Cell phone provider - who do you use, how much per month?

[rfjustin]

Cell phone provider - who do you use, how much per month?

My wife and I have an antiquated Verizon plan, 2gb per month, out the door right at 90 bucks, phones long paid off.

We are not newest of the new type people, looking for recommendations on the best bang for the buck for cell provider. Side note, don't much care about which phones we end up with, just not looking to spend 200+ per month for cell phones and coverage.

Thanks!

 

[GlueckAuf]

Mrs. GlueckAuf and I use a Verizon pay-as-you-go plan for about $35 each monthly. There is a $5 or so additional discount on that since I allow them to debit my debit card each month for the total when due. My plan, negotiated a year or two earlier than the wife's, provides me a cap of 5GB of data per month, hers only 3GB (for whatever reason). The leftover data volume does NOT roll into the following month, which I would prefer, but them's the rules. I paid cash for both our phones (mine's an ancient iPhone 7 Plus, hers is a new Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max).

 

[tsmith1315]

Similar to @GlueckAuf, we use a pre-paid Page Plus plan at $29.95. They use the Verizon network, Verizon towers and the service is identical. I left Verizon for Page Plus after paying them about $15k over the previous few years and getting very poor customer service when looking to reduce my plan costs. I saw no change on coverage whatsoever, same exact dead spots, etc after changing.

We get unlimited talk & text, 2GB data. No services like parental controls, etc. Total is actually $29.95 if I pay the local provider in-store. If I pay online, tax is added for a total of little over $31.

There are many pay as you go plans out there, most folks I've talked to have been happy with theirs. Many of them use the Verizon network, you'll need that if using your own Verizon phones. IIRC, as long as the phone is still active, your number can be ported over to the new plan, but you'll lose the remaining time left on the plan.

I'll never have a cell phone contract again.

 

[jderimig]

Ting. $10/month, +$5 per GB used shared.
My kids use Spectrum (verizon network) $30/mo unlimited data. (but you need to be a Spectrum Internet customer already).

 

[Bill S]

Cell phone provider - who do you use, how much per month?

My wife and I have an antiquated Verizon plan, 2gb per month, out the door right at 90 bucks, phones long paid off.

We are not newest of the new type people, looking for recommendations on the best bang for the buck for cell provider. Side note, don't much care about which phones we end up with, just not looking to spend 200+ per month for cell phones and coverage.

Thanks!

We used to be Ting customers, but their forced X3 "upgrade" for 5g service broke both of our phones, resulting in lousy service, constantly shifting signal strength and dropping out of service. Since neither of our phones could even use 5g, this was really annoying. We ended up going with T-Mobile's $15 a month plan. Unlimited text and calling, 2.5gb data/month.

https://prepaid.t-mobile.com/prepaid-plans/connect

 

[Peartree]

We are with ATT and have always bought our phones on eBay or at Best Buy, but my latest phone came from WalMart and my "payment" is something less than two dollars per month. Yesterday we upgraded our plan to their middle level "unlimited" plan which, for five phones, should actually be cheaper than what we had before and cost about $30 per phone per month (plus applicable taxes, etc.).

 

[Rocketjunkie]

Was with AT&T, basic service was $75/month for a flip phone. Had the plan since 1999 when I needed phone at the field when I was Prefect. Went to Consumer Cellular a year ago, unlimited calls and text, 3GB/month for $30, with taxes and fees, $35/month. Using a Moto e I got for $80. No issues with service. They use the major carrier's networks.

 

[tim cubbedge]

I’ve been using Straight Talk from Walmart. Pay per month. No contracts. 10 GB data per month. Unlimited text/talk. $35 plus tax. Includes calls to Mexico and Canada.

 

[linville86]

I use Mint Mobile, $180 a year for the 4gb plan. They are a virtual carrier on the T mobile network.

 

[kuririn]

Tracfone.
I'm not a heavy cell phone user.
Just keep it mainly for emergencies and brief phone calls.
I have the 1000 minutes/365 days plan.
Used to be $100, price went up to $160.
So about $13 and change per month.
Minutes, data and texts remaining roll over.
So now I have 1.08 Gb of data, 4805 minutes, and 6225 texts remaining in my account.
That's an awful lot of talking, downloading and texting.
Heh.

 

[Sooner Boomer]

I had Verizon pre-paid. They made it a huge problem to pay the bill at the end of each cycle (90 days). I just switched to Mint Mobile. Introductory offer was 6 months for $45. The next 6 month "chunk" will be $120. *MUCH* less than I paid with Verizon! Plus I get 4GB of data, vs 1 GB w/Verizon.

 

[dr wogz]

I'm in Canada. We produce two offspring every year to pay for our limited service.. (Yeah, the timing issues kill the fun of it..)

 

[hball55]

Consumer cellular, service still goes through AT&T, but I pay $22 and pennies each month with unlimited texting.

 

[NateB]

Verizon here, tried AT&T and Google Fi at times and went back to Verizon for the best service in places we need phones.

Currently we have the unlimited plan on 2 lines for a $98 / month after all the taxes and fees. They throw in a few things like Disney+, Hulu and Discoverys streaming service too. The service is fast and the and network is reliable in places where we use it.

 

[teepot]

We had been with sprint for decades. Then T Mobile bought them. So now we are with them. I have always got my phone from the carrier. It's been Samsung phones for the last 15 years. We have an unlimited everything. As far as cost I have no idea. You would have to ask my wife. She handles all the finances.

 

[boatgeek]

Another Consumer Cellular user here. Not 100% sure what the price is, but the $20/month my job gives me for a cell plan more than covers my line. We have 5 lines between the family on the same plan.

 

[stealth6]

I've just recently been experimenting with Visible.
They are owned by Verizon and therefore use their network.
The basic deal is $40/month, with "unlimited" phone, text, and data.
That $40 is total.............NO extra fees, taxes, etc. Just a straight $40.

