Consumer cellular service?

[Randy Rizzo]

I'm currently with Verizon, contract expired last year. Consumer cellular seems to be cheaper, 30 day return if not satisified, but there's a hassle involved going back and forth between carriers. So, I'm just wondering if any of you subscribe to consumer cellular, and what is your experience with it, coverage, etc?

[Wade Lippman]

My son has had it for about 2 years now. No problems.
It is really only cheap if you get the stripped down plan; he uses pretty much only wifi, so a few minutes and a little data is fine.

[Michael Weber]

Had it for a few years. Works okay. The main reason I went with them was that they offered multiple phones for only 10 dollars for each extra up to four including your home land line. So instead of my wife having a plan and me having a plan we share this one plan with separate numbers. If you already have a phone there SIM card is free. Our plan includes 750 minutes a month talk, 1500 texts and 150 Mega bytes of data. i. Monthly bill is $44.64 for everything. Could actually get by with a smaller plan and sometime do that. You can change your plan anytime if you need to for fewer or more minutes, texts or data. f you use lots of data, then CC is not for you.

[Randy Rizzo]

My son has had it for about 2 years now. No problems.
It is really only cheap if you get the stripped down plan; he uses pretty much only wifi, so a few minutes and a little data is fine.

Thanks Wade, sounds plausible for us. I've got a 1GB data monthly plan with VZ, our use last mo. was .04GB for wife and myself, total minutes between us, 190 mins. And those are pretty average for our monthly use. I'm just a little more concerned about the coverage, when we were with AT&T you had to walk halfway up the drive to make a call, VZ, not a problem from either cabin, dock, or lake.

[Brian Elfert]

Verizon isn't perfect on coverage either. Verizon barely works at all in my neighborhood and I'm in a major metro area. I had to add a Verizon Network Extender to get my phone to work. I now use Voice over WIFI at home, but it isn't perfect and has only been available on Verizon for a few months with the iPhone.

I get the phone free from work so I am not switching carriers. For the most part I am impressed with Verizon and how well it works in the middle of nowhere.

[Wade Lippman]

Thanks Wade, sounds plausible for us. I've got a 1GB data monthly plan with VZ, our use last mo. was .04GB for wife and myself, total minutes between us, 190 mins. And those are pretty average for our monthly use. I'm just a little more concerned about the coverage, when we were with AT&T you had to walk halfway up the drive to make a call, VZ, not a problem from either cabin, dock, or lake.
They actually are ATT. They buy their capacity from them; so your coverage will be identical to ATT.

[Brian Elfert]

Even though Consumer Cellular is selling service on the AT&T network you may get worse coverage than a direct AT&T customer. MVNOs don't always have roaming for areas with no AT&T service while AT&T is likely to have roaming agreements with other carriers.

[Curt Harms]

Even though Consumer Cellular is selling service on the AT&T network you may get worse coverage than a direct AT&T customer. MVNOs don't always have roaming for areas with no AT&T service while AT&T is likely to have roaming agreements with other carriers.


AT&T appears to have 2 levels of coverage, their 'regular' which appears to include partners and gophone. I use another MVNO that resells AT&T services that offers gophone coverage which can have coverage gaps in the upper midwest & western states. Based on Consumer Cellular's coverage maps it appears they have the full AT&T coverage area, they claim "99% coverage". AT&T also offers a microcell gadget but I don't know if that would work with Consumer Cellular or what it would cost.

[Jerome Stanek]

I switched over to Tracfone. I went to HSN and got their LG with triple minutes 1200 minutes phone 1200 texts and 1200 MBs of data that lasts for 1 year that will carry over with a new card. $99.00 for the phone and plan It is an LG L4 with a 4.5 screen. I have not had any problems with it and I am about to buy a new phone as my is almost up and the 1 year card is $99.00 so I get a new phone every year free

[Steve Peterson]

If you just want a cheap phone for occasional calls, then several companies have pre-paid plans for around $100 per year.

I had an AT&T gophone for years. A cheap flip phone costs under $20. It doesn't have a touch screen or much internet connectivity, but it does just fine for actually calling someone and talking to them. My plan cost me $0.25 per minute to talk, but I only used a few minutes per month and the unused minutes roll over as long as you keep adding $100 every year.

