How do You get a Better Phone plan?

Dauntless

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May 28, 2010
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Coordinates: 33°52′48″N 117°55′43″W
Gotta ditch Verizon. Went to get a new phone and they told me I was keeping my same account at $10 less, but it's $1 a month MORE and for the 2nd month in a row I get a notice I'm about to run out of data more than a week before it's over. Either these are false notices or they pulled a fast one and reduced my data to some low number.

I mean Metro PCS is promising unlimited data for 4 lines for not much more than my one line and almost no data. https://www.metropcs.com/switch.html But I don't have kids for all the lines. I suppose I could go back to having a separate business line as I used to when I was busier. . . .

So this TMobile page, is it on the level? Single phone $50/month 10GB? That sounds great. https://www.t-mobile.com/no-credit-check?icid=WMD_TMNG_Q118NCCLP_0NLV7J6CPFI12694
 
We switched from Verizon to Metro PCS after we moved because the cell phone kept cutting out here. So when my wife's phone was paid up we switched back in January. Still have Verizon for TV, internet, and landline.
Metro PCS phone works better, internet is about the same but unlimited.
 
Consumer Cellular. Uses ATT's network and is customizable as to usage.
 
The fingers said:
We switched from Verizon to Metro PCS after we moved because the cell phone kept cutting out here. So when my wife's phone was paid up we switched back in January. Still have Verizon for TV, internet, and landline.
Metro PCS phone works better, internet is about the same but unlimited.

I've been very happy with my $30/mo MetroPCS service, except when traveling. I've paid extra for international service that didn't work during my trip, and when on road trips it seems my bandmates who have AT&T or Sprint can get a good signal when there's either no service or no data service for MetroPCS.

In town, where I spend 98% of my time, it appears to work as well as anything else.
 
I found a better phone plan by comparsion shopping and going with a company that offered what i needed. In my case the company is consumer cellular. Good luck in your search.
 
Comparison shopping doesn't come easy with phones. All these apps this one came with, are they part of the original Android OS or did the salesperson at the store sneak them in on my bill?

I really haven't found a good comparison for one phone, x data, etc. And hard to judge the quality of the connection in my area.
 
Want cheap? Check out Mintsim, which uses the tmobile network.

The trick is to port your number to Google voice so that you never have to worry about porting again. Then you use Google hangouts as the dialer on your phone. All calls and texts to your old/original number on google voice now forwards to your new cellphone number via google hangouts. You get full control over your number and there's lots of extra features. I like being able to text unlimited from any device that can run Google hangouts.

Phone and data plan required to make it all work, but with mintsim I'm paying $15/mo for unlimited talk&text, and 2gb data. 5gb plan is $20/mo, 10gb is $25/mo. The catch is minimum of 3 months prepaid, so for 3 months my plan is $45 total. When that runs out, the options are:
- continue at their standard rate for my plan which would go from $15/mo to $23/mo.
- prepay for the next year to keep your intro rate.
- Create a new account and do another 3 mo introductory rate deal. :D Sure you get assigned a new number, but then you just update it on google voice and you're back in business. Sure it's some hassle involved, but its quick and easy once you go through it.
 
You can sign up for mintsim like any other prepaid plan. buy a Mintsim starter kit/sim card at Wal-Mart or amazon, ect. For like $5. They give you 2 sims. 1 for testing service, and the 2nd one for porting over your current number of you choose to sign up for a plan. If you do, they credit your $5 back.

ignore all my Google voice and Google hangouts crazy talk and take a look at the plans on the mountain website. Your $30/mo metro pcs plan requires 4 lines, but Mintsim only requires 1 line for $23/mo. Sign up on their prepaid 3 month or 1 year plan and the price drops to $15/mo! That's the 2gb data plan.
 
ElementX said:
Your $30/mo metro pcs plan requires 4 lines,

I pay $30/mo for MetroPCS service with 2GB of 4G LTE data and unlimited 3G data in excess of that amount. I have only one line.
 
I am sure you can find a great plan if you dont use much data. I still know people who use flip phones and companies still sell them.
 
Well, I didn't use up my 5gb, so that's why I'm sure there's something wrong with Verizon now. I just assume they pulled a fast one.

