I like the pre-paid phone plans, the ones where you buy your own phone and then pay $25-40/month for the phone plan.
I am currently on virgin mobile and have a samsung galaxy J7.
However I don’t like the J7. The main reason is that it ‘only’ has 16GB of internal memory. I thought when I bought it ‘16GB, I’ll never run out of space’. My old phone had 8GB of internal memory. The one before that had 1GB of internal memory.
But then when I got it I realized something like 6+GB is just the OS. Then there are tons of apps you can’t move to the microSD card. It adds up fast.
So I’m hoping a 32GB internal memory phone will be enough for me. Hopefully. I’d rather not spend the money on a phone with 64GB of internal memory. Those seem closer to $600 for a phone.
I’d like to keep the phone to under $200. I’d like it to be android, 32GB (or more if possible) internal memory plus a microSD slot. A 128GB microSD card is more than enough, I don’t need a slot that can handle a 256GB card.
Also what is a good provider for a single individual (so I don’t have 3 other people I can all get together with to get the phone). Verizon? T-mobile? Sprint? Walmart?
A big issue is that when I am in rural areas in Indiana, I don’t get coverage. In fact, I don’t even get coverage in Iowa city when I am visiting people. Iowa city should have coverage on modern cell phones, but doesn’t on virgin mobile.
Also how do I transfer my phone number between providers?
I’m on Puppy Wireless. They are a Verizon MVNO. $26 Unlimited Talk, Text, & 2GB Data.
As far as a phone, the Moto phones are good, as are the Samsung Galaxy line. I’ve had a S4, S5 and a Note 4 and been very happy with all. I usually buy a used ~4 year old flagship phone on eBay for around $125. I search for something like: “galaxy s5 verizon excellent” and carefully read the description.
If you’ve put all your contacts and such under your Google account they will transfer when you change phones. Changing phone companies and keeping your number shouldn’t be a problem either as it’s a normal thing for them. I’ve known people who’ve switched carriers a few times in just a year or two to check them out and they’ve always kept their number.
I don’t know who to suggest for another carrier, I’ve been with Virgin for 15 or so years. I thought when I first read your post that you wanted to switch because they were going Apple only, but they’ve gone back to offering Android phones again.
I’ve been with Google Fi for about 3 years. They have the moto g6 for $199 and the Android one moto x4 for $249. Both seem to fit your criteria. I currently have the moto g6, which is a great phone for the price.
Their plan is $20/month for talk & text, plus $10 per GB of data. If you use a lot of data, it is probably not the best plan. I have wifi at home and work so my bill is rarely above $30. Plus, you only pay for the data you use. Fi runs largely on the Sprint network, I believe.
Moving your phone number is easy - your new carrier will take care of it.
I’m with Red Pocket wireless (prepaid). They send you SIMs for T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon and whatever one you use for activation is the network you’ll be on. I picked T-Mobile and it is working well. Since I’m a light user (almost always on WIFI) I went with the 500 minutes/500 SMS/500 MB plan. Buying it through Ebay I got it for $99/year or $8.25 a month. If you want the best odds of getting coverage in rural areas you want AT&T.
The huge advantage Fi has - but also the reason why only a small handful of phones work well - is that they auto-switch between the T-Mobile, Sprint, and U.S. Cellular networks.
T-Mobile is good-to-great in most large cities, Sprint is…okay…most places, and U.S. Cellular specializes in rural areas. In the past 3 years the only place I’ve ever had trouble getting a signal with Fi was in Eastern Montana…not even the guy with Verizon could get bars in some places there.