Need Advice: Cell Phone

[defcon4]

Sprint sucks ass.Their coverage is questionable, then they slow down your "unlimited data" that you are unable to use too much if it.....

 

[Bonzi]

Sprint sucks ass.Their coverage is questionable, then they slow down your "unlimited data" that you are unable to use too much if it.....

I've a Verizon & AT&T store near me. AT&T was not bad, but, will have to see what the unlimited service is priced at. I'm leaning toward Verizon at this point... and most like the latest version of the Samsung....

 

[Muhammed]

So Bonzi, when did you get a job at a cell phone company?

I'm serious.... people are so cynical!
I really do need a new phone/service. I had AT&T and a decent phone, then, opted to go low end but this is a piece of crap I have now... would be worth it to pay more and have something decent so now, I want to get the best thing possible for the best value...........

Personally, I would never get ATT service because I have a personal beef against them.

I jumped in a backhoe and moved the ATT truck out of my way. And that piece of shit lazy ATT scumbag called the cops. I moved it about 30 feet and he tried to say that I stole it!

To put this in perspective for laypersons, once a concrete mixing truck mixes the concrete, you only have so much time before it is a solid mass.

It will even set up inside the barrel of the truck if it is not poured out and washed fast enough.

Then, practically, the only way to get it out is to do this...

 

[WorldWatcher]

>

In all seriousness...

There is no "best" choice. Selecting a Carrier first to me is the wrong way to go about it.

First sit down and define what you want out of your service based on your usage patterns and what you want out of your cell phone.

• Is your cell phone the "heart" of your existence? Do you do heavily use it for email, texting, heavy use of social media, hours and hours of long phone calls with family and friends? (This is my daugher, she's away at law school.)
  
• Are you a "lite" user? One that carries a cell phone but doesn't really use it a lot. (This is my wife.)
  
• Are you an "entertainment junkie" using it as a e-book reader, streaming music, streaming video (Netflix, Hulu, live news (CNN, Fox, etc.)
• Do you travel a lot and find that national coverage is important or do you travel infrequently so coverage in your local area is the most important?

Once you know how you want - or historically have used - out of your phone then you can start looking at phones and plans that match that lifestyle.

Personally I'm an entertainment junkie. I don't travel much and my current carrier (Sprint) has pretty good coverage in our area, but most of my "entertainment" usage comes while I'm home or at work and connected to WiFi. I NetFlix and Hulu a lot what puttering around the house, and while at work I setup my cell on a little holder and stream CNN while I work (I have blutooth earbuds so as not to disturb coworkers).

We have a family of 4 (all adults) on Sprint with 1500 minutes (more then we ever use), unlimited text, and unlimited data. It costs us about $55 a piece (including plan, taxes, fees) which is about the best deal around for our situation. We've priced out spinning the kids off, but their individual costs typically go up to $80-$85 per month. So they just pay us their share every month. If they used a BYOP model then costs can go down to $60-$65 a month

The next thing to look at his plan options:

1. Traditional contract - you might pay a small upfront fee, but with a 2-year contract you pay for the phone over the course of the contract. At the end you own it. These are becoming less used as major carriers are moving to a "lease" contract.
2. Leasing the Phone - Sprint (and I understand Verizon) are moving more toward leasing plans. As a long time Sprint customer I could go into lease mode next month and upgrade my phone to a newest model for about $5 a month additional to the bill we have now. I never own the phone. After the lease period I can upgrade or purchase the phone for residual value (not cheep). Newer phones are expensive, $500-$750, so in addition to the lease cost you have to seriously consider insurance (another $10-$15 per month) because if you damage the phone - you are responsible for paying off the value of the phone because the carrier owns it not you.
3. BYOP (Bring Your Own Phone) - In this model you purchase a new phone compatible with your carrier outright and then activate it on your account. Heavier upfront cost, but your monthly plan cost is lower since you are not spreading the cost of the phone over a lease or contract period.
4. Prepaid Plans - basically buy a phone you prepay for phone time, text, data usage and then feed more money into the account as needed. For a lite user this can be a very cost effective way to have a phone.

