Cheaper cell carriers

[REDinFL]

Any of you use either Consumer Cellular or Trac Fone? I'm trying to stop wasting $ on the high priced carriers. I rarely use the phone (indeed, hate speaking on the phone), get texts only for confirmations of deposits or bills paid, and maybe check one or two things when away from home. Dropped calls? No service areas?

[TC6969]

Your usage is the same as mine and I've been with Tracfone since early 2001.

Once a year I get their deal with 365 day service, 400 minutes and (I think) 200 texts.

Its about $100.

The minutes roll over and even in years when I was using it a lot for my job, I never went over on the minutes.

I just checked and I have 1750 so I had 1350 when I re-upped last December.

I dont think I've ever had a dropped call.

They had a few small dead spots in Florida over a decade ago but that's been fixed.

[Skoll]

I've been using Straight Talk for the past decade. Unlimited everything for $48 after taxes.

[NorincoKid]

I was on tracfone for years. BYOP , with an iPhone so wifi text via iMessage and Facetime audio/video to anyone else with an iPhone didn't count against minutes.

Just switched to "Mint Mobile". So far, so good. It runs on T-Mobile from what I can tell. Some spots where I had good reception with AT&T (GSM Tracfone) a little weaker now, but for the most part its been fine. It's running about $15 a month, unlimited talk, text and data (Hi-speed for a few GB's and then throttled down to sloooow but better than nothing speeds).

But overall, Tracfone was great. I didn't use the phone much, never really ran out of minutes. I'd buy the $20 card every three months, so about $80 a year, occasionally running out of minutes and having to buy more though.

[OSD]

I've been using TracFone for years and have had great service. I buy the $20 card every three months. If you put it on auto re-new it only costs $19.92 taxes and all. I don't use it a lot, similar to your usage. I like that unused talk, text, and data roll-over. You never lose it.

[Iosef]

In the panhandle there are agricultural areas that have spotty coverage by everyone but Verizon. Fortunately, Verizon has a 12 month, $100 prepaid card for us folks who don't use the phone much, just like the program described above, for tracphone. The minutes even roll over if you remember to reload the card a day or two before it would expire.

[Slartibartfast]

i have TMobile's 55+ plan that gives you two lines with
unlimited talk/txt/4g data for $60 including all taxes
and fees. hard to beat $30 per line for unlimited everything !

[NorincoKid]

the only reason I switched from tracfone was because I'm planning on doing a little more traveling, and camping with the kids and wanted something I could tether "hotspot" with, and have wifi. The Mint plan isn't the greatest for that, but even if I exhaust all the high-speed data I can still do basic web browsing and basic online stuff at the throttled speed, and share my connection with the kids devices if needed.

But for minimal use, it's pretty hard to beat the $7 a month with Tracfone. Just have to be careful with the newer smartphones they offer. They will just consume data with updates, fetching emails or other app info etc. you can mess with the settings to help mitigate that though.

I had tracfone for almost 10 years, technically it's still active until like 2021 with all the rollovers. I didn't port my number to mint, in case it sucked I can fall back to my Tracfone SIM card. The BYOP is worth looking into if you're a little tech savvy.

[jaytwillerham]

Tracfone can be difficult to register and install whatever is needed to make it work.
Even calling their help line may not succeed.
So I switched to Verizon and the fellow in the store did it all while I was sitting at his desk.
It's not expensive at around $20 monthly.
Not the cheapest but it works everywhere I've tried.
Including places Tracfone didn't.
I figured that might be important if there was an emergency somewhere remote.
Hope this helps some.

[Tenzing_Norgay]

Just signed up for T-Mobile's "over 55" plan. Paying $75 for unlimited, 2 phones. Getting old has its' benefits.