Verizon. Month to month vs. pre-paid

[GoodEnough]

2 year contract expires in April.
Just got a new phone, so I won't be renewing.

Under pre-paid,
$60 for 3GB
$45 for 1GB (Current promo for 1 free GB. Plus, if you set up autopay, you get another free 1GB. Total 3GB for $45)
$30 for 0GB
So, under prepaid, I'd get 2GB for $45 under autopay.

If I stay with m2m loyalty plan, I will be paying $60 for 2GB.

Month to month $60 for 2GB.
Pre-paid autopay $45 for 3GB.

Less money and more data.
Any downside to pre-paid?
Why would anyone NOT go pre-paid?

 

[swanysto]

I was asking myself the same question. I know you can't finance phones on month to month, but like you, I wouldn't need that either. I know when I was looking at some of the other prepaid plan with other companies, they mentioned roaming charges after X amount of minutes used on other companies towers. I haven't found that on Verizon, but maybe someone else can chime in. My plan isn't up for a few months, but I am done with contracts.

 

[dlock13]

2 year contract expires in April.
Just got a new phone, so I won't be renewing.

Under pre-paid,
$60 for 3GB
$45 for 1GB (Current promo for 1 free GB. Plus, if you set up autopay, you get another free 1GB. Total 3GB for $45)
$30 for 0GB
So, under prepaid, I'd get 2GB for $45 under autopay.

If I stay with m2m loyalty plan, I will be paying $60 for 2GB.

Month to month $60 for 2GB.
Pre-paid autopay $45 for 3GB.

Less money and more data.
Any downside to pre-paid?
Why would anyone NOT go pre-paid?

Not sure on Verizon's end, but I can only assume it is the same as T-Mo and AT&T. Post Paid gets priority coverage. If an area is congested, post-paid subs get the better of the service. They get better customer support as well. The roaming capabilities may not be there as well.

Pre-paid usually is a 2nd class citizen.

I'm currently on Cricket, and they are a subsidiary of AT&T. I am throttled and get a little worse roaming capabilities than those on GoPhone and a post-paid customer through AT&T.

So overall, you might just have the slightest change in service and support.

 

[Artdeco]

I was asking myself the same question. I know you can't finance phones on month to month, but like you, I wouldn't need that either. I know when I was looking at some of the other prepaid plan with other companies, they mentioned roaming charges after X amount of minutes used on other companies towers. I haven't found that on Verizon, but maybe someone else can chime in. My plan isn't up for a few months, but I am done with contracts.

You can still finance or lease your phone with a month to month plan.

 

[JeffMD]

I've gona through the same research since I intended to drop to pre paid when my G4 rebates came in. However I found that while there is roaming, there is no data when roaming. Also as mentioned, you get priority on data. Its a rough call, it isn't a huge difference in price. Saddly it is a hard call because the prepaid offering is pretty weak, verizon has like the worst of the data caps on prepaid.

 

[KeithP]

Any downside to pre-paid?

Nope...the only downside is supporting a company like Verizon.

-KeithP

 

[JeffMD]

Nope...the only downside is supporting a company like Verizon.

-KeithP

After I just said no roaming data. Some people just gotta post to poke fingers in pies they have no business being in.

 

[RossMAN]

Your three options are:

1) Verizon postpaid
2) Verizon prepaid or MVNO
3) Another carrier such as Cricket which is owned by AT&T, it's their prepaid brand.

$35/mo for unlimited talk, text and 2.5GB is pretty sweet.

The only reason I'd consider Verizon is if Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile service sucks in your area.

 

[GoodEnough]

dlock's "second class citizen" comments are interesting. There was always something low rent about those temporary pre-paid 100 minute phones you could buy at a gas station. I never understood who bought those. I guess unemployed people with no bank account or credit card or cheating husbands. If pre-paid truly is the low rent division of the cell market, I'd rather stay away from that, and stick to a normal middle class account. While pre-paid seems cheaper for more data, there usually is no free lunch, and the "check cashing" vibe of pre-paid probably has some hidden rub where you get shafted. In other words, people usually resort to temporary phones because something prevents them from getting a normal subscription, not the other way around. Why would Verizon give a better deal to prepaid? Usually the low rent option is the worst deal.

 

[lxskllr]

I would only use prepaid. I don't like being tied to companies. Of course, if it wasn't for work, I probably wouldn't have a phone at all. Aside from work related stuff, I have everyone trained to use email to contact me.

 

[JeffMD]

Goodenough, you really should read your name again. That is exactly why prepaid works. MOST people don't need screaming fast data.. or 6gb of it. I was fine with boost. Virgin mobile I left because their data really WAS useless, it NEVER worked when I needed it (For instance, when I needed directions to the boost mobile store on the day I was going to upgrade to the volt). Boost was awesome. The only reason I left boost was their mid level phones stagnated. Went to sprint prepaid when an amazing deal on lg FLEX was on FP (sprint network is great around where I go). I have never had problems with connection issues and data rates at boost of sprint prepaid. Customer service on both were good too.

Again the only reason I am on verions postpaid is cause the lg g4 was free after gift cards. Saddly im locked out of sprint networks so I am kinda still looking to see where I want to stay network wise. Verizon has MVNOs like BYO Wireless and Page Plus, but I've looked at the forums for most of the best ones and saw horrible customer support and glitchy billing systems.

