Tell me about cell phones and plans

Greetings,

It turns out I know virtually nothing about cell phones. I'm currently with sprint/pcs, and feel like I'm paying WAY more than I should be. I'm paying around $55 (US) per month for basically 300 "anytime minutes" (it's more than enough to satisfy my weekday usage), and unlimited weekends and evenings (where evening starts at 7pm, which costs $5 more per month). SMS is like 20c per (no special plan, cause not worth getting).

Also, I find I have pretty shitty reception most of the time, and the phone they gave me is a piece of shit, with a completely unintuitive UI and might be responsible for the lousy reception. It's a cheap Samsung fold-up phone... Whatever came free with the Sprint contract in 2005.

Anyway, the good news is... My contract is up! Score! Now I'm free to change things up. But thing is, I know nothing about things like what's good, and what's a reasonable price.

I'm also kind of stuck on which direction I want to go. Part of me just wants to get some kind of pay-as-you-go. For my usage, and the services I get, I shouldn't have to pay more than maybe $25 total. Heh but maybe I'm wrong about that too.

Another part of me wants to say, "ok, I'll keep the same price range, and go all out with unlimited everything, and maybe a cheap data plan or something, and a fancy phone that I might be willing to pay extra for"... But if you want an affordable "fancy" option, you pretty much need to go with iPhone. People seem to be mostly unhappy with the service lock-in it comes with though, and I am by NO means an apple fan boy. Of course, I could get like a Nokia E70, which is more expensive, but also fully unlocked... but that would make me a Maddox fanboy haha.

So... someone tell me about this stuff!
- What kinds of plans are available?
- What kinds of price ranges should I consider reasonable?
- What should I watch out for?
- Where are hidden fees to ask about?
- **How do I go about making sure I keep my number?** I really don't want to have to change it and call every place that has it as my primary number.

I know nothing about the american market but I have a pretty decent account with Vodafone. Don't know if you have this in the states but I get:

- 750 minutes - To use anytime to any network
- 1000 text messages - As it says on the tin
- Stop the clock - Talk for one hour, pay for just 3 minutes
- Vodafone passport - Use my phone abroard and pay the same as I would in England
- International caller - I can call outside the UK for a cheaper rate
- 120mb bandwidth usage for the interwebz

All this for £35 a month, or $70 I think translated into US dollarz cash moneh!

:)

$55 a month? Damn, the iPhone plans are that much.

You can get a cheaper Sprint plan, I'm happy with mine and it's only $39 a month. I got the cheapest plan and works fine for me. I have a Katana and happy with it. Unless you need a smartphone for work or something I'd recommend it.

I have at&t, and I'm constantly traveling, so it's basically the only company that works everywhere.

I have -

• 2000 Minutes
• Unlimited Texting
• Free Nights/Weekends, Mobile to Mobile
• Free Calls to Canada

All this in over a hundred bucks. I think it's pretty good. I can get a cheaper company, but it's the only one that has signal everywhere.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ninja9578

$55 a month? Damn, the iPhone plans are that much.

You can get a cheaper Sprint plan, I'm happy with mine and it's only $39 a month. I got the cheapest plan and works fine for me. I have a Katana and happy with it. Unless you need a smartphone for work or something I'd recommend it.

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When you say $39 a month, is that total? Like, the amount of money that leaves your bank is $39 a month, or does that not include the extra fees? My bill looks like this:

$35 a month for the plan
$5 for "evenings start at 7"
$5 for "sprint surcharges", whatever the frack those are
$5 for government fees and taxes

I guess 55 was the highest it's ever been one month cause of more texting than usual... It usually comes up to about 50.