We are currently Verizon wireless customers and we are ready to replace our phones. We did a comparison check with Verizon’s new plans and it looks like our cost will go up as they no longer will provide a subsidized phone. We also have a “corporate” discount and I don’t know if they will continue to honor that so it may go up even more. We noticed Cricket seems to be affordable for a family 4G plan but we would have to purchase our own phones. A big financial hit at the onset, but it seems to be ok in the long run. We need to replace three phones, ouch! We have our youngest D on a two year plan with Verizon, the rest of us are expired. Not sure how that would work. Maybe we can leave her on it or pay the termination fee.
I would like to know from anyone who has switched over, how easy it was to switch over to Cricket. It seems you just plug in the Sim card and go. We are looking at two Samsungs 6 and one Iphone 6, replacing 2 Samsungs 4S and Iphone 5 (some keys not working properly otherwise, would keep for another year). Can we port our number over? Thank you in advance.
I hadn’t heard of Cricket wireless until I saw this thread. In the past, when I’ve considered leaving Verizon, I didn’t because they had the best coverage by far. I just looked up Cricket and they claim near-complete coverage over the eastern half of the US (my personal area of interest). Is it possible that a new carrier could have such complete coverage so quickly?
NYMomof2. Coverage is the same reason, I stayed with Verizon. They are owned by AT&T and part of their network. I also like that you can have international texting inlcuded, which is a plus as my D studies abroad.
I know nothing about Cricket. Just suggesting you check out Consumer Cellular. Also on the ATT network. We are very happy with them. https://www.consumercellular.com/
We ported over 5 numbers maybe 10 or so months ago and have been pleased with service…and low cost. Service has been very dependable with no problems. Not sure now if you can port numbers over phone or internet yourself now…we had Cricket dealer set up phones originally in local shop. Ask them to waive goofy fees for setting up…they’ll probably work with you and waive or reduce any fees they hit you up with initially. You should be able to just put Cricket sim in your unlocked or AT&T previously used gsm phones.
It may not be necessary to replace the phones I understand that SOME Verizon phones’ SIM can be set for GSM networks such as AT&T and T-Mobile. Don’t know if such hybrid phones are effective or easy to use on the GSM platform.
You should peruse some customer (former customer, usually) comments about Cricket. Like any phone service there are people of whom are apparently annoyed at their experience with Cricket’s service. And keep in mind that there are alternatives to Cricket. MVNOs that use AT&T’s network are: