Verizon Pre-Paid

[master7045]

Anyone use verizon's prepaid plans here? I'm looking at the $60 & $70 smartphone plans w/ unlimited talk/text & 2 or 4GB of data per month. This is for my wife w/ her iphone 4. She wants to wait for the next iphone and her contract is up and the bill we just got was $110! She has the old grandfatherd unlimited data w/ unlimited text & 450 minutes. She uses a lot of texting, not a ton of minutes and hardly any data. I ran the numbers and she averages about 1 GB a month. Just trying to save some money where we can is all. She likes verizon and I feel it does have the best coverage where we live (STL-metro east). I'm assuming she can still use her iphone 4 and limited to CDMA isn't an issue as the 4 is not LTE compatible. Thanks!

 

[soccerballtux]

pageplus
virgin mobile
they are CDMA and much cheaper

 

[ImDonly1]

Buying prepaid direct from verizon is a bad deal.
Buying from their prepaid partners is better
PagePlus
Selectel (new)

 

[AstroManLuca]

pageplus
virgin mobile
they are CDMA and much cheaper

Buying prepaid direct from verizon is a bad deal.
Buying from their prepaid partners is better
PagePlus
Selectel (new)

Page Plus doesn't work with the iPhone, or any smartphone with LTE capability, or any Blackberry.

They have a 2 GB plan for $55, but Verizon has the same plan for $60 that allows iPhones and LTE phones (they won't actually be able to USE LTE, but at least they can be activated; non-LTE phones are getting pretty old by now).

Also she shouldn't just get rid of her grandfathered unlimited data. If she doesn't use it, try selling it on eBay and make a few hundred bucks. People go nuts trying to get those.

Virgin Mobile uses the Sprint network, which is totally different, AND you must buy a Virgin Mobile-branded phone. Their plans aren't bad if you don't use lots of minutes, but it's totally irrelevant to the OP.

Basically if you have a Verizon iPhone you are stuck using it on Verizon's own plans and nowhere else. If she is willing to sell it there are lots of options, but if she wants to keep the phone, she is stuck with Verizon.

 

[ImDonly1]

Pageplus doesn't allow the iphone officially... but many have it. Especially the iPhone 4, it is old and they don't really care. You just have to find a dealer to activate it from what I read.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Pageplus doesn't allow the iphone officially... but many have it. Especially the iPhone 4, it is old and they don't really care. You just have to find a dealer to activate it from what I read.

Even so, the $55 plan is exactly the same as Verizon's $60 plan except that it is not officially supported. I think it's worth $5 to know that my phone is supported.

Now if she wants to go to PP's $30 plan with 250 MB of data, that's another matter. If you're careful and use wifi whenever possible, and don't constantly stream music in the car, it should be easy to stay under 250 MB. If you can find a PP dealer to activate the iPhone, maybe that would be the way to go.

Oh, and I would still try to sell that grandfathered unlimited data plan.

 

[cronos]

Both iPhone 4 and 4S work with PagePlus without any need for modification. Most of the time you don't even need a dealer and just call or even chat with PagePlus support and they will activate it for you. No need to tell them explicitly what phone you have, just tell them you're activating a new account and give them the ESN/MEID number.

 

[master7045]

Thanks everyone for the reply's. I never knew you could "sell" a cell phone contract. Will be looking into that. I understand that page plus uses verizon's network, but is the coverage the same? 250 MB isn't enough unfortunately, she'll go over that too much. I can make sure she is using wifi in the house, but she isn't a techie and won't bother siginging onto public wifi's as they all take you through a "login" page and a t/s agreement (my opinion). I like verizon's coverage as we vacation to FL a lot and I routienly lose service while she and the rest of my fam (all on verizon) have full coverage.

 

[AstroManLuca]

If 250 MB is not enough then your options are:

Page Plus $55/mo plan, 2 GB data, $0.05/MB if you go over
Verizon $60/mo plan, 2 GB data, $0.05/MB if you go over or you can buy 1 extra GB for $20 (works out to $0.02/MB)
Verizon $70/mo plan, same as above but 4 GB data
Page Plus $70/mo plan, same as above but 5 GB data

All of the plans have unlimited talk and text.

Page Plus is a slightly better deal on both counts - $5 cheaper at 2 GB, and slightly more data at the $70 tier. So they're not a bad option.

Both use the same network, which is Verizon's prepaid network (supposedly slightly worse coverage than their full network, but still good).

 

[Super56K]

PagePlus is supposedly upping the data limit to 500 MB for both the $30 and $40 monthly plans. I was reading about it on HowardForums where dealers are getting emails saying mid-July for the $30 plan, and mid-August for the $40 plan.

 

[AstroManLuca]

PagePlus is supposedly upping the data limit to 500 MB for both the $30 and $40 monthly plans. I was reading about it on HowardForums where dealers are getting emails saying mid-July for the $30 plan, and mid-August for the $40 plan.

That would be a nice option if it happens. Would also be nice if they supported LTE-capable smartphones, even if you don't get to access LTE, just being able to activate newer phones would be helpful. I'm sure people with their Droid 3s and Fascinates are getting a bit restless.

 

[darkswordsman17]

I was checking into these and was curious if they were any good or not as we are needing to change plans. I'm on a shared plan with a family member right now. I'd like a smartphone but they just want a solid basic phone. I'd rather not have a contract (and I think on contract it would be more expensive) but it means I'll have to find a phone, I was thinking about seeing if I could find a used iPhone or Android phone.

The local Verizon place isn't very good, and their website was crap for being able to compare plans.