Cellphone plan options

We are looking to ratchet down our monthly expenses. One of the bigger ones is the cellphone plan we have for my wife and daughter (my phone is paid for through work). We're looking for a all-encompassing plan (phone, data, text, web) but something much less than the contractual rate we have with Verizon (contract period is up).

I checked with Mr. Money Mustache and he recommends Republic Wireless (MMM plan discussion). Does anyone have any experience with this? Any other recommendations? I would love to get down to ~$50/month for their 2 lines.

Start here:
http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/off-topic-discussion/2014-no-contract-cell-phone-plans/79301/page1/
Happy to help.

What service is the wife and daughter using now? EDIT: I see that is VZ.
What handsets are they currently using?
Are you/they happy with their current handsets or is the plan for new handsets too?

Wife:
Current, typical usage: How many minutes of talk? How much data?
Daughter:
Current, typical usage: How many minutes of talk? How much data?

JohnRW1621 wrote: Start here: http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/off-topic-discussion/2014-no-contract-cell-phone-plans/79301/page1/ Happy to help. What service is the wife and daughter using now? EDIT: I see that is VZ. What handsets are they currently using? Are you/they happy with their current handsets or is the plan for new handsets too? Wife: Current, typical usage: How many minutes of talk? How much data? Daughter: Current, typical usage: How many minutes of talk? How much data?

Thanks for the help John. I just read the entire other thread. Great info there.

Last bill data
Wife:
Shareplan minutes - 228
Friends & Family - 76
Mobile to mobile - 783
Nights & wknd - 81
Messaging - 168 Data - 1gb

Daughter:
Shareplan minutes - 58
Mobile to mobile - 14
Nights & wknd - 54
Messaging - 4041 (clearly a teenager)

Wife is on an iphone 4, daughter is on a dumb phone. I may give my wife my iphone 4S, and her phone to my daughter (necessitating a data plan for my daughter).

Recap:
Mom:
Talk: 1168
Text: 168
Data: 1gb (Did she use 1gb or does she have 1gb included in the plan?)

Daughter:
Talk: 126
Text: 4041
Data: currently zero.

2 iPhone 4's currently available in the house.
Are both iPhones Verizon phones?

You could take both those iPhone4's over to www.PagePlusCellular.com (PP) if they are both VZ handsets.
You would continue to use 100% VZ towers and the girls will really see no change in their usage experience. You also save by not having to buy handsets.

Mom: aka "the talker"
PP plan of $29.99 will give her 1200 minutes (cutting it close if she used 1168)
3000 text is more than she will ever use.
500 mb data may not be enough, but, if you want savings, then push them to use wifi as much as possible and cut back on data hog functions.
For just $10 more, she can have unlimited talk.

Daughter: aka "the texter"
She will need the $39.99 Unlimited talk and text plan to get the texting she "needs".

I buy my airtime through www.pincheap.com at a discount and the $39.99 plan has a total cost of $36.95
The $29.99 plan is $27.70

Both at $36.95 would = $73.90
Mom at $27.70 and daughter at $36.95 = $64.65
Both versions are more than the $50, combined you had hoped for.
What is your total expense currently?
Of course, in this version both of the girls would be on smartphones.

In this plan, the princess would get her first smartphone and this could open you to data abuse, but, these PP plans are limited to 500gb. Encourage her to use wifi. She can see her usage at any time. If she hits the data wall, the data stops flowing until the renew date. She will still have talk and text capability and she will still have the ability to use wifi.
You will get no surprise bill (like you will with contract service.)
As a parent, you will have the ability to let the service run out on her handset. If on contract, you will still pay for the service even if you are grounding her from the phone.

If you find that she is good with the gift of phone you have given her then up the service to the $55 ($50.88.) This could be done some months and not other months. You are free to choose.

PP shows these two retailers near you:
Class Cellular 1115 W University Ave Gainesville, FL

Prepaid Wireless Connection 404 S Main St Gainesville, FL 32601-6722 Phone: (904) 364-3849

They can port over your current phone number so the girls will still have the same phone numbers.

All of this assumes that your current contractual term with VZ has been met and therefore you will have no early termination fee. Check with VZ to be sure of this. If you plan to port you will need your VZ account number as well as your account PIN code.

Your original question was about Republic. As mentioned by others in the earlier thread, when not on wifi, you are on Sprint. For me, this is the real detraction of the whole offer.
Seeing you are in Florida, I know the Sprint coverage is sketchy in a lot of N Fl.
Republic (Sprint) Coverage
Ask around to people you may know. Ask them what their local experience has been with Sprint.

