How many people here are off-contract/prepaid?

[AstroManLuca]

Last year my wife and I ditched Verizon and our $140 monthly bill (for 2 smartphones).

Paid the ETF, sold our old phones, bought new ones for cheap (two Lumia 521s), and moved to a pay-as-you-go plan. We actually pay per use on everything, including data, meaning it's really not economical to keep data on all the time. But it's simple enough to just switch data off and rely on wifi. Doing this, we have averaged something like $15 a month each since switching, so we're saving over $100 a month. That put us in the black very quickly despite having to pay $480 in ETFs.

Pay-per-use data isn't going to appeal to most people, but even if you need a lot of data, there are plenty of prepaid plans available for $30-$50 a month.

I suppose this is a gadget enthusiast community so most people will want the latest and greatest all the time, but I feel like the price you pay is way too high to be worth it. You can get a Moto G for $200 or a Nexus 5 for $350, and you're saving potentially thousands of dollars over the length of a contract.

So who here is off contract? What do you use? Or is it not viable for you? I know that a lot of people are stuck with Verizon because the other networks just don't cover them and there are almost no Verizon prepaid options.

 

[amdhunter]

Work pays my bill. They also bought me a Lumia 920 which I promptly gave back and bought an unlocked 5s.

Thinking about a 1+1 whenever they find a way to sell it like a normal company.

 

[notposting]

Yeah, as a point of comparison, picked up a 520 and have it activated via GoPhone (AT&T). Holy moly...does their coverage suck, lol. We pay ~$100 for our VZW family plan (500 minutes, free VZW calling, N&W, text plans, and unlimited data for me) with a corporate discount applied to my portion of it.

Boonies of MI pretty much gonna be VZW or bust. It's ridiculous how broad their coverage is in general.

Plus add tethering this month since we moved. Around 40 GB in a week and a half.

 

[Insomniator]

My parents moved to metro PCS or some other bootleg service for 30-40 a month. Their reception sucks.

I still have my VZW unlimited data for ~$85 with corp discount. I don't want to worry about wifi/data and I like having a signal seemlingly everywhere I ever go. If it weren't unlimited data I might consider something else... but until then I'm keeping it.

 

[dguy6789]

I moved from Verizon with unlimited data but not unlimited mins for $85(after corporate discount) a month to Straight Talk with unlimited mins and unlimited data for $45 a month and using ATT's network. Could not be happier, still get great coverage everywhere I go and I never come close to the data speed throttle threshold.

 

[sweenish]

My savings are not as substantial, but they're still there. Went from Verizon to T-Mobile post-paid (still no contract) with new phones we bought outright.

Saving $50/mo over Verizon, and we're free to leave at any time if we decide that we need more savings on a pre-paid plan. Coverage is fine, and speeds are great.

 

[cbrunny]

I use pre-paid/monthly but am not on a contract.

 

[Prankmaster]

My new job pays for everything but last year when I was still freelancing I had a pretty cool unlimited data prepaid plan for about $30 and it was more than enough to do anything.

 

[BrightCandle]

I buy my phone outright, then I have a sim only pay monthly deal with my provider. That costs me considerably less a month than if I bought the phone with the deal and I can hang onto the phone a bit longer and move my contract if I have problems or if another cheaper deal comes along. This allows me to choose on the basis of having unlimited data and not worrying too much about free minutes and obscene numbers of texts because I don't use enough of them to matter.

Wifi isn't really practical in the UK anyway the coverage is just too spotty. Even if were to try and go this route I would find I could only save about £3 a month doing it because I am pretty much on as cheap as a monthly bill as I can go. Looking at my data and call usage I might even be able to get away with a pay as I go deal, its just sometimes I do end up using a lot of data.

 

[Uppsala9496]

StraightTalk for the wife and I. Nexus 4's.
On year number 2 for ST and have yet to have an issue. At home and at work the phone is using wifi so my data usage isn't terrible. I have tethered in past with no issues and have gone over 4GB in a month with no issues.
At $100 a month I'm happy ($65 a month cheaper than when we had AT&T).

 

[WelshBloke]

I buy my phone outright, then I have a sim only pay monthly deal with my provider. That costs me considerably less a month than if I bought the phone with the deal and I can hang onto the phone a bit longer and move my contract if I have problems or if another cheaper deal comes along. This allows me to choose on the basis of having unlimited data and not worrying too much about free minutes and obscene numbers of texts because I don't use enough of them to matter.

Wifi isn't really practical in the UK anyway the coverage is just too spotty. Even if were to try and go this route I would find I could only save about £3 a month doing it because I am pretty much on as cheap as a monthly bill as I can go. Looking at my data and call usage I might even be able to get away with a pay as I go deal, its just sometimes I do end up using a lot of data.

Depending on your usage PAYG may work out better for you.

I'm on EE. I pay £40 a year for unlimited data (6MONTHWEB is £20), and my ISP is BT so I get free wifi and VOIP phone calling anywhere within range of a BT router (which is everywhere if you're in an urban area).
Of course you have to pay for calls and TXTs, but VOIP and Hangouts negates the need for them a lot of the time.

Like I said it may not suit you but its definitely worth looking into.

 

[cronos]

I'm not sure what your fourth option has to do with the others. I use an HTC One that I bought last year and my wife is using a Galaxy S4. They're not the latest and greatest now, but they were last year.

