Cellphone shopping

[yassmine2878 1]

The hubster wants a cell phone. I want a good deal that wont bankrupt us. Suggestions anyone?

[L_n_O 3]

especially for family plans =)

I wanna know too

[pedroh 21]

depends on where u live.. don't go for the 'biggest network in America'.. check what people have, and also check your minutes.. don't always go for cheapest and say 'I won't even use it'.. usually for not hardcore usage.. 700-900 min shared plan will do it.. specially if your friends/relatives have the same network so you can call them as much as you want..

a lot of people will tell you that spring, cingular, alltel, verizon are #######, depending on their experiences lol.. Also check the deposits on each one.. if you don't have a lot of credit, go for sprint, they charge the lowest, verizon-alltel the highest, if you have a good credit score it won't matter because you won't pay a deposit.. also check if you're gonna use the web utilities (email, pics, etc), and if you wanna travel overseas with it.. the best deals are GSM phones for overseas (t-mobile or cingular)

prices are pretty much the same.. t-mobile i think is cheaper, but they don't have a lot of coverage.. and cingular and sprint is the same, difference 10-15 bucks.. I have cingular, because where i used to live, cingular would work better than sprint.. also i like the rollover (minutes u don't use are accumulated) because I don't talk a lot, so i get extra 100-200 min next month if i need them..

sprint on the other hand has cooler services, the videos, cool music and ringtones, and faster internet speed.. their sound is clearer (that's why sprint doesn't connect a lot of times, because their network standard doesn't allow a crappy sound qty, it'll disconecct ya if its not decent)

Alltel is the one that works in the country and open areas usually.. US cellular I don't have a lot of exp with them, but I know they charge u for every little thing

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

They all suck!

[DeadPoolX 9]

They all suck!

This is true.

However, from my experiences, I've found Verizon Wireless to be the best. In other words, it "sucks the least" when compared to the other cell phone companies. I would recommend avoiding Cingular, as I had them before Verizon and they were terrible.

[Kazan' Tiger 1]

That is very subjective! One piece phone, flip phone, slide phone, PDA... You really need to consider what features he wants.

[DeadPoolX 9]

That is very subjective! One piece phone, flip phone, slide phone, PDA... You really need to consider what features he wants.

I agree.

Although I would go with a flip-phone or slide-phone. This way, you can easily stick the phone in your pocket or belt holder without accidentally punching the keys. Sure, you could "lock" the phone, but that's annoying. What if you get a call?

Unless you're doing a lot of business-related stuff with it, I wouldn't recommend a Blackberry. They're expensive, complex and unnecessary for most people. Also, stay away from the new iPhone. It may look cool (and it does have a lot of neat functions), but it's very overpriced and from what I can tell of it's design, most likely it'd be fragile as well.

[pedroh 21]

That is very subjective! One piece phone, flip phone, slide phone, PDA... You really need to consider what features he wants.

I agree.

Although I would go with a flip-phone or slide-phone. This way, you can easily stick the phone in your pocket or belt holder without accidentally punching the keys. Sure, you could "lock" the phone, but that's annoying. What if you get a call?

Unless you're doing a lot of business-related stuff with it, I wouldn't recommend a Blackberry. They're expensive, complex and unnecessary for most people. Also, stay away from the new iPhone. It may look cool (and it does have a lot of neat functions), but it's very overpriced and from what I can tell of it's design, most likely it'd be fragile as well.

plus the iphone is EDGE not 3g.. so it's slowwww as hell.. no bluetooth, and crappy apps.. you can buy (if u decide to go cingular) unlocked GSM phones online, cheaper, and cooler that the ones provided by the companies... yea defo the blackberrry is for business people, or wannabes lol..

and a fair warning.. if you have kids, get the insurance (specially if you're going on CDMA phones like verizon or sprint).. the regular 1 yr warranty covers repairs and whatnot, BUT, if they see just a little 'moist' or 'corrosion' they won't even touch your phone.. be careful there, because their repair people are very very picky, if they see just a dab of moist, a drop of water, even if it's not fully corroded, they'll send it back in 2 days, and won't repair it.. so if you are not a careful person, get it.. if you get GSM phones, its easier, cuz u can just go get a Go Phone or somthing and stick the GSM card in it..

flip phones are the most usual.. the candy bar phone, are less common unless is the upstage from sprint, and some pda-like phones.. also.. get your accessories from internet.. u don't wanna pay for a 50 dollar battery in radioshack or walmart when you can get it online for 15 bucks...

and the best recommendation, sometimes they run specials where they give you lets say, the 1200 min plan for the price of the 700, or for 40 bucks less or whatever.. get it, so you pay less and really know how many minutes you will use (1200 is quite a bit).. yes, you'll probly have to rewrite the contract when you lower your plan (if it's not alltell), but it's just 1 month, no biggie..

also.. almost EVERYTHING rewrites your contract (except adding or removing internet packages).. but other than that.. watch out..

