Super User deep Posted December 21, 2015 Super User Posted December 21, 2015 I have a basic cellphone with Sprint. What are my options if I want a cheap smartphone (to check emails and forums like BR) and don't want to sign a 2-year contract? Thanks guys! Quote
FloridaFishinFool Posted December 21, 2015 Posted December 21, 2015 Tracfone. Plenty of no contract options, and you choose the level of data you can afford and pay as you go or want to. And, if you have an android, you can activate it under their bring your own phone plan (BYOP). A nice thing about android smartphones is you can turn on the wifi feature and use wifi anywhere you go same as a laptop and it does not use up any of your paid for phone data usage. ebay has hundreds and thousands of used androids for sale at a fraction of new prices. Just make sure you have one that is not locked up and one previously on an AT&T plan is preferred by Tracfone for some reason. (Has something to do with compatibility and ease of activation) We did this for our daughter in college and got her a triple minutes plan. Rather than just give her a phone with the family plan she would use up all the data monthly all by herself, & by giving her a tracfone it made her responsible for her own data useage and made her learn to have some phone responsibility for herself, and it encouraged her to pay up for the data she used and made her aware of what she was doing and how to control it for herself. She learned to cut back by necessity so it was a good move for her. There were days she would receive literally between 100 and 200 texts a day or more. She had her nose in the phone way too much. We had no choice but to put her in a phone situation that made her responsible for her usage. Handing her a family plan phone did not work out for us. Tracfone and others similar are available at Walmart. At Walmart you can get a basic phone with double minutes plan for about $10.00, but if you spend like $30 to 40 up front you can get a slightly better quality phone like the LG306 which is wifi compatible, but not very useful, but with it you get triple minutes for life. So when you buy new minutes, whatever the number of minutes is that you buy Tracfone will triple them for you. 60 minutes bought will turn into 180 minutes type of thing. And if you do the BYOP and activate an android smartphone after purchasing the triple minutes plan, you get to keep the triple minutes plan on the android phone, and now you can begin to add in other features previously not available like 1000 text messages for only $10 that is not available on the regular phones that come with the initial buy. And if you need to access the internet with phone data usage you can buy whatever level of data you need extra. All pay as you go. Worked out great for our daughter. Today rather than just running up the data mindlessly, she is now mindfully watching and controlling it herself. Thank god! 2 Quote
Super User Fishing Rhino Posted December 21, 2015 Super User Posted December 21, 2015 It's hard to keep up with all the changes in the cell phone market. It appears the two year contracts will be a thing of the past. So will discounted phones or free upgrades that were available when you signed up for two years. I don't think you can buy a basic phone any more. It seems they are all smart phones. It depends on how much smarts you want your phone to have. Things are changing rapidly, and I had trouble sorting out the old system, let alone all the "deals" that are for a "limited time only". Sprint was running a bring your contract with another provider and they would sign you up for the same program at half price. Plus, they would pay any fees to terminate your existing contract. Then other providers made counter offers. Your best bet is to visit the various providers. There, you can ask them all sorts of questions, and decide what best fits your circumstance. 1 Quote
Evan K Posted December 21, 2015 Posted December 21, 2015 Straight talk is a good option. Unlimited talk, text, 5 GB of data if you bring your own phone, for $45 a month. It's what I use. 1 Quote
Super User gardnerjigman Posted December 21, 2015 Super User Posted December 21, 2015 Verizon,at&t, t mobile all have no contract phones. I had a verizon one for a long time. unlimited talk and text and 3gb of data for $60 a month no contract. att has the same deal. 1 Quote
Super User Senko lover Posted December 21, 2015 Super User Posted December 21, 2015 Check out Republic Wireless. 1 Quote
Super User tomustang Posted December 22, 2015 Super User Posted December 22, 2015 Buy a used smart phone and go on a carrier, just make sure your phone is compatible with what ever network you choose 1 Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.