Are yearly prepaid phone plans worth it?

[gymm]

I have noticed that there are more carriers now offering 12-month prepaid plans.
It is cheaper if you are going to pay the whole year, but you are locked in longer.
Have any of you out there tried any yearly phone plans before?
Is it better if you have one?

 

[bkeaver]

I have noticed that there are more carriers now offering 12-month prepaid plans.
It is cheaper if you are going to pay the whole year, but you are locked in longer.
Have any of you out there tried any yearly phone plans before?
Is it better if you have one?

I think so. I'm on my second year on mint Mobile. I love paying a full year and not writing about a cell bill

 

[Kobelup]

Ive used mint mobile, but where I live T-Mobile doesn't have great reception. Don't get me wrong Mint isn't a bad company and I liked them.
Now if you want a great deal, USmobile has a special of unlimited for 225 for the year. They use all 3 big cell towers and you can switch to each company to find the best for you. Mint offered 5 gig for 185, but after taxes it was 198 and for 27 bucks more I got unlimited.
Just remember you are only locked into a company if you get a phone payment plan.

 

[bkeaver]

Ive used mint mobile, but where I live T-Mobile doesn't have great reception. Don't get me wrong Mint isn't a bad company and I liked them.
Now if you want a great deal, USmobile has a special of unlimited for 225 for the year. They use all 3 big cell towers and you can switch to each company to find the best for you. Mint offered 5 gig for 185, but after taxes it was 198 and for 27 bucks more I got unlimited.
Just remember you are only locked into a company if you get a phone payment plan.

I have literally been from East Coast to West Coast and haven't had any issues with reception. There are areas from all carriers in certain spots. No carrier network is without its dead spots.

 

[bkeaver]

Ive used mint mobile, but where I live T-Mobile doesn't have great reception. Don't get me wrong Mint isn't a bad company and I liked them.
Now if you want a great deal, USmobile has a special of unlimited for 225 for the year. They use all 3 big cell towers and you can switch to each company to find the best for you. Mint offered 5 gig for 185, but after taxes it was 198 and for 27 bucks more I got unlimited.
Just remember you are only locked into a company if you get a phone payment plan.

Mint also runs 12 months of unlimited for 185.00

 

[Kobelup]

Mint also runs 12 months of unlimited for 185.00

They do. When I went to buy the year plan it was 5 gig for 185 then with taxes it was 198. Thats why I did the usmobile.com plan.

 

[racedog]

They do. When I went to buy the year plan it was 5 gig for 185 then with taxes it was 198. Thats why I did the usmobile.com plan.

I've been with TMO for about nine years now and I've been thinking that it's time for a change. Was looking at US Mobile yearly plans, but I am a little afraid since I don't really know them well.
How has their service been? Any issues with customer service? Any service that is missing with their plans/services? I will likely use their warp speed service since that runs on TMO so can I expect things to be the same as they are now?

 

[bkeaver]

They do. When I went to buy the year plan it was 5 gig for 185 then with taxes it was 198. Thats why I did the usmobile.com plan.

They run the 185.00 for 12 month unlimited several times a year

 

[Kobelup]

I've been with TMO for about nine years now and I've been thinking that it's time for a change. Was looking at US Mobile yearly plans, but I am a little afraid since I don't really know them well.
How has their service been? Any issues with customer service? Any service that is missing with their plans/services? I will likely use their warp speed service since that runs on TMO so can I expect things to be the same as they are now?

I haven't had any issues with them. I'm on the dark star network and that is att I believe. You can switch between networks and i believe some plans have a watch add on.

 

[edubfromktown]

I've been with TMO for about nine years now and I've been thinking that it's time for a change. Was looking at US Mobile yearly plans, but I am a little afraid since I don't really know them well.
How has their service been? Any issues with customer service? Any service that is missing with their plans/services? I will likely use their warp speed service since that runs on TMO so can I expect things to be the same as they are now?

I've been using US Mobile T-Mobile service for ~4 years and haven't had any issues. Customer service has been fine as well.

Initially it was $19.98 monthly and when I upgraded to their newer GSM network, it converted to yearly prepaid ($15/month for 10 GB data, unlimited talk and text).

 

[Skeezix]

I'm paying $65 a month for 2 lines and 5GB. That's $780 a year, and it's with Consumer Cellular. Am I getting screwed??

 

[swebb]

I'm paying $65 a month for 2 lines and 5GB. That's $780 a year, and it's with Consumer Cellular. Am I getting screwed??

I think so. You should be getting more data for that cost. You can get unlimited data on many other plans for the same or less monthly cost.

 

[racedog]

Ok, just switched two lines to US Mobile (mine and wife's). I got the full year unlimited everything, unlimited data (with no deprioritizing), crap load of hotspot, talk & text, switch carriers at no charge, and a bunch of free call countries and international perks.

I paid $598 for both lines for the full year. I will adjust down next year once I see what we're actually using. This comes to $50 a month for both lines and I could have saved a lot more if I had gone with a plan that didn't have the kitchen sink thrown in. I was paying $73 a month to TMO for a plan that was a LOT less.

Switching made me nervous but US Mobile made it pretty easy and painless. The whole thing went smoothly and we were up and running in just a few minutes.

 

[Skeezix]

I appreciate your replies. I use my Pixel 7 for its camera. Everything else is just fluff. I think I'll just stick with the wife's plan so that she doesn't squawk

 

[edubfromktown]

yes in my experience (with Android and iPhones) in the past ~7 years.

In the the case of the former, I've purchased Apple refurbished from their site and the latter, generally new Samsung Android phones directly from them because they offer the highest trade-in values and incentives.

My wife's iPhone is on US Mobile's Verizon service and mine is on their T-Mobile service.

10 GB data per month is more than sufficient for me ($15/month) and 3 GB or less for the missus (both with the unlimited free talk and texting).

I run the numbers every few years. It has never been more cost-effective to pay for a carrier multi-year higher monthly cost plan tied to a 2 or 3 year "contract" to obtain "free" phones.