Straight Talk Reviews?

[zod96]

I am currently on At&t and paying about $100 a month for my Nexus 4 with 3GB of data and Unlimited texts. Now I see this straight talk by walmart for $45 unlimited everything. That is one great deal. But as usual the old saying if it sounds to good to be true it usual is comes to mind. I'm in the Bay Area so coverage is good. I usually never leave this area too much. Is Straight talk a good service and worth it or are their hidden problems with it?

 

[5150Joker]

I switched from att a few months back for the same reason and so far the service is exactly like att which makes sense since they use att towers.

 

[podspi]

The only thing to be aware of is that ST is no longer no longer offering ATT sims, so if you buy a sim now it will be using t mobile's towers, not atts.

 

[Chocu1a]

Look into net 10. They actually own straight talk now. So basically the same coverage.

 

[Midwayman]

I am currently on At&t and paying about $100 a month for my Nexus 4 with 3GB of data and Unlimited texts. Now I see this straight talk by walmart for $45 unlimited everything. That is one great deal. But as usual the old saying if it sounds to good to be true it usual is comes to mind. I'm in the Bay Area so coverage is good. I usually never leave this area too much. Is Straight talk a good service and worth it or are their hidden problems with it?

There are some caveats. First they can't bill your number for anything. So any service that would need to bill your phone won't work. (say accept a collect call, call a phone sex line, etc) You will not be able to make international calls unless specifically in your plan. If you take a trip to Canada you'll be out of luck.
You will not roam. This is generally not an issue, but if you are on ATT and find yourself roaming already you may have an issue. NO LTE. All prepaids get lower priority on towers from what I understand. Normally not an issue, but if you're trying to make a call on an overloaded tower I hear they take care of post-paid first.

I haven't run into issues, but this is what I've heard about limitations. Most of this applies to any pre-paid carrier.

 

[Thegonagle]

Look into net 10. They actually own straight talk now. So basically the same coverage.

Not entirely accurate. Net10 and StraightTalk are both brand names owned and operated by America Movil, AKA TracFone in the US.

Net 10 is available from anyone who wishes to sell it, while StraightTalk is sold exclusively through WalMart.

Basically, Straight Talk, Net 10, and TracFone are the same company.

I believe they must use common call centers. Once, when speaking to a CSR regarding my TracFone brand service, she ended call with "Thank you for using Straight Talk wireless." Oops.

 

[Zivic]

There are some caveats. First they can't bill your number for anything. So any service that would need to bill your phone won't work. (say accept a collect call, call a phone sex line, etc) You will not be able to make international calls unless specifically in your plan. If you take a trip to Canada you'll be out of luck.
You will not roam. This is generally not an issue, but if you are on ATT and find yourself roaming already you may have an issue. NO LTE. All prepaids get lower priority on towers from what I understand. Normally not an issue, but if you're trying to make a call on an overloaded tower I hear they take care of post-paid first.

I haven't run into issues, but this is what I've heard about limitations. Most of this applies to any pre-paid carrier.

I've had straight for about 5 months now with ATT sim...

- no LTE

- can make international calls - I have made calls into canada just in the last week

- roaming is goofy. Went out into WI (I live in twin cities area), and coverage was in and out... no data roaming, but could make calls.

- MMS needs to be setup. it is kind of quirky and will require special settings. I have made matters even worse by using google voice which doesn't really support MMS.

- don't expect any customer support. had a local issue with ATT towers. ST didn't have a clue. their suggested fix was to send out new sim cards. ended up a tower issue and it affected all ATT users. had to wait it out till ATT fixed the towers. When you have issues, be prepared to deal with them on your own.