[yassmine2878 1]

Good info, good points. Thanks folksies. As far as Im concerned, he doesnt need anything more than a plain vanilla phone. Something to make and receive calls on. That's all the had in Morocco, although having a monthly plan is rather new to him. He was accustomed to buying phone cards and charging up the phone w/x number of minutes every so often. He had no games, no internet, no crazy #######. Having an MP3 player would be nice, and he's definitely a flip-phone kinda guy. Im sure he'd LOOOOOOOVE to have all kinds of bells and whistles, but Im afraid that would get really pricey really fast without him realizing it, so Id kinda like to bypass those options altogether. Do they even make just plain 'phone' phones anymore? I had a Nokia 6010 eons ago, so that's about as current as I get on phone techonology.

How about international rates? Anybody ever use their cell to call overseas? So far I havent been able to find anything less than highway robbery for land-line international long-distance. And buying calling cards is getting old.

[pedroh 21]

Good info, good points. Thanks folksies. As far as Im concerned, he doesnt need anything more than a plain vanilla phone. Something to make and receive calls on. That's all the had in Morocco, although having a monthly plan is rather new to him. He was accustomed to buying phone cards and charging up the phone w/x number of minutes every so often. He had no games, no internet, no crazy #######. Having an MP3 player would be nice, and he's definitely a flip-phone kinda guy. Im sure he'd LOOOOOOOVE to have all kinds of bells and whistles, but Im afraid that would get really pricey really fast without him realizing it, so Id kinda like to bypass those options altogether. Do they even make just plain 'phone' phones anymore? I had a Nokia 6010 eons ago, so that's about as current as I get on phone techonology.

How about international rates? Anybody ever use their cell to call overseas? So far I havent been able to find anything less than highway robbery for land-line international long-distance. And buying calling cards is getting old.

different providers have different rates.. yes, they still make plain phones with nothing in it, although, most of them have basic internet access (charged by kbyte), but you can totally restrict the use, so u don't get those surpises charges (but i was just checking my email!)

Cingular charges you 57 cents to landline and 66 cents to mobile to Morocco.. if you have the world plan.. which you have to pay 3.99 a month..

with no plan is expensive is like 2.60 a min..

Sprint is 1.99 a min with no international plan.. and with the 4 a month is 49 cents a min..

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Good info, good points. Thanks folksies. As far as Im concerned, he doesnt need anything more than a plain vanilla phone. Something to make and receive calls on. That's all the had in Morocco, although having a monthly plan is rather new to him. He was accustomed to buying phone cards and charging up the phone w/x number of minutes every so often. He had no games, no internet, no crazy #######. Having an MP3 player would be nice, and he's definitely a flip-phone kinda guy. Im sure he'd LOOOOOOOVE to have all kinds of bells and whistles, but Im afraid that would get really pricey really fast without him realizing it, so Id kinda like to bypass those options altogether. Do they even make just plain 'phone' phones anymore? I had a Nokia 6010 eons ago, so that's about as current as I get on phone techonology.

How about international rates? Anybody ever use their cell to call overseas? So far I havent been able to find anything less than highway robbery for land-line international long-distance. And buying calling cards is getting old.

different providers have different rates.. yes, they still make plain phones with nothing in it, although, most of them have basic internet access (charged by kbyte), but you can totally restrict the use, so u don't get those surpises charges (but i was just checking my email!)

Cingular charges you 57 cents to landline and 66 cents to mobile to Morocco.. if you have the world plan.. which you have to pay 3.99 a month..

with no plan is expensive is like 2.60 a min..

Sprint is 1.99 a min with no international plan.. and with the 4 a month is 49 cents a min..

For land line service, Vonage offers Morocco for .25 per minute (.35 to cell phones).

[Jasman0717 9]

My friend found a place that sold used phones so you might check that out.

[Dan J 277]

Calling international directly from a cell phone is pretty much really expensive no matter what provider. You can use calling cards, or use VoIP like skype to make those calls.

[eric&gen 0]

depends on where u live.. don't go for the 'biggest network in America'.. check what people have, and also check your minutes.. don't always go for cheapest and say 'I won't even use it'.. usually for not hardcore usage.. 700-900 min shared plan will do it.. specially if your friends/relatives have the same network so you can call them as much as you want..

a lot of people will tell you that spring, cingular, alltel, verizon are #######, depending on their experiences lol.. Also check the deposits on each one.. if you don't have a lot of credit, go for sprint, they charge the lowest, verizon-alltel the highest, if you have a good credit score it won't matter because you won't pay a deposit.. also check if you're gonna use the web utilities (email, pics, etc), and if you wanna travel overseas with it.. the best deals are GSM phones for overseas (t-mobile or cingular)

prices are pretty much the same.. t-mobile i think is cheaper, but they don't have a lot of coverage.. and cingular and sprint is the same, difference 10-15 bucks.. I have cingular, because where i used to live, cingular would work better than sprint.. also i like the rollover (minutes u don't use are accumulated) because I don't talk a lot, so i get extra 100-200 min next month if i need them..

sprint on the other hand has cooler services, the videos, cool music and ringtones, and faster internet speed.. their sound is clearer (that's why sprint doesn't connect a lot of times, because their network standard doesn't allow a crappy sound qty, it'll disconecct ya if its not decent)

Alltel is the one that works in the country and open areas usually.. US cellular I don't have a lot of exp with them, but I know they charge u for every little thing

What is spring????? is that a new company?

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

What is spring????? is that a new company?

Yeah but they're seasonal.