Has anyone ever used straight talk?

[lopri]

If the throttled speed is EDGE speed, it's about 0.1 Mbps up/down here. (T-Mobile)

 

[blairharrington]

Why not GoPhone? $60 for 2 GB/month.

 

[paperwastage]

Why not GoPhone? $60 for 2 GB/month.

GoPhone - $60 for 2GB/month, overage @ $10/GB
StraightTalk - $45 for 2.5GB/month, no overage, throttled

same at&t prepaid network

yeah

 

[gmaster456]

I would get att ST (i use att proper now), so would i get identical building penetration to what i receive now?

It would be similar.

To anyone wondering what their data usage policy is, it has been recently revised.

http://data.straighttalk.com/?lang=en

 

[ponyo]

I used it for over a year. No real complaint with the service and would use it again. Sometimes I had trouble finding the $45 refill cards at Walmart.

Do not sign up for their auto renewal service. You can sign up for auto renewal on the website but there's no way to disable auto renewal without calling Straight Talk rep and having them disable it on their computer. And you do not want to deal with their outsourced customer service reps if you can help it.

 

[blairharrington]

GoPhone - $60 for 2GB/month, overage @ $10/GB
StraightTalk - $45 for 2.5GB/month, no overage, throttled

same at&t prepaid network

yeah

Yeah I don't think it's an obvious choice.

GoPhone I believe doesn't go through a proxy. You have superior CS. And if you know you'll go over 2 GB a month then it's probably not the right plan to begin with. Plus if there is a rare month where you do go over you can continue to receive proper data speeds.

 

[gmaster456]

I used it for over a year. No real complaint with the service and would use it again. Sometimes I had trouble finding the $45 refill cards at Walmart.

Do not sign up for their auto renewal service. You can sign up for auto renewal on the website but there's no way to disable auto renewal without calling Straight Talk rep and having them disable it on their computer. And you do not want to deal with their outsourced customer service reps if you can help it.

Why would you want to turn it off? I'd rather auto refill than drive to the store every month and buy those scratch off cards.

 

[pm]

Yeah I don't think it's an obvious choice.

GoPhone I believe doesn't go through a proxy. You have superior CS. And if you know you'll go over 2 GB a month then it's probably not the right plan to begin with. Plus if there is a rare month where you do go over you can continue to receive proper data speeds.

Instead of GoPhone I personally would go with AIO Wireless - which is a subsidiary of AT&T - for $55/month for 2GB. Better CS and supposedly solid data rates.

But for right now, I'm trying StraightTalk. If ST doesn't work out, then I'll jump to AIO.

 

[blairharrington]

Instead of GoPhone I personally would go with AIO Wireless - which is a subsidiary of AT&T - for $55/month for 2GB. Better CS and supposedly solid data rates.

But for right now, I'm trying StraightTalk. If ST doesn't work out, then I'll jump to AIO.

No way. AIO throttles download speeds to 8 Mbps. At all times. I'd rather pay an extra $5 and get proper LTE speeds. The only way I'd go with AIO is if I wanted their 7 GB/$70 plan.

 

[nickbits]

No international roaming on ST, so useless for me.

 

[zanemoseley]

I've had a Samsung Galaxy Proclaim (Verizon pre-paid network) for about 15 months and its been a pretty good experience. I get good coverage since its the Verizon network. The phone is weird about receiving picture and multimedia messages. The CS is average at best the two times I've contacted them, the resolved the issue I called about though. I'm actually thinking of going back to Verizon since my wife is on a plan with her family so I can get 2gb of data and only pay $11 more a month and get a nicer phone. Its a pretty decent value if you can get a phone that gives you a decent network where you live.

 

[gmaster456]

I've had a Samsung Galaxy Proclaim (Verizon pre-paid network) for about 15 months and its been a pretty good experience. I get good coverage since its the Verizon network. The phone is weird about receiving picture and multimedia messages. The CS is average at best the two times I've contacted them, the resolved the issue I called about though. I'm actually thinking of going back to Verizon since my wife is on a plan with her family so I can get 2gb of data and only pay $11 more a month and get a nicer phone. Its a pretty decent value if you can get a phone that gives you a decent network where you live.

A proclaim? You poor soul. How is it working for you? And doesn't ST have some newer phones now too? Last I saw they had the Galaxy S3 and the iPhone 5? Pricey but you still get the same coverage and $45 a month.

 

[zanemoseley]

A proclaim? You poor soul. How is it working for you? And doesn't ST have some newer phones now too? Last I saw they had the Galaxy S3 and the iPhone 5? Pricey but you still get the same coverage and $45 a month.

The Proclaim hasn't been bad. I've had 2 issues with the phone, the first is the problem sending/receiving pic/multimedia messages and the second is occasional issues where I can't type in the search box in my contacts. Aside from that the phone responds well and has met my needs for a 1st time smart phone. Holding it next to a new flagship phone makes the screen look like POS though lol.

ST does have nicer phones however a Iphone 5 is $550 and a SIII is $400 so you really need to save a bunch every month to make it worthwhile. I also need Verizon's network so that limits my choices.

 

[antef]

I've been using ST for a year and a half, no problems. Even worked with their CS a couple times without issues. Now it delivers AT&T LTE, ping is a little higher than postpaid but speeds are great. I would absolutely recommend it over GoPhone or AIO and take the savings. Those two will have higher pings as well so you're not gaining much with them. ST also gives you 2.5 GB instead of 2.

 

[AustinInDallas]

do locked att phones work with ST att sim?

 

[gmaster456]

do locked att phones work with ST att sim?

Yup.

 

[v8envy]

If you're in a major metro city (or major tourist spot like Key West), have good T-Mobile coverage and are on wifi most of the time check out Simple Mobile. $40/month gets you 1 gig of "4G", unlimited everything else. No roaming, like most MVNOs -- so if you're headed to the southeast US you'll likely need a spare Verizon prepaid phone.

 

[antef]

If you're in a major metro city (or major tourist spot like Key West), have good T-Mobile coverage and are on wifi most of the time check out Simple Mobile. $40/month gets you 1 gig of "4G", unlimited everything else. No roaming, like most MVNOs -- so if you're headed to the southeast US you'll likely need a spare Verizon prepaid phone.

I don't know why you'd choose this over Straight Talk AT&T. ATT ST will get you 2.5 GB of real, LTE 4G for only $5 more than that, with AT&T's far superior coverage. There is almost no reason not go with it unless you demand CDMA or have an issue with 100-150 ms pings.

 

[v8envy]

I don't know why you'd choose this over Straight Talk AT&T. ATT ST will get you 2.5 GB of real, LTE 4G for only $5 more than that, with AT&T's far superior coverage. There is almost no reason not go with it unless you demand CDMA or have an issue with 100-150 ms pings.

Wal-Mart sells the 3 month cards for $125, so really the price diff is even smaller...

In my very specific case ATT doesn't have a tower in my neighborhood. In my Farraday cage of a house T-Mobile is the only decent service available. In general, where I live and drive, T-Mob works about the same as ATT otherwise. Also, LTE eats the battery in every one of our phones, I've purposefully turned it off in favor of HSPA+ -- I can barely notice the difference in browsing performance, but the battery hit is definitely there.

That said, If I ever find myself needing an additional 1.5G of data I can see bouncing over to ST, but still with a T-Mobile SIM. So your point still stands.