Phone contract up-What to do?

[z1ggy]

ATOT- My current contract with ATT runs out in 7 days. I have been with them for 2 years, with an iphone 4. Not particularly a huge fan of the phone, but I do like the apps and it's relatively small size. I am not really sure what I want to do next. In my mind, here are my three options:

Keep my current phone, drop ATT and go on a month to month no contract deal with Virgin Mobile for like $40 a month.

Keep my phone but then upgrade to the new iphone in October, and renew my ATT contract.

Ditch my iphone and possibly ATT for a Droid(maybe the newest Galaxy) and maybe go to Verizon.

I can't really afford to drop $300 on the new iphone (or any phone really..), and I am even less opt to do so because I hear Siri is not all that great. Also, my camera will need to be disabled due to my job (work with classified gov't information) so facetime and all that BS doesn't matter to me.

This leads me to think I should go for Option #1. However, I live in a slightly rural area and I am worried Virgin Mobile reception will be less than stellar. Also, my phone is kind of messed up from dropping it so many times, and on like 80% of my phone calls, there is a static interference of some kind that requires me to tap or hit my phone a bunch to make it stop. Annoying. Which would you do?

 

[HAL9000]

If it were me I'd buy the new iPhone outright (SIM Free) then get a rolling 30 day contract with good allowances.

In fact that's what I am doing. I pay £21 a month for unlimited calls, texts and data, and I'll buy the next iPhone outright.

 

[dawp]

I would not stay with at&t.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/08/att-have-you-no-shame/

 

[Uppsala9496]

My AT&T contract came up 4 days ago. Had been with them for longer than I care to admit.

I went ahead and bought 2 galaxy nexus' (for wife and I). We ported our numbers to google for $20 each. Elected to go with Straight Talk at $45/phone/month. So, $700 for new phones, $30 for sim cards and $90 a month for cell service on the AT&T network.
I thought about going with the t-mobile $30 a month plan, but may need to exceed the 100 minutes allocated.

I'm saving about $70 a month. Over the course of a 2 year contract I'm saving myself a lot of money ($910 after phone, porting and sim purchases).

Tough pill to swallow shelling the $700 up front for the phones, but had we stayed with AT&T I am sure we would have upgraded to the S3 and that would have been $400. Our galaxy s' were starting to show their age.

 

[bignateyk]

Doesn't virgin use CDMA? Switch to TMobile prepaid or Consumer Cellular.

 

[soulcougher73]

My AT&T contract came up 4 days ago. Had been with them for longer than I care to admit.

I went ahead and bought 2 galaxy nexus' (for wife and I). We ported our numbers to google for $20 each. Elected to go with Straight Talk at $45/phone/month. So, $700 for new phones, $30 for sim cards and $90 a month for cell service on the AT&T network.
I thought about going with the t-mobile $30 a month plan, but may need to exceed the 100 minutes allocated.

I'm saving about $70 a month. Over the course of a 2 year contract I'm saving myself a lot of money ($910 after phone, porting and sim purchases).

Tough pill to swallow shelling the $700 up front for the phones, but had we stayed with AT&T I am sure we would have upgraded to the S3 and that would have been $400. Our galaxy s' were starting to show their age.

My wife and I just did the same a month ago. Except we did go with T-Mobile $30 plan. If you go over the 100mins its only 10c/min after that FYI. So if you only sometimes go over 100 i think youd still save a ton of money on T-Mobile assuming their service area works for you.

 

[soulcougher73]

Doesn't virgin use CDMA? Switch to TMobile prepaid or Consumer Cellular.

That is what i remember as well. I thought they used Sprints network. Which means he couldnt take his iPhone 4S to them.

I could be wrong..so many carriers lol

 

[Tweak155]

Not to mention you couldn't have had a 4s for 2 years. Just sayin'.

 

[bignateyk]

Consumer Cellular is nice if you don't need a ton of data. They use ATT's network, so you get the same coverage and quality of service, and any ATT phone will work. Unfortunatly the max data plan is 500mb. You can share any plan though. My wife and I have 700 minutes, 5000 texts, and 500mb data for like $70/month total, which is half what we paid for the same thing on ATT.

My wife and I mostly use data over wifi, so the data limit isn't a big deal for us (we generally only use 200mb/month combined)

You won't be able to use your existing phone on TMobile (at least if you want anything better than 2G)

 

[z1ggy]

Not to mention you couldn't have had a 4s for 2 years. Just sayin'.

Yeah it's just the 4, woops.

And I wasn't sure if it was T-mobile or virgin. I just read about how some folks were dropping the Big 2, and going for the smaller carriers w the same phones they always had.

The new iphone will prob run $700 on its own, which is a tough pill to swallow, but over the course of a year or so, I will prob break even, then after 2 years I will have saved a few hundred bucks.

