Straight Talk, the unlimited voice and text offering from Tracfone, debuted a few weeks ago. Shares of telecoms which offered similar unlimited plans temporarily plummeted, though they did recover. The fear is of a price war that might not happen. While the industry has shaken off the passing panic, Straight Talk still stands to do well. In fact, there are already positive reports coming out of at least one market. FierceWireless references a report by Pali Research saying that Straight Talk is doing quite well in Atlanta. This is no surprise. Yet, has Tracfone implemented a marketing plan in the ATL that they haven’t in the rest of the nation? From the FierceWirless summary:
He also noted in a blog post that Wal-Mart employees seemed knowledgeable about the plan, and that they were pointing out to customers that the plan runs on Verizon’s network. Several Wal-Mart employees said the majority of their prepaid wireless sales had already shifted to Straight Talk. Piecyk said that TracFone commercials promoting the plan appeared to be playing in heavy rotation on local television stations.It’s really no surprise that sales people know about the plan. It was probably promoted as a big winner by Wal-Mart store managers. Plus, there’s really not much to remember. Unlimited voice and text, plus 30 MB of data, for $45 per month, and it runs on the Verizon network. That’s it. I wonder if there’s as much promotion for Straight Talk’s $30 plan, which provides 1,000 minutes, 1,000 texts, and 30 MB of data. That’s the one I like. Of course, Straight Talk catching on it’s objectively great. Remember, it’s on a six-month trial with Verizon, so if they see too much volume, the offering could get nixed. We’ll have a better idea early next year.]]>
Posted in Tracfone
I’m not at all surprised that Straight Talk is catching on. You know why? Because until last month I paid over $50 for the most basic plan on Verizon. The plan is supposed to cost $40 but with all the hidden charges and fees added, I never paid less than 50. It only gave me 450 minutes, data was charged at a ludicrous $1.99 per Mb, 411 calls cost almost 2 bucks each.
That was last month.
This month I get 1000 minutes, 1000 texts, 30mb of data and free 411 calls.
On the same network.
That is why the plan is catching on…
I think this Straight Talk is a great offer but I’m still very cash-strapped at the moment so I’ll be staying with my Net10 phone for now because I only pay $20 per month and I get everything (Long distance, Roaming and international calls) for only 10cents per minute, and texts for 5 cents. I don’t use more than 200 minutes at the moment anyway.
As a college student, I don’t have enough money to pay the pricy cell phone bill that I have been paying for the past few months. My friend told me at the beginning of the month of a company called TracFone. They are a prepaid cell phone company — which means, I only pay for the minutes that I need. The best part is that you don’t need to spend a lot of money on contract phones. Tracfone recently came up with a plan called “Straight Talk”. I had NO IDEA what it was until I did some research. Here’s what it is: you pay 30 dollars a month and it includes 1000 anytime minutes (nation wide), 1000 text messages, 30 MB of data and no overage charges! You can get them at Wal-Mart stores for very cheap. It’s great for college students, elderly, children, and people who do not use their phones too frequently.
Straight Talk pretty much is the second wave of the unlimited plan price wars launched by Boost unlimite back in January. Not quite as revolutionary so much as evolutionary. Boost basically pushed Metro and Cricket into circling their wagons and sibling rival and fellow Sprint Mvno Virgin Mobile to attempt to match their unlimited moves.
The Gsm networks have been all quiet with NOT ONE UNLIMITED GSM EVERYTHING plan out there. Combining the muscles of Verizon, Tracfone and Walmart, Straight Talk is a test trial for six months for Trac to test out the waters in an unfamiliar (to them) market.
The biggest thing they did was causing Metro, Cricket and other carriers stocks to drop briefly from the annoucement of their $45 unlimited talk/text/30 meg plan. And rival carrier Sprint pushing unlimited plans for its Mvnos , hurling them at Verizon, Ready Mobile’s 2/7 day unlimited plan, Kajeet’s unltd talk/text trial, Boost cdma Unltd price cuts. ST is not being ignored.
And apparently, fellow long time established Verizon mvno Page Plus is going to launch plans in August to September to counter what they see as a direct threat by Straight Talk. Rumors are floating that at least 4, maybe 5 new plans are on the way including two which closely mirror Straight Talk in price and content.
