No-data prepaid plan recommendations for my old iPhone
June 10, 2015 3:20 PM   Subscribe

I would like my kids to use my old iPhone 4s. I don't need a data plan, since they can use the home Wi-Fi. They won't be making a lot of calls or sending many texts so I just need a plan that allows me to buy minutes rather than pay every month. My phone might still be locked to AT&T but I should be eligible to unlock it if necessary. The AT&T network has the best coverage in my area.
posted by Dragonness to Computers & Internet (12 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I use T-Mobile; I end up paying ~$10/month, but I don't make a lot of calls. You can look up their rates and coverage. They've been great; a SIM card (which will work for your AT&T GSM phone) was ~$20, if I remember correctly.

Have I comparison shopped? Not really. This works fine for me, and I pay less than anyone I know.
posted by amtho at 3:29 PM on June 10, 2015 [1 favorite]


For my kids, we let them send iMessages and let them use my phonies they ever need to call (but they're 6 and 9). At the point they're a little older, I'm going to do the "add a device" thing on our AT&T account, which I think is $10/month additional. (Our account already is one where we;ve got a big bucket of data shared out among devices, I think.)
posted by leahwrenn at 4:09 PM on June 10, 2015


Response by poster: Thanks for the suggestions. I do need a phone service for them, and I'm on Straight Talk myself which doesn't have a family plan to my knowledge.
posted by Dragonness at 4:21 PM on June 10, 2015


AT&T owns Cricket, which might work for you.
posted by The Elusive Architeuthis at 4:48 PM on June 10, 2015


Best answer: God this sounds like the ideal situation for something like ting. Too bad it's an AT&T phone.

I don't know of any plans that work with GSM phones that are load-as-you-use like that. Maybe the $30 straight talk plan? that's the cheapest i can think of that would be compatible, since they provide at&t sims.

I bet if you request an unlock on that phone through AT&T, it'll be unlocked with a day or two with no hassle.

Tmobile used to have a reverse of this plan, which was just all minutes with 100mb of data similar to the straight talk plan. I can't find it right now though.

Wish i had something better to offer, but ting is really the only MVNO i know of that works how you describe.
posted by emptythought at 5:00 PM on June 10, 2015


T-mobile has a $3/month Pay As You Go plan that includes 30 minutes of talk or 30 text messages. Scroll halfway down this page for the $35 unlimited talk and text plan emptythought referred to.
posted by bradf at 5:29 PM on June 10, 2015 [1 favorite]


Also, there's a $10/month option from H2O Wireless. They're an AT&T MVNO, so you'd be on the same network. I used them for "burner" SIMs when I visited the US a few years ago, and they worked ok, but I haven't looked into them lately.
posted by bradf at 5:33 PM on June 10, 2015


You could move both you and them onto a Ting plan. You can disable data usage for individual lines. It's $6 per line plus usage, which is very reasonable. I went from Straight Talk to them and my bill for just me is down to an average of about $30/mo and the customer service is miles and miles better. (That's probably an understatement. My one attempt to call Straight Talk about something was a nightmare where I didn't have data for three days. My one call to Ting, I got a real person right away and was off the phone in five minutes with a fix.)

The GSM network is, I'm pretty sure, T-mobile, not AT&T, but still. They do at least definitely support the iPhone 4S.

It is $6/mo for the extra line, but there's something to be said for the fact that if that line NEEDS more minutes at any given time the cost doesn't suddenly skyrocket, and if you happen to be doing something where that device having data would be useful, you can just enable it on the line and disable it afterwards.

Depends very much on your usage pattern, but I figured it was close enough to what you were looking at to be worth considering.
posted by Sequence at 5:41 PM on June 10, 2015


Black Wireless and PTel both have good pay as you go plans. Black is at AT+T MVNO, PTel is a TMobile MVNO. Either one should work on your phone once it's unlocked.
posted by still_wears_a_hat at 6:52 PM on June 10, 2015


I was told by AT&T that I couldn't get a prepaid plan in St. Louis, MO but then later when I was in San Francisco, they did it for me no problem. So ask your local AT&T and know that they should be able to do it.
posted by saul wright at 8:32 PM on June 10, 2015


Response by poster: I'm going to research all your answers and thank you so much for all your suggestions. I am favouriting one for now for the unlock link. The phone is now unlocked! Woo-hoo! It was done in minutes too.
posted by Dragonness at 4:39 PM on June 11, 2015


Response by poster: I did end up getting ting, thanks so much!
posted by Dragonness at 9:19 PM on July 11, 2015


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