have to pay a tiny amount for 3 years on their plan to pay it off
Plus lying sales people , don't trust them.

So our Verizon plan: was around $100 a month for 2 smartphones. The least amount of data possible , about 2 G, since we don't use the date much and most often have left over

Visible plans: what I saw was a $20 a month for 1 phone, unlimited data texting and calls. BUT , no international calls or texting except certain countries and limited. No stores, no paying the bill by mail or credit card. Data gets slowed down certain times ( not an issue for us)
More expensive plans for international anywhere

Feel free to add what you have, and complaints or good things about it

we have free internet from a local company because we have an antennae on our property but it's only for 10 years and I think we have had it for 5 or so

 

[elkhound]

i have a motorola phone...its $20 for 180 minutes covering 90 days with transferring unused everything each time..the cards say 60 minutes...but my phone number is from long ago and had lifetime triple minutes..so its reason i get 180 minutes...that not much but it has covered me for a long time..only once did i spend $5 for 1000 texts card. i do like text messaging as it often works when a call wont. i am changing my card this fall and go with a yearly plan of unlimited talk and text for $209 i think it is now so i dont have to get a card multiple times a year. its tracphone owned by verizon. phone cost $40-$60 but they gave it to me free when some voice thing was changing and was forced to upgrade. this android is way over my ability to use but its so far above my old flip phone it works in far more places often in the wilderness even because of tower location and the phone is just so much better its unreal.

 

[sonya123]

i have a motorola phone...its $20 for 180 minutes covering 90 days with transferring unused everything each time..the cards say 60 minutes...but my phone number is from long ago and had lifetime triple minutes..so its reason i get 180 minutes...that not much but it has covered me for a long time..only once did i spend $5 for 1000 texts card. i do like text messaging as it often works when a call wont. i am changing my card this fall and go with a yearly plan of unlimited talk and text for $209 i think it is now so i dont have to get a card multiple times a year. its tracphone owned by verizon. phone cost $40-$60 but they gave it to me free when some voice thing was changing and was forced to upgrade. this android is way over my ability to use but its so far above my old flip phone it works in far more places often in the wilderness even because of tower location and the phone is just so much better its unreal.

I wonder if you can use a iphone for this? Do you have any data?

 

[elkhound]

I wonder if you can use a iphone for this? Do you have any data?

no idea...it all goes through walmart...some of the refill cards you cant get there you have to buy on line and they email the secret code to put in your phone to load minutes or text or data...theres plain data plans..theres yearly plans with data too.

sorry its all i know.

its worked great to keep family off my case of not knowing if i was ok or not out hunting,fishing and working..plus my elderly parents need to be able to get a hold of me for mild emergencies and more for them.

look whats going on right now
sorry i dont know more about this stuff.

 

[elkhound]

 

[Pearl]

I use Cricket! Our two phones, unlimited data and insurance is 106.00 a month. We do not pay for Internet or TV, phones are our Internet! I have a Moto G 5g Power, Hubby has a more basic phone! I can do everything I need to do on my phone! First two phones were free several years back, I paid a little over $100 to upgrade this past year. Hubby's phone was about $50!

 

[elkhound]

@sonya123 i just learned they have a bring your own smartphone sim kit....$5....then all you do is pick a plan...buy it...put in activation card code

 

[Patchouli]

Cricket crashes once in a while but other than that, no complaints. At least twice I had only SOS service and couldn’t do a thing on it, turned it off for a couple minutes. I was trying to call someone, couldn’t text them either.
Make sure you look at a map service area as in some places in Arizona and New Mexico we had no reception traveling. That was a few years ago, assuming it’s better now.

 

[kd4ulw]

I’ve had Visible for 4 1/2 years. No problems and saved a bunch of money.

 

[AMC]

I just switched from obamaphone to mint mobile

 

[d_marsh]

I’ve had Visible for 4 1/2 years. No problems and saved a bunch of money.

Me too, but 2 years. Been really happy with them. $25 a month unlimited but the internet could be faster outside of metro areas.

 

[sonya123]

I’ve had Visible for 4 1/2 years. No problems and saved a bunch of money.

so how exactly DO you pay for it ? I can't find that info anywhere. All I find is you can't mail payments and you cant pay with credit cards either. So how does it work?

 

[d_marsh]

so how exactly DO you pay for it ? I can't find that info anywhere. All I find is you can't mail payments and you cant pay with credit cards either. So how does it work?

