Obviously I need to investigate these plans!!
I would stick with ATT or Verizon. Sprint can be very spotty with coverage. I agree- staying on family plan usually is the way to go. I would not mess with the shady carriers and pay as you go stuff. In this day and age, reliable cell coverage and data is essential. Call the representatives and get all the options. They are usually pretty good about explaining the plans.
I use a tracfone and I don’t get a monthly bill. It has triple minutes, text, data for life and I only pay to add minutes as needed. I have saved a lot of money on my phone bill this year. Had AT&T for years but will not go back to paying those monthly fees. Very happy with the service and my minutes can also be used to make international calls. Works very well for our family and my dd who is a college student.
@mommdc Thanks for that link - D’s on the Advantage Share plan, and that gophone plan you linked does look cheaper for what she needs.
Totally agree that the prices have gone up significantly. I recently upgraded my iPhone 5 after nearly 4 years to a 6S and couldn’t believe how expensive the phones were!
I know it’s late but watch for phone deals over Thanksgiving weekend. In our experience that’s been when the best deals of the year pop up. This year Verizon had Android phones- Google Pixel and Droids I think - that were $10/month on a payment plan for 24 months… so $240 for the Pixel which had been running $650 and just came out this fall. Think the iPhone was $20/month or so, not quite as good a deal.
I agree with @ClaremontMom , google Fi is just about the best plan stand-alone available for a college student because they are on wifi most everywhere on campus and rarely use much data. Google fit uses Tmobile and Sprint networks domestically, costs $10/Gb + $20 for voice and text, and roams everywhere for the same data $10/Gb rate.
We are very happy with our Tmobile family plan, which costs around $30/line for unlimited data,voice,and text and 10Gb/mo tethering in North America. We travel to Canada frequently, and our students have used the free international roaming feature when ever they travel. It is pretty amazing when your student is texting you and iMessaging photos of glaciers and sea birds in remote Iceland, or having a beer with friends in Berlin without the hassle of getting a local SIM.
The newer plans are around $40/mo after taxes, but include 512K tethering and 256K international data roaming. Our engineering student uses 10+Gb/month mostly because he forgets to enable wifi sometimes when watching Netflix or Amazon. (He uses his laptop for schoolwork) Tmobile supports wifi calling on most phones, which means that phone calls work even in the basement of the library or interior classroom.
Most of the carriers have excellent coverage on every college campus, so not much to worry about unless your child’s college is quite isolated. Whatever you pick, make sure that it has wifi calling.
It was mentioned above. After 2 of my kids started using it, I am considering getting my new phone through Google’s ProjectFi.
My kids both have Republic Wireless.
The older has been on it for over two years and her plan is $10 a month (plus tax and fees) for just unlimited all and texts. Data only on wifi. Hers used the Sprint network. She chose a Moto phone.
The younger just got hers and the plans changed slightly. They now use T Mobile network and are $5 more a month. Her plans costs $15 (plus tax ad fees) for unlimited talk and text, wifi only data. She is thinking about adding 1g of data a month and paying $20 (plus tax and fees). She got a Samsung s6 phone.
They both looked hard at plan options and there wasn’t anything else this affordable for them. I don’t use it because I can afford to pay a bit more for the slightly better reliability of Verizon. My husband takes calls on my phone on weekends/ holidays for work. My kids don’t actually use the phone feature of their phones, so call reliability isn’t a big issue for them.