Whether they all come out or only part of the plans come out, it will be an exciting time for fans of Page Plus if they do as they are supposedly going to. All this is thanks to Straight Talk.
I am a college student having a hard time making ends meet as well. I am definetely going to get a straight talk plan. I have a friend that uses the service and says nothing but good things about it
Update on Straight Talk, it will NOT end in six months. The much talked about trial period for Verizon refers to the Branding, “Powered by the Nationwide Verizon Network” logo on the ST packaging. It is a multiple year deal according to Verizon. They were just looking at the trial to not allow their name to be directly used after the six months. IT was in today’s online Wall Street Journal.
Here is the excerpt: (Verizon Executive Denny) Strigl said the partnership, called Straight Talk, is experimental, and that the company wouldn’t do anything to cannibalize its own core contract business. Verizon Wireless has the right to pull its brand off the service at any time. Strigl confirmed that the deal with TracFone will run for multiple years, but the branding experiment would last six months.
Straight Talk made headlines because it offered a more than 50% discount on Verizon Wireless’ service, despite running on the same network. Strigl said the pricing is up to TracFone.
Good catch, Peter. Good to know that this will stick around for a while. That might even get more people to sign up, knowing that they’ll continue to have service.
I HAVE A QUESTION FOR ALL OF YOU STRAIGHT TALK OWNERS; IS ST AND VERIZON WIRELESS MOBILE TO MOBILE TO EACHOTHER? BECAUSE I FEEL LIKE IF NOT IT KIND OF DEFEATS THE PURPOSE; BECAUSE MOST OF MY FRIENDS HAVE VERIZON AND THEY CANT TALK FOR FREE UNLESS ITS VERIZON OR AFTER 9 O’CLOCK OR SOMETHING SO CAN SOMEONE PLEASE GIVE ME SOME ADVICE!!!
Cierra, as far as I can tell there is no mobile to mobile between Verizon and Straight Talk.
I went to the crooks at the Verizon Wireless store. I showed them my new ST phone. I asked them if they could match a service planw with out a contract. They told me no. They also told me that Verizon would never let any other complaies under cut their contracts.
I was told that this company isn’t real, that my service wouldn’t be as good, and I would not get good customer service.
So far all of the things they told me are false. Verizon will try to do anything to keep you locked in a contract. The renewed my contract when my 6 month old phone died.
When your phone contract is up kiss Verizon goodbye. Go with Straight talk. No contract, $30 a month.
1000 minutes 1000 texts. 30 gb net use
I bought my at walmart.com.
NO! STRAIGHT TALK IS NO BETTER!!!!!!
1. if you get a $30 card the first time you put a balance on your phone, you MUST stay paying the $30 unless you want your phone to be de and reactivated 3 TIMES!!. i tried and 3 days after the fact ive had nothing but problems.. tyesterday, it said that after a 3min phone call, i was out of money even though at the begingin of that call i had over 16 hours. NOW today i couldnt listen to ringtones, view pictures or videos nor take any. so my mom and i called the company and when we did so, the “oh so great” gentleman that we got wiped out EVERYTHING and i mean EVERRYYYTHINGGG on my phone. i now have no pictures, no videos, no messages that i had locked, and all the ringtones i downloaded, yea they’re gone too. and when we talked to the supervisor, his exact words were “Thats impossible” so i get angry (even more than i was already)and they never even tried to repair it.. nor did we get an apology for the inconvenience. we then call back to give him the code that we were given that had “accidentally” cleared my phone and the actually very nice lady we got said that it CAN happen and that SHE was SORRY!. the person who has no say in anything says shes sorry but the person in charge NOTHING..
does verizon do anything good anymore? their service has gotten worse over the years and there prices are very high. they always seem to bill you for hidden fees or try to overbill you. THEY SUCK !! in my opinion.
ST RAZRv3 update.Activated my phone with Straight Talk on 9/25 and it took six days to port the old number and get it working. It took until 10/9 to get the browser to work. It took repeated calls to India, but it is finally working the way it is supposed to. The call quality is good.
Straight Talk is owned by Tracfone so will always have their substandard (imho) non US customer service. Not that inferior foreign CS is any better then inferior American CS. At that price it is about the phones (yeah they are getting five new models over the coming months) and the network (post Alltel merger Verizon prepaid network ). At $45 unlimited everything they are offering Metro/Cricket prices for a Verizon product.
