Verizon vs Straight Talk

[Tom from Buckeye Lake]

Yep, my phone is a tool, hooks me up to this site via a mobile hotspot.

Question: Has anyone here switched from Verizon to Straight Talk ? My Verizon contract has expired and continuing month to month now. I'm paying $120 per month for unlimited talk and text and 6 GB data. I use the hotspot within my phone to connect to internet with my home computer. I've checked their website and my phone is compatible with their system, "so they say". They also claim that Verizon would still be my tower system.

The prepaid plan I'm interested in is 10 GB per month at $55 plus the usual taxes. Is their claim for real ? That their system will provide the same service as I have now ? Does the old adage apply; You get what you pay for ?

Thanks, Tom

 

[kcm.MN]

Tom, check and see if the new Verizon Unlimited plan is available in your area. We were on the same plan, but using a data modem with voice (Novatel T-1114) as the cellular device, plus the wife's "dumb" phone. We had the 6gig plan, but was offered the unlimited plan for less than $5/month more. Now, the first 10gigs on each device is at 4G speed and everything after that is at 3G, which is considerably slower - but a heck of a lot more data for the money!! Taken from their website:
Plan: THE NEW VERIZON PLAN UNLIMITED
Account Access: $65.00
Line Access Fees: $40.00
Estimated monthly cost: $105.00

This also includes calls to and from Canada and Mexico, which we didn't have before. Also, while the 3G where we are at is slow as a snail, we're still able to stream video on each device at 3G, or if only using the router, can stream in one room while I'm here in YT, but the pages load much slower. Download speeds are not good at 3G.

 

[WAYNE-N-TX]

(They also claim that Verizon would still be my tower system.) I have straight talk and I use a Verizon tower and if I dial a wrong number, a Verizon recording comes on tells me I did something wrong.

 

[kcm.MN]

Our nearest Verizon tower is also our closest "cellular" tower, which is 30 miles away. However, after a big fire went through a few years back, emergency crews were having a heck of a time trying to communicate with dispatch. So the gov't paid for a new repeater tower not too far away. And while it's meant for emergency use, there aren't a lot of emergencies out here, so the taxpayer-funded tower gets to provide services to folks who otherwise wouldn't have them. Has been amazing, but I do tend to spend more time here than I should. :wink:

 

[ChuckMa]

Ive been using Pageplus cellular for years now (replaced Verizon) uses Verizon towers great service traveled all over US and Eastern Canada. The bill was same using it in US or Canada 4g starts 29.99 mo and unlimited 55 mo. less if you auto pay. They are now owned by Tracphone
Chuck

 

[Sean Feeney]

I have straight talk unlimited calls/text 5 gb date never come close to using it $35 a month if you put on credit card that brings it down another couple bucks a month no problem here

 

[MI-Bill]

My tracfone hooks to the local Verizon tower and serves me as well as the original Verizon account for a lot less money. I am not a power user and and rarely text.

 

[Tom from Buckeye Lake]

Thanks for replies. Any of you using ST for hotspot built into smart phone?

 

[El Hombre]

Coverage is the only reason people have Verizon; it's really expensive for what you get otherwise.

If you can get a good signal with somebody else; do it. Most likely 30% of what Verizon is going to charge....

 

[kcm.MN]

(reply to post at 14:27:18 05/09/17) [/quotIt's true, the only cell towers in our area are Verizon, but I'd stay with them anyway as when we reach our 10gig per device limit, our internet speeds drop to 3G; not the 2G of Straight Talk or Page Plus. Also, been customers for nearly 2 decades, so anytime we have a problem, they do a great job of solving it.

 

[GBCMAN]

Hi,
Did just that last year, switched from Verizon to Straight talk.
You can still use Verizon as the carrier.
I went to Walmart and asked them how I could keep Verizon as my Straight Talk carrier.
They helped me to pick the correct phone.
If you have a smart phone already, you can just buy the correct simm card.
I been very happy with it.

 

[cowranch]

I haven't had a contract phone in over 17 years. Straight Talk is a Tracfone company. It does use the same towers BUT, some of their phones use other carriers, so you have to watch it. The only major difference is the customer service is very poor.

I use Straight Talk for my home phone service ($16 month with tax, unlimited calls, battery backup, plug in a regular house phone).

My beater phone, waterproof, dropproof flip phone is on Pageplus, also Verizon. Costs $30 a year. My town phone is a Moto E 2nd generation I paid $10 for on Black Friday '15. I always buy my own phone, you can find cheap ones used, or new. I renewed the Tracfone service for an entire year for around $60, just rolled existing minutes/texts/data. Otherwise $85 with airtime for the entire one year of service is more than I use.

