Cell Phone Advice

[Acert93]

My family and I recently moved to the Seattle area and were dissappointed to discover the local phone monopoly was charging over $50/mo for their entry level phone service. It seems they have force-bundled Long Distance with their basic service to counter Comcast's digital voice service whiich bundles Long Distance and whatnot into the basic service. We lean toward frugality and have always used the most spartan phone service available and used a cheap-o phone card for long distance.

After my discussion (chat... my wife "washed" the cell phone we were borrowing) with the only local Bell it appears they have no intention of budging so we are looking at mobile phones.

So I need advice as we have never owned a cell phone.

We don't use a lot of long distance (maybe 300-400 minutes a month, mainly weekends. This will rise now that family is farther away).

We are not big phone talkers although with my new job and location (and commute) I have been talking more with my wife on the phone to coordinate stuff.

No interest in texting, chat, or web browsing on a cell phone at this time (browsing could be nice at times, but too expensive for our budget).

We have a number of family members who use Verizon.

We were browsing some Verizon deals ($70, 700 minutes, 2 phones) because they have the Verizon-to-Verizon free calls as well as nights and weekends. 700 minutes is more than enough for us. One plus I found is that through the 1800mobiles site I found a Palm Centro bundle for free which would be a perk for me seeing as I use a PalmTX. Integrating my PDA into a phone and MP3 player (with a thumboard seeing as I HATE grafiti) would be pretty neat.

Anyhow, what advice, suggestions, or deals should I be looking for? What hidden fees are there behind the "price" they tell you? Do all these companies suck the same?

We don't want to spend too much but some recent events (like losing my brakes and having to get the car towed... crazy scary! But no one was hurt thankfully) make it a reasonable investment that the stupid land line price gouging makes me want to take the leap.

Thanks for any suggestions you can give.

 

[Sonic]

Verizon has been pretty reliable for me seeing as we use it for the work cell phones. I've little complaints with them. And if you can get a free decent phone that you really like out of the plan it might be worthwhile. $70 a month isn't all that bad with just two people and the 700 minutes can come in handy in case you ever talk to family members of what not during the day. Since you say you do that primarily on the weekends it seems like that many minutes would be more than reasonable for your usage. It's only $20 more than you would have for your land lines and both you and your wife would have a number to do what you guys need to do.

I'm not clear of the reliability of Verizon in the Seattle area but considering it's a pretty metropolitan place I would think it is very good.

ATT has a similar plan as the $70 plan from Verizon. For $10 a month less you would get 550 minutes, but again since you have family that uses Verizon I would think Verizon is the better company.

As far as customer service goes, when it comes to a business plan Verizon is really good and I think that would extend to individual and family plans as well.

As far as hidden fees are concerned it might all be built into the 69.99 per month as that's what a lot of cell phone companies do. They might not add all the addtional taxes and fees into it thoguh so you might be paying a little bit more. Best advice I can give you is to go to a local Verizon Wireless store and just tell them to give you all the details up front. They should be honest about it since they will want your business with them.

Hope this helps a little bit.

 

[RussSchultz]

One crappy thing about verizon is that they charge for INCOMING text messages. 20c per.

You can block messages in general, or from a spammer, but otherwise, its $5/month per line for unlimited messenging (I think).

 

[Ty]

All of the major carriers may also have discounts depending on who you work for (maybe student discount as well?)

We get a 19% discount from Verizon.

Oh, I'd check with Verizon if that Palm REQUIRES a data plan. "Smart phones" on the Verizon network MUST have some sort of data plan, which sucks for me.

 

[Mize]

In the US, nobody come close to Verizon's coverage and reliability. Outside the US the CDMA technology they use is useless (some coverage in China but no data, some in Central America, etc. but the rest of the world is GSM/UMTS). I have both a GSM phone (AT&T) and a Verizon phone. The latter is for all the many spots without GSM coverage. If you don't travel internationally I'd always go with Verizon. Verizon *might* require a data plan for that Centro, but they might not. CDMA uses the same broadcasts for data and voice so data use would just show up and minutes of talk time.

 

[Davros]

I got this Samsung SGH-M150
http://www.samsung.com/uk/consumer/...ilephones&subtype=bar&model_cd=SGH-M150LAAXEU

Cost £20 pay as you go (no contract)
has
camera (still and video)
internet
email
voice recorder
mp3 player
Fm radio (you can record off the radio)
bluetooth
calandar
alarm
stopwatch
appointment book
games
calculator
image editor

you cant complain for £20



ps: why dont you use skype (aka voip) its dirt cheap if you dont have to phone when your out and about

Edit: you can get mobiles with skype built in......

 

[Ty]

Verizon *might* require a data plan for that Centro, but they might not. CDMA uses the same broadcasts for data and voice so data use would just show up and minutes of talk time.

Yep, that's why I said "if". You can't easily fool their network (unlike phones that use a sim card) since they verify the MEID when you activate the phone.