I just purchased Straight Talk and I love it. I was with Verizon doing the pay as you go at 3.99/day for unlimited talk/1 penny per text, so I was spending 120/mo. but I rack up about 5,000 min/mo. I hope it stays around since I’m reading that it’s in a 6 mo. trial period.
We just got the new samsung phone with keyboard and the service and phone is great. No prob’s here.
I understand the new st phones don’t work in all areas. Is ther a list or coverage map available?
yes there is a coverage list and available list of phones, i’m with Tracfone with DMFL card and i buy the 450 minute card which then doubles to 900 and i go through it all within a month, so this Straight Talk plan seems like the better deal since they separate talk and text, tracfone doesn’t so anything you do takes airtime, unlimited would be great too as more and more people ditch their landlines
I just got this service about a week and a half ago and have issues with people not receiving my texts or me not getting theirs, sending and receiving duplicate texts or even receive texts then like 12 hrs. later receive the same texts again. For the people that do not have the unlimited plan I would be throwing a fit for having my texts wasted.
I got my phone from wal-mart on 10-9-09
today is th 16th and I still dont have a phone. First they wouldnt beleive that my phone number was my account number. SO they called page plus(bye the way sucks, 56cents a min for roaming and they dont tell you tell after activation, only had them a few weeks) page plus verified my account next day they tell me the dont know how to spell page plus …really. Page plus witch also runs on verizon tells me they ported the number susesfully on tueday… ST tells me its a billing issue is the reason its taken so long (Its prepaid who gets billed) so today they tell me I have to wait an aditional 48 hrs and call them back. I was with suncom then altell seems I cant get away from the hold verizon is putting on us evey time I have had my number ported it to 10 mins – 12 hrs at the most so I told them I need a phone on today I got kids and me company runs off of that number they wont release my phone number now…. I want to burn down there building
I purchased my phone at wal-mart, transferred my ATT number, and am not looking back. Works great since it uses Verizon towers, and I live way out in the sticks. The unlimited AT&T plan is 100 bucks a month, not including text and or internet. 11-25-09 and very satisfied.
We switched from Sprint. We were with them for 8 years, paying 200.00 a month for a family plan. After buying the phones and the first month of service, Straight Talk is gonna save us hundred’s over the year, and thousands over a decade. Its the best damn deal out there(Period). The only downside, low tech phones. But at the cost were still saving a crapload of money. And I can switch to my Ipod Touch to email on free Wi-Fi when I find it. I highly recommend this program to everyone thats tired of paying the mainstream cell companies a fistfull of cash. TheSarge
I couldn’t be happier about my new plan with StraightTalk from Walmart! $45 for unlimited texts and calls.. talk about major savings. Plus its on the Verizon network so it gets great coverage. Hello prepaid, goodbye monthly cell contracts 🙂
Does anyone know when the Target monthly prepaid program is going live? I heard about it shortly after WW went live with ST but nobody @ the Target stores seem to know anything about it yet.
Since April me and my fiance went with the Boost unlimited plan, because of the price we thought it would be great. The good thing about Boost was the walkie talkie for quick chats and “where ya at?”s but soon became a nuisance because you can’t shut off the walkie talkie. During the time we had Boost we would receive messages sometimes and then wait for the download. Sometimes the message would not download at all and would have to guess what the person said. RIDICULOUS. Boost was constantly trying to fix the problem (supposedly). For Christmas and at the time of our last re-boost we decided to get ST and so far we have no complaints, our text messages get to us quickly and no waiting on them to download. We got the 45 a month with unlimited talk and text with a 79.99 LG 290C and I love the phone. Its a nice slider with beautiful screen resolution. I’m not saying its the greatest thing since sliced bread but hey its a phone ecspecially compared to my Boost Clutch (sort of a Blackberry). I think the biggest difference is the service and the choice on phones. With Boost on Nextel/Sprint and ST on Verizon towers I think I would go with Verizon.
Straight talk in my opinion, is better than a verizon prepaid service, on the verizon you had 2 hours one minute then the next you had 35 minutes.It was a waste.The thing that gets me with Straight talk is tho, why if they use Verizon towers, why cant verizon customers that have free mobile to mobile call Straight talk for free?Thats ridicoulous!
beware of the no rollover clause as this means on the date also as i have the 45 unlimited plan and thought i would go ahead and and another card for next month. It don’t work that way they stole 2 weeks from me and put the new date 30 days from the day I added the card so i lost 2 weeks that I had paid for when I added time early.
