texas: regular new life stuff: which cellphone company?

[pantonia 39]

Hello,

this might be a bit of a silly question, but I'd like to get some input from VJ people, since it's been always been helpful.

I entered the country on a k-1 and got married two days ago! For now I hadn't thought of getting an american phone and plan because I haven't need yet, but I got an amazon gift card and so the opportunity to buy a phone is open. This whole phone company and plans and stuff is pretty different from my home country, so I'm a bit confused.

Should I buy a phone that's bound to a company? If so which one is better? My husband and his family all have AT&T which works for them, but since I am starting, I'd like to see if there's anything more convenient in plan prices, coverage, etc.

If I buy an unlocked one, can I just take it to a company and tell them I wanna use it with a plan from them? or put a prepaid sim card for a while and THEN get a plan later on? are the prices of calls/messages/data too abusive if I do prepaid for a while? Until I get "a life of my own" I'm pretty much at home on wifi, so I would mostly use it a few times to be available to receive calls and messages from my husband when I'm out of wifi areas, so I won't be doing much calling myself.

And finally, if I get a plan, what do they need from me? In my country sometimes they ask for proof of income when you get certain plans, which I don't have yet. Is it like that here? Also, in Chile you can get out of a contract any time you want, no punishment, extra charges, anything, but from what I've heard, here you kinda sell your soul to the company for about 2 years, is that correct?

thanks!!

[Ortolan 381]

Your husband can add a second line (a second phone) onto his own plan, which would be less expensive than having your own separate plan. I think they don't care about income, really, as long as he continues to pay his monthly bill. He can ask AT&T if you can purchase your own unlocked phone and just add it to his plan.

For further down the road, having yours and your husband's phones linked together in a plan (that you pay monthly payments for) is good; you can use those bills, that show your name and his name on his plan, as part of your proof of co-mingling of financial activity. So if you do this, save your bills for the phones each month.

Edited March 22, 2016 by Ortolan

[Umka36 781]

Since my wife and I don't use our cell phone a lot, we don't have a monthly cell plan. We got one of those pay per use from AT&T ("Go phone"). We mostly use Wi-Fi at home, so don't have the need to use a data plan. I put in $100, and in a year have not spend it all. That's how very little I use my phone voice/text. You can always change the plan to a monthly plan at any time.

When we bought our phone from AT&T, we had to wait 6 months before they would unlock our phone. If I remember correctly, if you get a monthly plan on your own they will do a credit check.

[lilsweetie 35]

Tmobile pricing is amazing especially if you have a few people on your plan.

We have 6 ppl on our plan and pay $120 per month TOTAL. Including data / talk / text in Canada and Mexico for free. So for 20 bucks a month each ....

EACH line has

• 10gb data
• unlimited talk and text
• unused data can roll over for 12 months
• ability to tether other devices to your phone - so useful to have a hotspot anywhere you go!

You can get a good phone on ebay inexpensively and use it on Tmobile as long as it is GSM unlocked or a Tmobile phone. Couldn't be happier.

[Umka36 781]

I have a few employees who said even though TMobile was cheaper, they ended up switching carrier because of the poor signal reception. I cannot comment further than what they told me, since I've never been with that carrier. Verizon had good coverage, but it was expensive for my needs.

[pantonia 39]

Tmobile pricing is amazing especially if you have a few people on your plan.

We have 6 ppl on our plan and pay $120 per month TOTAL. Including data / talk / text in Canada and Mexico for free. So for 20 bucks a month each ....

EACH line has

• 10gb data
• unlimited talk and text
• unused data can roll over for 12 months
• ability to tether other devices to your phone - so useful to have a hotspot anywhere you go!

You can get a good phone on ebay inexpensively and use it on Tmobile as long as it is GSM unlocked or a Tmobile phone. Couldn't be happier.

oh wow that sounds amazing!! I'll definitely check it out, see about coverage in my area, but it sounds promising! thank you!!!

Since my wife and I don't use our cell phone a lot, we don't have a monthly cell plan. We got one of those pay per use from AT&T ("Go phone"). We mostly use Wi-Fi at home, so don't have the need to use a data plan. I put in $100, and in a year have not spend it all. That's how very little I use my phone voice/text. You can always change the plan to a monthly plan at any time.

When we bought our phone from AT&T, we had to wait 6 months before they would unlock our phone. If I remember correctly, if you get a monthly plan on your own they will do a credit check.

yeah, I think for now I'll just use a pay per use phone and once I have more use for it I'll get a plan! thanks!

[pantonia 39]

Your husband can add a second line (a second phone) onto his own plan, which would be less expensive than having your own separate plan. I think they don't care about income, really, as long as he continues to pay his monthly bill. He can ask AT&T if you can purchase your own unlocked phone and just add it to his plan.

For further down the road, having yours and your husband's phones linked together in a plan (that you pay monthly payments for) is good; you can use those bills, that show your name and his name on his plan, as part of your proof of co-mingling of financial activity. So if you do this, save your bills for the phones each month.

I had thought of that extra perk, having our names in the accounts for proof of co-mingling. Problem is, he has a plan with his whole family and they have offered to add me to it, but I'm not sure yet it is the right fit for me: they all share a pretty low data cap and I use a lot of it and so does one of my husband's brothers. I don't wanna limit my usage after the first week of the month cause the cap has been reached, or be guilty of helping reach it too early. I thought of doing it for a few months, until I get a job and a life outside my apartment and then get my own plan, but I don't think I can just cancel my line that easily once is added to the family plan...

For now I think I will just get a pay per use phone and I'll get a plan later on.

thanks!!

[mallafri76 1,012]

Get a prepaid, that's what I did. You don't need SSN or anything like that for it. Right now T-mobile have an offer so the sim is only $3.99. And yep, in America you actually pay for the sim... They even have prepaid plans if you need a plan rather than pay as you go. Cheapest plan on T-mobile is $35 but maybe it's different from state to state?!

[NikLR 13,234]

I love the free music streaming from Tmobile (most of my old data plan was taken up by music streaming!) And if you have a high enough data plan you can get free SD netflix and hulu streaming too.

[gradtaai 8]

You might look into Lycamobile. I think they use t-mobile system in the states. unlimited US calling and unlimited free calling to many countries (your 5 most international called numbers). Depending on plan you get free txt and data (500mb on 4g LTE). I used to call Thailand, paid $29 (quoted price but only charged me $26?) a month. You get local number, sim is free.