Virgin Mobile/Boost Mobile

[jester3681]

Anyone out there using Virgin Mobile or Boost Mobile? Virgin looks cheaper, but both are the same concept. Thoughts, experiences? Our AT&T plan is up in December and all the big dogs are fucking me on my discount now, so I'm looking at the little guys.

[blue-yamaR6s]

I have Virgin Mobile. Have had it a while now probably 1-1/2 years. It's a great cell phone carrier where there is service. Have to admit, it runs on the Sprint network so coverage can be sparse. You have to check to see if coverage is where you work and live and travel. Can be a pain if you don't have coverage where you frequent. I like the price. I get a lot of bang for the buck compared to what i had with Verizon. I have excellent coverage at home, all the bars (cell tower within a mile). Coverage seems to be the best way to gauge it. No contract plan is a plus with all the extras but check the coverage maps.

[jester3681]

I checked coverage maps, and it looks like everywhere I travel has service, but there are some spotty areas on the way. But destinations are covered.

[TSB67]

I have had Virgin for several years. Basically what blue said. Sprint network, no roaming. All my travels in and around Ohio have been pretty well covered. Cities and freeways are solid. I can only recall one time where I had to backtrack toward the freeway to get a signal when I was looking for some place in the sticks near Spencer,OH.

Can't beat Android for $25/mo, nice to have a work phone for emergency backup though.

[jester3681]

Yeah, looks like both Boost and Virgin are on the Sprint Network. Boost gets you more, but up front it's more expensive. It goes down $5/mo every 6 months though, so it ends up cheaper for more.

[serpentracer]

just make sure the phone you get isn't a wimax 4g phone. sprint is in the process converting to 4g LTE and a wimax phone will not work with it.

I came really close to making this mistake a few weeks ago.

[Scruit]

I have a Boost Mobile phone and I got on board while they still did a pure pay-as-you-go service with no monthly charges.

Boost recently announced they are dropping iDEN support so any Motorola phone beginning with i (i290, i296, i335 etc) will quit working in June/July 2013. I asked them if I could switch over to CDMA phones on my current plan and they said "maybe". I asked if the CDMA phones allow 3rd party apps to see the GPS chip on the phone (I had heard Boost chose to block that feature to force you to use their own software) then said; "maybe". I asked if I could switch back to iDEN if CDMA blocked GPS - they said no.

[Scruit]

None of the prepay providers do a pure pay-as-you-go any more. Everyone charges monthly service fees of about $50.

[jblosser]

I bought Jr. a Virgin phone last Christmas, no problems. He "had" to have a slider, so got him the LG Optimus slider, Android phone.

Put my Amazon App Store account on it, so any app I have on my phone (or tablet) can also go on his. 3 for the price of 1! :trophy:

400 talk minutes, unlimited text and data - $35/month plus $2.something for tax. No "$50/month" crap that Scruit's talking about.

Once they flip to 4g I'll look at the plans, upgrade Jr., see how it works, and possibly move my own phone.

[Scruit]

400 talk minutes, unlimited text and data - $35/month plus $2.something for tax. No "$50/month" crap that Scruit's talking about.

Ready again: "None of the prepay providers do a pure pay-as-you-go any more. Everyone charges monthly service fees of about $50.

"

Is that a pay-as-you-go plan or a plan with monthly service fees?

$35? $50? same difference - it is no pay as you go. I have 3 boost accounts that I pay no service fees at all for because I have grandfathered pay-as-you-go plans.

[jblosser]

not really sure what you're talking about - $35 is not = $50.

when I started the account, I paid $35 for the 1st month.

every month I pay $35 (plus $2 and change in taxes). that would be "prepay" or "pay-as-you-go" in my book, as I'm paying for service not yet used (pre-paying), and I can quit at any time, so it's "pay as you go".

Maybe you and I are talking about the same thing but using different terms?

I paid nothing to start the account, only the first month's charge.

[Scruit]

not really sure what you're talking about - $35 is not = $50.

when I started the account, I paid $35 for the 1st month.

every month I pay $35 (plus $2 and change in taxes). that would be "prepay" or "pay-as-you-go" in my book, as I'm paying for service not yet used (pre-paying), and I can quit at any time, so it's "pay as you go".

Maybe you and I are talking about the same thing but using different terms?

I paid nothing to start the account, only the first month's charge.

If I don't use the phone at all, I pay $0 that month.

If you don't use your phone at all, you still pay $35 for the month.

That's the difference.

(Although I just saw BoostMobile.com still lists a pay-as-you-go plan? Confused now, I thought that went away.)