What about roaming charges? Live on the Gulf Coast of Ms. ,will i be able to talke to family in Ga. without extra charges.I am thinking about buying the $45 plan later on this month.
Margaret: No roaming
I got my ST phone 2 days ago at walmart. I got the $80 phone and a $30 card. I got home and had it activated online within 5 minn. So far everything is fine, the internet seems about the same as I had on my Verizon pre-paid phone. All my texts have gone through and been recieved instantly, and the calls sound great. I have not had to deal with customer service so I cant comment on that but everything else, so far, is great. I was just on here trying to find out if Verizon customers can text me free..? It does not look like it.. anyone know for sure?
can anyone vouch for the no roaming and the unlimited web access? and are st phones locked so that we can have no free ringtones?
Beware of what lies just ahead. Straight Talk has been so successful at Wal-Mart that Verizon is losing customers from Alltel and Big Verizon itself. As a result, many Wal-Mart stores will no longer sell the phone. I live in a region where I’m going to have to cross a state line to find a store to buy one. I understand Verizon only has a six month deal with Trac and Wally World. But it looks like they didn’t even fulfill that arrangement. Verizon and Alltel started losing customers big time. I would like to know what the situation is in the whole country, but I can’t get that info. There’s almost nothing on Google about this. Verizon will probably not renew and Wal-Mart and Trac will have to find a new carrier. Of course the news of what happened will leave the other carriers less than interested also. But really, I expect that Sprint/Nextel, already themselves on the road to low cost service with boost and other services, T-Mobile and Cellular One are the likely candidates to replace them. Cellular One has not very focused national marketing. As far as I know they don’t have a pricey smartphone with high monthly tariffs. So they might do it because it would tear down all the others but not hurt them as much. Any of these three could be the next cell phone carrier for straight talk. I tell you what I’d like to see though: Wal Mart itself as a sixth nationwide service. Wal-Mart has the wherewithal and is the most motivated to start such a service. If any of the three carries I’ve mentioned don’t agree, Wal-Mart will still be able to make a deal with their tower owners. Its not a well known fact but even the towers that identify as being towers of the Big Five, are usually actually owned by little Mom and Pop and regional companies. Its simply cheaper for the Bigs to rent tower use that to own. Only in major cities where market share is critical do the Bigs own towers. And they shed them when profits disappear or even fall off somewhat. If you know accounting, you know that renting towers is cash and owning them is a capital intensive, tax paying situation for one of the Bigs. We’re coming to the end of the six month deal with Verizon so we should know soon what is next. My worry would be Straight Talk people would get a really lousy carrier like Sprint-Nextel, which mainly clings to interstate highways in its coverage outside major cities and nowhere else.
Love the Straight Talk! Look folks the wireless industry is booming and unlimited plans are the future. I have had ATT, Sprint (virgin Mobile), Nextel, but Verizon Wireless for years. You just cant beat the coverage PERIOD! Gotta love competition! Best for all of us. The prices will continue to plummet. Its supply and demand folks. More supply, more competition, less price. Landlines are a thing of the past.
for anyone bitching over not having a phone yet when transfering their old number it states on the website it could take up to 30 days.
straight talk uses verizones towers so anywhere verizon gets service so will u
they are great try the samsung finessee
Is straight talk all its cracked up to be. I live in NW Missouri and I was thinking about switching from tmobile. Can you use ulocked phones or only theirs? please let me know. Thanks
Is it true that anywhere that a verizon phone gets service Straight Talk will too? Even if it is not on Verizon tower? I live in a rural area (southern Oregon) and all the towers are ATT, however Verizon customers get service as do US Cellular–so they obviously have contracts to use the ATT tower….so will Straight Talk get service off the towers that are owned by ATT but contracted out by Verizon? Anyone have any ideas about this……I sure would like to switch!
@jimmy:
No, Straight Talk will only allow their handsets to be used. So definitely no GSM(AT&T, TMobile)unlocked handsets. But also no CDMA (Sprint-Nextel, Verizon) handsets either. Only Straight Talk(not even other TracFone companies handsets either!) I bet there is a way around this constraint, but one would have to be knowledgeable in CDMA programming, which I presume is pretty tricky.