Sure, Republic puts you at $25 per user or $50 but you will have to buy them each a $150 handset.
That $300 up front cost amortized over 12 months lifts your real monthly cost by $12.5 per user.
$25 + $12.5 = $37.50 per month each or $75 per month total.

If you want 4G capability with Republic, that handset will cost you $299 each or $25 per month.
$40 for the service + $25 handset = $75 per month, each, $150 per month for two.

I recently picked up a verizon Iphone4 for the wife to use as an Ipod touch (church uses a sound system that each person controls their monitors via IOS and no intention of including android)...

I also have an older HTC android verizon phone that I bought cheap to use on my bike as it has ant+ integrated so i turned it into a $35 garmin edge 800 ($400 bike GPS computer thing)...

after reading the old thread I did some research and ended up finding that you could activate the phones for free though a third party web page and put $2 on each phone... it worked perfectly...

the only thing to really consider as a possible issue is you are limited to 3g and if you have an LTE device it requires flashing to work on PagePlus... but based on your devices that isn't an issue

so unless you want to upgrade devices I'd certainly check out pageplus as an option... I plan on keeping the min on my two devices as i'm spoiled with LTE but just wanted to see how these worked and i'll prob keep a few min on them for when I travel as Tmobiles network gets pretty spotty while traveling lol

JohnRW1621 wrote: Recap: Mom: Talk: 1168 Text: 168 Data: 1gb (Did she use 1gb or does she have 1gb included in the plan?) Daughter: Talk: 126 Text: 4041 Data: currently zero. 2 iPhone 4's currently available in the house. Are both iPhones Verizon phones?

I think the data usage for my wife may just be what is included. She doesn't surf much on her phone, even less so outside wifi. Both iphones are from VZ.

JohnRW1621 wrote: You could take both those iPhone4's over to www.PagePlusCellular.com (PP) if they are both VZ handsets. You would continue to use 100% VZ towers and the girls will really see no change in their usage experience. You also save by not having to buy handsets. Mom: aka "the talker" PP plan of $29.99 will give her 1200 minutes (cutting it close if she used 1168) 3000 text is more than she will ever use. 500 mb data may not be enough, but, if you want savings, then push them to use wifi as much as possible and cut back on data hog functions. For just $10 more, she can have unlimited talk. Daughter: aka "the texter" She will need the $39.99 Unlimited talk and text plan to get the texting she "needs". I buy my airtime through www.pincheap.com at a discount and the $39.99 plan has a total cost of $36.95 The $29.99 plan is $27.70 Both at $36.95 would = $73.90 Mom at $27.70 and daughter at $36.95 = $64.65 Both versions are more than the $50, combined you had hoped for. What is your total expense currently? Of course, in this version both of the girls would be on smartphones. In this plan, the princess would get her first smartphone and this could open you to data abuse, but, these PP plans are limited to 500gb. Encourage her to use wifi. She can see her usage at any time. If she hits the data wall, the data stops flowing until the renew date. She will still have talk and text capability and she will still have the ability to use wifi. You will get no surprise bill (like you will with contract service.) As a parent, you will have the ability to let the service run out on her handset. If on contract, you will still pay for the service even if you are grounding her from the phone. If you find that she is good with the gift of phone you have given her then up the service to the $55 ($50.88.) This could be done some months and not other months. You are free to choose. PP shows these two retailers near you: Class Cellular 1115 W University Ave Gainesville, FL Prepaid Wireless Connection 404 S Main St Gainesville, FL 32601-6722 Phone: (904) 364-3849 They can port over your current phone number so the girls will still have the same phone numbers. All of this assumes that your current contractual term with VZ has been met and therefore you will have no early termination fee. Check with VZ to be sure of this. If you plan to port you will need your VZ account number as well as your account PIN code.

This is incredibly helpful. Thank you! If I go through the PP retailers, I assume I would pay their full rates, rather than the discounted rates you get via pincheap?

I pointed out the local guys because I thought you might like somewhere to verify in person.
Yes, the local guy will likely charge you full retail for the monthly service. He might (or might not) also charge you a $25 per line activation fee. The activation fee is direct profit to him or said another way, "payment for his time of educating you and providing the service of setting up the account." This should be negotiable.

You could also complete the whole process yourself via the PP website and customer care. Here too, you will pay full price for the monthly service. I suspect no activation fee.

In both these cases, once the service is set up, your following months can be bought through PinCheap so it is really only one month where you loose the discount.

