My sibling raves about Ting. I am considering it as my current provider is making a billing change I don’t like.
I had Ting years ago, around 2014-18. They were great, but my usage increased, and the pricing made my bill higher than I cared to pay. But I may look at them again. They got bought out by Dish, so I wasn’t sure if the quality of Ting had gone down. Thanks for the info!
I have been using Ting for 7 years and had no increases. In fact, when I called about something a few years ago, the guy said he could cut my monthly a la carte bill of $25 to now about $15. I love it!
Which plan are you on? They seem to have some prepaid plans (Flex plan etc), but also the post-paid plan as they had years ago, based on usage.
I think they called it Legacy or something like that. It appears to cover everything (no more a la carte) and my bills are still around $16 a month. I use the phone more and more these days. I get 5G through their T-Mobile partnership (or whatever it is that allows Ting to use their towers). It’s the best financial move I have ever made.
I have been using T-Mobile for years. Coverage is iffy, highway especially. I’ve been testing Consumer Cellular for abt 4 months. It’s iffy too. I surf more than talk so coverage and speed is imperative.
T-Mobile was better b4 teaming with lousy Sprint. ConCell is nothing to call home about. They use lousy TM and ATT towers. When I have good signal they are great. I require better. 
My sister has Verizon postpaid on an iPhone 4. She had constant service on the highway. Mine are prepaid services running on Motorola G Power 2021. I’m going to try Verizon prepaid next. Ahh, the joys of an unlocked phone. 
Have you considered an MVNO carrier? They run on T-Mobile, ATT, or Verizon, but are cheaper.
Of course this depends on your usage, needs, and geography.
Over the years I have been with Ting (4 years), Republic Wireless (5 years-then it got bought out and is now Boost Infinte), and now I have my main phone on US Mobile (Verizon) and my 2nd emergency/spare phone on Tello (T-Mobile).
I use very little data because I don’t stream stuff. But with these plans you can get more data if you are about to run out.
I currently pay $10/month with US Mobile (talk/text, and 1GB data/month, $2/GB if extra data needed).
On Tello, since it’s a 2nd emergency/spare phone, I have a minimal plan of talk/text and 500 MB data/month (which can be rolled over and accumulate). I pay $6/month.
So my monthly cell phone bill is $16/month, and I have both Verizon and T-Mobile.
I am just too frugal to pay lots of money for a phone plan where I will never use unlimited data!!
I have unlocked Moto phones which are not expensive.
I’ve been very happy with all of the carriers, but changed to a new carrier as my needs or the company’s situation changed.
Geographically, I am on the edge of coverage for all 3 carriers, but I get enough signal to call and send MMS messages most of the time. Fine with me! If I go about 4 blocks away, my signal increases a lot!
Again, if you use lots of data, then go with an unlimited plan, but maybe consider some other carriers than stores of the big 3 carriers.
Just another option to consider–and there are a number of MVNO carriers out there to consider.
How I handle data…
I enable wifi on the phone and connect to my home Internet (Spectrum). The phone uses that when I am home and I am not having to use my data that way. It may be an obvious solution to people or perhaps not. If I was to go on a long roadtrip, I can always turn off wifi so the phone is not constantly looking for a signal and using battery.
If you have an old cellphone around the house that has once been on a network and still has a SIM card in it, then it should still be able to call 911 even without a current plan.
Also, old cellphones with wifi capability can still be useful at home for things like TV remote control. I have both TCL and Roku apps that use the wifi in an old phone to control the TV if I have temporarily misplaced the remote.
VISIBLE DEAL: New Customers Only
Unlimited Service for $20 Monthly for Two Years
I don’t know why anybody uses anything but Tracfones bought at HSN or QVC. You get a new phone every year with lots of data, talking minutes, and messages for less than $100 and NO MONTHLY BILLS. I have been using this for at least 12 years and love the deals and service. If you renew before the year is up, your data and minutes carry over to the next year. The only other expense is I have had to buy 1Gig of data 2 or 3 times over the years for $10. This year was completely free for me because Capital One Shopping paid for the whole thing.
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Fully agree! Had mine for years
We bought two Straight Talk SIM card activation packs from Walmart. The first SIM card activated normally but the second SIM wouldn’t activate. After two (2) full days of calling customer support and having several workers hang up on us when they couldn’t figure our what was wrong we were told to buy another Sim card. We went back to Walmart and insisted that the manager called Straight Talk Customer Service with us. The Walmart manager was also hung up on by customer support and had to call back but she started asking for the customer support Employee ID numbers and writing it all down as she was transferred around. we finally got transferred to the highest level of their support center and that lady was competent enough to resolve the matter but after the phone issue was fixed she refused to say or do anything about the two days of our life wasted and the extra $59 paid that didnt need to be spent in the first place. The Straight Talk Employee Identification Number of the very last person was 516456 and she said she didn’t have a boss or supervisor I could speak with and she wasn’t allowed to transfer the call to corporate since the phone issue was fixed. I was told all i could do was file a complaint with corporate online “which no one reads or responds to” and wait for a response.
After that two day nightmare we went to Metro PCS and the store employee helped us set up lines and activted our phones without waiting on hold or hanging up on us. Best of all, he was there in the room with us so he could see and show us things, he spoke the same language, and did his job in 10 minutes in person instead of FOURTY HOURS over a phone.
DON’T WASTE YOUR $$ WITH STRAIGHT TALK
“ANY” OTHER PHONE SERVICE WILL BE BETTER
Sincerely,
Kirk D. Wilson
-Eugene Oregon customer
P.S. The call centers are in India but the top tier customer support team in Asia somewhere. Newt net is to keep telling everyone to transfer you to the higher support team until their accent changes then ask for help.
P.S.S. Please recognize how long I’ve taken to leave this review making sure that NO ONE BUY STRAIGHT TALK so you realize this could be you angrily ranting on your phone at 2AM if you decide to go with this service.
Do not sign up with Visible cell phone service. They say they are part of Verizon - they are not. $25 a month unlimited data enticed me to join. They sent me a phone without a SIM card which is a real nightmare with everyone wanting 2 step verification (which does little for security and gives the vendor your cell phone number) You can not get live customer service help either online or on the phone. Even the number they gave Visa did not have live service. You just get circled through menus that tell you what you probably already know like how to put a SIM card in. The only way I could get out of my contract was to buy another phone and change my phone number. Visa did get me a refund for the phone without a SIM card. They are advertising heavily so be careful.
US Mobile has some interesting plans.
When I signed up there were SIM cards for Verizon and T-Mobile - you chose the better one.
They are now adding AT&T.
And they have some way of switching between carriers – it’s new and I really haven’t looked closely at it.
I’ve been good with US Mobile. I’m a light data user, but they do have unlimited plans, too.