Are there any cheap smart phone plans?

In My Humble Opinion
21

There are tons of plans if you go prepaid as others have said. You have to buy your own phone, but that is a $50-200 investment. If you get an android it is cheap, but an iPhone will cost you hundreds more.

I have virgin mobile, at 2.5GB they cap your data at 256kbps. Netflix eats through data fast. Even at the lowest quality setting (which is perfectly fine for viewing on a phone) it eats up 0.3GB/hr. So in 8 hours you have hit your cap.

However I was able to continue streaming netflix at 256kbps. So there is that.

Do you live in a large city? Would you use your phone mostly in areas with wifi (home, restaurants, etc)? Wifi will not eat up your data.

The reason I ask about a large city is because Virgin Mobile has better 3G coverage in smaller towns than T Mobile, but T Mobile has better data speeds within large cities. It is a trade off. Since I use my phone outside of the city a lot I picked Virgin Mobile.

If you are set on an iPhone, you may be able to get a refurbished iPhone 4 for about $200-300.

http://www.virginmobileusa.com/shop/cell-phones/

I used to have a dumb phone (tracfone) and an ipod. Then I upgraded to a smartphone. It was one of the best investments I’ve ever made for the money spent (about $20 more a month than my dumb phone). Totally worth it.

22

A 400 minute card that includes a year of services is ~$100 for Tracfone. That gives you 1200 minutes of talk, 1200 texts, and 1200 mb data. So for a little more than $8 a month you’re getting 100 minutes/texts/mb. It’s not unlimited and you would want to rely on WiFi for Internet when possible, but we don’t know your usage and you can triple those amounts and still be paying less than you are right now.

23

Ting. Works for me. have a basic smartphone, but don’t watch movies. Cut rates that Verizon had been charging by 50%. YMMV

24

Forgot to add these bits about Ting:

You buy your device up front through ting (new or refurb) or through Glyde (used/refurb)

You’re charged monthly by how much you use, minute/msg/data-wise, NO CONTRACTS

They use Sprint towers. When I quit Verizon for Ting three years ago, I went from $120/month to $27/mo, since then it’s leveled out to $50 a month

So the phone purchases paid for themselves via lower rates in LESS THAN A YEAR.

Did I mention that’s for THREE people (myself, my wife, and my college student son)?