I have had the same cell phone plan for nearly a decade, and I have had the same phone for around five years. Needless to say, I have been technically challenged for a while--my phone does not have a camera, text messaging, music, or the Internet. (It does have a very low-fi tetris game and brick breaking game.) I am being forced to give up my $20 cell phone plan (yes people, $20/month for 500 minutes--no contract) because Qwest is discontinuing their wireless products at the end of October.
I have started to do a little research about cell phone plans (I haven't even started looking at phones yet), and I find myself completely overwhelmed. I know what I want, but I don't know if it exists.-I want to pay less than $50/month..
- I usually use around 500 minutes/month, but I tend to go over during months with big holidays or events.
- I have never used text messaging. Honestly, I would like to have the option for some texting (without paying per text), but I don't think I will be an avid texter.
- I want to get good service where I use my phone--in my basement apartment, in the Northwest, in Utah, and on the road between them (without paying roaming).
- I don't really care about having a fancy phone (sorry sis) or web browsing capabilities. If someone gave it to me, I might use it--but it's not worth shelling out the bucks for it at this point.
Any thoughts? What carrier do you use? Do you like them? Do you hate them? Why? Are all of my family members on the same carrier and talking to each other for free? I just got a letter in the mail from Qwest: they need to know what I am doing by mid-September, or they will re-route my outgoing calls to their customer service so that I will talk to them (freaky). So...I gotta figure this out ASAP.
Help!
Love,
Jen
4 comments:
Hey there, this is Brian with Qwest. I ran across your blog post here, and would like to help answer questions if you have any. I'm pretty sure that you have been told, or received literature about the Verizon Wireless migration that we are offering.
Just to highlight some quick things that you mentioned in your post. By migrating your wireless service to Verizon Wireless, you can get a free phone and free activation. The least expensive plan they offer is $39.99 for 450 minutes.
If you have any questions, or need help, please send me an e-mail to TalkToUs@Qwest.com, and put my name in the subject line. I'll be glad to help.
Thanks
B
Consumer Affairs Manager
Qwest Communications
www.socialmedia.qwest.com
Jen,
As an official member of the Hive Mind, I feel it is important to impart what I've learned.
As far as carriers go, T-Mobile is generally the cheapest, and consequently, the one most of our family is with (that I know of).
T-Mobile is known as the de facto "best bang for the buck" wireless company: amazing prices, decent (not amazing) coverage.
You'll get better coverage (depending on your area) with Sprint or Verizon, but expect to pay at least 10-40% more for it.
AT&T has the coolest phones. Hands down. iPhone, anyone? (I know that isn't important to you, but I'm just letting you know).
I'm with T-Mobile because I'm cheap. It works for me. I have internet, text, camera, basically everything possible, not because I want/need it, but because I got a sweet phone and a great deal on it.
How to get a deal: go to Amazon.com to buy your phone. NO ONE can compete with their prices (for phones, you can generally get a $500 phone FREE there vs. a cost of $150-300 in a brick and mortar store).
Also important to note: plans are plans. No one can give you a "deal" on a plan, no matter what they say, because they are standardized by the wireless carrier. Everyone has the same options.
As far as plans go, family plans work best for most of the people I know. A shared pool of minutes, generally for cheaper than you could buy two separate lines of service for. I don't know if Alex is in the market for a new phone/plan, but if he is, I highly recommend looking into it.
Um, I feel like I'm just spouting info left an right. Here's more:
Text messaging: a blessing and a curse. I love it, but unless you (1) rarely ever use it or (2) have unlimited text in your plan, you're going to pay a lot per text (.20 per text, SENT AND RECEIVED). There isn't really a way to get around this. You pay for it or you don't. If you wanna experiment with it, just know that you might spend $10 or more for a seemingly small amount of texts in a month, but in my mind, I would consider it money well spent to figure out if you like the feature. If you do, get either unlimited or a finite amount (which will cost you a monthly charge) rather than paying a per text fee each time.
