Best Prepaid No Contract

[WinU]

Hello there. I am looking to escape AT&T. I am tired of the high prices and 2 year contracts for how my Wife and I use our phones. I personally think we would be best to switch to a Prepaid Service. We pay way to much for only 450 anytime minutes, free night and weekends, unlimited text, and my phone has 2GB of data. AT&T's surcharges, gov't fee's and taxes are also outrageous. I know the prepaid services throttle you after certain amounts of data used but right now she has a basic texting phone with no data and I have a Lumia 920 (that I love and want to take with me) but I use under 2GB's a month. I don't care if I'm throttled after a certain point (depending on plan). But at least we could have Unlimited Talk, Text, and Data without worrying about going over the data. AT&T go phone probably would probably have better customer service and what not but they don't off unlimited data, not even throttled.

So with all that said I was just wondering which service is the best? Talk, Text, picture messaging, visual voicemail etc. Straight Talk? Aio Wireless? Net 10? Solavei? MetroPCS? Pro's and Con's of which you prefer would be awesome. I would stick with an AT&T Sim card. I'm leaning towards Straight Talk or Net 10. From browsing FB they all seem to have some pretty crappy customer service but with no contract I can always cancel and go elsewhere.

Starting to wonder why people aren't going this way more often now with the better plans and now with the 4G LTE. I'd rather buy a good used phone off craigslist, ebay or many other places.

All opinions and help welcome!

Thanks in advanced for any responses!

 

[palandri]

Six of one and a half dozen of the other. I am pretty sure Straight Talk is the cheapest.

I was paying $178 a month after tax for two phones through AT&T, with 2GB data on one and 3GB on the other. I was going to switch to Red Pocket, but T-Mobile came out with there new rates, so I switched to T-Mobile because their coverage in Chicago is fine. Now I pay $118 a month after tax and have unlimited voice/text and 2.5GB of data on each phone.

You are correct, AT&T has much better coverage nationwide.

 

[Alienhead95]

I would recommend straight talk too. $45 for AT&T service is a great deal IMO.

 

[syang87]

+1 for Straight Talk. $43.95/month. Haven't come across any problems yet.

 

[mary beth hale]

Have used Straight Talk AT&T SIM card for 3 years on 3 different windows phones without problems. 3 things...make sure you get the apns inputted correctly, know that there is a 2.5gig data cap and use their Facebook page for "help ticket" when you encounter a problem.

 

[WinU]

Great! Thank you. Just so many different ones out there it's hard to choose.

Why do the APN's etc not update automatically when you insert the new sim cards? I've been seeing a lot about this.

Also after you hit your data cap how slow is it? Is it completely unusable?

Thanks

 

[mary beth hale]

I never hit my data cap because I am on WiFi whenever at home. Don't know the technical reason why the phone does not automatically register SIM card. Whatever mvno you choose there will likely be someone in the forums to help out.

 

[WinU]

Thank you! I am just trying to learn as much about the MVNO's as possible before making the switch! I appreciate the replies!

 

[Kebero]

If you rely on WiFi most of the time, I suggest Aio. I pay $40/month, but my speeds are throttled to 3G after 250mb.

 

[Nogitsune Micah]

Att GoPhone was the best prepaid for me. I like their customer service a lot better

 

[Jim Bob4]

Straight talk seems to fit your needs. My son has it with a 521 and loves it. No problems.

 

[332]

I'm kind of curious to know a little more about Straight Talk. It seems like a lot of you use AT&T sims with them. I don't get very good signal with AT&T at my home or work, but I get excellent Verizon signal. Their site says they use the towers from all four of the big wireless carriers in the US, but if I'm using an AT&T sim, wouldn't I be on AT&T's network? I have a 928 and will be buying an Icon when it comes out. I'd like to stop paying Verizon $110/mo, though, if I can pay Straight Talk $45/mo instead. If I have to rely solely on AT&T's network, though, it won't be worth it to me.

