Good phone plan?

[nick__45]

We're paying $74.66 for 3 lines on a shared 550 minutes family plan. None of us do text or internet on phones so those features are turned offed by Verizon to avoid accidental use. Our contracts are up and I don't feel like paying for a contract price if we're keeping these phones, which are still working fine. However, any decent looking phones require data plan and Verizon's new Shared Everything Plan cost roughly $90 per line, according to Best Buy's brochure.

Does anyone here use a decent phone, with touch screen, and still be able to have it without a expensive data plan? Why is data plan so expensive? How do people justify such high cost?

[kork13]

Honestly, at the moment it will probably be difficult to have a lower-cost plan... Cell phone companies just don't have many low-minute plans available right now -- probably because low-use customers don't offer much in the way of profit.

However, if you're willing to go to a month-to-month or pre-paid setup, that route would probably work for you. Does your family always stay below that 550 minutes each month? If you go the pre-paid route, most companies offer basic $.10/min prepaid service. So that would only cost you $55/mo (or less, based on your use). With these, you can use any phone you like, although you have to buy the phone outright (or you can keep using your current phones).

[Petunia 100]

I suggest you consider Ting. (ting.com)

You have to buy a Ting phone, but there are no contracts. Some of the phones are quite reasonable.

I have 3 lines with shared minutes and texts. My last bill was $45.51. That's for 1000 shared minutes and 1000 shared texts. If we stay under 500 minutes, I get $9 credited back on the next bill (my most recent bill of $45.51 did not have this credit). We do not have data plans.

[DayByDay]

I've been using TracFone pre-paid service. I recently bought their LG 800G touch screen phone at Target on sale for $35 (reg. $50) which also came with triple minutes for life of phone. So far I'm pretty happy with it.

[JoeP]

I pay maybe $80 a YEAR on t-mobile's prepaid plan. I don't use my phone a lot, and do not text or do any data; it is a PHONE and it is almost always off unless I am expecting a call or need to make one. I've had this phone for over 5 years.

Don't get hung up on the price per minute. Rather, look at the cost of operation.

[phantom]

My husband and I are on my parents' Verizon plan. We pay for talk and text on my husband's phone and just talk on mine. My parents charge us $60 per month, but I'm not sure what their total bill is. My husband has a very nice phone with a touch screen and a slide out keyboard. (I can't remember what kind of phone it is.) He got his phone a year and a half ago for $1 at Best Buy when he renewed the contract on his phone. We considered getting the same phone for me a couple of months later when the contract on my phone ended, but they no longer had it for $1. As far as I can tell, they do offer nice, inexpensive phones that do not require data plans every once in a while, but the selection keeps decreasing as they convince more and more people to get data.

I really like Verizon for their call quality and reliability, but their prices are definitely some of the highest out there. I have no idea how any one justifies paying for a Verizon data plan. If I ever get the the point where data becomes a must have for me, I will definitely shop around for a less expensive carrier.

[nick__45]

Is it possible to take my Verizon's number to a prepaid service? I like Verizon for its call quality and large network, which is a big plus. I am still haunted by the 2 years with Cingular and its horrible call quality and crappy network. I rarely use my personal phone for personal business, mostly using it for business calls even though work does provide me with a Blackberry and data plan as well as text. As far as I can tell, everything is unlimitted on that but I still use my personal phone for voice service because Blackberry is horrible when it comes to storing personal data, which I do on my personal phone. But I am going to rely more and more on my work phone now as well as office phone. Since all three lines have the same phone, I am not going to worry about loosing my personal contact from lack of battery in the future.

As long as I can keep my number, which most of my work associates know me by, I am perfectly fine. Currently, I use my personal phone to screen calls. In other words, I don't pick up the calls coming in unless I recognize the number and it is important. Either way, I use my Blackberry to return the calls.

One major advantage of keeping it with Verizon is that my Blackberry is also Verizon and many people I call have Verizon.

It is a pain to find a nice phone that does not require data plan though. I like some of the large screen Motorola as they are padded for drop protection from the factory. Personally, I don't need an iPhone as I have an iPad and do all of my data on that while at home on my own wireless network. Unfortunately, there isn't a large Wifi network here, either pay or public unlike other major city. My wife finally realize she made a mistake of asking for a larger space iPad instead of an 4G iPad, which we could use for data plan at 20 dollars a month outside the house. Then we wouldn't need to worry about connectivity issue with phones as the iPad travels with us outside the house.

[kork13]

Is it possible to take my Verizon's number to a prepaid service?

Absolutely. Whether you keep it on the Verizon network, or if you so desired, you could transfer your number to just about any cellular network. I've done it twice, and it's really quite easy to do.

[FireBal989]

It is but make sure the number stays on your account until you do, or else it'll be in a number "pool" and you'll have to find it in a sea of verizon numbers and talk to some customer service agents ! There are many great prepaid plans out there and they are definitely worth it !!!!