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Hello…my name is Pat and I have a dumb phone. (Boy am I glad that embarrassing confession is over.) Yes, ladies an old Samsung Rugby flip phone! This baby has served me well. I’m only on my 3rd phone and all of them have been freebies from ATT..DH and son have each had several more phones than me because they keep losing them or breaking them and then they would get the new phone that the plan provided. But I have decided it’s probably time to enter the 21st century and upgrade to a smartphone. AT&T is our server and has been for the last 20+ years. I’ve been checking their website and with some of the phones that interest me I would be paying anywhere between $20-40 extra a month with a 30 month contract depending on the phone. I could be paying over 900 for the phone! Then I went to Amazon and a few other places and checked out phone prices for unlocked phones and I can get them a lot cheaper. So what I’m asking is what is the real advantage of buying from your server? How many of you have bought a phone from other sources and had your server activate them? Do they charge much for activation of a phone that wasn’t purchased through them? I realize that I wouldn't have any warranty with the server. Have any of you bought refurbished phones? Yes…dumb Pat has a dumb phone and she is basically the Queen of Cheap.

Congratulations on entering the modern world! I think we ought to have a true confessions area on this forum so we could all confess to things like that.

First, I don't think there is any advantage in buying from your provider. I read an article a while back about how they take the cost of the phone and then divide it into the number of months for the contract you have to sign and then add it to the per month fee, plus they add that few bucks they like up front. EXCEPT, if you keep the phone after the two-year or whatever contact, they keep charging you for a phone you have already paid for!!!!!!!!!!

Then to get a new phone after the contract, you have to signup for another contract and get hooked again, so it is a rip-off. And I don't think you get any warranty anyway.

Call AT&T and maybe Verizon and tell them you have an old iphone your husband or an imaginary brother/friend/sister does not use and find out what it would cost to have it activated, versus buying one of their new phone. Ask also about signing up without a contract, etc. using this old "imaginary" phone. Get it in writing, etc. Ask if there are any limitations on what phones can be activated.

Also, I don't know how AT&T works, but one of my past students who worked for Verizon told me to make sure if I wanted to buy anything or even get anything activated to go to one of their corporate stores. There are stores that have Verizon in big letters on their buildings, but they are really not owned by Verizon, even though they sell only Verizon products. Corporate stores are more knowledgeable and less likely to push product sales on you. And DON'T go to the stores inside places like Walmart or Best Buy, as they are interested only in sales, as well.

Here are a couple of interesting articles. Can't guarantee the accuracy of these articles, but when my current contract expires, I am definitely going to do some more research.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/kill-the-wi ... 1424807865

https://www.reddit.com/r/Frugal/comment ... _buying_a/

http://lifehacker.com/every-carriers-co ... 1726343203

My brother always buys his and wifes phones on ebay (unlocked Samsung) and he has not had any problems with it. I bought my last phone on ebay and it worked fine. I am with Verizon and no problems with the phone.
I also bought my last Canon camera on ebay for $50.00 which is cheaper than Walmart!
Good luck with whatever you choose to do and welcome to the forum!

My name is Martha and I can just barely answer my new-to-me smart phone. lol I only change phones when the one I have will not work any more because they have changed the system some way. I had a flip phone that I liked so much(and I didn't want to learn something new) that when it broke I bought a used one on-line for about $15. It has worked fine until they have decided to change the systems again. I kept getting texts from AT&T that my phone would not work after December 31, 2016. I had started having problems getting a signal in some places so I decided to go ahead and change phones.

One of my sons recently changed from my AT&T account to Google. Don't ask me anything about a Google because I don't know about that. Anyway, he had his old phone that had been on my account. He had bought it outright a couple of years ago. We were going to just switch sim cards but the sim card in my old phone was too big. I went into the local AT&T store last week and told them I wanted to switch my service to my son's phone. The lady just ask for my information and put a sim card in the phone and I was good to go. Unless I get some charge on my bill it didn't cost me anything.

Last year my younger son broke his phone. I didn't think it was that old and it should have been under warrantee. When we went in the smart ass that waited on us said he couldn't find the information on the phone but for $50 he could just get another phone. When I got my bill he had financed $500 on my account. I went in and complained and you know that didn't do any good. I told the manager that I would never buy another phone from AT&T. We found the paperwork on the broken phone and it was still under warrantee. All we had to do was take it across the street and they sent it off and we got a new phone. He better keep up with that phone because the next time he brakes his phone he's going to need it.

Harold needs a new phone too so while I was in the store I looked at the new phones. Harold needs a flip phone because he would never learn how to work a smart phone and needs something he can put in his pocket. There were only 2 flip phones. They want you the pay the tax up front and finance about $250 on your account. Well that's not going to happen. I didn't really look a lot but from what I saw I can buy one on line for about $35 to $40. Between now and December I am going to order Harold a phone online. If they won't activate it I will just take him off the account and get him one of the AARP phones.

I'll look and see if I can find the company I ordered my last phone from.

Martha

Hey Pat.....there are a lot of us out here with non-smart phones. I got a phone with a slide out keyboard a couple of years ago because my DIL texts all the time when she needs to contact while she is in a meeting and I couldn't deal with touching the abc key three times just to get a c...lol so got the keyboard phone. Now I could be wrong but I think Verizon charges a $30 activation fee for any new phone whether you bought it through them or not so be sure to ask a lot of questions about phone activation. You used to get "a new phone (cheap one) every two years" and then your contract renewed for two more years. I think most of the phone companies are getting away from contracts for specified periods altogether now. You have to keep a sharp eye out for new deals that might serve you better because they do not contact existing customers about better deals (like additional gigabytes for free)....you have to contact them.

