Cell Phone Costs: Prepaid Vs. Contract

Hi! Well, they are really confusing! Especially when you're not used to dealing with them. I do love Verizon, because they have great coverage, but it's pricey. My husband and I just switched from T-Mobile to Republic Wireless and we're loving it. There is no contract. You're billed monthly and plans start at $5 and go up to $40 for the fastest 4G service. It piggybacks on Sprint's signal, so if you're in a city, you should be totally fine. You can also switch plans whenever you want. So, if you think you'll be using Wi-Fi most of the time you pick one plan, but then if you realize you're out of wi-fi range more than you thought, you just switch plans.
Right now I stared with the 4G data plan, but think I will switch down to the 3G for next month because it's not making much of a difference.
Also, there is a 30 day trial, so you can try it out and see if you like it. Right now I have both this new one, and my old phone and phone number. (I just forward calls). I will be transferring my number soon.
The phone is AWESOME! Like, by far my favorite one I have ever had. And it's only $299. On all other networks it's like $600.

So, hope that helps give you another option. Check it out and see what you think. Http://republicwireless.com
Good luck!

We use the prepaid with Virgin Mobile for myself and my son. It uses the Sprint Network. My hubby uses T-Mobile's prepaid because he could pay out the phone. The biggest issue I have with the prepaids is you pay full price for the phone upfront. But I still think it comes out cheaper in the long run. Oh - and we all have unlimited talk, text, and data except son. He has 300 minutes. He never talks on the phone - just texts. Talk to your neighbors and see what they have and what reception they get. Pull up the coverage maps for each carrier you are considering. I think all the carriers use 1 of the 4 major networks towers - AT &T , Sprint, Verizon, and T Mobile.

Talk to your neighbors. They'll know if they get good signals for different companies.

My smart phone was on sale the December I got it. It was a $600 phone on sale for $99 with U S Cellular. I was interested in that provider due to all incoming calls being free. So hubby and I went in. The visit ended with both of us having smart phones that were each on sale for $99 and then we both got $100 rebates so they paid each of us $1 to have these cool Samsung Mesmerize smart phones.

We started out with the smaller package and found we could use the more expensive one. Right now we have the most expensive package U S Cellular offers. We get "Belive" points each month when we pay on time and other stuff. We use the points to upgrade our phones if we want and can use them for some other stuff too.

We have been extremely happy with U S Cellular and won't be changing in the near future, even if the cost was to go up we'd still keep them. We've been that happy with their customer service people in the store and on the phone and online.

Each time I've had a problem with a phone they've replaced it or sent it off to be fixed. We've been with them for....maybe 8 years?

I think that once you get a smart phone you'll enjoy it. I use mine mostly for keeping an eye on the weather when storms are nearby. I go to intellicast.com and get current radar. I depend on this when I'm out away from a safe location in case of storms or tornado's. They are rampant in this area...

I suggest you do some research and just go with your gut. Make sure you start with a smaller package and if you keep an eye on your usage the first few months so you can upgrade your package any time you need to. Doing this in small increments will keep you from paying for a more expensive package that you don't need.

Always connect to your home wifi signal and don't use the phone to hook up to the internet. This will save your usage on your phone bill.

We just bundled our cell phones, home phone, internet into one package. I have unlimited data on my phone, unlimited texting. This Internet coverage covers my iPad, and computer and my hot spot. I will give that up when contract on that is up in July. Total 10 GB. Now that I finally found my daughter medical,insurance, I won't come close to using that much. I was going over because I was spending hours on line searching policies. My bill now is $260 but will go down by 50.00 in July. Because I did this I was able to ditch my cable phone and Internet. Savings of $120 a month.

Seems like data on a phone is overkill, on price too!