Cell phone plans in the US?

[sheeshkabelle 153]

I like the sounds of this! He is already with verizon & really likes the service. I have never bought a phone off ebay... did you just search verizon phones??

Yes, just search Verizon or Page Plus phones and they'll pop up. I've been buying used and refurbished phones off ebay for years. The only Verizon phones that will not work on page plus are blackberries and Verizon's own prepaid phones.

[sheeshkabelle 153]

I am planning on dropping our data to 2g. We never get close to the 4g mark, even streaming music. How did you get the added minutes to Canada?! I want that! Because right now im paying the long distance rates if I cant call from google voice and if I can avoid that, I will!

My phone was free on black friday - samsung s4. Hehe

If you have high speed internet, get magic jack or ooma or something similar. You plug a USB device into your computer and into a land line phone and you can call Canada all day long if you want.

FYI Magic jack has an app on Itunes (maybe google market or Android market) that allows you to make long distance calls over your wifi connection. That's what I use when we're in Canada to call home.

Edited February 5, 2014 by sheeshkabelle

[NikLR 13,227]

I have a magic jack, just haven't hooked it up. I use google voice right now to call back to Canada, it just shows some random number from California. (which is annoying) The part that worries me more is GETTING calls.

[sheeshkabelle 153]

I have a magic jack, just haven't hooked it up. I use google voice right now to call back to Canada, it just shows some random number from California. (which is annoying) The part that worries me more is GETTING calls.

Magic jack will give you your own phone number, so then you can receive calls too. I used magic jack for a few years and was happy with it.

We finally got fiber optic internet and TV here last year, so switched to AT&T Uverse for internet, phone and cable. I loves it!

[VeeNDee 44]

I have a magic jack, just haven't hooked it up. I use google voice right now to call back to Canada, it just shows some random number from California. (which is annoying) The part that worries me more is GETTING calls.

We use Google Voice and caller ID always puts us down from Hollywood (we're outside of Seattle). I like texting family free with it. However I do find that the phone quality over wifi suffers a lot with my cell. My brother called to tell us about the birth of our nephew and it took me a few minutes of trying to talk before finding out it was a boy and the name. Ugh.

Edited February 5, 2014 by VeeNDee

[NikLR 13,227]

We use Google Voice and caller ID always puts us down from Hollywood (we're outside of Seattle). I like texting family free with it. However I do find that the phone quality over wifi suffers a lot with my cell. My brother called to tell us about the birth of our nephew and it took me a few minutes of trying to talk before finding out it was a boy and the name. Ugh.

They aren't even allowing you to do it over the phone anymore. I can only do it on the computer. I can still use hangouts (gtalk) on the cellphon and could do a video call, but have always just used skype or facetime for that. I would just like the minutes on my cell. We were paying about $170 separately (his phone in the USA and mine in Canada) so anything equal to that is fine with me.

Edited February 6, 2014 by NLR

[SennaBrigante 92]

I suggest you look at Ting (ting.com). It's a no contract service and any minutes or text messages you don't use this month will carry over for the next month. It runs on Sprint's network, customer service is US-based and they have a nice variety of phones.

[kc247 22]

I suggest you look at Ting (ting.com). It's a no contract service and any minutes or text messages you don't use this month will carry over for the next month. It runs on Sprint's network, customer service is US-based and they have a nice variety of phones.

Looks nice do you have any problems internationally texting? I was looking into virgin then they said that they have NO plans for free texting in Canada...I didn't even look more into them..I have to be able to text my Canadian family & friends!

[Udella&Wiz 325]

Looks nice do you have any problems internationally texting? I was looking into virgin then they said that they have NO plans for free texting in Canada...I didn't even look more into them..I have to be able to text my Canadian family & friends!

Free texting in Canada or to Canada? Big difference. My daughter has Virgin mobile here in the States and she texts her cousins back in Canada all the time. Most often I find folks back in Canada seem to have restrictions on being allowed to text outside their area code or outside Canada. They receive my texts but sometimes cannot respond. Facetime is handy if everyone has an iPhone on both sides.