 

[z1ggy]

Consumer Cellular is nice if you don't need a ton of data. They use ATT's network, so you get the same coverage and quality of service, and any ATT phone will work. Unfortunatly the max data plan is 500mb. You can share any plan though. My wife and I have 700 minutes, 5000 texts, and 500mb data for like $70/month total, which is half what we paid for the same thing on ATT.

My wife and I mostly use data over wifi, so the data limit isn't a big deal for us (we generally only use 200mb/month combined)

You won't be able to use your existing phone on TMobile (at least if you want anything better than 2G)

Ah.. good point with the speed thing. I also mostly use the data on wifi, but sometimes at work I will watch a bunch of youtube vids if I get bored, or lurk on fb.

I don't want to fall into this trap of paying out ATT or Verizon $100 a month when I can get the same service, but maybe slightly tighter data plan usage for half the price.

 

[bignateyk]

Ah.. good point with the speed thing. I also mostly use the data on wifi, but sometimes at work I will watch a bunch of youtube vids if I get bored, or lurk on fb.

I don't want to fall into this trap of paying out ATT or Verizon $100 a month when I can get the same service, but maybe slightly tighter data plan usage for half the price.

It's nice to switch to a discount or prepaid carrier so you aren't at the mercy of the ass clowns at verizon/att. You'll be glad you switched.

 

[clamum]

My 2 year Verizon contract has been up for about a month so I'm thinking of going to Straight Talk after my mom told me about it. I was thinking of re-activating my Droid 2 phone (using a RAZR now) but the data plan is crazy expensive.

 

[Oyeve]

I would drop ATT, switch carrier or go prepaid and sell the ip4 to put toward a new phone, whether ip5 or android.

 

[shortylickens]

My moms on Virgin Mobile and is quite happy. Unlimited data for a very low price.

 

[rcpratt]

Verizon, GSIII. That was easy.

 

[z1ggy]

Ah.. good point with the speed thing. I also mostly use the data on wifi, but sometimes at work I will watch a bunch of youtube vids if I get bored, or lurk on fb.

I don't want to fall into this trap of paying out ATT or Verizon $100 a month when I can get the same service, but maybe slightly tighter data plan usage for half the price.

Does the Consumer Cellular, or any of these Straight Talk plans, do 4G? or atleast 3G? Ideally,I think I would like to keep my iph4 and switch to the no contract plan for a while and use the savings to save to buy an iph5 straight up, then just use that afterward.

Reason for not doing that right away is because I need to use my current funds to fill my home oil tank, buy pellets for my stove for the winter, and a few other random expenses.

 

[bignateyk]

Does the Consumer Cellular, or any of these Straight Talk plans, do 4G? or atleast 3G? Ideally,I think I would like to keep my iph4 and switch to the no contract plan for a while and use the savings to save to buy an iph5 straight up, then just use that afterward.

Reason for not doing that right away is because I need to use my current funds to fill my home oil tank, buy pellets for my stove for the winter, and a few other random expenses.

Consumer Cellular uses ATT network, so you get whatever you get with ATT. In my area the best they have is HSPA+, so I get that with consumer cellular.

 

[Saint Nick]

Shit people... my Verizon contract has been up for TWO YEARS ... help me

 

[Brainonska511]

Does the Consumer Cellular, or any of these Straight Talk plans, do 4G? or atleast 3G? Ideally,I think I would like to keep my iph4 and switch to the no contract plan for a while and use the savings to save to buy an iph5 straight up, then just use that afterward.

Reason for not doing that right away is because I need to use my current funds to fill my home oil tank, buy pellets for my stove for the winter, and a few other random expenses.

This makes me want to bang my head into my desk. If you want to save money, why not just get a cheaper phone (such as some android phone or even a no-frills phone), and switch to a discount carrier? Do you have to have the iPhone?

 

[z1ggy]

This makes me want to bang my head into my desk. If you want to save money, why not just get a cheaper phone (such as some android phone or even a no-frills phone), and switch to a discount carrier? Do you have to have the iPhone?

Main reason for iphone is that I put all my music on it. It serves as my iPod, if you will. Sure I could sell it and get a cheap android and then buy a regular iPod but I like having my phone and music player all in one.

 

[vi edit]

Have AT&T unlock it for you (they will do it if you are off contract) and then go to Straight Talk for $45 a month with the same phone and network coverage you have now.

 

[z1ggy]

Have AT&T unlock it for you (they will do it if you are off contract) and then go to Straight Talk for $45 a month with the same phone and network coverage you have now.

Oh okay I will check it out. Any clue what the text and data plans are like off the top of your head?

 

[Uppsala9496]

If you don't use more than 100MB in data a day, ST is the way to go. Same network, just cheaper. Guess your only issue could be keeping your number. Not sure how google voice works, if it does, on apple.

 

[AnonymouseUser]

I was going to suggest "no contract", but, due to recent developments, I'm going to have to suggest "no contract". I realize this contradicts my previous recommendations of "no contract", but it's time has come. A compromise, should the "no contract" option be unavailable, would be "no contract".