Whats the deal with phone plans?

[igotnewsuper8systemWRONG!]

$30 a month for $150 of calls and text? Is this stuff good? Any reason why I should go for one company over another? Are these jerks gonna bust up my asshole if I start using GPS or something even though I thought it was free? Why would anyone bother buying a phone when they can just get one for free on a plan? Trying to buy a phone does my ****ing head in, these guys are all vague as hell.

ps. 2 year contracts can eat shit and die, I got no idea whether I want this phone in 2 years, what if I leave the country?

[fishfishmonkeyhat]

Honestly, nothing confuses me more in this world than how ****ing phone plans are supposed to work.

My sister rang up to change her plan because (as she told them) she needed to save some money every month, and the women she was talking to suggested doing something else than what she wanted to do to save even more money.

As she was putting in the final details, she mentioned it would now only cost x amount, x amount plus the extra $20 for the thingy.

"So wait, this is going to cost more then it does now?!"

"..."

"Yeah lets go back and do what I originally wanted too, thanks."

[igotnewsuper8systemWRONG!]

if you want to mainly text and call TPG/iPrimus have the cheapest plans at around $13 for $150.

Anything data related and you are looking to get raped.

Thinking TPG now because you don't have to be on a contract, but then I need to buy a phone...

[Vindik8or]

Remember one thing: they set the 'value' of the calls so essentially that part is meaningless. Find out the actual rates per minute under the plan and use that to figure out how many minutes you get in the plan and then divide that across the total price paid to get the actual price per minute and then compare across plans. It's tedious but that's how to directly compare through all the bullshit.

[Jickle]

I pay $34 a month. I can make quite a few calls ($150 worth, charged at 35c connection fee + 40c per 30 seconds...or maybe it's the other way round), talk to anyone on 3 for free (200 minutes worth a month), have 50MB of 'data' to use on my phone (internet browsing) and got the phone included for free (although that means I'd have to pay my way out if I'd cancelled within the 2 year contract). It's a decent plan.

[Jickle]

How far does 50mb stretch?

I just use it almost entirely on text-heavy sites, so it stretches pretty far.

[igotnewsuper8systemWRONG!]

Remember one thing: they set the 'value' of the calls so essentially that part is meaningless. Find out the actual rates per minute under the plan and use that to figure out how many minutes you get in the plan and then divide that across the total price paid to get the actual price per minute and then compare across plans. It's tedious but that's how to directly compare through all the bullshit.

Isn't there a website that does this for me?

[Vindik8or]

Isn't there a website that does this for me?

http://www.calculateforfree.com/