Another option is Kitty Wireless They are a reputable brick and mortar PP dealer who have a decent (though simplistic) online presence. I think they are physically in Portland, Maine. They are currently offering 10% off your first month with no activation fee.

Republic Wireless is interesting in that uses a what they call hybrid calling. Essentially it turns your phone into a VOIP unit only going to cell towers when wifi is not around. This is for $25. MetroPCS who runs the same Sprint towners, is now down to $40 all in, taxes fees the works.

I know that Republic Wireless also is very limited in the phones used. If you want an iphone you are out of luck.

I have straight talk for the wife and it is $53 per month after taxes and everything. Using an iphone 4s still locked on ATT.

A point of clarification:

Flight Service wrote: MetroPCS who runs the same Sprint towers..

Yes and no but going forward, all no.

For years MetroPCS was its own company who owned its own towers which operated on CDMA. They only owned towers in about a dozen major metro markets; all large cities like Miami, Dallas, Detroit, NYC, LA, etc.
Once the Metro customers of these cities traveled outside the limits of Metro's owned towers then these customers made calls via the borrowing of Sprint towers (also CDMA.) This "borrowing" was no extra cost to the consumer but there was a genuine extra cost per minute where Metro was paying Sprint for these calls.

As of last year, MetroPCS was wholly bought by T-Mobile. They have taken the MetroPCS brand nationwide (not just the original dozen markets.) In the new markets, all the calls will be carried by T-Mobile (GSM.)
The original dozen markets are being converted to GSM.
I believe you can no longer start service with Metro on CDMA (which would then borrow Sprint service.) All new customers going forward are GSM, T-Mobile based customers. Their remaining CDMA customers will be transitioned over to GSM as well.
MetroPCS Wiki

JohnRW1621 wrote: A point of clarification:

Flight Service wrote: MetroPCS who runs the same Sprint towers..

Yes and no but going forward, all no. For years MetroPCS was its own company who owned its own towers which operated on CDMA. They only owned towers in about a dozen major metro markets; all large cities like Miami, Dallas, Detroit, NYC, LA, etc. Once the Metro customers of these cities traveled outside the limits of Metro's owned towers then these customers made calls via the borrowing of Sprint towers (also CDMA.) This "borrowing" was no extra cost to the consumer but there was a genuine extra cost per minute where Metro was paying Sprint for these calls. As of last year, MetroPCS was wholly bought by T-Mobile. They have taken the MetroPCS brand nationwide (not just the original dozen markets.) In the new markets, all the calls will be carried by T-Mobile (GSM.) The original dozen markets are being converted to GSM. I believe you can no longer start service with Metro on CDMA (which would then borrow Sprint service.) All new customers going forward are GSM, T-Mobile based customers. Their remaining CDMA customers will be transitioned over to GSM as well. MetroPCS Wiki

That's good information right there.

JohnRW1621 wrote: You could take both those iPhone4's over to www.PagePlusCellular.com (PP) if they are both VZ handsets. You would continue to use 100% VZ towers and the girls will really see no change in their usage experience. You also save by not having to buy handsets.

Verizon is the better service for me locally, and I would like to continue to use my Iphone 4, but when I go on the website and enter in the EIM it says it can't use my Verizon Phone, is there something I am missing?

Does your handset have a clean electronic serial number (ESN)?
Things that would make it "unclean":
reported lost or stolen
tied to an account that was not paid or sent to collections
tied to a still active VZ account
If clean, it should be fine.

Or, VZ may still be giving PP grief about bringing on iPhones. As you can imagine, the relationship between PP and VZ is delicate. On one hand, PP is a HUGE customer of VZ. They are a customer in a sense that PP buys billions of minutes per year from VZ, in bulk. My guess is that PP has about 2 million customers. On the other hand, PP takes some money away from VZ. If you notice, nowhere on PP's website does it ever mention VZ or VZ service. They are expressly forbid from every saying VZ.
VZ wants people to still give them $110 per month for what PP will charge $55. As such VZ does not really want iPhones onto PP, a handset VZ still sells new.
What you end up with is a bit of a don't ask/don't tell policy.

If you are still having trouble, see a local retailer or reach out to www.kittywireless.com They can both get it done. My wife has been on the same VZ iPhone4 with PP 1.5 years now.

It is still active on VZ, my contract expires on March 31st, do I call VZ on March 31st and then on April 1st have my phone activated through PP? Can I also keep my number?