The thing about straight talk is the phones are so cheap, Shore they not androids or smart phones, but they do the job, what more do you need. I had an iphone before and yes it was fun, but i mean the amount of money i had to fork out was crazy. So i dont mind having a normal phone if it means im saving money, and i hear you can really mess up your phone if you try program it your self.
Just wondering if you can install java apps on the phone? Like for twitter or a PDF reader etc? Thanks!
I dont think you can add apps, but you can definitely use the webbrowser and check out all the sites. I use mine to check out facebook and my email and have even used it to check my ban account. I have the Samsung touchscreen with unlimited plan for $45 and that thing is a lifesaver. More than once I have used it to move money from my savings to checking account for time i have needed to make purchases. Ahhhhh, this thing is clutch!
Overall the straight talk service has been adequate. My problem is with their website and customer service. It takes 4ever to refill the phones via customer service. If you try to refill your phone online after the minutes expire (at midnight) – you will not be able to. It automatically deactives your phone. The company should at least have a 24 hour window to refill without having to call customer service and speak to CSR’s who can’t even speak clear English.
Just ditched Verizon after 20 years (!); it took 10 minutes to port my number over online with no problems. I have the $100 Samsung at it it great! Sick of Verizon jamming a data package down my throat so they can buy expensive teevee ads for Droid etc! Around Olympia WA area, service is outstanding. Make the switch!
I recently purchased a straight talk phone and have yet to be disappointed. The phone that I bought was $80 and the plan I have is only $45 a month and I have unlimited everything! I mainly use my phone for texting and calls-not so much the internet but I know that if I’m lost I can mapquest my way out of it without having to worry about how much it’s going to cost. I also like the fact that ST runs off of verizons towers-in my opinion they have the BEST coverage map-even better than at&t(which my mom has and her calls are dropped all the time) I like to have a phone that anyone can call me on and I dont have to worry what time of day their calling or how many minutes I have left or how much money I have left on my account. I am 100% satisfied with straight talk and will never go to any other prepaid or contract phone again. Thanks to the owners of striaght talk-you’ve made my life a little bit easier!!!!!
Do you have to notify Verizon Wireless that you no longer want their service once you port your number?
Quick question,
If I use up my 1000 texts or 30 mb before the end of the month does the phone have to be refilled or do those service just not work until refill?
just to cl few things, i recently contacted a rep for Verizon about this… the lady i talked to was very apt to listen, but kept trying to push a 100$ a month plan, plus a deposit, 2-year contract, and activation fee… when i asked if there was any reason i should go with their plan as opposed to the ST 45$ a month one the only thing she could tell me was:
1. Verizon has one of the best service networks nation wide
2. they have a larger selection of phones…
it was sort of insulting, i do realize some people pick a cell service based on what phone they can get, or things like the sort, but really? if the only selling point you can come up with is that you have a larger selection than the other guys, something is wrong! what really confused me was the lack of knowledge the tech had about the phones/plans they have. as far as service, i understand it is great service, at least where i am… so i did the math, even with a 25$ phone from Verizon, it would still cost 1225$ a year for an unlimited plan for text talk and data, and even choosing the 125$ Black Berry Samsung clone from ST, it still comes up to about 640$ a year… so why would anyone even consider paying twice as much to have the same service on a sub par phone? i understand paying for the phone outright is a little bit pricey, but it’s a small cost in the long run. i mean for just the money saved in the first 6 months theoretically you could buy 3 of the 100$ phones, not that you would, but if wanted it could be done.
and as for boost, wether it uses sprint or nextel towers, it all depends on the phone you choose. what i mean is any of the phones with i in the model name (i465, i290, and so on) and have ptt(walkie-talkie)they are going to use the old nextel towers and the iden network which hasn’t been updated in quite a while and is not really capable of handling the sheer volume of use it has gotten since they started the monthly unlimited plans… they have though tried to remedy the situation by bringing back their cdma service (uses the sprint side of the network, faster mobile web, more reliable texts, at the cost of sacrificing the ptt feature) to the monthly unlimited with a few of the newer phones like the sanyo incognito and miro, but for me it is too little too late
Just remember when renewing your account of straight talk, wait until the day the running minutes expire before renewing – LIKE THEY TELL YOU!!
QUESTION???