Any US plan is going to roam 10 miles over the border into Canada unless you get an international plan as well. We actually bought a Cdn smartphone to use just when we're back home visiting in ON because we feel naked without a phone...mind you its quiet

[lilacvioletiris 11]

After this discussion I looked into pages plus cellular. Found kitty wireless and her forums. Dh and I have now switched over. We will pay $60 instead of $170. We had to have our 4g smartphones flashed which we paid to have remotely done via computer. The Kitty wireless forum was really helpful. Nice to keep our verizon phones but not keep the huge fees.

[kc247 22]

Free texting in Canada or to Canada? Big difference. My daughter has Virgin mobile here in the States and she texts her cousins back in Canada all the time. Most often I find folks back in Canada seem to have restrictions on being allowed to text outside their area code or outside Canada. They receive my texts but sometimes cannot respond. Facetime is handy if everyone has an iPhone on both sides.

Any US plan is going to roam 10 miles over the border into Canada unless you get an international plan as well. We actually bought a Cdn smartphone to use just when we're back home visiting in ON because we feel naked without a phone...mind you its quiet

Nonono sorry, free texting TO Canada haha. That is strange, I talked to a virgin representative person and they told me at the moment they have no texting plans to Canada, it costs something like 20 cents a text or something. I told them I couldn't go with them if that was the case! :S

[Udella&Wiz 325]

Ugh - good to know they're consistent

Daughter has a smart phone - unlimited data, texting and voice for $55/month. Hers is the Beyond Talk and not the Paylo & Text plan - maybe that makes a difference?

Nonono sorry, free texting TO Canada haha. That is strange, I talked to a virgin representative person and they told me at the moment they have no texting plans to Canada, it costs something like 20 cents a text or something. I told them I couldn't go with them if that was the case! :S

[floridaboundcanuk 7]

I think im going to go with T-Mobiles $30 a month plan, 100 mins talk, unlimited text and 5gb of lte, then 3g unlimited. If I go over on the voice, I'll use skype which I subscribe to at $3 a month.

[cee-gee 20]

Personally I think the plans here are very expensive. We have verizon. It's 180 a month for two people but im sure we could knock it down a bit because we dont use that much data. The non-contract plans have ####### for service in my area but they do have a good price. But it doesn't do me any good when I cant be understood and cant understand what is being said. Sprint offers unlimited data but doesn't have 4g if thats important to you. Without a smart phone you could get a good deal tho, but the same is true up north. Lol

I completely agree! I always thought cell phone plans were cheaper in the states... Gimmie my Canadian plan back!

I agree Niki, any good plan with minutes to Canada is expensive. We have a Verizon Share everything Plan with 2GB of data and 1000minutes to Canada for $163 per month. But we never have shaky reception or dropped calls, I think it's worth the extra money for the coverage.

We have the same plan, but ours is a little cheaper... When I was added to the plan, we got to talking to the Verizon rep and found out that he was dating a Canadian, and considering a K-1; he ended up giving us a discount on our plan! We pay $123 a month.

I am planning on dropping our data to 2g. We never get close to the 4g mark, even streaming music. How did you get the added minutes to Canada?! I want that! Because right now im paying the long distance rates if I cant call from google voice and if I can avoid that, I will!

We just asked if they had a Canadian minutes add on package...

I have an iphone, so I'm able to use iMessage; but for other friends; I use GroupMe (made by Skype), it’s a messaging app that works for me atm. I haven’t looked into anything else yet.

[O&Z 1]

when my hubby moved from canada - he had his bell phone unlocked (he had to pay $75 for this) and then we bought tmobile prepaid sim card and used that.

that was his iphone 3gs, now he has an iphone 5 that was also from canada - which he had unlocked.

he has tried tmobile prepaid, spot mobile and is not using 35orless - they all use tmobile towers.

we've liked 35orless the best - it's all unlimited and literally $35 or less per month.

great deal.