I have been using my ZTE phone from Walmart for over a year now. I buy my Straight Talk phone card monthly. I pay $45 for Unlimited Text, Talk, Data. I love it. We went all the way Up North to the Canadian Border, and I was getting perfect reception. I feel the 'NO CONTRACT' thing is the best way to go.
All carriers are going No Contract, so it doesn't matter at this point. What matters now is price, features, and overall quality of service. You're no longer going to pay a subsidized price for your phone. Full-price payment or installment payments are becoming the go-to route now. Straight Talk is a great prepaid option that runs on AT&T's network as an MVNO, but you get reduced data speeds compared to AT&T, and the network isn't as reliable because you're treated as second-tier users.
No contract sounds good to me. Full price payment would drive me to buy a used phone on eBay or other place, rather than having to come up with a huge chunk of money for a new phone through a cell provider, although installment payments might be acceptable. I wouldn't mind reduced data speeds at a lower cost, since I'm at home a lot and would be using wifi anyway.
I have had both contract and no contract, I prefer no contract because I can turn the phone off when I don't want to pay the bill that month and not lose the use of my phone.
If you don't follow the fashionistas and get the latest new phone that comes out every year, you can easily find great "so last year" phones for under $200. The main reason I switched to Android is that I couldn't justify paying $400-600 for the latest phone every two years. And don't get me wrong, I love iDevices. I just don't want to pay that much. But I agree... no contract is the way to go! I've never looked back... and most likely never will!
I am thinking of switching to straight talk. I have sprint. My bill is so high and I rarely have service. My contract with sprint ends on 11/30 but my bill is due a a couple days before for the following month. Do I take the hit and switch now or wait and pay sprint and straight talk. Opinions please
I learned a lot here about cell phones and their carriers. I got a free Sanyo smartphone from my landline phone company recently. Until now I never held a cell phone or smartphone of any kind and it's all a mystery to me using cell phones. I bought a cheap camera and need zoom so I'm tempted to activate my Sanyo smartphone, but everything seems so complicated. Your posts helps me to get educated about cell phones.