Steve

[Dave Lehnert]

I switched over to Tracfone. I went to HSN and got their LG with triple minutes 1200 minutes phone 1200 texts and 1200 MBs of data that lasts for 1 year that will carry over with a new card. $99.00 for the phone and plan It is an LG L4 with a 4.5 screen. I have not had any problems with it and I am about to buy a new phone as my is almost up and the 1 year card is $99.00 so I get a new phone every year free


I also use Tracfone. Been using it for years and been very happy with the service.
It also uses AT&T network. I almost always am connected to the network and get very few dropped calls.

[Curt Harms]

If you just want a cheap phone for occasional calls, then several companies have pre-paid plans for around $100 per year.

I had an AT&T gophone for years. A cheap flip phone costs under $20. It doesn't have a touch screen or much internet connectivity, but it does just fine for actually calling someone and talking to them. My plan cost me $0.25 per minute to talk, but I only used a few minutes per month and the unused minutes roll over as long as you keep adding $100 every year.

Steve


$100/year ain't bad, $40/year ($10 every 90 days) is even better :).





Card Value
Bonus $ Amount
Total $ Amount
Per Minute
Standard Minute
Expiration





$10
*
$10.00
10¢
100
90 Days


$20
$1.00
$21.00
10¢
210
120 Days


$30
$2.00
$32.00
10¢
320
150 Days





https://www.airvoicewireless.com/PlansB.aspx




OPTIONAL FEATURES*
Text Messaging ($0.10 per message- sent/received)
Voicemail (standard airtime charges apply)
International Calling (contact customer service for rates)
MMS ($0.10 per message- sent/received)
International SMS: $0.10/message
International MMS: $0.10/message
Data: $0.0666/MB

Minutes roll over as long as you add minutes before the current allotment expires. This would get expensive for frequent users but for one or two 2 minute calls per week it's pretty good.

[Steve Peterson]

$100/year ain't bad, $40/year ($10 every 90 days) is even better :).






Card Value

Bonus $ Amount

Total $ Amount

Per Minute

Standard Minute

Expiration






$10

*

$10.00

10¢

100

90 Days



$20

$1.00

$21.00

10¢

210

120 Days



$30

$2.00

$32.00

10¢

320

150 Days






https://www.airvoicewireless.com/PlansB.aspx





OPTIONAL FEATURES*
Text Messaging ($0.10 per message- sent/received)
Voicemail (standard airtime charges apply)
International Calling (contact customer service for rates)
MMS ($0.10 per message- sent/received)
International SMS: $0.10/message
International MMS: $0.10/message
Data: $0.0666/MB

Minutes roll over as long as you add minutes before the current allotment expires. This would get expensive for frequent users but for one or two 2 minute calls per week it's pretty good.

I like that plan even better. It seems like there are so many kids today that struggle paying rent on an $8 per hour job, but they can find a way to pay $80 per month for an iPhone. The amount of money taken in by the big phone companies seems outrageous.

Steve

[Jerome Stanek]

I like that plan even better. It seems like there are so many kids today that struggle paying rent on an $8 per hour job, but they can find a way to pay $80 per month for an iPhone. The amount of money taken in by the big phone companies seems outrageous.

Steve

Is there any Data with that plan. When I looked it looked like just phone and text

[Curt Harms]

Is there any Data with that plan. When I looked it looked like just phone and text


Correct, just data and text. The same company offers plans that include data but they're more $. That plan is really just for very light users which might characterize quite a few here.

Edit: The above plan also has a $.10/day charge in addition to $.10/minute.

[Scott Donley]

I use the AT&T Go Phone. It cost me 27.00 every 3 months (includes all fees and taxes ) to roll over the minutes .25 cents a minute. the flip phone was free. I have a 500.00 dollar credit at this time and that is the max allowed. Works great for my needs.

[Alan Rutherford]

One more vote for Tracfone, although if we had not already had older Tracfones we might have gone with Straight Talk, which is the same company. When we got the $100 smart phones with 1200 minutes we also rolled over an absurd number of unused minutes from several years of keeping the old phones active. We have a landline, so they were used little.

One thing I'd consider, we're older than you are (I'm confident saying that without knowing your age) and our thumbs are no more agile than yours, but we've found that text messages have a valuable place in the universe. They also happen whether you want them or not as more of your friends get smartphones. I'd avoid a plan that didn't include a fair amount of text and data.

[Jerome Stanek]

another option is Google Fi