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View Full Version : Post-paid or Pre-paid cell phone service?


turtle
2015-02-23, 10:26
So I've always been with a major carrier though the carrier has changed a few times. Currently I'm with AT&T. I keep hearing that going to a pre-paid phone service for my iPhone would save me money but in the past every time I've looked into it there wasn't a benefit and I would have to be on Sprint's network which seems to be generally considered crap.

I don't travel a whole lot though it's not unheard of for my family to leave Tidewater. We do have three smartphones on our plan at this point and do a fair amount of data. Ok, almost all of it is me, but we are on the Family Share plan for AT&T. We also are off contract at this point.

Is it worth it to leave AT&T for pre-paid? Seems the savings might be there but it would be sacrificing quality. At this point I haven't looked much into it so I figured I would check here since I know someone here is bound to have better insight than I do on this.

Luca
2015-02-23, 13:58
Step 1 is always figuring out the network you want. Verizon is the only one where it's pretty much impossible to have a modern smartphone on a prepaid plan. Unless you go through Verizon itself, which is almost as expensive as postpaid and you don't get a subsidy.

AT&T generally has good speeds and coverage, and a wide variety of phones. Plus you already have your phones so there's no need to buy new ones. You could just go with Cricket, they use the AT&T network and give access to LTE as well. If you use autopay it's $35/mo per line at 2.5 GB of data, $45 for 5 GB, and $55 for 20 GB.

Sometimes if you have a really large number of devices, it can be cheaper to stick with a postpaid family plan. But chances are you could put two smartphones on the $35 plan and yours on the $45 plan and you're paying $115 a month for three smartphones.

Back when I was on Verizon with my wife it was $140+ a month for just two smartphones, and that was a couple years ago so prices may have gone up even more since then. I haven't really looked.

In case you might care, we're now on Ting (Sprint network) after a brief run with Platinumtel (T-Mobile network). T-Mobile has faster data and there are a wealth of excellent prepaid options for it, but their coverage is just horrible once you get out of most major cities. Sprint's data is pretty slow and we don't have LTE devices, so we're stuck on ~1 Mbps 3G, but we're also on a pay-per-use plan and have simply been extra careful about not overusing data. With Ting, as long as we keep it under 500 MB per month (combined, not per device), our bill ends up being around $40. Total. For two smartphones. I don't really care that I can't tether or watch videos on mobile networks; there's wifi all over the place anyway.

turtle
2015-02-25, 11:19
So after looking more and more into this Cricket really does seem to be the best option. I would stay on the same AT&T network that I'm already using but my bill would cut from about $140 with three phones to $90 with the exact same phones thanks to Cricket's Group Saving Plan.

This just makes the most sense from what I can find out there. Does anyone else have other ideas that I should be considering?

Should I go for Cricket (highly likely though I have one hurdle to consider*) does anyone here at AN use them and want to refer me? Seems there is a network marking plan Cricket that lets me get a one-time discount as well as some benefit to the referrer.

* My line is actually still under contract until 9/20/2015.

kieran
2015-02-25, 12:47
I've only know of a few people that went with these smaller carriers and they've always had problems.

The coverage just isn't the same, even though they're using bigger networks.

turtle
2015-02-25, 14:30
So I called AT&T to talk to their cancellation department. The net result of that call was a change in the bill by -$25. This is putting me closer to the $50 I would save switching to Cricket. It will also cost me $155 in ETF fees.

She also said (while acknowledging that Cricket is an AT&T product) that the reason Cricket is cheaper is that the service uses 3G any time it's available even if LTE is also. So if the area you are in still has 3G towers you would use that tower/connection as opposed to the also available LTE. If that is true I would hate it while my other two users would be happy/not notice.

JerseyThursday
2015-03-02, 01:37
I do the AT&T GoPlan, however I rejected the smartphone altogether. I'm trying to see if I can go a year without a smartphone and i'm 7 months into it. The total cost of my phone was 30 dollars (talk and text) and my monthly plan is 25 dollars a month.

When I do get my smartphone during the summer. I'll probably buy an unlocked Blu Android phone and go with a prepaid monthly plan that's about 45 dollars a month for 1.5gb. But I use wifi about 90% of the time anyhow.

This is just for an individual plan.

JohnnyTheA
2015-03-02, 22:03
I'm with T-mobile's $30/month Unlim data, unlit text, plus like 60 min? I don'y use the phone AS a phone very much so it works for me. I'm using my Wife's old Galaxy Not 2 and it is cool..

addison
2015-03-03, 01:00
She also said (while acknowledging that Cricket is an AT&T product) that the reason Cricket is cheaper is that the service uses 3G any time it's available even if LTE is also. So if the area you are in still has 3G towers you would use that tower/connection as opposed to the also available LTE. If that is true I would hate it while my other two users would be happy/not notice.

I'm not sure that is true. The only thing I've heard about them is that your speeds are throttled. 8 mbs on LTE and 4mbs when on 3G.

kelly088
2015-03-04, 22:14
I'm intressesting in these infos !