Personally, I can't get by without text now, and I send/receive about 1,000 per month (and I'm told that MY usage is on the LIGHT side!!!).
Another benefit that is relatively new to the market is the "Out of Network" benefit where you can choose anywhere from 5 to 20 numbers not on your provider (like a T-Mobile customer choosing his sprint, att, and verizon buddies) and based on the plan you choose, you can call these people as much as you want...works well if you have 5-10 people you call a LOT, works even better if you don't call many people beside those 5-10. TMobile's "My Faves" plan is a good example of this.
So basically, I would say, for you, best case scenario (excuse the pun) would be Tmobile (price), "My Faves" option (family plan if you can), no text plan to start, and buy all this on amazon.com to get the coolest possible phone for free. Oh, and on phones, I'd get a BlackBerry - they can do a TON, and even if you don't use all its bells and whistles now, you may later, and if its free, who cares, right?
Anyway, I would actually recommend talking to someone who knows this stuff pretty well. Doesn't have to be me, but I'd be glad to help. On some sick level, I actually enjoy knowing this crap.
Love you, Cuz!
Jason
Jen,
As soon as I hit "post," I thought of a few more vital phone buying nuggets:
1. You MUST commit to a TWO YEAR agreement with your provider. There is no getting around this. Accept and move on, but get the best phone you can for free for signing your life away for two years.
2. While I hate AT&T for being ridiculously overpriced, they are the only major purveyor of "rollover" minutes, basically, minutes that carry over from month to month (for at least 6 months an sometimes in excess of 12 months, depending). Because you're not exactly sure what your usage will be in any given month, you may wanna consider something like that.
3. Cricket (and any other unlimited everything company) is generally recognized as the poorest quality/customer service/phones available. I would (and do) avoid companies of their ilk like the plague.
4. If you do end up going for a family plan, while this may be obvious, you DO get TWO free phones, thereby enhancing the draw of doing the transaction on amazon.com - you could walk away with $1000 in free phones.
5. If you are going to go with a BlackBerry or other SmartPhone, realize that SOME providers require a data plan for the phone - basically, the higher end phones HAVE TO HAVE (in the carriers minds) internet and therefore there are some additional charges that you may not be told about unless you ask. These data plans often include unlimited text, email, internet browsing, but are kinda spendy (they start at $20/month, and go as high as $40 - I pay $24). I don't think you're going to want that as you're trying to stay around $50 per month, but just know that they'll try to upsell you.
5. The BlackBerry Pearl is a great example of a really powerful, high quality phone that has some awesome features, but DOES NOT require a data plan. With T-Mobile right now, you can get the phone for free and 600 minutes on a MyFaves (choose 5 other numbers to call unlimited, no extra charge) for 49.99 per month. Not bad. With taxes, you're gonna be approaching $60-65. Sad, but that's life.
6. If you have more than 5 people you really frequently call (especially in your family), being with whatever carrier your family is with might actually be the best deal. This is because of "In-Network" calling, which is generally unlimited. I can call ANYONE on T-Mobile and stay on the phone with them all month and it doesn't count against my minutes. So if you talk to your mom a ton, you might wanna list her as one of your 5 numbers to go unlimited on if you go with a MyFaves style program, but if you have a ton of family you keep in contact with, it might just be better to join their network...
7. Ok, last one, promise! Companies are crazy about getting your business right now. T-Mobile will pay you $135 JUST TO PORT A # into their network (just keeping your number...crazy, I know...). Because of this, they will also actually allow you to CREATE a family plan out of thin air - here's what I mean - let's say your dad has a T-Mobile phone, and its just an individual plan. You could JOIN him on that plan, the plan would switch to a family plan, and you guys can figure out how it is paid for. A lot of people are doing this lately with friends, relatives, etc. because family plans are really cheap...so even if your parents (or Al's) have a family plan already, it is generally an option (if you want to explore it by asking a rep for their carrier) about expanding their service by one line. These companies REALLY want business right now.
Hope some of this has helped.
Jason
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