 

[palandri]

I'm kind of curious to know a little more about Straight Talk. It seems like a lot of you use AT&T sims with them. I don't get very good signal with AT&T at my home or work, but I get excellent Verizon signal. Their site says they use the towers from all four of the big wireless carriers in the US, but if I'm using an AT&T sim, wouldn't I be on AT&T's network? I have a 928 and will be buying an Icon when it comes out. I'd like to stop paying Verizon $110/mo, though, if I can pay Straight Talk $45/mo instead. If I have to rely solely on AT&T's network, though, it won't be worth it to me.

Nobody has the frequency specs on the Icon yet. It may only have Verizon frequencies on it like the Verizon 2520.

 

[332]

Nobody has the frequency specs on the Icon yet. It may only have Verizon frequencies on it like the Verizon 2520.

I'm not trying to be rude, especially since I'm new, but that doesn't really answer my question. I'm wondering if I can use Verizon's towers through Straight Talk. As I said, I currently have a 928 currently. I know I can use Straight Talk with the 928, but will it only use AT&T's towers? They claim to use all 4 major carrier's networks and I only get good service at home and work with Verizon's towers.

 

[palandri]

I'm not trying to be rude, especially since I'm new, but that doesn't really answer my question. I'm wondering if I can use Verizon's towers through Straight Talk. As I said, I currently have a 928 currently. I know I can use Straight Talk with the 928, but will it only use AT&T's towers? They claim to use all 4 major carrier's networks and I only get good service at home and work with Verizon's towers.

Sorry about that! No, you can't use Verizon towers through Straight Talk. Verizon uses CDMA and limited LTE frequencies. AT&T uses GSM and LTE frequencies. Your 928 has both Verizon's CDMA/LTE frequencies and GSM frequencies, so you can get 3G on your 928 through an AT&T SIM card. We don't know yet if the Icon will have GSM frequencies to use AT&T towers.

Straight talk is limited to GSM frequencies, i.e., AT&T and T-Mobile. Did that help?

 

[332]

Sorry about that! No, you can't use Verizon towers through Straight Talk. Verizon uses CDMA and limited LTE frequencies. AT&T uses GSM and LTE frequencies. Your 928 has both Verizon's CDMA/LTE frequencies and GSM frequencies, so you can get 3G on your 928 through an AT&T SIM card. We don't know yet if the Icon will have GSM frequencies to use AT&T towers. Did that help?

It absolutely did, thanks a ton. It sucks that I can't switch from Verizon to this, though, as I absolutely hate them.

 

[worldspy99]

Perhaps you can try Verizon prepaid? Also see if a Verizon MVNO is feasible.

 

[332]

Perhaps you can try Verizon prepaid? Also see if a Verizon MVNO is feasible.

Thanks. After looking at the post at the top of this sub-forum with the wikipedia link to all the MVNO's, it appears Verizon doesn't share their LTE network with anybody. With their prepaid plans, however (which I didn't realize they even had!), I would pay $60/mo for what I'm currently paying $110/mo. Why don't more people do the prepaid plans? I guess we're all addicted to subsidized devices in the US, but I think it's cheaper to stick with prepaid in the long run, and pay full price for your devices, selling them when you're done.

 

[worldspy99]

Good luck. I agree that prepaid is the way to go but T-Mo with no contract isn't too far off. Also everyone's data needs are a bit different. For me I pay about $90 for 2 lines with T-Mo and that works for me.

 

[WinU]

I agree that I think the only reason why the prepaid is taking off as much is because of the subsidized phone pricing. The free phone here, the $99 iPhone blah blah. Also the prepaid plans aren't advertised and pushed as much as the two year contracts. The no contract TMobile is pretty good. But if you can get a cheaper plan on AT&T's 4G LTE like Straight Talk is saying then that would be better as right now they still have better coverage than TMobile. Whats is great about all these plans is that there is no contract and you can test drive them. I guess one question is though is would your phone number always transfer? I am not at a point where I'd like to lose my number.