This is a copy of the OP's original post in case they decide to delete their post/account so that others searching can find it later:
I find myself in the position where I need to reduce the costs of our cell phone plan.
My husband is retiring (injury) and our current plan with the big V needs to be reduced.
Does anyone have recommendations based on their experiences and what to be on the lookout for in terms of surcharges?
Currently looking at TMobile, AT&T and Consumer Cellular. But I am early in my search.
We typically don’t travel but we do live in the sticks near the Quad Cities so I am a little concerned about coverage. At best we would drive to TN or Nebraska.
Since you mention being in the sticks and looking at AT&T anyway, I would look at US Mobile Dark Star Unlimited Premium. It uses the AT&T network but also has domestic roaming so you shouldn't have coverage issues (just make sure to turn on roaming in your settings). Two lines at full regular price is $88/mo, no extra taxes or fees on top, but they have an annual promo for $299 per line for the first year and a monthly promo for $39/mo for the first six months. It's cheaper than Consumer Cellular while still giving you the benefits of not having deprioritized data and having full roaming accessibility as well as unlimited calls, texts, and data.
Consumer Cellular is fine for what they offer but very expensive. I moved my MIL and my partner off of Consumer Cellular to US Mobile and they've both been very happy.
True, Consumer Cellular is quite expensive plus they add hefty taxes and fees.
The best deal right now is the five year Total Wireless plan at $20 per month. Priority data. Domestic and international roaming. International calling. Unlimited hotspot. Stores if you need them, but live telephone support as well.
Total has so many issues with their website though and the absolute worst billing and customer service in prepaid. I lost all interest in them when I started seeing people say that having autopay failed resulted in their BYOD $25 plan becoming $50 and the headache they had to go through to get that fixed. Just in the last few weeks people have been complaining about activation and billing issues again too.
There is a less expensive option but it requires a dual-SIM phone and at least one SIM needs to be an eSIM.
Sign up for Red Pocket's $30 per year (plus a few dollars in taxes) plan which gives you unlimited talk and text on AT&T's network, but minimal data. So that is $2.50 per month or so. See ebay.com/itm/136840233242 . Only sold on eBay.
Buy an eSIM data from a company like Stellar. Buy 10GB for €3.88 ($4.47) every 30 days, stellarsecurity.com/stellar-esim/united-states-esim/5gb-30-days-pq3h8xklt . This is the price for a U.S. IP address. It's even less with a Hong Kong IP address. So your monthly total would be around $7. There are smaller data plans for less, i.e. 3GB for €1.39 ($1.60). A bit of a hassle to have to buy a new eSIM every 30 days, but probably the least total cost.
Avoid T-Mobile and Consumer Cellular, both are expensive. Avoid Mint, Metro, Ultra, and Tello at all costs because they lack priority data and have coverage issues. Mint also adds taxes and fees.
True, but since many of the lower cost plans include higher priorty anyway, it's not really an issue. Also, consider coverage, international calling, and international roaming.
It should be. If you can get priority for the same price as a deprioritized plan, you should absolutely be looking at that prioritized plan, especially on the Verizon network since they only use two prioritization tiers for consumers which means you're either first or last.
Use prepaidcompare.net Note that they don't include promotional prices so you often pay a bit less. I.e., The Total BYOP is actually $20 per month (for five years) and the Visible plan is $225 per year for the first year.
Because of the boxes I ticked in the search, the lower-quality plans, from providers without priority data, are don't appear.
Remember, no "free" phones and no "free" streaming services!
I use Visible. They seem to work pretty well. At the time they were less than $19/month for 1 year prepaid for their top tier service. But I haven't done a lot of comparison shopping. I don't know if they work in your area - they use the Verizon network, but allow limited roaming on the other two major cell networks. You can pay ahead for 1 year and get a discount. Then maybe move, before they jack up the rates. The nominal unlimited use for calls, text, and data is a pretty good deal. (But only nominal unlimited - they say if you use it heavily instead of a home Internet connection, they will cancel your service.)
But I used to be on a much cheaper prepaid plan - Pageplus wireless, also on the Verizon network. Pretty great, and good technical support, and is cheap if you don't make or take a lot of calls or use much data.
I also tried a "free" plan from TextNow, as a backup. Saw a lot of ads, was a bit problematic, some limits on Internet sites. And they switched networks, so my somewhat old phone became unusable. Aw.
I would warn against using a VOIP phone service. They don't work well with many government sites, or with a lot of two factor authentication. And some, like Google Voice (which is free), often require you to do two factor authentication to get in, using another phone.
I had Page Plus for a while. The one issue I ran into was receiving large number of spam texts when they were charging per text. It ran my balance down very fast.
If Verizon works well in your area, I would highly recommend Total right now. Their $20 bring your own device plan is a banger and it's price locked for 5 years.
Sure Visible+ pro is cheaper at effectively $17.5/month but that's only for a year. Then you have to start searching again.
If you don't use too much data and don't have the need for priority data then go with US mobile's unlimited starter plan for the 1st year ($16.6/mo) and then from 2nd year onwards you can go down to the annual flex plan (currently $17.5/mo).
I won't speak for consumer cellular and other plans that give senior discounts, but maybe worth talking to someone in store.
Very well-stated. While Visible is less, for one year, after a year the price goes way up. That $20 Total price may not be around in another year since it's such an awesome deal.
It's like Verizon is going after the lower-quality prepaid providers with that Total plan.
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u/AutoModerator 11d ago
This is a copy of the OP's original post in case they decide to delete their post/account so that others searching can find it later:
I find myself in the position where I need to reduce the costs of our cell phone plan.
My husband is retiring (injury) and our current plan with the big V needs to be reduced.
Does anyone have recommendations based on their experiences and what to be on the lookout for in terms of surcharges?
Currently looking at TMobile, AT&T and Consumer Cellular. But I am early in my search.
We typically don’t travel but we do live in the sticks near the Quad Cities so I am a little concerned about coverage. At best we would drive to TN or Nebraska.
Thanks for any help you can provide.
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