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Straight Talk Prepaid Cell Phones
Editor Rating
Overview
Straight Talk is a registered trademark of Tracfone, which is owned by America Movil. This company boasts hundreds of millions of subscribers throughout North and South America. Straight Talk is a monthly plan offering, whereas Net10 and Tracfone offer minutes on a pay-as-you-go scale.
Pros: Straight Talk offers a cheap monthly plan which provides ample minutes, data, and messaging limits.
Cons: Customer service carries a poor reputation. There is only one plan offering
Detailed Provider Information
Plans: Straight Talk offers 1,000 minutes, 1,000 text or multimedia messages, 30 MB of data, and unlimited calls to 411 for 30 dollars. They also have a plan which includes unlimited voice, unlimited messaging, 30 MB of data, and unlimited 411 for 45 dollars per month.
Customer Service: Customer service can be reached by a toll-free number or by snail mail.
Credit Check: None
Contract: None
Payment Options: Straight Talk services can be purchased online at WalMart.com or at an authorized retailer using cash or credit.
Text and Picture Messaging: Text and multimedia messages are included in Straight Talk's flat monthly rate.
Data Plans: 30 MB of data is included with the plan.
Downloadables: Ringtones, graphics, games, and more are available for download from Straight Talk.
International Calling: No information is currently available for Straight Talk international calling.
Roaming Charges: There are no roaming charges, because the phone will not work off-network.
Calling Features: Caller ID, voicemail.
Activation Fee: There is no fee to activate the Straight Talk service.
Nationwide Long Distance: Long distance service is included with anytime minutes.
411 Calls: Directory assistance is available at no extra charge with Straight Talk.
Earliest Minute Expiration: The 30 dollar plan expires after 30 days. If the minutes and/or messages are used up before expiration, customers can pay 30 dollars to refill.
911 Calls: 911 calls are available.
Phones: Straight Talk currently offers only three phones through Walmart.com. The company is owned by Tracfone, so more models may become available in the future. These includes two offerings from Motorola and a low-end phone from LG.
Some Available Cell Models:
MOTO W385 MOTORAZR V3a (shown) LG 200CM
Coverage Map: View the Straight Talk coverage map
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Straight Talk
@Me. I had to look that word up because I didn't know what it
5
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Joanna
2009/11/07 |
@Me. I had to look that word up because I didn't know what it was. I am not a shill. If you look back at my posts you'll see I didn't port my number due to other posters complaints about it. A shill would of said "no problem porting my number". I asked questions just like other people. Some of my posts are answers to other people's questions. I did not come on here to argue with people like you. ST is a new service, and just like other people, we all have questions that need answering, so if I can help anyone who's thinking of switching over, because I do have ST service in my hand, than that is what I will do. You and people can think what they want. If the person who owns this website thinks I'm a shill, then ban me from posting. Like I said, I had ATT, I switched, I love ST, and I'm trying to help others. I have no way to prove to you that I am who I am, I'm sorry for that.
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Straight Talk
Here is a link to the Samsung website to read up on the R451.
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Straight Talk
I have found that Google Mobile (http://m.google.com)works great
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Straight Talk
I have found that Google Mobile (http://m.google.com)works great
5
Straight Talk
So far my husband and I love this service as well as our phones!
5
Straight Talk
Got the Samsung R451-C on Halloween and ported my number from
5
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Lomion
2009/11/06 |
Got the Samsung R451-C on Halloween and ported my number from Virgin Mobile. It took about a day for the whole porting process to go through, though it seems there was a hiccup in the system. I don't get text messages from outside the Verizon network unless they send it to xxxyyyzzzz@vtext.com, or reply to a message from me using their similar address. Called CS and they set up an escalated ticket. Like Nikki, I blame Virgin Mobile for that one. CS is WAY better on Straight Talk than Virgin Mobile (better English ^_^). I work in retail electronics, so I talk to pretty much all cell phone CS for some issue or another. While I wouldn't say ST is the BEST, they're definitely better than most so long as you can calmly and clearly explain your situation. They need details about what's wrong to figure out what to fix. Just like if your computer has an error, you can't just yell "Fix it!" and expect anything to get done. If you have any problems, any good Walmart associate from the Connections department (not always an electronics associate, but sometimes) should be able to help you out, or at least call on your behalf. They'll need some of your info (phone serial, cell number, pin, etc.), but you can rest assured that they speak English if you have problems understanding CS. Lastly, I LOVE the coverage area! Verizon is pretty much king where I live, so I get full bars everywhere except in basements and bomb shelters (and at least 2 bars there)!