Here is where it went away: http://forums.instamapper.com/viewtopic.php?id=2701

And now it is back: http://www.boostmobile.com/shop/plans/pay-as-you-go/

Edited November 24, 2012 by Scruit

[serpentracer]

damn I never even heard of that kind of plan. the pay as you go thing was always explained to me as being you simply have no contract, and you simply buy a air card top off thingy each time you needed to refill your mins. and once your mins run out you have X amount of time before your phone number was given to someone else. I think it was 30 days.

virgin mobile is hands down the cheapest phone carrier out. unlimited plans start at $35 a month. and that's a data plan for smart phones. but like cricket you have to pay full retail for the phone. more initial start up cost but you save 10 fold that amount over the long term with them. I honestly can't see why people feel the urge/need to pay $100-120 a month for a phone.

Edited November 25, 2012 by serpentracer

[Scruit]

damn I never even heard of that kind of plan. the pay as you go thing was always explained to me as being you simply have no contract, and you simply buy a air card top off thingy each time you needed to refill your mins. and once your mins run out you have X amount of time before your phone number was given to someone else. I think it was 30 days.

virgin mobile is hands down the cheapest phone carrier out. unlimited plans start at $35 a month. and that's a data plan for smart phones. but like cricket you have to pay full retail for the phone. more initial start up cost but you save 10 fold that amount over the long term with them. I honestly can't see why people feel the urge/need to pay $100-120 a month for a phone.

With Boost you can buy a phone off eBay and activate it. Can you activate a used Virgin phone for new service?

How does that affect the total cost over 2 years?

I use the boost service for GPS theft recovery devices in my cars/bike. $35/mo/vehicle service is not worth it to me. With boost I currently pay about $10/mo/vehicle although when they shut down iDen service in 6mo Boost will no longer work with my trackers. T-Mobile can do service (with contract) for $21/mo/vehicle, which is about as expensive as I think is worth it.

[swingset]

My wife and I have Virgin phones, $35 a month plans which is great. No contract, good service most places I go. Not Verizon-good, but suitable for my needs.

If you insist on having latest/greatest phones, it's not a great deal but we both have good android phones. Best way to get a phone cheap is Craigslist...you can often find like new Virgin phones for $50-100. I have a Moto Triumph and she has an LG something or other...once either was Rooted and CM7 installed they've been flawless.

Then with the $35 a month you're going to save a lot of money the first year over a contract carrier even if the phone was free.

[Scruit]

If you get an iPhone 4 from Verizon (the only phone Virgin and Verizon have in common) and get a 2Gb data / unlimited talk/text plan for $100/mo - 2 years later you'll have spent $2400.

If you get an iPhone 4 from Virgin and the $35 monthly "unlimited data" plan (2.5Gb data at 4G, then you get throttled down to 3G for the rest of the month) with 300 minutes of talk time - 2 years later you'll have spent $1,189 - but this plan is not equivalent to the Verizon plan... so...

If you get the iPhone 4 from Virgin and pay the $55 "unlimited" data plan you're still limited to 2.5Gb of 4G then the rest is 3G (Verizon limits you to 2 then bills for extra). Unlimited talk minutes. After 2 years you'll have spent about $1,700.

So yeah, Virgin is much cheaper is you don't mind the older technology phones.

But then if you don't mind older technology phones, get a dumb phone from Boost on pure pay as you go. Phone is $50, only pay for what you use, so you can wind up paying as little as $130 for 2 years if you make no phone calls. If you are like me who made 61 minutes of phone calls last month at 20c/minute (current rate for new customers) you'd pay $342 for those two years.

Edited November 25, 2012 by Scruit

[swingset]

If you get an iPhone 4 from Verizon (the only phone Virgin and Verizon have in common) and get a 2Gb data / unlimited talk/text plan for $100/mo - 2 years later you'll have spent $2400.

If you get an iPhone 4 from Virgin and the $35 monthly "unlimited data" plan (2.5Gb data at 4G, then you get throttled down to 3G for the rest of the month) with 300 minutes of talk time - 2 years later you'll have spent $1,189 - but this plan is not equivalent to the Verizon plan... so...

If you get the iPhone 4 from Virgin and pay the $55 "unlimited" data plan you're still limited to 2.5Gb of 4G then the rest is 3G (Verizon limits you to 2 then bills for extra). Unlimited talk minutes. After 2 years you'll have spent about $1,700.

Get a gently used for Virgin Android for >$100, the $35 plan and after 2 years you've spent less than $1,000 and you still had a good smart phone that will do everything an Iphone will do....in fact if you're savvy enough to install a new ROM it will do things your Iphone can't do.