Suggestions for celly phone?

[Midnight12]

I'll try and make this short no promises.

Have had a pay as you go phone for two years via @t (at&t) After having had it for two months i get a text from @t (the company i bought it from) that texting would cost 10 cents more. ok no big deal cut down on texting. So far its been a good phone...except that in the middle of their pay as you go phone plans thing change, it can be a pay as you go/go phone or pick your plan which is another form of a contract via this phone.
IE for about a few weeks the pay as you go load cards to reload minutes to the phone are GONE from shelves to have the new info printed on them etc. Inconvenient for me....and then earlier this year same thing again. So i keep to the house phone..

AND TODAY I received a text message about how texting will now be a dollar a day starting may 11th. I haven't texted since last month and if i do its sparse. I am rather furious with this as mostly its been up and down with at&t. now i may be fuming over nothing but i'm done. going to go into a contract as i have no choice does anyone recommend a good company?

looking at sprint or verizon as my area has at&t, blue centenial which was bought out by At&t ( I MISS CINGULAR)
OR give me good reasons to stay with at&t? beyond the fact they come up with new charges here and there

[SengaKitty]

Do you have T-Mobile in your area? I use their "Pay as you go" but I pay by the day, meaning $1 a day, free mobile-mobile, free talk time 7pm-7am, txt is 10 cents, and any other calls other than m-m and 7-7 are 10 cents a minute. Easy to load, either with the cards or online, and great coverage.

ETA: Their plans are great too I expect to go to a plan as soon as I have the money.

[draggar]

I think Boost mobile (Nextel (Sprint)) is offering a $50 a month unlimited plan.

Note: double check the iDEN coverage (Nextel - not the former Sprint CDMA network) in your area.

[BlaqueKatt]

cricket and einstein PCS offer totally unlimited talk and text post pay with no contracts-runs $40-$50-I have US Cellular-free incoming calls/text, free nights/weekends and my nights start at 7pm not 9 like everyone else's

[Midnight12]

sweet. thank you! live in lower louisiana and certain things are and are not available. currently researching yet wanted to know "customer ratings" lol
basically from experience what company is better. looking at changing to a contract around june as hubby's contract runs out by then and i can continue using his phone for now until night time. heck only five people call me half the time. heh

will keep these names written down and further research

[Cat]

So far, I'm enjoying my switch to AT&T, and love my Pantech touch...then again, I hate actually talking on the phone, I love txting

I've had lots of problems with Verizon.....it's weird, huh, some people swear by a company that the next person had nothing but headaches with, you would think (want) it'd be easier to find a cell phone

[Kogarashi]

I've had great experiences with Sprint, and one thing I've noticed with our contract (and most contracts vs. pay-as-you-go plans) is that even if policies at the company change, the contract won't change until we make changes to it. Which means we still get special deals we signed up with that aren't available anymore, but if we ever do anything like switch plan types or let the contract expire and sign up again (instead of renewing the contract), then we lose those special deals. Not too shabby overall, though.

And since I was just looking over Sprint's single plans last night with a friend of mine who's switching from a prepaid to a contract plan, I know that only the basic plan (cheapest at $30 before taxes and fees) has nights starting at 9. Other plans include the nights starting at 7, with an option to pay extra for nights starting at 6. So there's that.

Hubby and I don't really bother much with texting, but I believe it's about $.14 - $.20 per message sent if you don't pay the $5/month for the texting service (or have it included in your plan).

[Fenrus]

I've got a plan with Att, and honestly I'm loving it. I was with t-mobile for a while, but they gave me headaches. I had service one day, had nothing the next, was charged for roaming when using my phone in their area, then them denying it...

Wanted an iphone when the 3Gs came out, switched, and never looked back. I've had great luck with Att. I guess the plans are better than their pay as you go.

[tropicsgoddess]

Depending on the state your in, I would suggest Metro PCS. You can get unlimited talking, minutes, text for pretty cheap price. If you don't have it in your area, try Alltel.

[Chanlin]

I would suggest you try out a few services and see what you like best or what works for you.

T-mobile

Tracfone

and Page Plus cellular are the ones I hear talked about quite a bit.

Boost and Metro PCS seem to be quite popular as well.

There is a forum that is dedicated completely to cellular phone discussion that has discussion boards for many many different carriers.

I would suggest checking out

www.howardforums.com and www.prepaidreviews.com if you plan on sticking with prepaid.

The big concern for many prepaid carriers is coverage. Also for the MVNO's find out what company their service is carried through. I know that Metro runs through Sprint. Tacfone runs through both Verizon and AT&T, Boost is through Sprint (formerly Nextel), and Page Plus is through Verizon.

Also keep in mind changing to a carrier other than one that uses GSM will require you to buy a new phone.

[sexiphatchick]

metroPCS....if it's in your area. You just buy the phone, and you get unlimited calling, texting, web, picture messaging.....unlimited everything, for the same price every month ($40 or $50).

[wagegoth]

Everyone I know who has/had Sprint had a terrible experience with the customer service.

I had Pac Bell, which was acquired by SBC, then becoming Cingular, and they became complete dicks, so I went to AT&T, which was then acquired by SBC, but they took AT&T as the company name. They've definitely improved their service, but I'm on a contract and I get a discount through work. I am angry with them but they don't carry as many Nokias. I have a Pantech Matrix and my husband has my old Samsung Blackjack. Both have qwerty keyboards because we text a lot. The kids have basic Nokias, as they can take a heck of a beating.

I have a friend who was on T-Mobile after leaving Sprint, but then they raised the texting charges and other things in way that it was going to raise her monthly rates for multiple phones (she has phones for a couple of kids) by 50%. I don't know which company she moved to.

I've heard decent things about Verizon, but the one problem I have heard is that their excellent coverage really isn't. The service tends to drop out more.

[Kogarashi]

Everyone I know who has/had Sprint had a terrible experience with the customer service.

It would definitely be interesting to do a study of people's experiences with companies. The only problems I've had with Sprint were with the store reps as opposed to the over-the-phone service reps. T-Mobile, on the other hand, a few friends of mine have had nothing but complaints about, and Verizon sounds somewhat iffy on quality based on another friend's feedback. My parents have Cellular One (or whatever owns it now) I think, and like their service.

Your mileage may vary.