AT&T Gophone $40 4GB plan seems like an even better value than Cricket, anyone else using them?

[Hal~9000]

EDIT: Looks like since I've posted this thread back in March, AT&T keeps upping the data on it's $40 plan to 4GB now (http://www.prepaidphonenews.com/2016/11/at-gophone-announces-two-new-promotions.html)

I was looking for a low price / good value prepaid option and discovered AT&Ts prepaid Gophone plan at $40/mo (with $5 autopay discount) and was impressed enough to give it a go:
* Unlimited talk & text
* 2 4 GB of data
* Data rollover (30 days)
* Tethering (included free)
* AT&T in-store customer service

I currently feel the extra $5/mo is worth it for me over Cricket wireless so I have the benefits of direct AT&T in-store customer service, data rollover, tethering officially included for free, no throttled LTE speeds etc.

Anyone else using Gophone too?

 

[cousintim]

If you don't need 2GB and unlimited minutes, take a look at Consumer Cellular. $35 for 250/unlimited/1.5GB. Runs on the AT&T network with better customer service. You also can change plans anytime during the month if you expect to use more or less than your chosen buckets.

 

[kupkakez]

This seems like a better deal than the Cricket plan if you use the tethering as with Cricket that's an additional $10 fee monthly.

 

[BrianBaughn]

To clarify, is it $45.00 – $5.00 = $40.00? How much in taxes and fees are tacked onto that?

 

[rigormortis]

I've noticed this week that go phone will not activate on the 6s and 6s+ , because the phone is sold for t-mobile , verizon and sprint. my iPhone failed the AT&T imei checker. however cricket says this phone will work with their universal sim. cricket's cdma network is dead, so i think its a good way to get non AT&T iPhones to AT&T. i was moving my phone between t-mobile mvnos and sim cards this week and was really worried about having to sign up with cricket for a month, but the port went through fine

 

[gurase]

To clarify, is it $45.00 – $5.00 = $40.00? How much in taxes and fees are tacked onto that?

Depends on your state. If you buy refills from callingmart.com when they have 10% off promos or do their auto refill program, it's $40.50 with no taxes or fees.

 

[BrianBaughn]

Depends on your state. If you buy refills from callingmart.com when they have 10% off promos or do their auto refill program, it's $40.50 with no taxes or fees.

I'm trying to get real numbers to compare. The OP's numbers.

 

[mattopotamus]

I'm trying to get real numbers to compare. The OP's numbers.

I think he means $45 with a $5 discount ($40). Cricket is $40 with a $5 auto pay discount ($35), plus you get 2.5gb of data. I guess it comes down to if you need tethering or not. If not, the cricket plan still makes the most sense. To the OP. Prepaid customer service with ATT is different than post paid. It actually sucks.

 

[BrianBaughn]

Maybe an example is what's needed. Here's mine for my StraightTalk plan. Unlimited talk, unlimited SMS, 5GB of LTE speed and unlimited of 2G after that.

$45.00 monthly fee
-2.50 autopay discount
3.88 taxes & fees
$46.38 total

 

[mattopotamus]

Maybe an example is what's needed. Here's mine for my StraightTalk plan. Unlimited talk, unlimited SMS, 5GB of LTE speed and unlimited of 2G after that.

$45.00 monthly fee
-2.50 autopay discount
3.88 taxes & fees
$46.38 total

You could save $1.38 going to cricket

 

[Hal~9000]

This seems like a better deal than the Cricket plan if you use the tethering as with Cricket that's an additional $10 fee monthly.

Yeah, I wanted tethering automatically included without having to jailbreak my phone & break my TOS. $5 per month (Crickets $35 vs Gophones $40) is minuscule to me for peace of mind and the other benefits Gophone offers.

Depends on your state. If you buy refills from callingmart.com when they have 10% off promos or do their auto refill program, it's $40.50 with no taxes or fees.

I'm not sure if that works since, from what I've seen on HowardForums, buying from callingmart or wherever simply adds $45 in credit to the account... not 1 month of service. So you buy a $45 card for $40.50 and then add the card balance to your account, after which AT&T deducts the amount (including taxes and e911 fees) from the account and if that amount is over $45 then you still have to pay whatever small remaining balance there is.

I could be wrong though.

To the OP. Prepaid customer service with ATT is different than post paid. It actually sucks.

Maybe you have a crappy AT&T store you've been to but for me it's been great customer service and the exact same as if I was a post-paid customer. Went in to first activate the plan and again later when I wanted to add autopay for the monthly discount. Both times so far were easy peasy.

 

[gurase]

I'm not sure if that works since, from what I've seen on HowardForums, buying from callingmart or wherever simply adds $45 in credit to the account... not 1 month of service. So you buy a $45 card for $40.50 and then add the card balance to your account, after which AT&T deducts the amount (including taxes and e911 fees) from the account and if that amount is over $45 then you still have to pay whatever small remaining balance there is.