If you don't need to have the latest and greatest phone (android or iPhone) there are a couple of sites Gazelle and Swappa that I've looked at for direct purchases of used phones. I think these (or sites like them) will become more used over the next few years as pre-used leased phones get turned in as customers upgrade. My wife just purchased a Samsung S5 to replace her Samsung S2 and it was about $290. (Over a two year lease the cost would have been $408 and we wouldn't own the phone.) She's basically got a new phone, no additional costs on our bill and we own the phone. Gazelle and Swappa have slightly different operating models, so do some research if either might be a consideration. With Gazelle the phones are sent in and inspected, then sold directly by Gazelle. With Swappa you are buying directly as a seller. So we only considered those that had a large number of sales and positive reviews because they were operating a business.

Hope that gives you some things to think about.

>>>>

 

[blastoff]

A compact rotary-dial with the enhanced flux capacitor feature's the way to go, unless you're near sea water or higher altitude.

 

[WorldWatcher]

Perfect! My plan is up at the end of the month... thanks for the info Alex.

Just because your plan is up at the end of the month, does that mean you have to do something now?

With most carriers, IIRC, once your plan expires you basically enter a month-to-month pay options. With Sprint we don't "Have" to renew a contract when ours finishes next month, we still get service, our bill doesn't change - we are just not under contract anymore.

That means we don't have to rush into anything.

As previously mentioned my wife decided to upgrade her phone know with a BYOP option. The kids and I are in no hurry, so we're going to see about what happens over the holidays. The phones we have now (Samsung S4) we got at Thanksgiving 2-years ago for $1 each with a 2 year contract. If we don't run into a "good deal" sale again, then we can opt for a BYOP purchase.



>>>>

 

[WorldWatcher]

>

Not trying to sound like a cell phone know-it-all. I'm not. My wife needed to change her phone and so has been doing a lot of research for the last month or so. I've been her sounding board whether or not I wanted to be.

LOL


>>>>

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

Sprint sucks ass.Their coverage is questionable, then they slow down your "unlimited data" that you are unable to use too much if it.....

I've a Verizon & AT&T store near me. AT&T was not bad, but, will have to see what the unlimited service is priced at. I'm leaning toward Verizon at this point... and most like the latest version of the Samsung....

I've been with Verizon since their inception. And after watching people have problems with all the other carriers I've never had the urge to switch.
And their coverage is the best out there.
They are a little more expensive but it's worth it.

 

[percysunshine]

Going to be getting a new cell phone and provider....

Any recommendations?

The latest model of iphone 6 just came out, so cell providers are giving price breaks on the previous model. There is not really much difference between the new and old model...so get the old one.

 

[charwin95]

Going to be getting a new cell phone and provider....

Any recommendations?

That depends on your application. Vast majority of people get their cellphone coverage from Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T mobile. All four carries has each own plus & minuses.
Because the nature of my business we have a very large cellphone account for our service technicians all over the country, plus sales and management since 2000. We tested all 4 carriers intensively.
T mobile / Sprint / Verizon ... area coverages, customer service, prices, gouging, dropped calls, equipment not interchangeable.. SUCKS. Again this depends on your application like traveling, your location etc.
Being said we have AT&T and all iPhone 6. If your application is just to make phone calls then get flip phone. If you text a lot, pictures, video, Internet usages I recommend Samsung series or IPhone.
Last time we did these trials was 2010 so I'm not sure how sprint, verizon and t mobile are doing now. Because AT&T assigned 2 dedicated employees that handle our account. Customer service and prices are awesome which includes replacement of damage iPhone for free ( I think ). Time to time AT&T update us with information from consumer report regarding cellphone businesses. Hope that helps.

 

[Pop23]

Sprint sucks ass.Their coverage is questionable, then they slow down your "unlimited data" that you are unable to use too much if it.....

I've a Verizon & AT&T store near me. AT&T was not bad, but, will have to see what the unlimited service is priced at. I'm leaning toward Verizon at this point... and most like the latest version of the Samsung....

I've been with Verizon since their inception. And after watching people have problems with all the other carriers I've never had the urge to switch.
And their coverage is the best out there.
They are a little more expensive but it's worth it.

I've had sprint (good for metro and driving interstate, terrible in the boonies). AT&T. Somewhat better, but it is surprising where I come across dead zones, and Verizon, which has coverage which was second to none.

There are many secondary cell phone companies that use Verizon network. You could look into those as well, but I think those are all bring your own phone, or purchase through them.

Put wife and her old Verizon phone on one of those, kept great coverage and saved a bundle on the monthly bill.

 

[charwin95]

Going to be getting a new cell phone and provider....

Any recommendations?

The latest model of iphone 6 just came out, so cell providers are giving price breaks on the previous model. There is not really much difference between the new and old model...so get the old one.

