talk to me about cell phone family plans

[milkmommy]

I bought my first "smart phone" a year or so ago through straight talk cheep LG.. I upgraded to something a little better this past summer and gave Cecilia my old LG. Meanwhile DH is still using a pay by minute old style tracphone which he is fine with...
His phone though is now acting funny and we think it might be time to replace it. He not really interested in a smart phone so well likely just go for something more basic.. My real question is in our cell phone plans.. Right now I have both me and DD with straight talk which means $90 a month we have to put minutes on DH phone every 90 days which runs us another $25 (for 90 minutes). Would looking into a family type plan be a better option? We don't want to have to sign onto contracts ect but not having so many different bills would be nice.

[esperanza]

We just had a long thread about this, pretty sure it was in the tech forum.

[milkmommy]

Originally Posted by esperanza

We just had a long thread about this, pretty sure it was in the tech forum.

Thanks off to go take a look

[esperanza]

Hope you find some good info. I was really interested in a couple of the plans mentioned, but for various reasons we didn't go with them, including poor reception in our area. We ended up going with Consumer Cellular. I should write a little review on them. We've been super happy so far. They seem to market to the AARP group. But hey, it's a market that has largely been untapped in the cell phone world! The bonus for us younger folks is that everything is pretty simple and straightforward. Right now my dh just has a phone, but I need to get mine switched to their plan. I love that I can change plans even during the month. They also send pretty frequent usage updates, so you can see if you're close to your limit for the money. Much cheaper than what we were paying with a big name cell phone company! You do have to bring/buy your own phone though.

[solatido]

I know it isn't a family plan but if you are looking to save money, maybe look into t mobile prepaid. I pay $100 for a year and 1,000 minutes. The SIM card is $10 but you only have to buy that once and can put it in any phone that takes a sim. My husband does the same plan since we don't use our phones for much calling. I always have minutes left but they roll over. So it works out to less than $20/month for both phones. No data but I just use the wifi for my iPhone.

[saturnfire16]

Tmobile is running a great family plan right now. No contract, $80 for 2 lines and $10 for every line after that, unlimited minutes and texts on all lines. Plus they will pay your deactivation fees with another carrier and credit you for turning your own phone in to them. We are thinking about switching.

[2sunshines]

We are considering a family plan. Right now we have nothing. I mean, I technically have a dumb phone through verizon, but it's an add on to mil's plan... dh has no phone. And we have had situations where it would have been very helpful to be able to give a kid a phone while they're away from home... So we've been considering a 3 phone plan.

I'm overwhelmed with where to start. I've been looking at republic wireless. I like the no contract part. I'm leery of the sprint coverage.

We get great verizon coverage here, but I'm not a fan of their prices.

we do not get ATT coverage here.

And the others, I do not know.

So I'm very interested in what people decide.

---------- Post added at 11:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:33 PM ----------

Originally Posted by saturnfire16

Tmobile is running a great family plan right now. No contract, $80 for 2 lines and $10 for every line after that, unlimited minutes and texts on all lines. Plus they will pay your deactivation fees with another carrier and credit you for turning your own phone in to them. We are thinking about switching.

Does tmobile run off someone else's towers or do they have their own towers?

[saturnfire16]

Originally Posted by 2sunshines

Does tmobile run off someone else's towers or do they have their own towers?

I don't think they have their own towers. IME, when I had tmobile and other family had verizon, if we were WAY out in the boonies, my phone wouldn't have a signal and theirs would. But other than that, it never mattered. And we live in a rural area to begin with. They would have 4 bars and I would have 2, but I could still make calls.

[tazmom]

T-mobile has their own towers. At least they do around here. I've been with them for like 8 years. The only place I have trouble with coverage is out in the desert a few miles off the freeway. I've never had the kinds of problems with customer service that people with other companies have and my bills have always been significantly lower.

We have their family plan with 4 lines with unlimited minutes, text, and data (2.5g high speed/mo) for $100. Dh and I each have a line, his mother had a line, and we have a line for the kids to take with them places. Mostly dd1 uses it, but I've used it as entertainment for a child when we have to wait somewhere for an hour.

[Teacher Mom]

Not specifically a family plan, but check Virgin Mobile. My dd just signed up herself for $30 month for UNLIMITED TEXTS and UNLIMITED DATA.

She bought her phone outright from them too.

I'm still amazed at the unlimited data part.

[Llee]

We've been happy with t-mobile for the most part too. Much better than at&t.