But there's a couple of tricks to make it better.
First, if you get together with 4 or 5 "family & friends" (that all use Visible) you can get that down to $25/month.
In practice there are tons of "groups/parties" online that you can join and get that rate pretty easy and hassle free.

Next, there's that "unlimited data". It is in fact limited in a couple of ways. They DO throttle down your speed a high data usage, which is a pain. And if you are using the phone as a "hotspot", you can only use it for one device at a time. But again, there's a workaround. If you get a small basic "travel router", you can tether the phone to it, use THAT for you incoming cell signal, and then hook up however many device you want (the network just "sees" the one device. In SOME cases this will also eliminate the speed throttling. So, with these tweaks you can actually get something approximating "unlimited" data.

d.

 

[deandome]

my employer makes the choice easy for me, but even trying to be unbiased, strength in 5G C-Band is what I want in a provider. Now and looking ahead, VZ and ATT literally own that space

 

[dhbarr]

If you have good wifi at home and work, I really like the Pixel 5a 5g ( I use it ) and Google Fi ( the missus uses it ).

Not a great fit for everyone, and I freely admit it's a biased and subjective opinion that's probably at least a little tinted by where I work

https://fi.google.com/about/promo-terms/?id=CRkD494b1gUAEggZA-PeG9YFAA==

 

[Adam3836]

Xfinity Mobil 80 bucks a month for two iPhones
We have a bundle package because our cable and internet is through them also

 

[heada]

AT&T unlimited 5G everything + HBOMax subscription included for "free" for $75

I use my mobile phone as a mobile hotspot when my internet goes out since I have to have internet for my job. It's really nice to provide wifi at launches for others using it too.

 

[cvanc]

I've had Google Fi for years, very happy with it. It's 30 or 35 per month, IIRC, plus $10/Gig above some preset limit (which I rarely hit).

 

[CalebJ]

I'm on Verizon's 15GB prepaid plan. There are cheaper options, but it's still significantly less than their postpaid system. I think I'm at $45 a month? No complaints about coverage.

 

[Bat-mite]

I use Mint Mobile, $180 a year for the 4gb plan. They are a virtual carrier on the T mobile network.

Same here. My wife and I both use Mint, and we have never felt like we didn't get more than what we need.

 

[cerving]

Verizon, since 1995. Their coverage is far and away the best. Four lines, three of them use a lot of data (mine is the one that uses the least... I don't do videos). Me and my two adults sons use the hotspot quite a bit for work, and they also have newer phones that aren't paid off yet, so the bill is pretty hefty... $250 + the phone payments. But we have the "real" unlimited plan, that doesn't throttle the hotspots, so it's worth it to us.

 

[JimByrne]

Cell phone provider - who do you use, how much per month?

My wife and I have an antiquated Verizon plan, 2gb per month, out the door right at 90 bucks, phones long paid off.

We are not newest of the new type people, looking for recommendations on the best bang for the buck for cell provider. Side note, don't much care about which phones we end up with, just not looking to spend 200+ per month for cell phones and coverage.

Thanks!

I pay $36 per month for two phones from Consumer Cellular---simple basic phones which is all we need

 

[afadeev]

Verizon, after trying all 4 (now 3) major carriers in the US over the past few decades. The coverage and consistency of service are worth a small premium, for me.

Verizon for 3 kids lines sharing 10Gigs for $70.70. Once they exceed the quota, they get throttled, thus self-policing. Mesh WiFi at home, so this hardly ever happens anymore.
Verizon for 2 work cells, 2 connected laptops, and 1 connected iPad for the working parents, all of those lines with unlimited data on another plan. Way more expensive than the above, but work pays for these.

a

 

[DES]

TracFone, pay as you go an an annual basis. About $150 a year.

You can buy just about any phone you want outright. Get a serviceable smart phone for as little as $30, or one with nice cameras for about $100. Or you can get Tracfone sim cards for free, and put those in any reasonable current unlocked phone you already have.

 

[Greg Furtman]

If you have good wifi at home and work, I really like the Pixel 5a 5g ( I use it ) and Google Fi ( the missus uses it ).
https://fi.google.com/about/promo-terms/?id=CRkD494b1gUAEggZA-PeG9YFAA==

I bought a Pixel 4a. I like the smaller size. Best smartphone I've ever had.

 

[afadeev]

TracFone, pay as you go an an annual basis. About $150 a year.
You can buy just about any phone you want outright. Get a serviceable smart phone for as little as $30, or one with nice cameras for about $100. Or you can get Tracfone sim cards for free, and put those in any reasonable current unlocked phone you already have.

My mother-in-law (MIL) uses Tracfone, and it has been sufficient for her needs.
FYI - Tracfone was splitting its customer base across AT&T and Verizon wholesale accounts. Now that they had been bought out by VZ, all lines are being converted to VZ SIMs and phones. Lower-end phones rarely get full frequency bands' coverage for both carriers (unlike iPhones), so MIL got a new phone with a new VZ SIM. Activation has been anything but smooth, and Tracfone customer support has been neither expedient nor helpful.

I bought a Pixel 4a. I like the smaller size. Best smartphone I've ever had.

I loved Pixel 5 (similar in size to 4a) for everything, other than battery life.
Smaller phones are constrained by physical case dimensions to house smaller batteries. Somewhat counter-intuitively, you get longer battery life with bigger phones that have bigger screens (that burn more juice), just because OEMs can package a larger battery into the case. For example, iPhone 13 Pro Max lasts ~50% longer than iPhone 13 mini.

https://www.laptopmag.com/best-picks/phones-best-battery-life
Way longer list:
https://nanoreview.net/en/phone-list/endurance-rating