Still trying to understand the Mintsim. I know my first Motorola Droid phone could have the card changed, it would come apart. But that last one and this current one do not. How would I use this prepaid card? Is it possible to use it in this pad with Android my mother gave me? What happened to her is that she had the flip phone type and suddenly they were giving her this pad and saying it was free but they LIED! She had extra on her bill for it. I'm wondering if this thing would go online and even work as a phone with that. If I was to use an iPad Pro to run my RED camera I might also want to get it online. (Or maybe not, haven't decided.)
 
Hehe... A "phone plan". Haven't had any "phone plan" for decades (part of living a life "on vacation"). It used to be, telephones meant getting calls from "telemarketers"... These days I see the most frequent Yell Phone (TM) conversation goes like "hello"? "HELLO?" ... etc... versus having an electronic mail account on the internet. Being a constant traveler, means I don't have to change my "address". Like a wrist watch, I still carry a portable phone so that I "look normal". In fact, the Blackberry takes OK photographs. [wink] ... yet still "connects with the world" via WiFi and the internet. LOVE e-mails, as works anywhere, 24/7, and doesn't cause any devices to ring or beep, etc. [grin]

[Reality, signing off] (Sorta like still owning automobiles!) Hehe
 
Dauntless said:
Still trying to understand the Mintsim. I know my first Motorola Droid phone could have the card changed, it would come apart. But that last one and this current one do not. How would I use this prepaid card? Is it possible to use it in this pad with Android my mother gave me? What happened to her is that she had the flip phone type and suddenly they were giving her this pad and saying it was free but they LIED! She had extra on her bill for it. I'm wondering if this thing would go online and even work as a phone with that. If I was to use an iPad Pro to run my RED camera I might also want to get it online. (Or maybe not, haven't decided.)

Mintsim is a virtual carrier just like MetroPCS. They are both selling you cellphone service through a real carrier, in this case it's Tmobile. In other words, your service would actually be on the Tmobile network if you go with either Mintsim or MetroPCS, but at lower priority and less roaming options (hence the lower pricing). Tmobile uses removable sim card phones, so you'd have to get a new phone either way.

Now back to my talk previously regarding Google Voice and Google Hangouts.

Google Voice is a VOIP (voice over IP) service which allows you to make phone calls over a data connection. It's actually free. You can create a Google account, sign up for Google Voice, and get assigned a free phone number that you can use on your phone/tablet/PC through an data/wifi/internet connection to make/receive phone calls, texts, and voicemail.

Google Hangouts is an add-on app for Google Voice that you can install on your phone/tablet/PC that is like a VOIP dialer/texting app.

I used to have my service directly through Tmobile. I wanted to save money, and so I found out about Mintsim. Then I found out about porting my phone number to Google Voice so that I could use my phone number on multiple devices.

Google Voice gives you a free phone number, but you also have the option of porting your current phone number for a one-time fee of $20. I bought the Mintsim starter kit for ~$5 which came with 2 sims. I inserted the 1st sim and activated it for testing. It assigned a random number which I used for a few days to confirm the service worked in my area. I then used the 2nd sim that came with the starter kit to sign up for a 3 month plan. When those 3 months were about to expire, I found out that I could just keep creating new accounts to keep the introductory pricing. The main problem with that is having to get a new phone number every 3 months lol.

That's where Google Voice came in. I ported my current number there so I will always own my number regardless of who my carrier is in the future. Google Voice has call forwarding so when people call my original/real number, it forwards the calls/texts to wherever I want. I have it linked to whatever my current/"temporary" Mintsim number is. I don't give out or use the Mintsim assigned number at all after that. I installed Google Voice and Google Hangouts on my phone, tablet, and PC. When a call/text comes it, it rings to my phone or whatever device I have those apps open on.
 
Dauntless said:
LockH said:
Hehe.

[Reality, signing off] Hehe

You were supposed to put that at the beginning of the post.

Hehe... The Blackberry is still handy to whip out and use to babble back to any self-important babblers using any arcane language... Generally gets them to shut up and/or go away. Ich spreche kein Deutsch. Italienisch sprechen?
 
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