I Surrender - Need Smartphone Advice

In My Humble Opinion
1

I still have my stupidphone, a flip model, because it works and I haven’t needed to change it.

However, connection to the internet and texting is taking over and it’s getting to the point inability to text is becoming a problem.

I also know almost nothing about smartphones, as I have had no real interest in them up until now.

What is the least expensive option that lets me keep my current phone number?

All I need is something that

  • can function as a phone (make voice calls)
  • has voice mail
  • can send and receive texts

Anything else is gravy. I do not need latest cutting-edge stuff. Used would be fine so long as it’s in decent shape - where does one go for second-hand phones?

It’s not just the up front cost of the phone, the price of the on-going phone service is significant, too. I’m poor so I need cheap.

2

I don’t know if they will do it there, but I’ve seen used phones in several GameStop locations in Europe. It might be worth a look-see.

You don’t need a fancy model, but you do need a decent-sized screen. 4’5" is working well for me; I had problems with a 4" due to it being too small, both for actual sizing of stuff and because lots of app menus weren’t designed for such a tiny window.

3

Most of the major carriers have some form of low cost, no contract plan,if you can’t stay with the carrier you use you should still be able to port your number over.
The one potential gotcha is that most cheaper smartphones are Android handsets, and they have wildly varying quality. I’ve seen some junk ones with poor battery life and plain glass (extremely scratch prone) screens. See which models your prospective provider offers and read reviews.

4

That’s a freaking huge screen, but I could totally get into it, especially for streaming movies.:smiley:

5

You don’t need a smartphone for this. I had a non-smartphone with a QWERTY keyboard. But I don’t know if anything still makes these.

6

For an actual smartphone, Amazon is selling one for as little as $50. (You can block the ads and root it!) 4G LTE plus GSM, dual sims.

You can run it on a lot of networks, including overseas. It also has WiFi and if you set it up with Google Voice or some such, you can have free calls (and data) whenever you have free WiFi access.

Transferring phone number is no problem. The usual charge is $10 but many carriers waive it depending on the plan you sign up for.

For cheapest, very low usage, plan I recommend something like Tracfone. To minimize cost, buy a 30 day plan online and when they offer you another year for $60, add that. The cost/month is quite low.

Tracfone and such also offer cheaper non-smart phones for as low as $10.

7

I agree. For what the OP wants to do now, a smartphone is overkill. However, if Broomstick acquires a real smartphone, she may find that there are other useful things it can do.

8

Oh, I know they can do all sorts of things, but right now my budget is still very limited. If I could get all the bells and whistles for $2/month I’d be totally on board but that’s not realistic, and neither is acquiring a larger phone bill.

9

Most plans these days include unlimited talk and text, but if you are confident that you will only ever use <xxx voice minutes, you can get some cheaper plans with limited minutes per month. But if bargain basement is what you’re after and having a fully functioning smartphone with a data plan is unnecessary, then Tracfone is probably best.

10

Any cellular “dumb phone” can send and receive texts, and can receive voice mail. Those are a function of your service plan, not your hardware. You can probably keep the phone you have. Just talk to your carrier about your service plan.

Also, phone numbers are pretty much completely portable these days. You can keep it no matter what you do, assuming you are in the USA.

11

Get a Tracfone. Here’s one of the cheapest.

The phone is $10, and has “triple minutes” So if you buy a card for 450 minutes, 450 megabytes of data and 450 text messages, on this phone it will be good for 1200 of each, for the life of the phone. One of those cards costs $79 at Walgreens, might be cheaper somewhere else. And there are other cheaper cards with less minutes and data.

12

Just address this, all you need to do is get a phone that will accept your current SIM card. If that’s not possible, the phone company should sort it out for you - it takes about a day over here.

13

Can you name an explicit budget?

What kind of usage to you expect (minutes, texts, data per month)?

I use Ting, which is a Sprint network reseller. The rates are here. $6 per month for the line, and additional charges depending on how much you actually talk/text/download. My bill is usually between $20 and $30. There are cheaper services, but this one lets me use an iPhone (which I value) and most of the cheaper ones don’t.