I use my debit card on autopay setup through the Visible website.

 

[sonya123]

I use my debit card on autopay setup through the Visible website.

I don't have a debit card. Do you have to have one to do this?

 

[AMC]

Sign up for paypals. I have 2. one for paypal, and one for robin hood.

 

[kd4ulw]

so how exactly DO you pay for it ? I can't find that info anywhere. All I find is you can't mail payments and you cant pay with credit cards either. So how does it work?

PayPal autopay.

 

[Hooch]

I use straight talk, at least 10 years now.
It is like tracphone, is all over , can buy at walmart or online. Can do all kinds of different plans and all are no contract. Can set up your old phone on it or buy their phones.
Very easy to set up, customer service has been very good when needed and service even out here in the sticks is very good.
I will never do those contract phone service again. I saved alot of money this way.

 

[old tex]

My wife has a cell phone & I honestly don't know what she pays on it but I'm sure that it's cheap because she never uses it. I did just switch our landline & internet to a new company in town. So far, problems. My impression is that they are so new that they have a lot of bugs to work out. New in the area, new staff & good salesmen can be a bad combination. I'll give them some time to work out the kinks mainly because I've gotten the impression that they do care, they are just very new.

 

[d_marsh]

I should add that Visible has no contract. You pay for a month of service, you get a month of service. You don't pay and they turn off your phone but hold your account/number for a few days in case you pay again then they reactivate everything.

 

[sonya123]

I should add that Visible has no contract. You pay for a month of service, you get a month of service. You don't pay and they turn off your phone but hold your account/number for a few days in case you pay again then they reactivate everything.

I think we will try it on husbands phone first. I am going to call Verizon and see what it would cost to take his line off and just have mine for now . Then we will use our business account and get a debit card for it. It will have very little cash in it so if it gets hacked , not too great of a loss. If it works out I will switch over also. Actually we might do son's first. He already has a debit card and pays his bill online now. ( or should I say I am giving him money to pay his bill since he just graduated and has not gotten a job yet)

Thanks all! One more comment: we do need the phone to work at all times, since we have no other phone lines. Internet is not that important, I just mostly use google maps on my phone when we have to find something.

have one more question: how do you remember to pay your stuff online , if you don't get a bill in the mail? I don't want anything set up to take money out of any account automatically
Do you get reminders in the email or something?

 

[sonya123]

one more thing, some of the other services like Mint is not really working here , we are in an area where it is questionable to have service. T mobile costs just as much as Verizon

 

[kd4ulw]

Visible uses Verizon towers. There is a setting to have your bill automatically deducted so you don’t have to remember to pay.

Also, you get a one time discount for adding new customers to Visible that both parties benefit from but you can also get a reduced rate for extra ‘lines’.

 

[Lenny]

I have US Cellular. The coverage is pretty good but not the best but they do have great customer service and I like that because I'm not very "techy". I walked away from Verizon about 10 years ago because they quit helping customers with techy issues.
I have Straight Talk as a backup phone and that does have great coverage.

I hear T-Mobile is going to eventually buy US Cellular and that disturbs me because they are anti-gun. They have "No Gun" signs on their doors. It might be a good idea for us to make calls to T-Mobile about their contempt for our Second Amendment rights.

 

[Pearl]

I think we will try it on husbands phone first. I am going to call Verizon and see what it would cost to take his line off and just have mine for now . Then we will use our business account and get a debit card for it. It will have very little cash in it so if it gets hacked , not too great of a loss. If it works out I will switch over also. Actually we might do son's first. He already has a debit card and pays his bill online now. ( or should I say I am giving him money to pay his bill since he just graduated and has not gotten a job yet)

Thanks all! One more comment: we do need the phone to work at all times, since we have no other phone lines. Internet is not that important, I just mostly use google maps on my phone when we have to find something.

have one more question: how do you remember to pay your stuff online , if you don't get a bill in the mail? I don't want anything set up to take money out of any account automatically
Do you get reminders in the email or something?

Email, and keep track myself via a schedule book!

 

[sonya123]

well I have a update on this, son tried to use Visible, and he found out his phone ( google phone but a few years old) is not compatible.
I guess we will try husband's new phone next to see if that works

 

[elkhound]

have one more question: how do you remember to pay your stuff online , if you don't get a bill in the mail? I don't want anything set up to take money out of any account automatically
Do you get reminders in the email or something?

tracphone sends me a text...also all i have to do is text the word balance to them and they tell me.