cheaper cell phone plan?

[schmamy]

Originally Posted by esperanza

I'm going to post on fb to see if anyone in the area has Sprint. Doesn't really look like it would be easy to cancel/get money back with Ting if it doesn't work. I did read online that Sprint is #4 in coverage in the big carriers here, so not so hot. I also saw a news article that our city is particularly bad for cell phone coverage compared to other cities our size, so I guess that factors in too.

Ting is no contract. Canceling your service would be easy and simple, and you could always sell your phone through craigslist or eBay It seems to me like it would be way easier to give Ting a trial run--or any of the other small MVNOs that operate the same way--you can't give Verizon or Sprint trial runs because you're locked into contracts, but Ting and the others don't operate that way.

[esperanza]

True. I did ask on FB, and 5/5 friends who responded all said they had Sprint, terrible coverage, and all had since canceled. Bummer. My dh seems to be okay with getting something other than an iphone. I've thought about RW too, since I'd be good with one of their phones.

What's making this more complicated now is that we are in a family plan with my mom, each paying 60/month (so dh and I pay 120). If we both back out (which we can, we're out of contract), my mom has to change to an individual plan and cheapest would be about 80/month. She got a new phone in December, so she's back under contract. She has more money than we do, but I still feel badly putting her in that position. I think if it wasn't for that, I'd be pushing pretty hard for trying RW.

We were in the store yesterday checking out phones and asking about options. I asked about getting out of our plan, and the guy asked why we would want to leave. "Because I want something cheaper! We're paying $120 a month!" He didn't have much to say to that. The thing is, our current plan that we're grandfathered into is good, and I don't want to give that up until we're sure we have something else good!

[mommylove]

Have you considered Page Plus through Kitty Wireless? I know I already said this, so I'm not trying to beat you over the head, but I have an iPhone, pay $30/mo and it runs off Verizon towers.

[esperanza]

Hmmm, I did look at that option, and now I can't remember why I didn't pursue it. I'll look at it again tonight!
Still feeling guilty about making my mom go solo...

[mommylove]

I understand; I ditched my parents, too. (They were not in a contract so that made it different, but their price still went up as a result.)

[ECingMama]

Parents can switch to these companies too!!! All will be well with the world!

[esperanza]

Yeah, except that my mom is in a two year contract that started in December. It used to be that once our contract was up, we were month to month. But they changed it, and so when my mom got her new phone, she was back in a contract. Boo. She has an iphone, so that does limit what she could do. I have no idea how much it would be for her to buy out the rest of her contract.

I did look at Page Plus some more. The big downside is that there are large amounts of my state (including where we vacation every summer) that are roaming. My specific area isn't, but I was really surprised at how much was. Hmmm...

[schmamy]

I forgot a piece of info about Ting that might help you - voice and text roaming are free. Seriously. I think you said you aren't much concerned about data, so maybe that would make a difference? If Sprint's 3G coverage in your area is terrible and you really want good data coverage, that'd be a dealbreaker for sure. But if you aren't planning on using data much, you might be fine. Ting roams on other networks for voice calls and text messaging at no extra charge, so if Sprint doesn't have coverage, it'd use Verizon's network. No idea how they can do that for free, but they do. It's happened to me more than once.

[daughter_of_faith]

Interesting. We'd looked into Page Plus through Kitty Wireless in the past, but we didn't go with it for some reason.

Our cell phone is bleeding our bank account every month and we can't continue like this though.

[Jeanette598]

I just got a Moto G phone and went with Ting. No Sprint problems so far! I'm on track for a $24 bill this month.

[schmamy]

did you have a referral link?! I could have gotten you $25 off your first bill!

---------- Post added at 11:39 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:38 AM ----------

here is a link for anyone else who wants one. If you sign up through this link, you get a $25 credit on your account and so do I
https://zofak81qo13.ting.com/

[Jeanette598]

Oh, I had one. Thanks, though!

[Rugayatu]

DH has RW. It wasn't super great when we were in MT but is fine here in NY. He had one of their older phone versions for awhile which he didn't like, he's always wanted an iphone. But he recently smashed the screen on his old one so we got him the Moto X. He LOVES it. It is a really nice phone, the camera is amazing, he is super happy with it. So, your DH may like it more than he thinks. It is a lot of money to pay for the phone up front, but before we switched I calculated how long it would take before we started saving money: we went from $120/month to $22/month. First month free, paid $280 for the phone. So by the third month we were already spending less than if we'd kept Verizon (Verizon for 3 months = $360; RW for 3 months + cost of phone = $324).

I still use my super old flip phone and have page plus. I don't use my phone tons, so I am on one of their cheaper plans, I pay $12/month.

[TraceMama]

I need to make a decision between Ting and Republic Wireless in the next two days. My flip-phone finally bit the dust!

So, it looks like I can get a used or refurbished older model phone from Ting for less than a new one at RW. If I decided I hated it, I could eventually resell it, which isn't the case for RW. These are points in Ting's favor.

However, I'm still unsure about the rates at Ting. If I'm primarily going to be using WiFi when available and then using the phone to text and talk, will Ting's be comparable or even less than RW?

Of course, the real question here is whether I want an iPhone or Android.

[FaithnPraise]

I'm another with Pages Plus through Kitty Wireless, DH and I pay $60 combined for our smartphones. When we switched to them about 4 years ago we had our VZW phones and they were easy to just swap services with; since then we've upgraded our phones a few times and although we're paying $100 for a phone (less than once a year) it's not a burden because we're saving so much each month!

Right now we both are using Moto G handsets that were Boost Mobile but permanently flashed to Pages Plus.