14

If you want a basic smart phone then Nokia makes a number of low cost windows based phones. For $60 you should be able to find a 4G phone with a 5mp camera that does great panoramic pictures. You can send messages using the voice translation software so you don’t even have to type anything. If you buy data time you can surf the net with it or use it to drive your laptop.

15

If you have a friend who changes smartphones frequently, you may be able to get one of their old units and get it “unlocked” by their carrier.

RingPlus.net has insanely cheap cell plans. I’m using one that I got as a Presidents Day special that gives me, per month:
[ul]
[li]1,000 minutes of talk time[/li][li]1,000 texts[/li][li]1,000 megabits of data[/li][/ul]

…for the low, low price of zero.

I had to put just over $20 into their account. As I make few phone calls, I’ve never got anywhere near 1,000 minutes, I send maybe 5 texts on a busy day, and I’m always on WiFi and the only time I ever turn on data is when I can’t find any WiFi signals. Here’s my billing history:



August 14, 2016
	Presidents Day 2016 Renewed. A new invoice has been started.	$0.00	Account Balance
July 15, 2016
	Presidents Day 2016 Renewed. A new invoice has been started.	$0.00	Account Balance
June 15, 2016
	Presidents Day 2016 Renewed. A new invoice has been started.	$0.00	Account Balance
May 16, 2016
	Presidents Day 2016 Renewed. A new invoice has been started.	$0.00	Account Balance
April 16, 2016
	Presidents Day 2016 Renewed. A new invoice has been started.	$0.00	Account Balance
March 17, 2016
	Presidents Day 2016 Renewed. A new invoice has been started.	$0.00	Account Balance
February 18, 2016
	Device Swap Successful	$0.00	Account Balance
February 18, 2016
	Port Request Successful	$0.00	Account Balance
February 16, 2016
	Presidents Day 2016 Registered. A new invoice has been started.	$23.27	Credit Card

I still have $19.92 in their account! The only cost to me has been hearing an ad rather than hearing a phone ringing on the occasions I make a call.

Their service is via Sprint. I’m using a Moto E, a GSM phone that I bought unlocked and can take it anywhere. I’ve outgrown it (it only has 4 gigs of RAM, but does have an SD card slot.) Anyway, if you’re broke, this might be a good way to go.

16

By the way, I also have a completely free home phone, via Google Voice and an Obihai device. Unlimited US local and long distance calling, and I pay nothing.

17

I have this phone from Virgin Mobile. Unlimited talk, text and data is $30 a month.

This one is on sale for $15 but I’ve never used the carrier.

18

Links to Idle Thoughts’ dessert poll. :stuck_out_tongue:

19

Ha-HA! I totally meant to do that! :smack:

20

The phone itself is not a big expense, there are smartphones under $100 that will last you several years, when you amortize that those numbers come out to a few dollars a month.

As far as carrier I think you have 3 options

Extremely low cost carrier that offers limited talk/text time, or charges you each time you use your phone. Tracfone is a company that does this, but there are others. These start at $7/month. I had a tracfone for years, it always served me well. However I only used it for sporadic calls and texts.

Prepaid plan. These run about $30-40 a month. They give you (generally) unlimited talk and text, and they give you 2-5GB of data and after they throttle your data.

Full price plan. No need for this, they are about $70/month and offer the highest end new cell phones. You are basically just paying for the prepaid plan plus a $600 phone.

If you are willing to use tracfone, they have several smartphones for $30. Some are $20, some $10 and some are free. I’m not sure what the catch is with the free phones on tracfone.

http://www.tracfone-orders.com/bpdirect/tracfone/Start.do?action=view&zip=46402&locale=en&siteType=TR&market=COGSM5&gotoPhonelist=true&productFamily=Phones&AID=&__utma=18401020.231101236.1471403221.1471403222.1471403222.1&__utmb=18401020.6.10.1471403222&__utmc=18401020&__utmx=-&__utmz=18401020.1471403222.1.1.utmcsr=google

I’m not sure about keeping your number. I’m not sure how that is transferred between carriers. I did find this.