I’M WITH AT&T AND I WANT TO TWITCH TO A STRAIGHT TALK PLAN BUT I DON’T WANT TO HAVE TO BUY THE STRAIGHT TALK PHONE BECAUSE I HAVE A NICE AT&T PHONE. SO CAN ANYONE TELL ME IF I CAN JUST SIMPLY BUT MY STRAIGHT TALK SIM CARD INTO MY AT&T PHONE AND IT WORK NORMALLY???
MANY ANSWERS NEEDED..
I live in Sedalia Missouri a small town. I get service everywhere in the country areas around it. Never did with T-mobile or Virgin Mobile in the same areas!
I’m glad everyone likes straighttalk. Be aware that their customer service is awful if you need it. It’s closed 10 hours a day. and if you use your phone on off hours believe me you will regret it if you need consistant and reliable service. I’ve spent hours on the phone trying to straighten out one thing or another for our two phones because of poor service and unknowledgable CSRs.
I good thing is .. ST ,verizon & trac phone are all free minutes to talk to each other.
GSM or CDMA. Walmart Straight Talk phones are model numbered with either a “C” or “G”. For example, LG 620G is a GSM phone which uses AT&T and T-Mobile towers. whereas the Samsung R451C is a CDMA phone and uses Verizon towers. I don’t know which is best but I guess for coverage you need to check and find out which is best where you live.
ok i work for verizon i get a substantial discount on service and st is still cheaper verizon sucks the only good thing about them is they sign my paychecks period fuhkem i live in a real rural area and have the sgh-t401g it runs on gms and my bars have never droped below full its the best service plan out there stop read this stuff and go get one now
I have a friend that is Verizon and I have Straight Talk…. I was wondering if I call him does he get charged if I stay on the phone with him for hours on end? I know I don’t get charged but he has a contract and only so many minutes a month… Thanks And I work at Walmart in So Illinois and the only people at my store that know alot about them are the ones that work in the Connection Center… 🙂
SWITCHED from contract (14 years) with U.S. Cellular, back in August, 2010…
WORKED FROM DAY ONE Straight Talk (Samsung 451).for me.
CUTOVER of phone number (porting) took about 12 minutes (I was shocked). Phone works from Springfield into Chicago. I don’t really travel much.
PRICE IS GREAT…
CUSTOMER SERVICE (Who cares). Everything works. Only used them on day of cut-over and it was good enough.
The phone is crappy (takes nearly 14 steps to foreward a call; trying to call to a number within a text (not the sender) is spotty. Half the time it doesn’t work, and it takes way too many steps (compared to my old Motorola VRAZR) Maybe that’s thats the service and not the phone??
I recommend Straight Talk often. Usually I say: Unlimited talk, unlimited FULL text (including photos); internet sorta woks (with included APPS only)…. Have been considering moving to (twice as costly), unlimited pre-pay, with T-mobile. Mainly because of business needs for advanced data support and Vlingo and other voice apps. T-mobile (at $79, flat-rate) really rocks… IF U need serious hi-speed internet (when tethered to my laptop, the service rivaled our dsl service.
Straight Talk is simple, it’s cheap, and for me, it works. I love NO CONTRACT. I solve the refill problem by providing them with a credit card and AUTO-refill. Their service and price work…The Samsung-451 sucks (maybe there are too many TRACFONE inhibitors). They sure won’t let U put any outside APPS on their phone…
I LOVE my straight talk phone! Everything works GREAT no problems (yet). The price is unbeatable for what I am getting. Unlimited EVERYTHING for $45 a month, c’mon! Even 411 calls? AMAZING. I would highly recommend it to anyone who asks I could not be happier. 😉
Ron Shepherd comment #51, thanks for that information. Really important to know if you want to go with a prepaid cell phone service. If anyone is doing their research, this will definitely help out. Make sure you check what providers are available in your area before you make your phone purchase. Seems like Straight Talk is doing everything it can to stay ahead in what they offer to their customers and attract new ones. When the Unlimited plan was introduced a few months ago, this really put them ahead. Talk, text, internet, and 411 calls, all unlimited for $45 every 30 days. This is certainly one of the better deals.
I didn’ think I would ever give up my iphone, but because of some budget issues, I had to switch to Straight Talk. Switching over has actually been a positive experience for me: I was able to go with a different smartphone through Straight Talk and spend? half the price of what I was paying before. Straight Talk’s option meets my needs and I’m saving tons of? money.
