Cheapest Unlimited phone plan?

Bilbo Bagins · 10-13-2012, 13:54

OK money is tight, and the kids are hitting those horrible "Teen" years. Right now we are using "old school" basic cell phone, but eventually we are going to need to join the modern era and get smart phones.

So for those who already have a smartphone, what is the cheapest unlimited Talk,Text, and Web cell phone plan available. I don't care if its a contract or pay as you go.

Resqu2 · 10-13-2012, 14:01

No such thing my friend. 2 IPhone 5's through Verizon is going to run me $150 something a month, this includes insurance on both phones (extra $20) and my wife gets a 23% discount due to where she works. Good luck hunting a good plan though

rednoved · 10-13-2012, 14:02

MetroPCS?

czsmithGT · 10-13-2012, 14:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bilbo Bagins

OK money is tight, and the kids are hitting those horrible "Teen" years. Right now we are using "old school" basic cell phone, but eventually we are going to need to join the modern era and get smart phones.

So for those who already have a smartphone, what is the cheapest unlimited Talk,Text, and Web cell phone plan available. I don't care if its a contract or pay as you go.

Unlimited web is a luxury difficult to justify on a phone. Lots of ways to get unlimited talk and text plus 500 Mb web for around $50 a month

yam · 10-13-2012, 14:04

Check out Virgin Mobile. Works great for me.

TK-421 · 10-13-2012, 14:06

I believe Sprint is the only company who offers unlimited internet, everyone else seems to offer either 2GB or 5GB plans, so see about going with them, since unlimited internet will be nice once your teens figure out they can surf the web on their phones.

RonS · 10-13-2012, 14:28

Virgin Mobile has unlimited text and data but the talk minutes are limited. I would examine their talk usage and see if it fits their needs. I think you can get that deal on an Iphone for $30 a month. I pay $35 for the same thing on an Android. You need to buy the phone up front instead of paying for it over and over through your plan.

TK-421 · 10-13-2012, 14:47

Yeah, that's a good point, try and figure out what their actual usage is, before you try and go for unlimited everything. I used to be friends with a guy, and he had a spare phone so he let me use it, since I helped him out with bills once or twice, and he had unlimited everything. Between the two of us, we were lucky to use half of the minutes we were given, and that's only because his kids live in a different state, and he called them often. If he didn't have kids, we would've used like 50 minutes a month, max. And we were paying for 700. We also had unlimited text, which is like a requirement, because there were months we'd easily surpass 7,500 text messages. Unlimited data was also included, but it's such a pain to use the internet on the phone that I would really only use it when I was at a store and wanted to compare prices with other stores. Other than that, and some occasional dicking around online on the phone, I don't think I ever went over like 1GB of data a month, since I would always use my desktop instead, if I could.

Figure out what they need, and base your plan around that, don't just instantly grab unlimited everything, if you don't have to. But make sure to get unlimited text messages, teens love to text, a lot. I remember my dad refused to get text messaging on the plan, until I racked up over $50 worth of text messaging in one month, when unlimited texting was only like $30. And that was only with light texting. There have been times where I've had like 5,000 texts in one month, and trust me, you don't want your kids doing that without an unlimited texting plan. It's like $0.25 per text if you don't have a plan.

kenpoprofessor · 10-13-2012, 14:56

I picked up a Samsung Galaxy Precedent last week, with an unlimited month of D,T, and T for $136, out the door. You can get the monthly card or tri monthly deal for $5 less. So for $45 a month, unlimited on StraightTalk.

Within a few hours of learning how to use a smartphone, I had already put the apps in and got it tethered to my laptop via Fox Fi.

Have a great gun carryin' Kenpo day

Clyde

VinnieD · 10-13-2012, 14:58

Virgin mobile has been good to me. I do wish they offered more powerful androids, but the ones they do have are at least affordable. Check to make sure you're getting a true androids smartphone and not just a feature phone, as they have both.

Unlimited web and text is $35. If they text as oft teens do, that'll probably work. If you've got a chatterbox who can't text instead, they have unlimited everything for 55. You can switch back and forth any time, not have to pay the bill if you aren't going to be using the phone for a month, and don't have to be locked into a contract. Switch phones any time. You have to buy the phone yourself, but given the cost of contracts you'll spend less dropping $100 to $200 now than paying double the bill every month for a subsidized phone. You won't get the absolute latest and greatest, but it should be good enough.

***Gallium*** · 10-13-2012, 15:52

http://blog.t-mobile.com/2011/05/23/...nual-contract/

Hauptmann6 · 10-13-2012, 16:05

MetroPCS and Virgin.

Taphius · 10-13-2012, 20:41

straightalk 495/yr unlimited everything. If they have coverage anyway...

jakebrake · 10-13-2012, 20:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by rednoved

MetroPCS?

very inexpensive. but, coverage is spotty, and, if you go 4 g, it gets expensive. the 411 is a joke at best.

4 lines unlimited is hard to beat for a hundred a month.

***Dragoon44*** · 10-13-2012, 21:10

The problem with the prepaid plans for a long time was you could only get entry level smartphones but that is starting to change.

On data limits unless you have WiFi at home the teens can be on expect them to go over on any 2GB a month data plan. Before we Got WiFi it was nothing for my two teens to burn thru 5 or 6 GB a month on 3G.

I still don't know how my youngest son managed to use 5 or 6 GB of data a month AND send 10-12 thousand texts a month.

FCastle88 · 10-14-2012, 00:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by Taphius

straightalk 495/yr unlimited everything. If they have coverage anyway...

Straight Talk doesn't really have unlimited data, their user agreement includes a clause that they can throttle your data speeds or cancel your account if you use too much data. I've been looking into Straight Talk lately, and according to posters on various forums they will usually slow your data speeds or cancel your account if you repeatedly go over 2-3 GB a month. Most if not all of the no contract carriers are the same, either the "unlimited" data gets throttled or your account canceled if you go over 2-3 GB, or you're not getting 4G data speeds.

As for coverage, as I understand it, their rather limited smart phone coverage only applies to smartphones bought from Straight Talk. If you buy a smartphone with say an AT&T SIM card from a different source, such as a Galaxy SII or Nexus, the phone will run on AT&T's network, and coverage should be the same as any AT&T phone.