A good/affordable cell phone plan for older folks

earthfell

earthfell

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Hey I need some help from the oracles of rerolled.

So I am visiting my dad in Houston, and he went in to pay his cell phone bill and came back up with a new phone and a new two year contract. His phone was appropriate for someone who does not use data (it was a traditional cell phone for old peeps). However, then my dad told me he paid $80 dollars a month for it! I have an android through Verizon and pay $90 for it a month, with a 4GB data limit.

So I am super pissed because I think the T-Mobile guy took advantage of my dad because his English isn't that great and he can't read very well as he has been working all his life and never went to school. Today or tomorrow we will be going back to the tmobile store and I want to have whatever he signed undone. I'm particularly pissed off because the guy got my dad to renew and the free phone he got was that piece of shit, and after being with tmobile for 7 years! If you're going to upsell, at least do a good job at it, ffs.

The paper my dad signed says he has 14 days to cancel it. But I wanted to know if anyone knew any good plans for older people who just want a phone to make calls (not even to text). What do your parents/grandparents use?

Edit: also, not sure where this thread should go since it isn't about technology or a product, but a cell phone plan
 
Grimmlokk

Grimmlokk

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$40 a month for unlimited text/minutes onVirgin, $30 for 1500/1500.Boostetc have similar plans. Just have to buy the phone,

Might want to try this in the Product Reviews forum, had a few of these threads on the old FoH board there with a lot of input. PM me or just post here if you'd like it moved.
 
Tuco

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If he doesn't talk on it much you can get him on a pay per use phone. Otherwise I don't know of any plans that are less than ~30 a person.

If you're up to it, you can also get a family deal where you and he share the same phone bill. My and my wife share one with her parents and it's cheaper than it would be individually.
 
earthfell

earthfell

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wow those virgin plans are pretty damn good. Maybe the product page is best for this thread too.

and yeah, I'm going to ask my brother to add my dad on his plan, since they both live in Texas and I am in California. Do the family plans work across multiple states?
 
kegkilla

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Grimmlokk_sl said:
$40 a month for unlimited text/minutes onVirgin, $30 for 1500/1500.Boostetc have similar plans. Just have to buy the phone,

Might want to try this in the Product Reviews forum, had a few of these threads on the old FoH board there with a lot of input. PM me or just post here if you'd like it moved.
Click to expand...
where u at
 
Soygen

Soygen

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I bought a Nexus 4 and got a ATT Sim Card fromhttp://www.straighttalk.com- 48.00/month after tax for unlimited talk/text/2gig of data. Seems great so far at just over a month and a half on it.
 
Tuco

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earthfell_sl said:
wow those virgin plans are pretty damn good. Maybe the product page is best for this thread too.

and yeah, I'm going to ask my brother to add my dad on his plan, since they both live in Texas and I am in California. Do the family plans work across multiple states?
Click to expand...
Up to the company. WE're with verizon.
 
S

Soriak_sl

shitlord
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What's your dad's usage like? Any data or texts? How many minutes?

If he only uses the cell phone occasionally (maybe as a supplement to a landline), per per minute makes the most sense. If he talks on it all the time, either a ton of minutes or unlimited minutes is the way to go.

Plans should bottom out at $30, which can get you unlimited voice/text from T-Mobile, for example (but no data).
 
G

Gecko_sl

shitlord
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earthfell_sl said:
wow those virgin plans are pretty damn good. Maybe the product page is best for this thread too.

and yeah, I'm going to ask my brother to add my dad on his plan, since they both live in Texas and I am in California. Do the family plans work across multiple states?
Click to expand...
If your dad doesn't want an iPhone or spiffy new Android, then he's going to be far better off with a prepaid plan.

Be sure to check reception, too. My family in Texas all use Sprint, even though if they walk across their house they lose their signal. I didn't have any issues with Verizon in Houston.
 
M

Melicant

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Insomnia_sl said:
2gig of data? Everytime I see the commercial for that it says Unlimited Talk/Txt/Data for $45 a month.
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It's advertised as unlimited, but I believe it gets throttled if you go over 2gb. There are a lot of phone options (or buy the SIM for any GSM unlocked phone), and you can port your number. The phones are a little dated, but they are an upgrade to a flip phone and they are cheap. I've had 2 lines with them for over 2 years without an issue. It's like $48 a month with tax, and I just keep it on autopay with a credit card. The unlocked SIM runs on AT&T, while some of their phone options do run on Verizon or T-Mobile. When I ported my AT&T line (which was running me $80+ a month for the same thing), it even kept the same voicemail I had setup with AT&T. They also have 1,000 minute, 1,000 text, 32mb data for $30 per month.

T-Mobile also has a pretty comparable prepaid plan with data that I see a lot of Nexus 4 users going to.
 
B

Blide_sl

shitlord
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Tuco_sl said:
If you're up to it, you can also get a family deal where you and he share the same phone bill. My and my wife share one with her parents and it's cheaper than it would be individually.
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My dad did this and put my grandma on his Sprint Unlimited plan. The problem he encountered was that my grandma frequently went on cruises and shit, afterward she'd like to keep up with all her new friends. The catch was that many of those friends didn't live in the US. So my dad got reamed from all her international calling.
 
BrutulTM

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Tuco_sl said:
If he doesn't talk on it much you can get him on a pay per use phone. Otherwise I don't know of any plans that are less than ~30 a person.

If you're up to it, you can also get a family deal where you and he share the same phone bill. My and my wife share one with her parents and it's cheaper than it would be individually.
Click to expand...
My brother and his wife have my Mom on their plan and it only costs them like $9.99 for the extra line or something. At first she chewed up all their minutes, but they eventually figured out that 90% of her calls were to the same few people so they got those people on her list of 5 numbers you can make unlimited calls to. Of course it helps that all of us kids are also on Verizon so she gets unlimited calls to us on the cell phones at least. They make her buy her own phones and use her upgrades for themselves which works out great since she just wants basic flip phones that you can get on ebay for $50 and it would be a waste of an upgrade anyway.
 
Cutlery

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I'm not old, but I act pretty old when it comes to my phone. I don't need the thing to surf the net or take high res pictures and post them to facebook. I just want something that calls and texts. For that, Virgin is fucking great. The phone's not amazing, but it doesn't have to be for the $25 a month I'm grandfathered into. There's no way I could use 300 minutes a month if I tried.

None of the major carriers can really compete with that. I can even get a VZW discount through work and it would still be double what I pay now for the wife and I. If you're old and not gonna be surfing shit, and just need the thing to carry around in the case of "I've fallen and can't get up," I don't see any reason to go with anything that requires a contract.
 
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