I pay a little over $100 per Year with T-Mobile prepaid. I've been very happy with the service and will never go back to having a monthly bill. Might not work for very heavy users, but it works for me. YMMV.

In reply to trigun7469:
What you are doing is called "porting." This is bringing your number from one carrier to another.
To not loose your number, this must be done simultaneously. You do not quit carrier #1 on your own rather you give your account info of carrier #1 to carrier #2 and then let carrier #2 make the request for cancellation of #1 on your behalf.
On April 1st, ask PP or their retailer to cancel your VZ account and start you a PP account with your current phone number. This is know as porting your number out of VZ and into PP

Though it is simplistic looking, Kitty Wireless does a good job of listing this on their website. At the bottom of this page, you can answer their questions and hit submit.
Even if you do not use Kitty (which is free) you will still need to know the answers to these questions.

Why does Kitty do it for free?
In simplest terms, PP pays the retailer equal to the first month of service dollars. Lets say if Kitty (or any retailer) helps you get the first month set up on the $55 plan, then the retailer gets paid $55. If they set you up on the $30 plan then the retailer gets paid $30.
Now that they have you set up, you need to purchase the actual monthly plan. Kitty is currently offering 10% off your first month (and first month only.) They can do this because depending on the retailers level in the PP hierarchy, they profit 5-20% on the monthly airtime purchase.
You can make the monthly purchase through many avenues. I buy mine through www.pincheap.com who offers about a 10% discount all the time.

As a retailer, the real money in this business is not starting the customers but rather the easy profit of getting customers to pay their bill through you. This is why you will see retailers like Kitty make it very easy for you to get started. They will then encourage you to sign up for their reoccurring billing. If you are on their reoccurring billing they make money off you every month (money PP would have kept for themselves) if you went directly through PP.
As such, Kitty will now do just about anything to keep you on, happy and keep that money flowing. You can still deal with PP's customer care (cc) yourself but on the rare occasion that you have a complex problem you could then reach out to Kitty first. They do this every day and speak to PP's CC every day. They will get resolution on your behalf. They know what can and what not can not be done as well as how to get PP to actually do it.

if I recall correctly pageplus doesn't officially support the iphone... I got my phone from a friend who upgraded... I did some digging and found the link of who I had activate it http://www.remotesquad.com/free-page-plus-activation/

JohnRW1621 wrote: As such VZ does not really want iPhones onto PP, a handset VZ still sells new. What you end up with is a bit of a don't ask/don't tell policy. If you are still having trouble, see a local retailer or reach out to www.kittywireless.com They can both get it done. My wife has been on the same VZ iPhone4 with PP 1.5 years now.

The retailer that Donalson linked to would work well too.

Thanks for all the info, John! I've been trying to find a good solution that works as well as vzw, but I couldn't find the info anywhere...I think you just made that choice for me!

Next time you're in ct, lemme know, the beer is on me :)

In reply to WonkoTheSane:
I am glad the info is helping.

When it comes to MVNO's (mobile virtual network operators) it is easy to find a prepaid version of most carriers but VZ is the most difficult.
The choice you have for VZ are:
PagePlusCellular
Straight Talk (some handsets are VZ, most are not)
VZ's own Prepaid offering

Above, we have been indepth on PP.

Straight Talk (ST):
Staight Talk is a 100% owned Walmart Brand. Walmart wants to be a huge player in wireless and they are pushing to gain that through their prepaid offerings. Since Walmart does not really have the expertise in this area, that have contracted with America Movil(AM) (the company that owns TracPhone, Net10, Simple Mobile and recently bought PP) to run the behind the scenes operations.
AM is an MVNO with everyone; ATT,VZ, Sprint, T-Mobile. As such, they have offerings with all of them. They promote the T-Mo versions the most (likely because they get a cheaper rate), then Sprint, then ATT and lastly VZ (likely the highest rate.)
There is currently one handsets through ST that if you buy will then be on 100% VZ towers.
LG Optimus Zip
Like PP, ST is forbid by VZ to ever mention the name VZ anywhere on the packaging. As such, when shopping ST handsets, look for packages that have a red map of the US on them. Red just happens to be the VZ color and it is the VZ map. Maps shown in blue on the packaging will be a combination of T-Mo and ATT.