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Straight Talk
Everything is working great! I ported my number which took over
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Straight Talk
@Joanna - Be quiet! You are starting to sound like a shill.
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Me
2009/11/06 |
@Joanna - Be quiet! You are starting to sound like a shill.
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Straight Talk
I just rang the CS 1 877 number (not the Tracfone number listed
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Straight Talk
humnbird - Page Plus can use ANY verizon phone - what is so difficult
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Straight Talk
so here I have another question. Was checking out the Page Plus
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Straight Talk
Virgin Mobile had horrible customer service. English is their
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Chow
2009/11/05 |
Virgin Mobile had horrible customer service. English is their second language. I have had to file complaints with the BBB to get action taken against them. I wish the CS was better...I would have stayed with them. The reps in customer service keep repeating the same stuff and make no sense. They repeat everything you say to try to figure out what you are saying in English.
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Straight Talk
Me again! I just sent a picture from ST to ATT and it used up
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Straight Talk
I have Virgin Mobile and I was interested in switching to Straight
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Nikki
2009/11/05 |
I have Virgin Mobile and I was interested in switching to Straight Talk. I bought an LG 290c. The phone is lovely. I love the candybar style, but this slider is much nicer than the truer candybar style I saw online. Anyhow, I really like the interface. It's nice to look at and very intuitive. My only issue with Straight Talk was number portability. I tried to activate the phone with my Virgin Mobile number on Tuesday. It was never transferred. So, I called Virgin Mobile today (Thursday) and was first told that their system wasn't working and to wait an hour. I wound up calling back and waiting a total of two hours. After the second wait, I made a third call. By that time their system was working. The person I spoke with called tech support and then told me it would be a four hour wait until my number was ported. So, I waited four hours and nada. I called the customer service line back and was told that my VM pin number was wrong. I know that's not true because I gave her the exact pin number that they had on file again. Also, I logged into my VM account (just to check) and the number I gave them was correct. Funny enough I am blaming this situation on Virgin Mobile. Their port-in/port-out services are lacking (Trust, I know this through experience and had to contact the BBB). Anyhow, I cancelled the port-in without activating the phone. IMO the service is fine. CS was fine. Contrary to what a lot of people said, I could understand all of the CS reps perfectly fine. Their speech was perfectly clear, so perhaps a lot of reviewers need to exercise patience, calm their prejudices, and clean their ears.
I really want to keep my number so I'll probably wind up returning the phone. However, I totally recommend using this service if you don't mind activating it with a new number.
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Straight Talk
My husband ended up taking his phone back to Wal-Mart (he is
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Straight Talk
If anyone is getting Error:Requested content 'tfdevice.home/'
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Straight Talk
Nothing new to say really...just the same stuff thats been said
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steevee
2009/11/05 |
Nothing new to say really...just the same stuff thats been said before. The unlimited minutes and texts are great but I've not been able to access the web since i bought it (about 2 1/2 weeks ago) i've called close to 10 times and keep getting the same run-around, was told once that they'd be sending me a new phone and took my address and some other info, but called back 3 days later just to check if it'd been sent and they told me they had no record that it was supposed to be sent. I asked for a supervisor and while she seemed to be more helpful, i waited the 24-48 hours (again) for her to escalate my ticket and get it fixed, when i called back its like I'd never called... they took the same info ran my thru turning off the phone and resetting the memory and still nothing (same result as the other times obviously) they finally told me (again) that they'd send me a new phone...but something just didn't sit right with me so i call the corporate office with the number someone shared in one of the above posts and the lady was very nice (and i could understand her perfectly!!!) she took my callback number and said she didn't know how long but that she'd call me back today sometime to let me know that the problem is resolved. Hoping that it starts working soon *crosses fingers* ps: the error message i am getting is "Error:Requested content 'tfdevice.home/' cannot be accessed. You do not have access to the site" get the same msg for every site i try to go to...anyone else getting this msg when trying to connect to the browser?
