Looking to start a Cell Phone contract

[Ikith]

So I now have a stable job and I want to get off of my families contract and start building my credit and taking responsibility for my own bills so I'm starting with my cell phone.

I'm currently on Verizon which I love and their customer service is great but the other carriers have attractive phones and decent service as well (In the areas I will be) so I'm stuck

TMO: Has the Nexus One a very attractive Android phone and Cyanogenmod supports it as its main (AKA No port to the Droid).

VZW: Currently on Verizon and I love my phone, service etc and I can transfer off of my contract onto a different VZW contract but this leads me to:

Sprint: The Evo 4g looks attractive as all hell especially with 4g and Sense UI as well as the phones other features.

ATT: Maybe get an iPhone or wait for a cooler android device to come out on ATT... Currently nothing that attracts me here.

Any opinions? NOT LOOKING FOR OMG GET AN IPHONE THEY ARE SO COOL... Honestly the iPhone isn't attractive to me.

[sruon]

Going to be a troll thread.

I'd advice researching which carrier offers the best coverage (& technologies) in your area, then compare them by support and total price.

Verizon might be able to give you specific deals as well since your family is already a client.

All these devices are great so either way... you're not doing any bad deal.

[jmc]

Going to be a troll thread.

I'd advice researching which carrier offers the best coverage (& technologies) in your area, then compare them by support and total price.

Verizon might be able to give you specific deals as well since your family is already a client.

All these devices are great so either way... you're not doing any bad deal.

^^This


You might actually want to float around, and see what you can actually get if your lacking credit.

Sprint might give you a account with no fees, while t-mobile or verizon might charge you $150-$250 just to open a new account.

[Mjd]

What I've had:

Celluar One: Decent coverage in NY. Company phone, also had a pager with them too.

Sprint (and Nextel now I guess): Awesome if you have bad/no credit. Customer service is shit however. Liked them and would consider going back.

Verizon: Great service, good customer phone service, terrible store service. Was able to move my every 2 years up 3 months.

AT&T: GF has it. Gets no service inside some buildings (like our place), good customer service. She has a Blackberry. She's going to VZW when her contract is up (in August).

For your phone, look at EVO 4G (Sprint), Droid (VZW), Droid Incredible (VZW), BBStorm2 (VZW) and of course the iPhone (AT&T). I'm not going to mention the 1,000 other Blackberries cause everyone has the same ones. :3

Go to the store, see if you can get a phone for a week and return it if you don't like it. I think VZW does this, but will charge you for services if you don't sign a contract with them after the week.

[jmc]

Oh, that also reminds me......


Goto the sprint store, and sign up for a sprint account. They have the best return policy of ANY cell phone provider. If you don't like the phone, you can return it within 30 days and get all your money back. Don't even need to give them cash for the minutes/data you used.

Great way to test drive the evo

[Mjd]

Great way to test drive the evo

http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2010/06/09/evo-sales/

[jmc]

http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2010/06/09/evo-sales/

Bestbuy near me had about 10-15 for sale earlier today........... so........... Dunno

[Mjd]

Bestbuy near me had about 10-15 for sale earlier today........... so........... Dunno

¯\(°_o)/¯

[Celeste]

Haha, don't get T-Mobile is all I'll say.

[fishstix]

t-mobile's customer service was horrid the times I had to use it, obviously outsourced to India. With little credit, that might affect what plans/discount off phones you can get, so might have to do some physical shopping around.

[Fhloston]

Haha, don't get T-Mobile is all I'll say.

^this x1000

Go Verizon. Planning to get them when my T-Mobile contract is up. Also because my job gives discounts with them.

[Mafai]

You might wanna see if your company can get you any discounts from those carriers, its not uncommon these days for companies to offer their employees discounts with wireless carriers. My company is currently getting their employees 19% discounts with Verizon, AT&T, and TMobile.

[jmc]

You might wanna see if your company can get you any discounts from those carriers, its not uncommon these days for companies to offer their employees discounts with wireless carriers. My company is currently getting their employees 19% discounts with Verizon, AT&T, and TMobile.

this ^^


Just fully look into the "fine" print on the employee discounts.

I get 25% off at sprint, its just off the base price of my plan so instead of getting 25% off my $180 monthly phone bill, I end up getting 25% off $50 as it won't include the data packages of the Hero/blackberries x2 or added text messages heh

[Furtwangler]

I can't speak for at&t and tmobile, but I know almost all carriers will give you discounts if you work for a corporately owned national chain store most likely, also student and govt discounts are possible. Right now for what I'm doing Sprint knocks off 10-20 bucks a month compared to verizon. so pricing wise, sprint is cheaper

phone-wise, look at the models others have mentioned; the droid, Evo, Incredible, iPhone, etc. see which you like, read all the reviews you can find.

Most importantly ask around for people to see each companies coverage in your area. It doesn't matter how awesome the phone, or price per month is if you get shit service. This is also a nice plug for sprint because of their wonderful try for 30 days policy. I think verizon may have something similar although I'm not sure.

I hopped over to sprint from verizon and I'm not looking back, but whats great for someone isn't necessarily great for someone else.

Interested to hear what you end up doing though.