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

Prepaid phones

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

Why Straight talk is better than Tracfone!

English: Samsung Intercept open in my hand and... Image via Wikipedia

Would you pay more for your Minutes?

I’ve read how some people are really liking their Tracphone service but I have a few questions about that.  We’ve all had those times when we don’t always use all our minutes.   I know I sometimes don’t use my 1,000 minutes and 1,000 messages but It is better than paying for 120 minutes and that includes messages.

I’ve talked about how I like my Straight phone and I must say that I have been happy with the phones that I have bought.    I’ve had my reasons for staying with Straight talk, and one of the more reasons is that they have unlimited talk and unlimited data when you need it.   I’ve dropped down to the 30$ cards because I no longer need unlimited data which is 45$ a month.

Would you pay more for less?

Tracfone seems to think that we would want to pay more for less.   Why would I pay more for their minutes.   I am always looking to buy minutes for less.   I know people aren’t always thinking about cost versus price but if your are like me and use your phone more than 120 minutes per month than you will definitely want to consider looking for something other than Tracfone.

Isn’t Tracfone and Straight Talk the same?

There are two separate companies but Tracfone owns them both.   I am quite certain that most people think that they are exactly the same.   I disagree, they don’t have anything in common besides the phones.   Everything else  is all different and that is fine with me.   The Customer service is basically part of Tracfone but again, it isn’t exactly the same.

I don’t need Carry over minutes!

This is the one thing that really bothers me about Tracfone, they let you carry over your minutes but that is besides the point.   I don’t need carry over minutes if I have 1,000 minutes to use per month.   I  have already used 200 minutes and I still have half the month to go.  I’ll probably use 400 minutes before this is all over.   If you really think about it, it is probably cheaper than Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint’s contracts.   I’d probably pay $40 to $60 a month for  400 minutes.   That is after all I guess but I am sure that if you look at their plans you will see the prices.

I think I will keep with Straight Talk because of everything that I get with it.

Which one do you like or prefer?

Paul Sylvester

Recycle your Cell phones!

 

 

Hulu Launches upcoming Movie Trailers Brought to you SPRINT!

Hulu launched movie trailers of the upcoming movies in the US.   Now to say the least I like the idea to be able to go to Hulu on a Sprint Instinct or other mobile devices to see before I go to the movies.   So the ones I like right now are Star Wars :  Clone Wars.


Some others that I like are Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince:

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This will be nice to be check the trailers before I got to the movies.

Sprint Nextel agrees to start unlocking phones

An under-the-radar class action lawsuit against Sprint Nextel is winding its way towards a settlement this week, and it contains a pretty huge concession by Sprint: the company will unlock phones for both current and former customers, and will begin training its customer service reps on how to connect non-Sprint phones to its network. The settlement was tentatively approved by a California judge on October 2, but hasn’t had a final approval hearing yet, according to Sprint — but it’s still a huge win for US consumers, who haven’t been able to buy mainstream unlocked phones from any of the major carriers. Of course, since Sprint’s network is CDMA, unlocked phones will only work on other CDMA carriers like Verizon — and there’s no guarantees those companies will be happy about it — but at this point we’ll take whatever we can get.

Nice, Now to see what ATT does!!