Straight Talk or Total Wireless? (Raleigh, Dallas: credit card, to buy, taxes)
Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, CaryThe Triangle Area
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I'm done with TMobile and their weak signals, so I need a prepaid plan that uses Verizon towers. Both Straight Talk and Total Wireless use Verizon. ST is more, but also has 10GB of data. I don't think I need that much, so maybe it comes down to cost and customer service?
Customer service for both is weak, if not virtually non-existent, and I say that as a former Straight Talk and current Total Wireless customer. The good news is I haven't had many times I needed customer service, mostly the first time I set up my phone with them. After you do it once, you get the hang of it. They are essentially the same company, same owner. Just pick whichever one offers the plan that works best for you.
^ I'm also former ST who switched to Total Wireless and I agree. I've learned customer service is basically no help if there's a problem with the phone. However, I also learned I am much better off to search the internet about the problem and fix it myself which gets the problem resolved much, much faster. I have had zero issues with coverage anywhere on the eastern seaboard. Most of my data is on WiFi so I don't need hardly any data. I actually on use about 500mb of data each month.
You need to keep this in mind. Straight Talk uses several carriers including T-Mobile whereas Total Wireless is strictly Verizon. If you have to have that much data which requires using Straight Talk and need to purchase be sure to buy a "cdma" phone as that will put you on Verizon's network.
I absolutely love being a Total wireless customer. I am on "auto pay" which allows them to charge my credit card each month so no bills, either.
We switched from Verizon to Straight Talk about a year ago and haven't missed it one bit. We don't have any more issues than you would with a large carrier and the price is much cheaper, especially on data. We pay $45 a month per phone and each gets 10gb of data, which is more than enough for us, plus we don't have to share data, so even better!
We are on Cricket's family plan. Five lines for $100 including taxes and fees, and they just bumped up the data to 5 Gigs per person! Cricket uses AT&T's network so coverage is great. Cricket's data speed is capped at 8 Mbps, which is plenty fast. My understanding is that Total Wireless' data speed is capped at 5 Mbps.
I've used Straight Talk for many many years. For $45 a line, you get a ton of data. My ST uses AT&T all the time, and reception is good until you get more into the city of Raleigh. I don't know if I'm being throttled for regular AT&T customers or what. If I'm in Crabtree mall, my data speeds pretty much suck. I tried one month of T-Mobile just to see if there was a difference, and T-Mobile was faster in downtown.
Since I'm not downtown everyday and ST is cheaper. I am sticking with that.
We are on Cricket's family plan. Five lines for $100 including taxes and fees, and they just bumped up the data to 5 Gigs per person! Cricket uses AT&T's network so coverage is great. Cricket's data speed is capped at 8 Mbps, which is plenty fast. My understanding is that Total Wireless' data speed is capped at 5 Mbps.
It used to be capped but is no longer
Verizon to Net10 (Straight Talk) to Total customer here. Once past the customer service issue it's the same as my post paid Verizon was.
I find that hard to believe. There has to be some sort of limitation, otherwise, why would Verizon let someone else undersell them on their own network?
Just because someone is using Verizon towers does not mean they are getting full Verizon service. These carriers can and do limit bandwidth and even completely shut off service to other carriers using their signals. This even applies to prepaid brands they own.
I find that hard to believe. There has to be some sort of limitation, otherwise, why would Verizon let someone else undersell them on their own network?
They used to cap download speeds but changed that this year IIRC. I've gotten up to ~40mbps. Typical is 10-20.
What they've done is prevented the use of data and voice on some phones but I bought a iPhone SE from Total this year for $129 that has a LTE-V SIM card which does voice and data simultaneously.
I'm in Dallas now and did a speed test.
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