VZ's own Prepaid:
VZ just improved this deal.
http://www.verizonwireless.com/wcms/consumer/shop/prepaid.html
$45 per month gets you unlimited talk, text and 500gb of data for 30 days. If you need more data, $5 gets you another 500gb and that bucket of additional data is only good for 30 days, but...
$10 gets you 1gb more and $20, 3 gb more. These last 90 days. They call this "bridge data".
Think of voice and data as separate buckets.
Sample: $45 gets you talk, text and 500mb data.
Lets say that 15 days in, you burn through the 500mb. You then lay down $20 to get 3 gb more. In the next 15 days, you burn through another 1gb.
That first 30 days cost you $45 plus 1/3rd of $20 or $6.66
$45 + $6.66 = $51.66 for talk, text and 1.5gb of data usage. You still have 2gb in reserve.
PP sells you $55 per month ($50.88, discounted) for talk, text and 2.5gb. Pretty damn close, just another way to skin a cat.
A current advantage to VZ Prepaid is that they have the handsets too. Currently, used iPhone 4 for $99 and new Moto G for $99
http://www.verizonwireless.com/prepaid/smartphone-plans/

JohnRW1621 wrote: In reply to trigun7469: What you are doing is called "porting." This is bringing your number from one carrier to another. To not loose your number, this must be done simultaneously. You do not quit carrier #1 on your own rather you give your account info of carrier #1 to carrier #2 and then let carrier #2 make the request for cancellation of #1 on your behalf. On April 1st, ask PP or their retailer to cancel your VZ account and start you a PP account with your current phone number. This is know as porting your number out of VZ and into PP Though it is simplistic looking, Kitty Wireless does a good job of listing this on their website. At the bottom of this page, you can answer their questions and hit submit. Even if you do not use Kitty (which is free) you will still need to know the answers to these questions. Why does Kitty do it for free? In simplest terms, PP pays the retailer equal to the first month of service dollars. Lets say if Kitty (or any retailer) helps you get the first month set up on the $55 plan, then the retailer gets paid $55. If they set you up on the $30 plan then the retailer gets paid $30. Now that they have you set up, you need to purchase the actual monthly plan. Kitty is currently offering 10% off your first month (and first month only.) They can do this because depending on the retailers level in the PP hierarchy, they profit 5-20% on the monthly airtime purchase. You can make the monthly purchase through many avenues. I buy mine through www.pincheap.com who offers about a 10% discount all the time. As a retailer, the real money in this business is not starting the customers but rather the easy profit of getting customers to pay their bill through you. This is why you will see retailers like Kitty make it very easy for you to get started. They will then encourage you to sign up for their reoccurring billing. If you are on their reoccurring billing they make money off you every month (money PP would have kept for themselves) if you went directly through PP. As such, Kitty will now do just about anything to keep you on, happy and keep that money flowing. You can still deal with PP's customer care (cc) yourself but on the rare occasion that you have a complex problem you could then reach out to Kitty first. They do this every day and speak to PP's CC every day. They will get resolution on your behalf. They know what can and what not can not be done as well as how to get PP to actually do it.

JohnRW thank you for the info, I received a response from kitty that my phone is AVAILABLE_FOR_USE. I did read on Kitty's site about PP, my only question is about the PIN, can you expand on that? I have to pay $80 a year to get a pin?

JohnRW1621 wrote: ... VZ's own Prepaid: VZ just improved this deal. http://www.verizonwireless.com/wcms/consumer/shop/prepaid.html $45 per month gets you unlimited talk, text and 500gb of data for 30 days. If you need more data, $5 gets you another 500gb and that bucket of additional data is only good for 30 days, but... $10 gets you 1gb more and $20, 3 gb more. These last 90 days. They call this "bridge data". Think of voice and data as separate buckets. Sample: $45 gets you talk, text and 500mb data. Lets say that 15 days in, you burn through the 500mb. You then lay down $20 to get 3 gb more. In the next 15 days, you burn through another 1gb. That first 30 days cost you $45 plus 1/3rd of $20 or $6.66 $45 + $6.66 = $51.66 for talk, text and 1.5gb of data usage. You still have 2gb in reserve. PP sells you $55 per month ($50.88, discounted) for talk, text and 2.5gb. Pretty damn close, just another way to skin a cat. A current advantage to VZ Prepaid is that they have the handsets too. Currently, used iPhone 4 for $99 and new Moto G for $99 http://www.verizonwireless.com/prepaid/smartphone-plans/

Well, I was pretty set on PP, but how did I not see this? I was researching this a month or two ago, and VZW's prepaid was CRAAAAP then. I'll have to give them a call and chat about this option.

Thanks again, good sir!

Placeholder for PIN explain later.

No, you do not have to spend $80 per year for a PIN.
There is a simple misunderstanding here.