I’m looking for a cheap plan for two unlocked phones that I already have. I’d like a plan that has 5-10 gigs per line, works with T-Mobile or Verizon, and available in Ohio.
Once upon a time, there was a lovely website that would easily and clearly compare cell phone plans from any provider who had service in a given area. It has since been filled with ads, featured partners and compares only introductory rates.
Is there another site that compiles and compares real world information on data plans and stuff? Do I have to just poke around on multiple different websites and compile information myself?
Maybe you could say where you are and what you are looking for. Then people can make suggestions. Comparison sites aren’t that useful because a lot of the differences between vendors will be intangibles like support quality.
Ok, I’ll edit the post to include what I’m looking for
Excellent suggestion, many useful comments came in since I edited in what I’m looking for.
I’ve been pretty happy with mint mobile the past few years. 5gb for $15 per month if paid a year up front
As someone who A/B tested mint and T-Mobile. They are virtually the same (mint is owned by T-Mobile) but in the middle of no where Kansas T-Mobile had full data but mint only had voice/text. I’m 98% sure that’s because it was a dead zone for T-Mobile so you defaulted to roaming on a locally owned tower. So keep that in mind if you travel a lot to sparsely populated areas.
We decided to stick with T-Mobile in the end just because both the W and I got big pay bumps but if we hadn’t I would have strongly considered switching.
Mint has issues if you’re in cities: you get deprioritized on busy towers like a T-Mobile customer who has gone over their maximum data.
I’m actually switching off mint this cycle because it’s bad enough in NYC as to be unusable during peak commute times - which is when I want data most.
Using home WiFi reduces data consumption but yeah months with overages this can be annoying.
That’s not what I’m talking about: even with full data at the start of the month you only get access to T-Mobile towers if there’s excess capacity.
During rush hour in the subway there is no excess capacity so you don’t get to connect. 0 gigs used or Max doesn’t matter: no connection if you’re not t-mobile.
This is also true of t-mobile essentials plan users: they’re deprioritized like mvno.
Most places this isn’t a big deal but cities you’ll definitely notice.
Ah, yes, I have experienced that before with other cheap plans.
If you’re in suburban Ohio you’ll probably be good and you’ll have major savings.
If you’re in an urban environment it really depends on how overbuilt the network is.
MetroPCS in southern US has same “issues”, running on T-Mobile. 🤦♂️ I’ve bounced between the two services enough times to understand the difference.
Spring Break here… Only T-Mobile customers get usable and consistent data.
Thanks for clarifying.
Visible Wireless. Unlimited on Verizon towers for about $30 per month.
For my country, switzerland, there is Comparis for example. I think it‘s best of you search for a website that aggregates and compares data only specific for your country?
This is the best answer. It’s utterly unlikely that any website that compares all telcos in the entire world would ever exist.
Cheapest that I know of for what you are asking is redpocket.com which is an MVNO for both tmo and Verizon. I have been using them for a few years and there were several issues with my old phone not supporting LTE properly, but with my new phone that seems to have cleared up. Their online chat support was very slow for a while but seems to be better now.
5GB/month is $20 on a monthly plan or $15/m ($180/year) on an annual plan through their site. Their very cheapest plans are annual and sold only on ebay, but $30/year ($2.5/m) for basic voice and minimal data is hard to beat. They have 20gb and unlimited plans for correspondingly more. I’m on a 1gb plan which is plenty for my own usage, which is to rely on wifi most of the time. I use mobile data if I need to look something up while out and about, rather than for youtube or anything like that.
Look into US Mobile. It runs on Verizon’s network (I think T-mobile too actually, you pick one or the other when you sign up). We have 3 phones sharing 12gb for $41 per month. You can also do a “top-up” of an extra 5gb for $10 if you’re running low one month, and it only charges for that month - meaning the next month they only charge you the 12gb plan.
Both rurally and in large Midwestern cities we’ve never had any issues with a connection. Which I did worry about them making us low priority since we’re piggy backing Verizon. But so far at least I haven’t seen it happen.
This might be the way to get decent Verizon service
We couldn’t be happier. And if you can afford to pay for a year up front, it’s only $15/line per month for unlimited data ($180 for the year). We just switched to that after using US Mobile for about 2 years. I wanted to be absolutely sure it worked before prepaying for an entire year.
Edit: Clarifying the price
Wow, that’s even cheaper than the shared 12gig plan!
Look up Stetson doggett on youtube. He has the most granular reviews on the (pre-paid especially) options. Personally, I am content with mint mobile, but I occasionally review his videos just to make sure I’m getting the best price
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Tello is pretty good. For your use case it’d be between $14-$19 per phone per month. I use Google Voice so I have a limited minutes plan just in case. Service is OK. Uses T-Mobile towers. I’m also in Ohio (Columbus). It drops out heading into the north-central parts of the state where I’m from.
