[AA702]

I have the customer loyalty plan with Verizon. Its $60 per month unlimited voice/text with 2 gb data. 1 year contract and eligible for equipment discounts and upgrades.

[house2013]

Originally Posted by AA702

I have the customer loyalty plan with Verizon. Its $60 per month unlimited voice/text with 2 gb data. 1 year contract and eligible for equipment discounts and upgrades.

how come i dont have that? been with them for 3 yrs now

[AA702]

Originally Posted by house2013

how come i dont have that? been with them for 3 yrs now

Because you have to ask for it. Tell them that your thinking of going prepaid and they will offer you the $60 customer loyalty plan.

[Sheriff1]

I had been with Tmobile since 2002, and my contract was up in Jan. they offered no percs at all to a longtime customer, same as any new customer. I switched to Cricket-- unlimited talk text and 2.5 GB 4G LTE data. A music subscription service---Muve music for free, and a Samsung S3 for $269. $51/mo.

[Merrily Gather]

For an individual on a budget I would look at the average of how many minutes and data you actually use and then consider options. I'd also shop prepaid services. Many of the prepaid offices buy phone lines from the big carriers such as Verizon, Tmobile, AT&T so you're getting the same service but different pricing. Plus with prepaid if you use your minutes there's no overage charges because you'd have to refill the minutes you need. So you're in control what you pay for service.

Also I agree with airics that samsung and galaxy are out pacing apple's iphone technology. However, Apple has the better marketing and branding going for them. They can create a product that has little to no value to consumers, and where there is no market created for a device, and sell it to consumers creating a market for it.

We buy our smart phones on craigslist, amazon, or ebay shopping for one compatible with the service we want to use like Verizon. It's usually not the top of the line technology but one generation from it. Like buying a new used car so you don't have to pay considerably more for a new phone.

Also if you already pay for internet you can use a VOIP service like google voice for no additional fee and make unlimited calls for free using a home phone instead of the cell phone using your minutes. See my post here on how to set that up LINK.

For internet we pay $35 a month for 2MB. We lowered the speed from 15MB because often times the higher speed is more than you need for what you use the computers for. At the lower speed we can't play two high definition videos at the same time on two different computers. If you're a gamer you'll also want the higher speeds, but if you're one or two people watching videos online and have a tablet, smart phone and VOIP and you use them for surfing the net and emails you can get the lower speeds without much different to your usage.

For prepaid phones since we have VOIP we don't use our cell phones much and we pay $12 a month each for 250 minutes and 250 texts. There are also free services online that will send text messages to peoples cell phones for you and act like a chat on your computer if other people prefer to communicate through text messaging via cell phones.

So total for communication devices we're paying $59 a month for two people. Where as most people are paying $120 a month or more with $60 a month for internet at higher speeds that they don't need, and $60 a month for unlimited cell plans when they don't use a lot of minutes or text messaging.

I can see that if you have a TV and more than two members in the family to cover then those more expensive options with higher speeds and unlimited calling and texting may offer more savings for the value. We don't have a TV and watch all our shows on hulu which is free on personal computers, but you'd have to pay a monthly membership fee if you want to watch hulu on your mobile devices.

[localinsight]

Thanks for broadening my scope of options. I will have to think out of the box & do a little more reading & thinking.
I have 25 mb data & one step up from basic cable for tv.
I am not a heavy Internet user but sooooo many people have told me you can hardly use email with less.
Honestly, I bought a TiVo w/lifetime subscription from someone on this forum. He showed me how to use it, etcetera. That really helped. I don't understand computers or electronics
Despite a (1984) engineering degree!!

The TiVo is great. I haven't even set up a net flix acct because I'm using the TiVo off my limited channel line up.
I will booKmark this thread.
My contract w/Verizon is up In may.
I am not happy with how the iOS 7 system affected the iPhone 4.
I also had some reliability issues with he phone. Fortunately I got apple care as I am on my third phone.

[skugelstadt]

AT&T and Verizon offer 20% off for employee discounts, assuming your company is on their list. Doesn't hurt to ask

[MrWillys]

Get the Bush free phone signed into law in 08 called www.safelink.com and if you meet the requirements you!ll get a free phone from the tax and spend party.

[MrWillys]

Get the Bush free phone signed into law in 08 called www.safelink.com and if you meet the requirements you!ll get a free phone from the tax and spend party.

https://www.safelinkwireless.com/Enr...c/NewHome.html

[airics]

Originally Posted by skugelstadt

AT&T and Verizon offer 20% off for employee discounts, assuming your company is on their list. Doesn't hurt to ask

It's upto 20% not many get the full 20