After a decade of being faithful to Verizon, I think I'm ready to bail. The final straw was the recent unveiling of the data plans with monthly usage caps for Smartphones. I wanted to upgrade to a Smartphone next month, but not under what they are offering. Their rates have always been on the higher end, but the service and coverage was worth it; but now I think it's too much for me. I'm tired of the two-year contracts as well.

Does anybody use other services like pay as you go or prepaid services? Or is it worth it to sign up with another provider? What do you use?

Having a cell is so expensive! I am paying $70 and don't even have a smartphone. I found that the best way to save is to join someones family plan. I hate not having my own account but it will save me about $20 a month and will now have a smartphone

those data caps are becoming standard on most plans. you could go with Metro PCS, but they dont have the best network either.

choose your poison.

I love T-Mobile; I've used them for 8+ years, but they were recently purchased by AT&T, I believe. You may want to check them anyway, In NYC, they were having some sort of $79.99 that included unlimited texting and maybe like 600 minutes? They also offer prepaid options and they have great customer service, imo. I am not a "phone" person and I don't text, so I have the same $35+ taxes/month plan that I signed up for 8 years ago.

Fury said:

Sprint is the only major network that still has an unlimited data plan I'm still with AT&T mainly because I have iPhone with an unlimited data plan for $30

Whoa, $30 a month?

The iPhone here is like 5 000 pesos and the cheapest, most decent plan is around 800. That's like $425 USD for the phone and about $70 monthly.

I'm wondering if anybody has Virgin Mobile or Boost Mobile. I've been researching those a bit. Of course the main negative with switching is that I'll have to buy a phone at full price. That might change my mind about getting a Smartphone, but there are a few that I like that don't cost more than $199.99. Texting is my primary mode of communicating, and kinda prefer the Qwerty keyboard, but I'm willing to give that up. I just want a larger screen for internet usage.

Alej said:

Fury said:

Sprint is the only major network that still has an unlimited data plan I'm still with AT&T mainly because I have iPhone with an unlimited data plan for $30

Whoa, $30 a month?

The iPhone here is like 5 000 pesos and the cheapest, most decent plan is around 800. That's like $425 USD for the phone and about $70 monthly.

that's terrible!!!

Mine is $65 or something, $500 of calls and 1.5gb data

I should have got something else though, I never call anyone

I have AT&T and the unlimited messaging and data for $30 which I just upgraded to. I have an unlocked Nokia, which works on AT&T and T-Mobile systems. I think it is hard to find a Verizon Nokia, but unlocked phones are the best option to avoid those data plans and contracts. I have a phone upgrade available if a serious phone comes out (I was considering the Motorola Atrix but I am waiting to see how the new Nokia Windows phones are going to pan out).

I have the Nokia 5800 Xpressmusic which has been an awesome phone, just should've had more memory and ram to remain a contender because otherwise I wouldn't give it up! The Nokia Astound is $400 on Amazon right now and the Nokis C6-01 is $230 and they are sweet phones too!!

Amazon has great prices on unlocked phones!!

ZombieKitten said:

Alej said:

Whoa, $30 a month?

The iPhone here is like 5 000 pesos and the cheapest, most decent plan is around 800. That's like $425 USD for the phone and about $70 monthly.

that's terrible!!!

Mine is $65 or something, $500 of calls and 1.5gb data

I should have got something else though, I never call anyone

Yeah, data is more important to me than phone minutes and the phone, obviously. I'm stuck with a horrible, low-end Motorola Android phone. It's horrible.

I use Virgin Mobile and it's pretty inexpensive. I'm on the Beyond Talk plan which is unlimited data, email, text, and web and then a certain amount of minutes depending on how much you pay. For $25 you get 300 minutes, for $40 you get 1200 minutes, and for $60 it's unlimited everything. They have a few good phones to choose from. Their customer service sucks though