I could be wrong though.

I used to be on this plan using Callingmart. Most states charge taxes and fees at point of sale, whether through AT&T or cards at the grocery store. In all cases, including Callingmart, $45 even is added to your account. Then every month AT&T deducts $45 even from your account balance. A couple states will deduct a small amount for E911 from whatever account balance is available on a set day of every month, regardless of how you purchased refills. If you have a $0 balance, nothing is deducted, so you would just time your refills to not fall on that day, or keep a small buffer in your account for that purpose.

 

[rigormortis]

the problem i have talked about before with go phone is they don't keep track of your imei number. ( if you switch your sim out ) its been my experience that you should go to an AT&T store and ask them to place your imei number on your account. if you do not do this then after six months of service, they might delay your unlock request and claim your device was never used on AT&T. this happened to me twice. and twice i had to go to the AT&T store and have them look at me weird, and do it anyway, and then i was able to get an unlock as soon as i left the store.

mike was a go phone user for such a long time that he was able to get unlocks because he was a customer for the six months before the request. we got an AT&T iPhone. we tried to unlock it. they said denied , no history. we had the imei placed on his account at the AT&T store ( and got curious looks from the sales person) and the very same day, we were able to score an unlock, because now there was a history.


the other tip for AT&T go phone is to call customer service and request the actual account number and pin. you need this to port out of go phone. they don't tell you what the actual account # on your phone number is , unless you ask them for it.

 

[stiligFox]

T-Mobile has a hidden $30/month unlimited text / 100 minutes talk / 5GB data at LTE and then unlimited data at 2G speeds - best deal I've found. Going to sign up soon for it.

 

[mattopotamus]

Yeah, I wanted tethering automatically included without having to jailbreak my phone & break my TOS. $5 per month (Crickets $35 vs Gophones $40) is minuscule to me for peace of mind and the other benefits Gophone offers.



I'm not sure if that works since, from what I've seen on HowardForums, buying from callingmart or wherever simply adds $45 in credit to the account... not 1 month of service. So you buy a $45 card for $40.50 and then add the card balance to your account, after which AT&T deducts the amount (including taxes and e911 fees) from the account and if that amount is over $45 then you still have to pay whatever small remaining balance there is.

I could be wrong though.



Maybe you have a crappy AT&T store you've been to but for me it's been great customer service and the exact same as if I was a post-paid customer. Went in to first activate the plan and again later when I wanted to add autopay for the monthly discount. Both times so far were easy peasy.

I guess I should clarify. If you call it's crap. Prepaid has separate customer service.

 

[willmtaylor]

I guess I should clarify. If you call it's crap. Prepaid has separate customer service.

Correct.

In my limited experience, the prepaid customer service is of lesser caliber. That being said, as with many customer service lines, I'd recommend dialing #2 for Spanish. Those folks are almost always bilingual and in/near the U.S., as opposed to India, etc.

 

[poorcody]

I don't suppose either GoPhone or Cricket support AT&T Wifi calling... ?

 

[gotluck]

I can confirm gophone does not support WiFi calling. Says account type not valid or something like that

My wife and I are both on this plan. In Florida it is $43 after autopay discount. Cheaper if you buy elsewhere online but setting it and forgetting it is worth it to me. I've never been on cricket but I have been on straight talk and post paid. Go phone seems to be a tier above other prepaids (everyone except gophone seems to be routed through a proxy server), but it is below post paid off course. We've had a few occasions where we were probably kicked off the tower for data in super congested areas. Calling and sms have never had issues though so I stay on prepaid. Experience is way better than straight talk where you would have to occasionally toggle cell data.

I need voice minutes and don't want to rely on voip, so I've avoided the tmobile $30 plan.

I can't find a better value for a 2 phone household

 

[biopig]

According to Cricket's website, they cap the LTE speed to 8Mbps while gophone performs just like the ATT postpaid unthrottled. I used to be on gophone plan and the LTE speed is awesome at SF Bay Area (I switched to postpaid plan thereafter for VoLTE/Wifi Calling and these features are unavailable on gophone)

 

[Hal~9000]

Now that RingPlus is making changes (thank you RP for the 7 months of free service! <3), I'll probably take my 6s and go back to GoPhone for the better AT&T network coverage + peace of mind.

Back in march when I first posted this thread, the $40 plan only had 2GB of data... but since AT&T has bumped the $40 GoPhone plan up to 4GB of data I now feel it's a much better value than Crickets $35 2.5GB plan.

For just $5 more than Crickets $35 plan you get: 1) 1.5GB more data 2) Data rollover 3) Free tethering 4) No LTE speed throttling 5) AT&T in-store customer service.