I'm on H2O Wireless paygo, probably averaged around $7-8/month. My wife is on PTel paygo and averaged about $12/month. We've been on prepaid for more than a decade.

My wife has her data on all the time, but I installed a firewall so I only let through stuff that she needs (WhatsApp/BBM/Hangouts/Facebook/Chrome/etc.). I have my data off by default, but it's more about saving the battery than data. I do also have a firewall installed as well and only allow apps I wanted to let through mobile data.

 

[AstroManLuca]

I'm not sure what your fourth option has to do with the others. I use an HTC One that I bought last year and my wife is using a Galaxy S4. They're not the latest and greatest now, but they were last year.

A lot of people are married to their contract plans because they use their subsidy to get the highest end phone available every two years. It's definitely possible to buy the highest end phone without a contract, but using the subsidy makes it easier and you don't have to settle for "only" a Moto G or similarly cheap phone.

This phenomenon has led to the big carriers introducing programs that let you trade up every 6 months for an additional monthly fee. The math ends up working out in the carriers' favor, of course, but as long as people get their new phones all the time they're happy.

 

[ponyo]

Wife and I were on Straight Talk AT&T for more than a year. This was before they had LTE. Never had a complaint. $92 a month for 2 phones.

I signed 2yr AT&T contract last year to get my wife the iPhone 5s. I now pay $132 a month including taxes for 2 phones. So my phone bill went up $40 a month. But that $40 extra a month is the subsidy for two iPhone 5s so it works out the same as if I had stayed with Straight Talk and bought two iPhones outright. With AT&T, I'm able to get LTE. Straight Talk did not offer that at the time. Now they do. So it was a good move for me to sign the contract with AT&T.

I will reevaluate the cellular marketplace once my contract is up. If the pricing is similar, I will likely just stick with AT&T. If not, I will dump them and join prepaid again. It doesn't matter to me one way or the other as long as I get the best deal.

 

[openwheel]

If my work didn't pay for my cellphone plan, I would be on pre-paid. No doubt.

 

[IeraseU]

I use T-mobile prepaid with a Moto X.

 

[cronos]

A lot of people are married to their contract plans because they use their subsidy to get the highest end phone available every two years. It's definitely possible to buy the highest end phone without a contract, but using the subsidy makes it easier and you don't have to settle for "only" a Moto G or similarly cheap phone.

This phenomenon has led to the big carriers introducing programs that let you trade up every 6 months for an additional monthly fee. The math ends up working out in the carriers' favor, of course, but as long as people get their new phones all the time they're happy.

I'm well aware of that. It just seems like a contradictory to me that people would not go prepaid solely because they wanted 'the latest and greatest'. They wanted it but couldn't afford the latest phone, so they won't go prepaid (and save a ton on their monthly fee) and rather stay with postpaid (and spend more). That's just weird.

Note that 'solely' is the keyword here (because you had it up there as one of the poll answers, and you can't pick more than one answer). Obviously it's not that strange if there are other reasons to not go prepaid besides simply 'wanted the latest hardware upgrade'.

But apparently it's not that strange as there are people who voted it

 

[Ksyder]

Moto G/airvoice pay-go/google voice.

extremely cheap but not the most convenient. Thinking about switching to airvoice $30 a month plan.

Didn't really read the thread but paying for phone outright hasn't stopped me from using high end phones although the moto g is an exception. Still after using nexus 4/5, moto x, etc the moto g is good enough for me.

 

[pm]

My wife and I are on StraightTalk (AT&T) and are very pleased.
My daughter is on T-Mobile Prepaid.

 

[Radeon962]

AT&T Mobile Share Value plan 10gb level
Unlimited talk & text

$206.96/mo. For six (6) phones

Five phones are $20.66/mo. With all fees & taxes ($40-$25 MSVP discount = $15 + $5.66 taxes & fees)

Main line is $103.66/mo with all fees and taxes ($100+$40-$25 MSVP discount - $17 FAN discount = $98 +$5.66 taxes and fees)

So averages out to $34.43 per phone.

Unlimited texting is necessary as 4 phones are used by our kids with another one to be added this August.

This plan cut just about $58/mo off the old AT&T Family plan.

Note 3, S4, S3 and 3 basic phones. Only S4 remains on contract and was grandfathered in to the MSVP as it was on contract prior to February 2, 2014 or whatever that date was.


I buy my smartphones from Swappa or CTO.

 

[AstroManLuca]

I'm well aware of that. It just seems like a contradictory to me that people would not go prepaid solely because they wanted 'the latest and greatest'. They wanted it but couldn't afford the latest phone, so they won't go prepaid (and save a ton on their monthly fee) and rather stay with postpaid (and spend more). That's just weird.

Note that 'solely' is the keyword here (because you had it up there as one of the poll answers, and you can't pick more than one answer). Obviously it's not that strange if there are other reasons to not go prepaid besides simply 'wanted the latest hardware upgrade'.

But apparently it's not that strange as there are people who voted it

Yeah, the way I phrased the poll option doesn't really make sense. A couple years ago there weren't nearly the options for plans or devices. If you wanted anything decent you were basically forced into a postpaid plan.



Probably should have just left it as "other." The reasons for going with postpaid are nuanced... stuff like grandfathered unlimited data, group discounts, or any number of other things, and I don't want to characterize it as a bad choice necessarily.