Thinking about trying one of these carriers and leaving verizon. They are much cheaper but I’m hesitant about coverage and hidden fees etc…
Anyone use or have used these types of carriers?
I’ve used Virgin Mobile for years now, and never had a problem with either. The lack of hidden fees is what makes it so much better than any normal type of cell phone provider. Plus they tons of different pricing tiers so you can get the best deal for the amount you use, and you can change it as often as you want.
Yep, I’ve had Virgin for years as well, never had a problem. Now they don’t pick up as well as some other places, but since it’s rare that I’m in those kinds of places I don’t really care.
Before I was on the plan that was $0.25 a minute, they don’t have that one any more but I was grandfathered in. I liked it, but I was always worried that “This call just cost me a buck”, even though it would have cost me more through a normal carrier as I never used the minutes.
Now I’m on the unlimited plan for texts, data and web and 300 minutes a month. It costs $26.50 after taxes. I like it. I may not have the best phone in the world, but it’s still a nice phone. Plus now I can text, which used to cost 0.15 each, so I never really did that before. I may still be paying for stuff I don’t use, but I like the plan so far.
ETA: I’m in the DC area and haven’t had any problems with the reception.
Another Virgin Mobile user here. I pay $34.99 per month for 300 anytime and 1000 night/weekend minutes, and 1000 text messages. It’s more than enough, so I can just use my phone and not think about it. If I happen to be broke one month, I can temporarily switch plans and just put $10 or so on my account and pay by the minute, then go back to the 300/1000/1000 plan when I have more cash. There’s no penalty.
While I’ve never seen hidden fee problems with Virgin, coverage is an issue with every prepaid carrier, as is handset quality, handset price and an overall lack of customer service.
If you’re looking for a better prtice over Verizon, try Sprint or T-Mobile, and get yourself a discount while you’re at it. Off the top of my head, for Sprint a AAA membership or a credit union membership will get you waived activation fees and 10% off. Go put $5 in a savings account at a credit union, and you qualify.
There’s really no comparison leaving a contract carrier for a prepaid phone.
Virgin Mobile uses the Sprint network. Any coverage issues that differ from normal Sprint users probably come down to the handset.
Yes, excepting that a contract CDMA Sprint phone will roam on other CDMA networks for free, within reason, such as US Cellular and Verizon. No small thing, depending on how populated and or hilly your area is or isn’t.
Prepaid phones, including Sprint’s Virgin and Boost services won’t, and the difference in rural area coverage is vast.
I use T-Mobile’s prepaid plan, which is about 10c per minute. Another poster on another thread recommended Page Plus, which is much cheaper, 5c per minute at its best rate. If I didn’t already have the phone I like, I’d switch.
I had a Cricket a few years back, and was always pretty satisfied with it. However, in this area they switched over to Revol, and it went downhill from there. Not a big difference in pricing, but the coverage lessened and calls were dropped left and right. A friend recently got one and it seems he’s having the same problems, so apparently they’ve not fixed the issues.
So, avoid Revol, it sucks.
My daughter is VERY unhappy with Cricket. Bad customer service and it doesn’t get a signal about 20% of the time for no reason. Before that she used Virgin prepaid and liked it but texting was too expensive for her needs.
In Canada Virgin runs on the Bell network. Bell operates both CDMA and HSPA+ (GSM 3G) networks. I’m thinking of taking my phone number and my iPhone and jumping ship to them once my existing contract is up. Anyone here use non-CDMA Virgin in Canada?