You can trade in your 6 to 6s for the same price which is hard to turn down. Our account rep. from AT&T warned us to wait till middle of this month if we want to upgrade to 6s. Because the home button or sensor button will get hot and will automatically turn off your 6s, also turn off when viewing the pictures.

 

[Bonzi]

Sprint sucks ass.Their coverage is questionable, then they slow down your "unlimited data" that you are unable to use too much if it.....

I've a Verizon & AT&T store near me. AT&T was not bad, but, will have to see what the unlimited service is priced at. I'm leaning toward Verizon at this point... and most like the latest version of the Samsung....

I've been with Verizon since their inception. And after watching people have problems with all the other carriers I've never had the urge to switch.
And their coverage is the best out there.
They are a little more expensive but it's worth it.

I've had sprint (good for metro and driving interstate, terrible in the boonies). AT&T. Somewhat better, but it is surprising where I come across dead zones, and Verizon, which has coverage which was second to none.

There are many secondary cell phone companies that use Verizon network. You could look into those as well, but I think those are all bring your own phone, or purchase through them.

Put wife and her old Verizon phone on one of those, kept great coverage and saved a bundle on the monthly bill.

My primary concern is SPEED and constant coverage.... with T-Mobile, I only get 2G often times and also the coverage get's 'lost'... thus the need for something new....

 

[Bonzi]

Going to be getting a new cell phone and provider....

Any recommendations?

The latest model of iphone 6 just came out, so cell providers are giving price breaks on the previous model. There is not really much difference between the new and old model...so get the old one.

iPhone looks like it's looking more and more like Samsung...

 

[Bonzi]

Perfect! My plan is up at the end of the month... thanks for the info Alex.

Just because your plan is up at the end of the month, does that mean you have to do something now?

With most carriers, IIRC, once your plan expires you basically enter a month-to-month pay options. With Sprint we don't "Have" to renew a contract when ours finishes next month, we still get service, our bill doesn't change - we are just not under contract anymore.

That means we don't have to rush into anything.

As previously mentioned my wife decided to upgrade her phone know with a BYOP option. The kids and I are in no hurry, so we're going to see about what happens over the holidays. The phones we have now (Samsung S4) we got at Thanksgiving 2-years ago for $1 each with a 2 year contract. If we don't run into a "good deal" sale again, then we can opt for a BYOP purchase.



>>>>

It's "up" at the end of every month. If I stop paying it just "ends".
I want to know which carrier to invest in and which phone to get.
I want something fast and reliable (regarding internet/4g access)

 

[WorldWatcher]

It's "up" at the end of every month. If I stop paying it just "ends".
I want to know which carrier to invest in and which phone to get.
I want something fast and reliable (regarding internet/4g access)

But if you don't stop paying you will be on month-to-month, confirm this with your carrier. Which means you can extend your service looking for holiday shopping deals or into January/February hoping that Christmas gifts other people got means an excess of phones in the used market (meaning lower cost). Unless of course you want to lease or pay full price for a phone - if you can't take your phone to your new carrier.

If reliability and speed are your primary concerns, then Verizon will probably a good choice as a service provider. You should investigate plans in terms of voice/text/data that meet your historical usage. IIRC with Verizons plans you purchase a "bucket" of data for use with costs going up the more data you want to have available - not counting the smartphone access fee. I'm not that familiar with that as our Sprint family plan has unlimited data.


>>>>

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

Sprint sucks ass.Their coverage is questionable, then they slow down your "unlimited data" that you are unable to use too much if it.....

I've a Verizon & AT&T store near me. AT&T was not bad, but, will have to see what the unlimited service is priced at. I'm leaning toward Verizon at this point... and most like the latest version of the Samsung....

I've been with Verizon since their inception. And after watching people have problems with all the other carriers I've never had the urge to switch.
And their coverage is the best out there.
They are a little more expensive but it's worth it.

I've had sprint (good for metro and driving interstate, terrible in the boonies). AT&T. Somewhat better, but it is surprising where I come across dead zones, and Verizon, which has coverage which was second to none.

There are many secondary cell phone companies that use Verizon network. You could look into those as well, but I think those are all bring your own phone, or purchase through them.

Put wife and her old Verizon phone on one of those, kept great coverage and saved a bundle on the monthly bill.

Again....this is why I dont mind paying a little more for verizon.
I frequently find myself in the boonies and I want service while i'm there.