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Oh, dear, how can you get out of the endless, new contract, new phone loop with your cell phone? They’ve got you where they want you: by the time two years have passed, you gotta get the latest new phone, because they’ve added so many features. Do you need those features? Probably not, but you gotta have them, cause everyone else is getting them. Smart phone, dumb customers? You be the judge, America.
Below is a short letter to a friend trying to quickly summarize some available, no contact options. This is quick and rough and will be refined into a regular article later.
Your goal, everyone’s goal, as a cell phone customer ought to be this: no more contracts. It is much cheaper to pay 400 dollars for a new phone than to be linked in for two years. Besides, are you using your cell phone 1,000 minutes a month because you really need to talk that much or just because you are paying for the minutes anyway? Ever stop to think about that?
Here’s the letter:
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I am happy to pass along what I know. In fact, I've considered creating a website to try to help people through the maze.
What I have concluded, however, is that there is no magic bullet solution at the moment, that you have to pick your way through and make the best decision based on your needs.
The first thing to get out from under cell companies, if you have a phone that uses a SIM card, is to get the phone unlocked. Most companies will, or say they will, unlock the phone. In case you don't know, an unlocked phone means you can use it with any other similar cell system just by putting another SIM inside. Verizon, if that is your carrier, does not use a SIM, except on phones that are intended for international travel. (To find out if you have a SIM card, open the back of your phone and take out the battery. It is a little smart card tucked inside that area. To find out about unlocking your phone, call your carrier or search online.)
Here is a quick summation of unlimited, pay as you go deals:
T-Mobile, 30 day cycles, 50 dollars. Unlimited talk and, I think, text. Don't know about web. They have some decent phones for sale.
Boost Mobile, 50 dollars, unlimited talk and text. Phones for sale at reasonable prices. This service is part of Sprint. They have two types of phones that operate on different networks. One, IDEN, offers push to talk, which is great if you are on a work site or at an event where you need to reach someone quickly and repeatedly without dialing.
Cricket, starts at 30 dollars for unlimited talk. 40 dollar plan probably suits most people better. Crummy phones. Cricket, like Straight Talk below, seems to be aimed at the absolute lower end of the market, but if you get a good enough phone with good sound quality, why worry? Cricket also now has nationwide roaming, which means you shouldn’t get hit with extra charges when you travel, but you still have to be careful.
Straight Talk. Available through Wal-Mart. Crummy phones. Runs from, I think, 30 dollars and up. Like just about everything else at Wal-Mart, you pay cheap and get cheap, but if that is all you can afford, it is worth looking at the phones to see if you could live with one.
There are several other, low end, pay go companies that include Net Ten, Virgin (better phones) and TracPhone. The major carriers all have pay as you go, too. All of these deals, except unlimited, look bad to me for regular cell users. If you were doing only a few calls a month, or even per week, it would be worthwhile to calculate your potential savings by paying a higher rate per minute but not having to have a contracted amount.
All of the carriers are offering unlimited now, but they are not pushing it to customers. Some of the unlimited deals are really expensive, like 90 dollars a month just for talk. T-Mobile is also offering various types of unlimited on no contract deals, in addition to the above.T mobile will also allow you to buy the phone for full price or put the cost of the phone in the contract, month to month.
AT&T offers unlimited talk for 3 dollars per day, only on the days used. This would run up to a lot for most people. Verizon’s “pay daily” plan is even worse.
I looked at all the pay as you go plans and most of them are designed to add up to the same, or more, than you would pay under a contract. They want to punish you, and your wallet, for not putting yourself in a contract.
One option for you would be just to continue on your current plan without a new contract. If you call in after the contract expires, they might even offer you a new phone for free, without a contract, or at a low price. They know once you switch carriers, you are gone for at least two years and maybe forever. They also know that people are catching on to how bad it is being under contract, so expect deals.
That's the best I can do without knowing any specifics of your needs and usage.
Doug Terry
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