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Straight Talk
I have sent pics from my ST to my ATT, and to my friends with
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Straight Talk
Ok...so I'm thinking about getting one of these phones. Im looking
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Straight Talk
Maybe the complaints on this board represent a small portion
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Straight Talk
OK, just found out something new. I've had the phone five days
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Joanna
2009/11/05 |
OK, just found out something new. I've had the phone five days now, still very happy but..... on my old ATT phone I used text/pic/voice message a lot. The Samsung has menu's for text/pic message, but if you scroll down in the pic one, you can record your voice. I was happy about this until I saw that any pic/voice message you receive (and send) will eat into your data time. This did not happen with ATT. I have $30 plan for this first month, have accessed gmail maybe 2 or 3 times and replied to one email and have received four voice messages and I've used 1826kb. I know that's not much for four days, but majority of that was from the voice message so if you're a fan of that, just know that maybe the unlimited data is the way to go. I don't think this phone has IM, don't know if yahoo mail is working but gmail is. I did activate FB mobile web to update my status, but turned off texts, so don't know if all of FB works but I can change status through cell phone.
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Straight Talk
I am thinking of going with Straight Talk...I don't have a review,
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Straight Talk
yeah don't do it people, bought my phone on halloween and four
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Jake james
2009/11/04 |
yeah don't do it people, bought my phone on halloween and four days later have not been able to activate it. spent at least 5 hours on customer service and have been to wallmart twice. Their c.s. is crap, they keep saying 2-4 hours or 24 hours and if you heard their english you would realize they are both reading the same thing they just can't differenciate between them. I ported my number that ive had for 8 years now I have neither a number or phone. They keep giving me these #'s after spending an hour on the phone with them, now i have five refference #'s. To me straight talk is the dark side of cellular phone networks! -5 STARS-------
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Straight Talk
Just a hint. If you quit Straight Talk, the Razr v3a, Motorola
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Straight Talk
My wife and i got the lg220c and we love our phones we have had
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Straight Talk
I got my phone yesterday. Activation took 5 minutes, and the
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Straight Talk
I came over from Net10. I had an issue wih the Web, but they
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Straight Talk
1-800-876-5753 is in fact the magic number. Finally everything
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Straight Talk
I have previously mentioned that I love this service so far.
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Straight Talk
Looks like that 800 number for TracFone Corporate office is the
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Straight Talk
I'm very happy thus far with the service. We have two of the
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Straight Talk
I have had my phone (Samsung)for 10 days now, not really much
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Straight Talk
works good activation was slow took 4 hours but works only problem
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Straight Talk
I should have mentioned in the previous review that I did not
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Straight Talk
Just my 2 cents worth. I orderd the Samsung R451C and the "all
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Straight Talk
Despite reading so many negative reviews from other customers
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Cameron
2009/11/03 |
Despite reading so many negative reviews from other customers I decided to try the service out anyways. Prior to purchasing this phone (LG290CM) and plan ($30/month) I was using T-Mobile's prepaid sidekick service. I was paying $1 per day for unlimited internet and text messaging plus an additional $0.15 per minute of talk time. Total came out to $70+ some months with like 100 minutes. I registered the phone online and ported my number over. I had no issues and the port finalized in about 5 hours. The site gave clear instructions on how to activate the phone and I followed them exactly with no issues. Turned on the phone, great service. Talk is clear, texts are fast, and internet speed although top notch is tolerable. Obviously this service isn't right for the person who cannot live without mobile internet but come on what do you expect. The time remaining is rather annoying, but oh well, it beats paying twice as much per month for the same service. With t-mobile I had one bar in my house, calls dropped, internet never worked and now, perfect, I can talk, text, browse with no problems. Next month I will reup with the $45 plan simply because I don't have any issues at all. I highly recommend this service to people who genuinely need affordable wireless without a contract not for people with high expectations that no carrier could meet. To those reading these reviews and being scared away, if you follow the instructions given and give the service the benefit of the doubt you will find that this is no worse than issues with any other carrier. Example: T-Mobile just recently had a global outage of their data services that last a week and a half. It took 4 or 5 days of 2+ hour hold times before they finally put a recorded message telling customers of the issue with the explanation we are working on it and no definitive resolution date. Additionally, Verizon over charges for their service, AT&T is a joke, and well the list could go on and on. (I would have given 5 stars but the time remaining message is annoying.)