Once you get it, just get a hold of any teenager to have them show you how to use all the features.

Which reminds me. I was having problems with my newer jetpack (gives me internet through Verizon). These things cost about $500 new from Verizon or require a two-year contract, or at least used to require that!! I bought one on eBay that was listed as "almost new" for something like $60, but then got my old one working again with a new SIM card. I keep the eBay jetpack as a backup. And, not too long ago, the battery was going on my old jetpack, so I pulled it out and switched batteries. Bet it would have cost me at least $60 through a Verizon store! If my older jetpack ever dies, I will just take this one in and get it activated for a lot less than buying one from Verizon.

So if you want internet service through cell service, don't hesitate to use eBay or Amazon to get a mobile hotspot. And, Martha, I'll bet you went into one of their retailer stores, not a corporate store. That was my mistake two years ago when I got talked into a new phone and hidden expenses. Never again.

I just bought my latest phone unlocked for AT&T on Amazon. I did a lot of research and LOVE my new phone. I don't think it takes pictures as good as my Samsung did, but that could also be operator error I never thought the Samsung did that well, either. Anyway, I'm very happy with my ASUS - and I have no problems with it - it is made for AT&T. And I refused to pay through the nose for any phone. I still think it was more than I wanted to pay - but that's because I was used to paying nothing - although the "nothings" required me to be locked in for periods of time. So now, no lock in- There would have been no advantage to take their phones at their costs. And I got rid of having a seaparate hot spot a long time ago - my phone IS my hot spot, and this phone is continuing that tradition.

..
I, too, recently entered the 21st century and bought a "smart phone"...

It's a Tracfone, cost $30 to purchase, uses AT&T network, and my minimum bill - voice, text, data - is $7 per month.
I added an additional card - $10 for 1,000 texts. Has triple time (like buy a 120 minute card and receive 360 minutes).
Since I hardly ever have need to use a cell phone, $7/month is worth it to me for emergencies.
And now I'm a big girl and can text...

..

If you own your own phone, Tracfone can be a good deal as they ride on the ATT or Verizon networks. One of the Bosses at work bought his phone off Amazon or ebay and got the sim card from Tracfone. Tracfone has list of phone compatible with their network on their website. He buys his plan buy the year for like $120 talk, text unlimited data.

My name is Melissa and I've used Verizion for 20 years. I have two phones with them. I have had Verizon since I found driving all over God's green creation that they have or had the best service. When my 2 years was up on my phones I went into the store and they reduced my bill by $25 per phone since their contracts were up. Also need to check with them from time to time if they have new plans at better prices or if the data prices have dropped. I once doubled my data for the same price.

Bottom lines is we have portable computers which have phone apps on them. These little computers cost around $600-$800 and unless they financed them most people could not afford a "new phone". Like the printer people, they have figured out the real money is in the data plans. So they are starting to have people pay for the phone outright and offer bigger data plans at better deals.

We use Samsung phones at work for driver's logs, I prefer the Droids and my daughter prefers her iPhones. That's just personal choice.

Unlocking a phone (able to use on any network) use to be illegal but it no longer is. Personally, I like to deal with people face to face.

I bought an Alcatrel from Tracfone -- the brand is popular in Europe though not well-known here. I've had several phones through Tracfone over the years, and I've found that as long as I stick with 3G I get service almost everywhere. I got my first one years ago, when I couldn't get service in Manhattan/Long Island with my old phone -- I was just disgusted about that. When the last one died, I specifically wanted two things - the slightly larger screen and the Tracfone 'triple minutes' designation. I paid about $100 for the phone (can't remember exactly). I buy a 365-day service card for about $100, and they add three times the minutes shown on the card to my account. Unused minutes roll over when you buy the new card.

It wouldn't work well if you talk on the phone a lot, but it's perfect for me.

Okay, I’m getting more confused than ever. I’ve been looking through ebay for a used phone. I absolutely refuse to pay more than $150 for a phone and I don’t care if it has all the bells and whistles or is the latest and greatest. I know that I have to have one that is AT&T compatible or whatever you call it. But when it says a phone is unlocked does that mean it can be used with any server? Also so many say that the SIMS card is not included. Do you have the buy one from your server? Hey ladies….I’ve always just gotten the free phones that ATT provided….I really feel stupid about this.

Your current phone should have a sim card you can move to the new one. You need a phone that is unlocked for the AT&T network... which is not the same as Verizon.

You can get a new unlocked phone under $150. I paid a tad over, but they are out there on Amazon.

Pat, AT&T uses the GSM network. A friend bought a basic Blu and is very happy with it. You'd like the price. BLU Advance 5.0 - Unlocked Dual Sim Smartphone - US GSM - Black https://www.amazon.com/dp/B018IZ0SWI/re ... yxb0Z1Q9RG

I'm (probably) wrong, but I think the SIM cards just give you more storage space. Also, if your current phone has a SIM card, and it doesn't fit into a new phone, the carrier stores have a way to transfer all of your data (phone numbers, pics, etc) from one phone to the next.
The last phone I bought (Samsung), AT&T also transferred 500+ songs on my phone (even tho they are not supposed to ~ copyright stuff).