Virgin Mobile Peeps...tell me about it....

[Darcy Baldwin]

I'm finally getting to go to the big girl club and get a smart phone of my very own

I'd like to go with Virgin Mobile because of the price, and wondered what you thought of their service, if you've used them!

[Traci Reed]

I don't have it so I googled it. From this article

The data is throttled to 3G speeds after you hit a 2.5GB cap

Throttled data would be a huge problem for me. Patrick and I sit at home 75% of the time and use our WiFi instead of data, but we STILL go over 2.5G of data a month so that would not be nice.

[kim517]

We've had Virgin Mobile for almost 2 years. We switched to it during a time when price was a really big deal to us and we needed to save money however we could. We've never had issues with the service. It's runs on the same network as another major carrier anyway. We don't have issues with needing a ton of data, but clearly if what Traci says is true, that's something to think about if that would affect you.

We also love that you can switch plans (up or down) whenever you want without paying a fee. So it's flexible where we only pay for what we're really needing at the time.

The heart of the issue to me is this... are you willing to buy your phone up front? With Virgin Mobile you don't get the deep discount on the phones because they are not making you sign a contract. We do not need the latest and greatest phone and don't have to have a new phone every year. So we're fine with buying our own. When I did the math over the last two years, we've saved almost $1000.

We're actually going through this decision again since our phones are finally starting to die on us and we need to buy new ones. I think we're going to stick with them. Hope that helped

[Darcy Baldwin]

Traci, but I don't see me using the phone that much, so I'm not sure I'll have an issue with the cap, especially since I really won't be using it from home at all, and only see me doing email, FB and an occasional photo upload.

Thanks, Kim. I don't care about the phone, so much, as long as I get one with a decent camera We live in a major metroplitan area, so coverage won't be an issue here, either. I appreciate your opinion.

[mariewilcox]

I was in the same boat as Kim just in the past 6 months and needed to cut back on non-essentials, which included our cell phones. I went with this company instead of Virgin but it's the same exact idea.

I bought the cheaper phones for both of us (Galaxy S2 and I see they have another option added since we got ours) and we both have the "tall" plan for $18.95 each a month. We live in an urban area and haven't had any service issues at all. There are some places that don't come in well when we travel into the mountains and wilderness but no service we've ever had comes in at those places anyway (including Verizon and AT&T). Parts of Maine are quite isolated!

I've never gone over the 500 mb limit, but I don't stream movies or music when I'm not on wifi and I only use it for FB, checking bank accounts on the road, email, etc. Even Cheyanne hasn't gone over her data limit and she does the occasional YouTube when we're on long trips.

We're happy with it and went from paying $140 a month to less than $40 a month - I can live with that

[Traci Reed]

Originally Posted by Darcy Baldwin

Traci, but I don't see me using the phone that much, so I'm not sure I'll have an issue with the cap, especially since I really won't be using it from home at all, and only see me doing email, FB and an occasional photo upload.

At home, it runs off WiFi instead of data so that's not an issue. I know you don't have a smartphone now so you may not realize how convenient it is to be able to google a restaurant when out, or use maps to get you somewhere you need directions to, or buy movie tickets on Fandango...or maybe run pandora when you go for a walk or..or..or...LOL

It all adds up

[NeverendingJen]

I use my phone out and about all the time and don't even use 2 GB per month, so I think you;d be fine.

[rach3975]

Congrats on the new phone! You're going to love it.

If you can, talk to people in your neighborhood to see how their coverage is. When I first got a smartphone, 2.5 years ago, I went with Cricket because of the price. I figured it would be fine since we're also in a major metropolitan area (suburb of DC) and the website maps showed coverage. In reality, there were many places my phone couldn't get a signal but my DH's (work-provided phone through Verizon) could. My coverage was spotty in the DC area and nearly non-existent outside it.

Last summer I finally switched to Sprint because the kids and I were taking a road trip without DH, and we weren't comfortable with the idea of me having no phone along the way. I've had much better coverage with Sprint. I considered going with T-Mobile, but I couldn't find anyone locally who had it and I was afraid to invest the money in a phone and have the same thing happen again. There are good prepaid services out there, but I think it has more to do with the coverage in your area than their general reputation.

[glumirk]

One of DH's hobbies is to look at cell phones and how we can have the best of everything with the lowest possible price. He really wants to use Republic Wireless next. We use our smartphones on wifi at home all the time, and not many minutes out and about.

He did use a Virgin Mobile prepaid plan for awhile. Decent service, but he was underwhelmed by the phone.


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