Prepaid – Paul's Tech Talk

My Reasons Why I use Prepaid Cellular Service and avoid contracts!

PaulJuly 13, 2013

Prepaid Service is Better!

My sister called me wanting to know about prepaid cellular services. She is getting tired of paying for contracts and all those really high fees for unlimited everything. She wanted me to research this and tell her which service is best for her whether it be Straight Talk, Virgin Mobile, T-mobile, and Cricket Wireless. I know I’ve talked about some of these services and ideas in the past and they have been nothing but a way to keep my bills from to high and they actually help me save money in the long run. I will talk about some of these and hopefully they will make it easier for you to decide.

Lower Payments!

I know this might sound like everyone else but I have found, that since I have yet to buy a contract. I’ve have keep my fees really know. Like this Virgin Mobile USA phone the Kyocera rise, I have yet to pay anymore than 36$ a month on services. I’m paying for 200 minutes an unlimited text and Data. I have been using Google Voice, as my VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) provider and only had to pay $10 for the phone number. So I am basically using the unlimited Data to do all I need and rarely use my minutes.

On a side note, you basically pay more for your contract services because you are paying for the Phone you buy and buying an Iphone can cost anywhere from $800 to $1,000. So they add that on to your bill in small amounts but you they don’t pay for it but you do in one way or another.

Unlimited Data!

Something seems to be happening in the Phone industry where all contract providers are giving you limits. So you can avoid those limits and tell them you don’t want to have limits. I am seeing Virgin Mobile USA, Straight Talk, and T-mobile all have unlimited data even though they throttle your data you still can use it after you go beyond the limit. AT&T and Verizon Wireless charges you for more data services. So you have to be careful and not go over your limit.

Unlocked Cell Phones

Having seen this in the past with my HTC Inspire, I can take my phone with me when I want to and switch my service and possibly get even better signal strength but it isn’t always the case because some prepaid cell providers will not have SIM Cards to use with your unlocked cell phone. So it will just depend be a smaller amount of places like Straight Talk and and T-Mobile who will carry sims that you can buy to use with their services. Others are starting to sell sims but it will take time for other providers to have them and sell them.

Better Customer Service

With smaller companies you get to be a little more personal with customer service. The Bigger the company the harder it is to get anything done. It seems they like to build more red tape and keep you frustrated. I have found the smaller companies want to keep you as a customer and will do almost anything to keep you with them. If they have to give you a discount to keep you they will over look small stuff and not penalize you for it. So you can save money from time to time by talking with them and you could even get a free month of service if you do it right.

I am sure these are just a few but these are why I will always go with No Contract Cellular services and not be bound down by a contract. I can save so much money this way that I will not even consider using anything else but no contract providers.

Paul Sylvester

How I buy a Prepaid Cellular Phone without worrying!

PaulJanuary 5, 20121 Reply

Image via Wikipedia

“Will this matter a year from now?” — Richard Carlson

Let’s face it, sometimes I often wonder if buying a cell phone will survive a couple of years. You really don’t want to have to replace every year and thus you try to find that one cell phone that will stand the test of time.

You walk into any phone store or grocery store and you will find either phones or cards to put more money on the account. That makes me worry how effective the cell phones are going to last and the quality.

Buying prepaid cell phones can be even more hassle because of not knowing which network they are on or the capabilities of the cell phone. If you been looking at their online store say for instants Cricket Wireless, you will see that there are many phones but yet no important information. It’s is like they left stuff out intentionally that should be there.

Looking Under the Hood!

Sometimes when I am looking for a cell phone to buy, I start my process off going to a wide range of sites like:

Amazon

Ebay

Cnet

Google Search

Let’s face it, if you know the phone you are most likely wanting to buy then you will at least know the model number and thus you can use that to find the information your looking for. Although that will provide the significant amount of the information, there will still be a few things that they will be able to tell you. Which Network is that Phone one?

Network Usability

Most carriers have a limited amount of coverage around the US and the World and thus can be quite confusing going to their website and trying to determine if you are under their coverage area. Why do they make it so hard? I can’t answer that but I know how I solve that problem for me. I’ll share a trick that probably no one else has thought of. Just let your fingers do the walking. Is this some kind of Joke?

I’ve found that just calling the local providers let’s you know if they are reliable or not, if your really search savvy you can find out what others are saying about that carrier your local area. This can be a great tool to judge if that phone or carrier is going to be a head ache or a really jewel. Most times carriers will try to hide some of this so you may have to dig down deep to get to the good stuff.

What are your steps to buying a Prepaid Cell phone?

Paul Sylvester

Shop at Amazon.com!

Finding out which network carrier you are using with Pre-paid Cellular Companies! (paulstechtalk.com)

How to get the most out of Straight Talk phones (Tips and Tricks) (paulstechtalk.com)

Finding out which network carrier you are using with Pre-paid Cellular Companies!

PaulJanuary 2, 2012

Image by radiofabrik via Flickr

Not all Carriers are the Same!

Hey Let’s face it, you thought it would be so simple to have a prepaid cell phone account. You just can’t figure out why your signal or speed is just so terrible. If your like me, when you create an account with Tracfone, Straight Talk, Jitterbug, Movidas, MetroPC and Cricket Wireless.

Although you might of thought it wasn’t going to be all that hard to figure out why. It could just be simply your wireless network that you are being leased or rented from. Those prepaid companies don’t really have any actually networks, some of them might work different in each region and you will only know by trying.

Finding out your Network

If your in a hurry, you can always go to whoismycarrier.com and have them text you your carrier information. I however feel that might not be the best approach because of Privacy and there is no way to know what they do with the number once they have it in their database. I prefer to find it out myself. Here is How I find out which carrier I am on when I need to know!

Create an Account with Google Voice

After Setting up a Phone Number!

Tell Google Voice which number you want to forward to!

Once you Verify Cellular Phone Number.

Go into your Setup!

Just Click on the Sprocket and Settings!

Go to the Phones Tab

Edit Phone Number

Click check operator!

Once you update that, You will see which Carrier you are using!

That’s It!

If you follow this tutorial, you will find out which network you are on. You won’t have to worry about spam from unwanted companies and thus. It will however cost you minutes but if you don’t mind spending a few minutes on your phone you will find out just as quickly as anyone else. You may have to wait an hour or two before you can find out the carrier but mine was instant. It will be different from carrier to carrier.

If you are using Straight Talk, please feel free to visit my other post and tell people what phone your using and which network you are using to better help others find out what to expect.