Burner phones: good, or bad?

[53' Stude]

Commonly called “prepaid phones”. A co worker today was asking me about them. I couldn’t offer much advice. I must publicly apologize to Alarmguy also as I was way out of line yesterday. I myself currently have T Mobile for internet and cell service.

Thank You all in advance.

 

[JayhawkRoy]

I have used cheap $5-$25 Tracfones since I owned a cell phone. I use a one year plan so minimize my costs since it is mostly for emergency use. Generally good experiences. Current one is ZTE. Have had Nokia and others in te past.

 

[Dave9]

I picked up a Samsung A10e bundled with a year service and 1500/1500/1.5GB buckets for little more than Tracfone's yearly plan cost alone, and have been happy with it because I don't use much mobile data, like the sub-6" size and low weight in my pocket, and also have Google Voice on a Home Mini, plus a landline for actually talking on the phone. In another year or so, I'll probably upgrade to the same price point, Samsung A-series again, whatever QVC, HSN, or ebay is offering at the time.

It really depends on what kind of plan you need, what the best value is going to be and the same is true for phone features since some of the prepaids also let you bring your own phone, if you need certain features or already have an unlocked phone. For some people's work or lifestyle that might mean a better camera than the cheap phones offer, or more memory if they need to try to get real work done on a phone while traveling.

 

[Deleted member 89374]

Burner phones: good, or bad?

I recommend Google Fi, the cheapest plan, beats burner phones all day, every day. Plus, everything you say or type into that phone will be recorded and kept by Google... forever.

 

[DejaVue]

Years ago, prepaid phones were for people who had bad credit. Now they often simply make practical sense.

And you can often pay for a prepaid plan but then use whatever phone you want.

If the coworker wants advice about prepaid phones, they'll have to be more specific with their questions.

 

[53' Stude]

Well, they tell me that don’t need data or internet. They’re thinking of checking into Cricket. They don’t need the biggest or latest and greatest. Just a phone they can cal and text on basically. I mentioned Cricket and tracfone

 

[Lubener]

They are good for Craigslist sales.

 

[DejaVue]

Well, they tell me that don’t need data or internet. They’re thinking of checking into Cricket. They don’t need the biggest or latest and greatest. Just a phone they can cal and text on basically. I mentioned Cricket and tracfone

Data is what can really increase a price. There's plenty of unlimited call/text plans for $20, maybe even $10, per month. For low usage, and if T-mobile network is okay, RedPocket is a solid choice with its cheapest plan having 200 minutes/1000 texts per month, for $2.50 per month tax and fees included.

 

[53' Stude]

So, my co worker went with Crickett. Talk and text. Didn’t tell me how much. He’s happy

 

[Deleted member 89374]

So, my co worker went with Crickett. Talk and text. Didn’t tell me how much. He’s happy

Well, that's basically AT&T. On the bright side, it's not any worse than Google. At least his data goes straight to the NSA without Google getting its own copy.

 

[willbur]

I recommend Google Fi, the cheapest plan, beats burner phones all day, every day. Plus, everything you say or type into that phone will be recorded and kept by Google... forever.

Yep-1984. Its not the gov., but Google Big Brother

 

[JustinH]

ATT Prepaid has an annual plan for $300 per line, we are on year three of that plan.

Works fine in US Canada and Mexico. We both have iphones.

 

[53' Stude]

My brother got the phone member RNd linked in products, rebate section. He’s happy with it on Cricket

 

[Warstud]

So, my co worker went with Crickett. Talk and text. Didn’t tell me how much. He’s happy

Around here .... There's an AT&T store that has a $80 a month unlimited everything deal for 4 lines.... for $80 a month.

 

[Warstud]

ATT Prepaid has an annual plan for $300 per line.

That sounds expensive. I got a Prepaid Redpocket plan that costs me $100 a year . I get a 1000 minutes (16.5 hrs) of talk time and Unlimited Texts and 1GB of Data all for $8.25 a month . Can't beat it.

 

[alarmguy]

That sounds expensive. I got a Prepaid Redpocket plan that costs me $100 a year . I get a 1000 minutes (16.5 hrs) of talk time and Unlimited Texts and 1GB of Data all for $8.25 a month . Can't beat it.

Yeah, nothing beats Red Pocket and its great service, in fact you can pick to be on the ATT, TMobile or Verizon network.
Also the one who posted about ATT plan @ $300 you can get for over $100 less on Redpocket with less restrictions and no added taxes or fees.
The quoted price is the price you pay, now isnt that something? *LOL*

We are on TMobile now but we had nothing but great service with Redpocket for over half a decade.
Only reason we are on TMobile was another great deal with no added taxes and fees and great promotion for 55+ users including two new iPhone 13s with our old phones traded in. In the future if TMobile ever raised our rate which I dont think they do, we would go back to RedPocket in a heartbeat.

We always had the month to month family plan through Red Pocket but since the last two posts are about annual they also offer that and here is the link.
https://www.redpocket.com/plans/annual

 

[alarmguy]

So, my co worker went with Crickett. Talk and text. Didn’t tell me how much. He’s happy

Ps, before Redpocket we had Cricket family plan. Same good experience we just saved a few more dollars is why we switched. Also not that it matters with cell phones but the Redpocket internet speeds are not limited like they were with Cricket, still fast enough for sure though and not the reason we changed. Oh and one more thing, again, this was years ago, with Redpocket we could use our cell phones as the access points for our laptops when we traveled, not a big deal but prefer using my laptop off my cell phone vs the hotel network.

 

[SR20DE]

As an added data point, I've been using Mint Mobile for a few years now on the $15/mo plan (paid annually). They use T-Mobile's network. It's been great, it's plenty of data for me. That plan started with 2 GB of data per month, they've upped it a couple times and is now 4 GB for the same price.

 

[53' Stude]

So, I got a backup phone via TracFone. $20~ hard to beat for flipper. I’ll decide sometime before new year what to do for smartphone/plan