Walmart family mobile plan

[Joe1]

The wife and I switched to the Walmart family mobile plan. It is a no contract plan running on the T-mobile network.

So far it is working well. T-mobile has good coverage in our area. Since we don't use much data and use WiFi at home, we got the 1GB data plan. After 1GB,data speeds are throttled down.

We got a great deal on the previous generation nexus 5 phone on eBay that was new and unlocked.

I checked the wife's usage of data and was shocked to see she used less than half a gigabyte a month on average, but Verizon was charging her almost 100 per month. I ditched my sprint plan that had unlimited data but I rarely exceeded 1GB in a month. My sprint plan cost about 60ish per month.

The Walmart plan was 29 for first line and 24 for second line. We each had to buy a SIM kit for 25 dollars. We are saving over 100 per month.

We can upgrade to the 5gb plan anytime we want for an additional 10 dollars a month. I think we will be happy with the 1gb plan.

I like the unlocked phone/no contract route. I couldn't wait for the wife's Verizon agreement to expire. I don't think we will ever sign another two year agreement.

 

[Billy_D]

Good move! Now you can Increase your monthly contribution to your retirement account by $100.

 

[zvm77us]

You can use ultramobile also on the tmobile network. If you prepay a year in advance on the 29.99 plan they have a special that it will come out to 19.99 per month for unlimited talk, unlimited text and 1 gb data. Plus free international long distance.

 

[crazyoildude]

Problem is wal mart asks for to much personal information.

 

[buffalobob]

I'm trying to find a plan. I had verizon through work, but they are doing away with company plans. We can keep the phones and mine is only 2 Mos old (gs6). The catch is, if I go back to verizon, I have to assume the remainder of the company's conrract, but if I go with another carrier, the company buys the phone. I would have thought that it would have been adventurous to bring my phone to a new provider, but I'm starting to wonder. Any advise would be appreciated.

 

[newtoncd8]

To compare apples-to-apples, with VZW, two smartphones sharing 1GB with unlimited minutes and texts is $70 a month (plus taxes) compared to the $53 you are paying with WalMart.

Either way, you are saying $$$ each month, but maybe VZW didn't switch you over to the newer (S, M, L) no-contract plan?

 

[Andrew1972]

Great.

My wife went from paying $145/month on VZW with two smartphones and 2GB and other unlimited data to $75!!!

Now we are on 3GB Verizon plan shared/unlimited talk/text for $75/month with an employeer discount for two smartphones no contract.

 

[dlayman]

I went from a 105 dollar (with corporate discount) unlimited data plan (grandfathered in) and 450 minutes talk with Verizon - they are raising the grandfathered people wither 20 0r 30 a month. Went to AT&T Go Phone prepaid, bought a Huawei Ascend Mate 2 6" smartphone on rollback from Walmart for 165 dollars. No contract now, 4 gb of data, unlimited talk and text with 1 month rollover for 55$. There are cheaper options out there, but I was a little nervous about porting my number, so it was nice to have an AT&T employee do it. Very smooth transition. Great phone too. 2Gb of RAM and can last the workweek on one charge due to its enormous battery. I don't get these people buying 600 dollar phones and paying 150 a month for service, with a locked in contract. I can't see that business model lasting much longer unless people are dumber than I thought. I'm using a lot less data than I used to. Verizon and Motorola had so much [censored] installed on my old phone that couldn't be deleted or disabled that they were sucking up data with their bloatware.

 

[Joe1]

The bloatware is absent from the Nexus phones from both the carrier and phone manufacturer. My Motorola phone on sprint also had excessive bloatware.

An added benefit is my phone has already been upgraded to Android 6 even though is is not the latest and greatest model.

Sprint never upgraded my Motorola phone to Android 5 even though Motorola released the upgrade for it months ago. I'd never get another Android phone that is locked by the service provider.

 

[dlayman]

Originally Posted By: Joe1
The bloatware is absent from the Nexus phones from both the carrier and phone manufacturer. My Motorola phone on sprint also had excessive bloatware.

An added benefit is my phone has already been upgraded to Android 6 even though is is not the latest and greatest model.

Sprint never upgraded my Motorola phone to Android 5 even though Motorola released the upgrade for it months ago. I'd never get another Android phone that is locked by the service provider.


My Huawei (bought as unlocked GSM phone from Walmart.com) phone on Go Phone is free from cell company bloatware and has only minimal bloat from the manufacturer and some of it is actually useful, and none of it consumes any data. Non-Nexus Motorola phones seem to have more bloat than most and Verizon is really bad about sticking bloatware on and disabling some of the phone's capabilities. I can't see any circumstance where I would return to contract phone service. I don't care too much about which Android version I have, as long as it is smooth and stable. The downside of pre-paid is they are very slow to release new software, if at all. Huawei has released an update, but it isn't OTA, and must be downloaded and installed from the micro SD card, and some people have had problems, I'm not updating. My Ascend Mate 2 is no match for your Nexus, but then again I paid $169 for a 6.1" screen with a 4000 milliamp battery. Very happy with it. I don't need TOTL phones, just ones that work, don't lag, and have a nice screen and battery life.