 

[GoodEnough]

When do you need customer support for a cell phone? I don't think I've ever called customer support. Glitchy billing is a show stopper. I don't want to have to worry about incorrect billing.

Other than the ghetto undertones, I will try to find a good reason not to switch to pre-paid.

 

[JeffMD]

Well.. I used customer support twice in my life. First one was when VM tripple billed me during a device swap which went south cause "it does not show up in their system", was forced to charge back it and pay the $10 on a new card. Another reason I will never go back to VM or suggest them ever. Second was boost, in which It was a text message service no longer being able to get to me, and while I was getting all sorts of great support the error seemed to be on the service end which was Target.com, and they had no service for it.

Also I used CS to do my number imports, any time I get a new phone I try it out for several weeks before porting my number over. Boost/sprint/verizon were all great there.

 

[Fardringle]

I'm on Verizon because nobody else has a signal at all in some areas I frequently visit while I get LTE from Verizon in those areas, and despite what some people here have said (maybe it's regional?) I always get fantastic results on the rare occasions when I need to contact customer service.

My current plan is unlimited talk and text and 3GB data for $45 per month. The other options I see listed on the site are 1GB data for $30, 6GB/$60, 12GB/$80 and 18GB/$100. I pay a little more than the $45 because I have a monthly financed phone at the moment, but since you already have a phone, you should be able to get the 3GB/$45 or go even cheaper at 1GB/$30 if you don't need much data.

 

[dlock13]

When do you need customer support for a cell phone? I don't think I've ever called customer support. Glitchy billing is a show stopper. I don't want to have to worry about incorrect billing.

Other than the ghetto undertones, I will try to find a good reason not to switch to pre-paid.

I believe using an owned pre-paid service such as GoPhone, Cricket, or Verizon's gives you enough support. It just isn't what you would receive when you are a post-paid customer. I wouldn't say it is better or worse being on one or the other. It is very much YMMV with regards to support.

I'm saying just the priority network access, the better roaming coverage, and some other perks are what you would receive on a post-paid account. I do think that since the 3 I mentioned are actually owned by the big telecoms and aren't an MVNO (meaning they lease from the telcos), you will have good enough coverage, support, service, etc.

There's definitely a stigma related to buying minute cards compared to going to an official Verizon/AT&T store. However, you shouldn't really worry about that part of things. Just worry about what is right for you with regards to what you will receive when you sign up for a plan (whether post or pre).

 

[Stifko]

Plus, if you set up autopay, you get another free ...

That autopay has to be automatically billing a bank account I think.
You can't autopay to a credit card right?

I would not care about using a card to re up my minutes. Any stigma would be meaningless to me. The reps at AT&T tell me that Cricket is not connected to all the their towers yet so they are not fully getting all the benefits.

 

[dlock13]

That autopay has to be automatically billing a bank account I think.
You can't autopay to a credit card right?

I would not care about using a card to re up my minutes. Any stigma would be meaningless to me. The reps at AT&T tell me that Cricket is not connected to all the their towers yet so they are not fully getting all the benefits.

You can autopay to a CC. That's how I do it right now actually. I use my CC and collect the points from the payment.

 

[GoodEnough]

I still don't get why there is such a huge disparity in prices, and why pre-paid is such a better deal.

Prepaid $45 for 3GB
or postpaid $60 for 2GB

 

[Artdeco]

Is the prepaid financing a phone?

 

[nOOky]

I go month to month because my employer offers a discount, but not for prepaid. Verizon has the best coverage where I'm at 99% of the time, so I don't have other choices unless I want to walk 3 blocks away to check my voicemail with Sprint (really).

 

[JeffMD]

I still don't get why there is such a huge disparity in prices, and why pre-paid is such a better deal.

Prepaid $45 for 3GB
or postpaid $60 for 2GB

Because there is more to a plan than its data cap. There are no easy ways to test it, but there has been some consistancy that post gets better data rates more often, a priority system of you will.

 

[Midwayman]

I still don't get why there is such a huge disparity in prices, and why pre-paid is such a better deal.

Prepaid $45 for 3GB
or postpaid $60 for 2GB

Typically prepaid is bandwidth capped. 8mps vs 20-30 possibly. Also they supposedly get QOS on a lower tier than PP. Then there is stuff like PP generally has roaming agreements whereas prepaid you get the one network and that's it.

There is also some stuff just because of the way it bills
- prepaid is a hard cap on high speed. post they can just bill you for more data
- International calling is a specific plan on pre, they just charge you on post
- stuff like toll numbers, collect calls, etc.

 

[happy medium]

I find it cheaper to just buy my favorite factory unlocked phone, go to Metro PCS and grab their 55$ a month unlimited everything plan. Unlimited calls , texts, and LTE data speeds, and with my Lumia 1520 windows phone I tether to any phone, tablet or laptop for free.
Shhhh don't tell anyone.

And there is some sort of free streaming music/Netflix thing with Metro also.
I don't worry about it because my plan is unlimited.

 

[soulcougher73]

I still don't get why there is such a huge disparity in prices, and why pre-paid is such a better deal.

Prepaid $45 for 3GB
or postpaid $60 for 2GB

Also usually with prepaid the taxes/fees are in the price. I dont think that is so with postpaid. So that $60 will end up being more.

 

[jpiszcz]

If you go pre-paid you do not have access to VoLTE, which also means you cannot talk/text at the same time on an iPhone (and some Android phones) on Verizon.

** Verizon calls it Advanced Calling 1.0