Currently, my wife and I use Verizon. We pay ~$170 month for two phones. We have 700 shared minutes, unlimited texting and 2gb data which we dont need.
Obviously, we need to find cheaper phone plan. We use about 500 minutes each month between us, but we both do a lot of texting - a couple thousand each month. So that’s our requirements - 500 minutes plus texting - plus we would like to keep our current phone numbers. We’re in southern Oregon.
Google is failing me. Any Dopers know of cheap phone carriers that meet these needs for less money than we’re paying now?
Are you off contract (phones older than 2 years?) - if yes, look into Vz prepaid plans. Also, Boost and Cricket should work with your phones.
I have been using used iPhones on pre-paid AT&T GoPhone and now TMobile prepaid plans for several years now. AT&T plan was 10¢ minute, no data. TMobile is 100 minutes, unlimited data for $30/month.
As long as you don’t cancel your VZ plan first, you can always keep your number.
Check clarkhoward.com and search “cell phone plans.” Down halfway you will find the article, “cheap cell phone plans.” I have Sprint and am looking at Virgin mobile. I figured if my wife and I each buy a $400.00 cell phone, then after 16 months we’re saving money as compared with paying Sprint. If you don’t care about your phone you can search for a used one on Craigslist.com. Some others are NET 10 wireless, Boost wireless, Straight talk. All of them are better if you keep your phone for a long time. They even use major networks. Virgin wireless uses Sprint network but others use Verizon.
Earlier this year, my wife and I went with MetroPCS. We both got LG Motion 4G phones, which ended up costing $50.00 each after instant discounts and mail-in rebates. Their lowest monthly plan (with no contract, mind you) is $40.00 per month. For this, you get unlimited talk and text (don’t remember about international), and you get 500MB of data per month. After that, you still can upload/download, just at “reduced” speeds, with “reduced” not really being defined. Plus, we combined our two phones into a Family Plan, which gave us a monthly discount of $5.00 per line. Plus plus, we were able to port our old phone numbers to the new phones.
At $70.00 a month for 2 lines, with more features (in the plan and in the phones) than we’ve ever had before, we’ve been quite satisfied. Speeds have been consistently 4G as well (we live in Shreveport, Louisiana).