So I'm looking for a new cell phone plan and need help please.

[jc0481]

My wife's and I T-Mobile expires next month on January 24. We have been with T-Mobile since they were called Voicestream yes a very long time.

We are just looking for a good cell phone company to do business with. Are there any websites out there that will help our shopping for new cell phones and cell phone plans easier? We are just going to the major carriers stores and ask what is the best deal that can fit our usage.

We are hoping that we can find a monthly plan that will cost $100 a month. My wife gets a 25% discount through her work for either Sprint or Verizon. As well as a 15% discount through T-Mobile not sure about AT&T.

Should we go with a contract deal or no contract?

I appreciate any feedback. Thank you.

[eternlgladiator]

What kind of phones do you both have/want? How many minutes do you use regularly? Data? Text? All of these are factors.

Also, where do you live?

[jc0481]

Originally Posted by eternlgladiator

What kind of phones do you both have/want? How many minutes do you use regularly? Data? Text? All of these are factors.

Also, where do you live?

I prefer a Smart phone but my wife prefers a simpler phone. We do prefer getting free phones when we sign up but we are flexible to do without. I would say we both use 1,000-1,500 minutes a month depending on the month. Both my wife and I use a lot of data. So far we have used 447 mb of data and our cap on our current plan is 5.00 GB. Also we currently have unlimited texts but my wife texts a lot more than I do between the both of us we have sent or received 608 texts.

We live in Salt Lake City, Utah.

[h1r0ll3r]

In terms of shopping for phones, generally third party retailers like Best Buy, Radio Shack, Amazon Wireless, etc, will have better deals on the phones. Amazon Wireless specifically, has been promoting a lot of nice deals on phones to get traction to their new service. The Samsung Galaxy Note 2, for example, retails for $299 at most places with a new/upgrade subscription. Amazon Wireless had it for $175 for AT&T and $149 for Sprint. Had I not gotten a price match from AT&T, I would've been one very pissed off individual for buying from the carrier stores. The carrier stores will have pretty much "standard" pricing which usually isn't the best. You may be able to get a deal/discount on phones there since you're going to be buying two however most carrier stores aren't going to have that great a deal as opposed to the third party stores. iPhones at Best Buy were $50 off I think and Radio Shack had the iPhones for $25 off or something like that. Might have been $50. Point is, check the third party retailers once you've decided on what phone you want to get .

As for carrier, that's pretty much going to boil down to where you live. Might wanna ask some of your friends/neighbors what provider they use and how good the service is. No sense in getting a 25% discount at Verizon if the service is crappy in your area. Also, don't bother with the carrier's coverage maps on their websites. Those are pure crap IMO. Coverage, to them, means at least one bar of service in any given area. And they seem to take that as "good" service for an area. Since your wifey seems to be able to get a discount at most of the carriers, you should be able to save money regardless of what carrier you choose. Main thing here is to find the one that offers the best service in your area.

And as gladiator pointed out, you'll also need to take into consideration what services you'll need, how much data you use, hotspotting/tethering, SMS, etc as those will all jack up the price (especially the data plans) on your contract. If you two are just talkers and occasional texters, you may even want consider prepaid options or "budget" plans like Cricket/StraightTalk/Net10 as those would be cheaper options if you two aren't that heavy cell phone users. If you are heavy users like most of us here, then you'll probably want to go with the big boys like AT&T/VZW/T-Mob .

There is pretty much a provider/cellphone for everyone so all you need to do is find out;

-what phone(s) you want
-what service(s) you want
-what carrier offers the best service in your area

Once you figured out these things then it should make your decision a little easier. Or, once you figured the above out, and still need some additional advice then repost with the information and you should be able to get some better feedback for your inquiry.

[eternlgladiator]

Originally Posted by jc0481

I prefer a Smart phone but my wife prefers a simpler phone. We do prefer getting free phones when we sign up but we are flexible to do without. I would say we both use 1,000-1,500 minutes a month depending on the month. Both my wife and I use a lot of data. So far we have used 447 mb of data and our cap on our current plan is 5.00 GB. Also we currently have unlimited texts but my wife texts a lot more than I do between the both of us we have sent or received 608 texts.

We live in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Originally Posted by h1r0ll3r

In terms of shopping for phones, generally third party retailers like Best Buy, Radio Shack, Amazon Wireless, etc, will have better deals on the phones. Amazon Wireless specifically, has been promoting a lot of nice deals on phones to get traction to their new service. The Samsung Galaxy Note 2, for example, retails for $299 at most places with a new/upgrade subscription. Amazon Wireless had it for $175 for AT&T and $149 for Sprint. Had I not gotten a price match from AT&T, I would've been one very pissed off individual for buying from the carrier stores. The carrier stores will have pretty much "standard" pricing which usually isn't the best. You may be able to get a deal/discount on phones there since you're going to be buying two however most carrier stores aren't going to have that great a deal as opposed to the third party stores. iPhones at Best Buy were $50 off I think and Radio Shack had the iPhones for $25 off or something like that. Might have been $50. Point is, check the third party retailers once you've decided on what phone you want to get .

As for carrier, that's pretty much going to boil down to where you live. Might wanna ask some of your friends/neighbors what provider they use and how good the service is. No sense in getting a 25% discount at Verizon if the service is crappy in your area. Also, don't bother with the carrier's coverage maps on their websites. Those are pure crap IMO. Coverage, to them, means at least one bar of service in any given area. And they seem to take that as "good" service for an area. Since your wifey seems to be able to get a discount at most of the carriers, you should be able to save money regardless of what carrier you choose. Main thing here is to find the one that offers the best service in your area.

And as gladiator pointed out, you'll also need to take into consideration what services you'll need, how much data you use, hotspotting/tethering, SMS, etc as those will all jack up the price (especially the data plans) on your contract. If you two are just talkers and occasional texters, you may even want consider prepaid options or "budget" plans like Cricket/StraightTalk/Net10 as those would be cheaper options if you two aren't that heavy cell phone users. If you are heavy users like most of us here, then you'll probably want to go with the big boys like AT&T/VZW/T-Mob .

There is pretty much a provider/cellphone for everyone so all you need to do is find out;

-what phone(s) you want
-what service(s) you want
-what carrier offers the best service in your area

Once you figured out these things then it should make your decision a little easier. Or, once you figured the above out, and still need some additional advice then repost with the information and you should be able to get some better feedback for your inquiry.

h1r0ll3r basically nailed it. I'd go with that. Service coverage should be your number one concern though. It doesn't matter how cool your phone is if you can't make/receive calls and what not. Start there.