Yeah, more cell phone talk.
With my Droid appearing to be dead, dead, dead, I went to the Verizon store to talk about my options. Having no insurance, the only real thing Verizon can do is sell me a new phone, which are pretty expensive when they can't dangle the 2-year contract deals over your head, which they can't since I'm currently in a contract. It's possible(I don't want to get anyone in trouble) that no fewer than 2 Verizon employees have tried to talk me out of this, instead directing me to find someone on the internet selling a used/refurbed phone on the internet for MUCH cheaper.
However...there is another option. I keep hearing more and more good things about pre-paid phones...specifically, Straight Talk, which is sold through Wal-Mart. Buying unlimited calls and texts and data through straight talk is roughly $90 a month. Right now, Verizon is charging me well north of $200 for two phones worth of coverage.
The other pieces of the puzzle are my wife's phone, and my contract. By luck, my wife is due for another phone in 5 days, which gives us some freedom. It means if I do decide to jump the Verizon ship, the only real negative is having to pay a penalty for my contract. From a straight financial point of view, this is a no brainer...both path's require me to pay some money for new phones, because even though my wife is due for an upgrade, something is still going to need to come out of pocket...and even with a penalty for breaking my contract, we are no more than 3 months away from coming out ahead jumping to Straight Talk....
I just need to do some research on how good their actual coverage is. Hanford is kind of in the middle of nowhere, and Verizon has always had the best coverage out there.
Yeah, research and well. My local friend has a Walmart phone and sometimes it is a pain to try to talk to him. I live in the country, but still only 23 miles from the college town. Coverage is good. Actually I sometimes have troubles in town, so it isn't the distance. I have Verizon and have no troubles at all. I think his phone is hinky when calling indoors is part of, but not all of, the problem. It really is frustrating to not hear, miss calls, and have calls drop, and we only talk three to five times a month.
ReplyDeletePlus, I didn't think they offered anything even remotely close to a smart phone? If so that must be really new.
We had AT&T for years and finally ditched it for Virgin Mobile.
ReplyDeleteHad to buy new phones but will make that up very quickly.
1,200 minutes a month with unlimited text and data for 2 phones for $90 a month plus taxes.
AT&T was hitting us for $150 a month for unlimited talk, 25 megs of data for one phone and unlimited texts.
Since Virgin uses the Sprint towers and no roaming charges, I'm not worried to much about overage charges or dropping a call.
We switched to Virgin for the wife and daughter and it has been great. 300 minutes and unlimited text and data are $35 a month per phone. I thought the 300 minutes would be an issue but it is not, they text ALL THE TIME and NEVER TALK.
ReplyDelete