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Straight Talk
Happy as a clam. Ported mine and my wifes #'s over. Did it
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Straight Talk
Pure crap. Do not buy this thing. While there have been some
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Jim
2009/11/03 |
Pure crap. Do not buy this thing. While there have been some good reports on it I'm seeing more bad and I personally had a bad experience with the whole thing. I'm normally not the type to rant and rave about how horrible something is but this product has ticked me off so bad I'm going to scream it from the rafters. Customer Service is essential regardless of crappy product. I wouldn't have gotten nearly so angered had it not been for the horrible service.
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Straight Talk
I made a mistake as far as the date,it was 10/23/2009, since
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Straight Talk
No stars, I have been trying to port my number from Verizon since
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Cavalucci
2009/11/03 |
No stars, I have been trying to port my number from Verizon since las month, first time I called they guaranteed me and promised me they were going to be able to do it, tahat was Oct 29, 2009 today Im still waiting for them to complete the process, I gave them all my info from my verizon account, based on that they told me 2 to 4 hours for my phone to be active, Verizon released my number to them the same day and today almost 2 weeks later nothing, the whole bunch of dummies have a script set up, everytime I call the say the same stupid stuff, something about calling anither department and the inepts at the other department say I need to wait 2 to 4 more hours, its been to week and these bunch of morons do not do anything to get my line active again.
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Straight Talk
How do you turn off the voice prompt that tell you how many minutes
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Straight Talk
I bought a Samsung yesterday with ST. It looks better in person
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Straight Talk
this is a scam. i had it for 13 days and it stopped working and
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andrew Wilson
2009/11/02 |
this is a scam. i had it for 13 days and it stopped working and it says the serial number is invalid so i cant even get help. and the customer service people are never available. do not buy it. its great for like 2 weeks then the screw you over
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Straight Talk
Went to a Samsung 451 and I come from T-Mobile Sidekick. No,
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Straight Talk
Brought the samsung r451c phone last week. Haven't had any problems
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Netta
2009/11/02 |
Brought the samsung r451c phone last week. Haven't had any problems except I can't access my twitter or yahoo email. I keep getting the http error:502 Bad Gateway :( That's the main reason why I brought the one with the qwerty keypad. Hope they will fix this problem soon
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Straight Talk
I purchase straight talk over the weekend and had no problems
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Straight Talk
I have had this phone for less than a day and I am already regretting
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Brandie
2009/11/02 |
I have had this phone for less than a day and I am already regretting it. I cant get through to customer service ...i did get through to one number wich they said they would transfer me to another person to help me activate my phone...but they hung up on me...anyone else having this problem??
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Straight Talk
Great for voice and text but can't get internet. The LG220C
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John
2009/11/02 |
Great for voice and text but can't get internet. The LG220C was defective (junk?) so I returned it and upgraded to a Motorla W385 as using their customer service was too frustrating . I wish that I could review call records (call logs) from my computer .
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Straight Talk
Yahoo sent a link to my cell to access mail. It did not work
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Straight Talk
BEEN DISCONNECTED ALREADY and have not had the phone service
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Nancy
2009/11/01 |
BEEN DISCONNECTED ALREADY and have not had the phone service for 3 days. Customer Service issued a phone number that is not a valid number for their company. Shut my service off within 12 hrs and didn't even notify me. Also, I can not access the web. I guess my 30 days maybe cut short with this so called good service.
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