Love straight talk! It’s no iPhone, and don’t expect 4G, but it leads all contenders in terms of bang for buck. The plan is truly unlimited, the signal service is wonderful, the phones are great too! Some people encounter problems with Customer Service but so far the product works as planned.
Hey nthomas, I’ve about had it with my contract carrier and would like to give prepaid a try. When I found out that straight talk has smart phones, I’m giving consideration to a switch. What concerns me is the how good the coverage is and how customer service will handle any issues you encounter. That’s where my contract failed me, when I need assistance, all I get is the runaround.
Hard not to look at the 45 bucks a month for unlimited everything and wonder why I’m spending 110 a month on my iPhone. I’m sure this phone is fancier but I wonder if it’s worth the cost, especially if Straight Talk really broadcasts from those towers…
I have recently ended my verizon contract and just made the move to straight talk. As a former sprint employee I know the awful truth about airtime charges, here it is: the towers are always on, always, understand?. verizon is really the only useful network and they own most of the landlines they use for switching between towers. shortly after switching I had made a trip from cols, OH to raleigh NC and experienced no drop in service or even the slightest bit of breaking up while moms sprint spent most of its battery and her time “searching for signal” and breaking up, mom even used my phone for a 45min call. Customer service? Who cares, why are you calling them? I have never had to call customer service, for any reason, there are no billing issues you pay either $30 or $45, $45 being unlimited (that’s what I choose every month) and set it up online. I have one of the smarter phones and while my friends at first laughed and gave me crap about not having a replacement plan, phone insurance, I laughed at them for paying almost $100 a month, having equally crappy customer service, being roped into extending their contract every time they made a small plan change or god forbid ordered a new phone, or wanted to switch to another carrier and had a $175 term fee for every line and on and on. No straight talk doesn’t give you an i-phone but if you really wanna use one ask one of your friends to use theirs, they always wanna show them off and brag! oh no, no pandora what will I do?? This is currently the best plan available pay per min plans suck and try using one for an hour call, wow talk about cost savings!!
Forgot to mention, by reading this i’m assuming that everyone already knows straight talk runs on the verizon network, but if you don’t, ST uses the verizon network for their wireless service, meaning the phones will work pretty much anywhere that people live and need service.
I was just infomed that AT&T will be taking over my area’s towers so how is this gonna work for a verizon based straight talk phone?? anyone have any idea’s??
Service is good , but beware they will cut you off before you have used up your minutes and you will have to borrow someone else’s phone to call the customer service rep who may be nice or you may get a smart ass, like I did earlier, but called back and got a nice young man who tried his best to help. I am giving them one more month to prove themselves, but if I have to call to tell them that I haven’t used up my 1000 minutes, I will be forced to return to another provider. I feel they cut you off early on the $30 plan to squeeze you into buying the $45 unlimited plan so you don’t have to keep calling them doing their homework for them.
We have fought and fought with verizon too..they told us we have the best deal they can offer..we pay 130 for 2 phones from verizon 700 minutes ..with not much of anything..just phone service..and we can go to straight talk..pay 60 doolars month for 2 phones and get 2000 minutes 2000 text..(for both phones that is) and no contracts..It will be well worth paying 350.00 get away from verizon..They told us we dont want loose you as coustomer..well they should make our plan cheaper something people can afford and give us features we want..we are done with verizon too..we have had it..good riddens verizon
I have been with st for going on 2yrs i switched from boost my only complaint is they dont have and nice phone , they should at least make them available the offer the 2 nokia phones but they aren’t all that. i have been trying to get my hands on the samsung touchscreen they had out but i take it its not available anymore whats up with that. but i see peaple can flash some verizon phones to make them work.
It appears that Verizon has caught on to the demand for the straight talk phones as it’s almost impossible to find a qwerty refurbished phone or any good phones thru Verizon (the straight talk phones that end in C). It appears that all the good phones are on AT&T’s network and that doesn’t work for us because we do not get good reception in our area. Only Verizon works great. I can’t afford the contract deals for any of the companies and none of them can come close to straight talks prices. I’m hoping Verizon is working on a plan to offer better, nicer phones thru straight talk. You can’t beat the price for what you get!!
I like the phones Straight Talk has, but they are or will be offering smart phones for the unlimited plan, only.