Other Verizon MVNOs. Some carriers are not really hotspot off of phone friendly.
http://prepaidmobilephonereviews.com/verizon-prepaid-and-verizon-mvnos-plans/

For home Internet, the "unlimited" Verizon deal would probably work better (other than the cost). Several people are switching to it here, since DSL, Cable, etc. are not available and satellite stinks. I have not seen the service after it's slowed yet, I have seen Verizon 3G, and it's very good here, I used it for home Internet for a while. But I don't know if they will throttle the speeds lower than that (3G averaged over 2.5 megs download here, but their definition of 3G is slower).

 

[kcm.MN]

Verizon 3G may be good where you are, but it's lousy here! We can stream, but just barely - have to use the lowest resolution without getting pixels on the screen. The 4G, however, is much faster, though still not nearly as fast as most areas.

We did away with satellite TV several years back. Now have an extensive DVD collection, still have the old VHS (that we never use), and we augment with streaming from the new Verizon unlimited plan.

 

[4play]

I recently changed over to the unlimited data plan, I was paying for 8 gigs before and the unlimited was the same price. I use my phone often for data but have a jetpack for most in home/wifi, it is my only means of internet out in the sticks. I also have a signal booster/repeater that helps signal and speed.

I'm pretty sure on the unlimited plan the phone has 22 gigs for the device or 10 more gigs if using as a hot spot before the possibility of being throttled. The Jetpack has 10 gigs also before possibly being throttled. Honestly I haven't noticed if I get throttled or not, maybe they don't do it often or the 3g speed has been enough. The Jetpack usually burns 50-70 gigs, and I usually use 8-12 gigs on phone.

 

[4play]

EDIT:

The phone has 22 gigs before it could be throttled if using phone for a hot spot they may throttle after 10 gigs during hot spot use

 

[atlarge54]

Used Straight Talk and Samsung s3 for a couple years. It was good for phone pretty lousy for internet.

Phone took a crap and got a Samsung s6 off fleabay. Using Sprint now unlimited plus 10 gig hotspot. Now I have great phone and internet.

 

[Stephen Newell]

Funny you should ask. When I got Straight Talk the only tower in my area was on a AT&T signal so they set it up for that and it worked fine. Then after a few years the phone wore out and I got a new phone, the exact make and model but they had to transfer the account to a new sim card. When they did that they switched the service to Verizon which didn't work at all. I took it back and they put a new sim card in it and set it up on AT&T again but changed my phone number in the process. I then took it back and they put another new sim card in it and gave me another new phone number and set the service up again through Verizon. I finally had to give up get a phone from AT&T and a new phone number. No telling how many customers I lost in the process. They just couldn't seem to transfer the service from one phone to another.

 

[Tom from Buckeye Lake]

Thanks for your comments. If I can't keep my # I won't even consider switching.

 

[cowranch]

(quoted from post at 14:23:03 05/12/17) Thanks for your comments. If I can't keep my # I won't even consider switching.

You can keep your number. I transferred the old landline number to them. And you are supposed to be able to keep your number in situations like the other post. In fact, you can do much of that online without speaking to anyone. You don't get the "handholding" you get with a major carrier. My dealing for almost two decades was direct with Tracfone, I transferred a few times. I suspect Straight Talk is similar, guess I never checked if they share the same support people. Not fun to deal with, but you can get it done, and for me, I save a lot of money so it's worth inconvenience. But issues are rare and every time I got what I wanted done.

You could also see if your number is eligible to transfer to Google Voice, not all areas are. I believe there's a one time fee. But if you transfer it to that, then when someone calls it, it can automatically forward to any phone you want. Then you don't have to worry about losing the number, or if your phone has issues, etc. I believe you can also set your smartphone to display the number when calling out. Never did much with it myself, but I am using the voicemail from there.
Here's an article about it, probably better ones, just the first I saw.
https://www.howtogeek.com/92075/how-to-port-your-phone-number-to-google-voice/

 

[Grampajohn]

i have been using straight talk for about two years now and i switched from sprint. i was very happy with sprint just not the bill.

the biggest piece of info i learned that was important to me noone told me is this. while you are using the verizon network, you can only use the verizon owned network. that means you do not get access to any of there roaming agreements that they have in place for their customers. i found this out last summer when i was working around hannible missourri verizon has an agreement with us cellular but my phone wouldnt work. i went to a verizon store to ask why my phone wasnt working and that was the answer. its the same for verizon prepaid phones.

had i known this before i probably wouldnt have gotten a straight talk phone. but if you dont travel alot i have no complaints at all.