Thinking about getting one of them fancy space gadgets called an Intelegent Distant Phonograph...

[BenRK]

Thinking about getting one of them fancy space gadgets called an Intelegent Distant Phonograph but am weary of the cost and abilities of plans and services proved in the modern age...

Or in other words, "[BLEEP] YOU CELLPHONE COMPANIES!"

So yeah, for the longest time, I've been using a cheapo tracfone as my main source of, well, it was my only cellphone. After a recent calibrating of my monthly income and expenses and stuff, I find that for the right price, I could comfortably afford something better then the cheapo phone I currently own. I feel kind of like an old man when ALL of my co-workers can afford smartphones and stuff and all I can do is this cheap POS. (fyi, I'm the youngest of the group of co-workers I'm around the most)

But that's not the entire story. I'm looking to be less lazy and take on a little bit more responsibility instead of just wasting what money I get all the time. Seriously, it's surprising how much junk I buy and never need. So what better way to remove junk spending then replacing it with something a bit more useful? Really, this year is just me getting into gear about this whole money thing my parents keep bugging me about. LESS JUNK FOOD MORE MONEY IN SAVINGS! Or something.

ANYWAY! I've been looking around, and so far, nothing looks more appealing then a call of Unlimited Everything with Tracfones other service, Straight Talk. I don't mind if I can't use the phone where my parents live, though it certainly would be nice. AT&T is terrible around here. But looking up stuff online, it looks like they're really REALLY picky about what "data" really means. I can understand no tethering, but no YouTube? I've heard some horror stories...

Looking at the big 4's prepaid plans just makes me feel I should give up even trying. Nothing is better then Straight Talks $45ish a month in terms of price, but if I'm not actually allowed to do anything with that...

Anyway, looking for some help, some suggestions, and so on. I would LIKE a smartphone, I would LIKE to be able to use it for YouTube when I'm at work or something, I would LIKE to use it for surfing the web and chatting and stuff when I'm on a long trip or away from home without Wi-Fi, and I would LIKE it to not cost me an arm and a leg every month. Oh, and I would like not to be in a contract... I hate contracts...

Oh, forgot. North west USA. That's the general area where I'm at.

 

[PiadasLituanas]

Heh, intelligent distant phonograph.

tl;dr though, sorry.

But that was funny.

 

[BORTZ]

Are in a place where you can be reached by a smaller company like Virgin or boost?

 

[BenRK]

Holy crap I forgot about this topic.

Lets wrap up this story then, shall we? So, I tried getting my family to go on a family plan, but that didn't work out because it would wind up having everyone pay more. So after some mulling about and figuring all I would really use the data for is chatting and light web surfing, I went with an Android phone from Straight Talk.

Of course, it helped that I learned there is an Android phone that Straight Talk offers that uses Verizon's towers, so in theory it should work where my parents live and then some and so on.

Good night everyone!