mpaiton

Hey Everyone,

I'm moving to New York in early August and with Visas and shipping sorted we're now beginning to think about the smaller aspects of life.

One of the big challenges I keep coming up against is finding a decent mobile phone contract, how have other expats handled getting phone contracts while having no US credit rating?

And also do Sim only contracts exist and are there any tips on finding great deals?

Cheers,
Matt

civilservant

You won't get one right off the boat, since you won't exist on the credit rating companies systems. After a couple of months you will, with a large (think $400) deposit. Or you can PAYG.

Most companies offer a pre-pay PAYG with auto-pay that offers free minutes etc.

I paid $100 for an iPhone 4 on PAYG on Verizon. For that I pay $45 a month (auto-pay, so although I pay in advance it feels like a contract payment) and receive unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and 1 Gig of data. That's enough for me, and it's far more reasonable than some of the $80 'smartphone' contracts.

Suexpat

I got a contract straight away with AT&T although I did have to pay a $500 deposit which was paid back to me.

Guindalf

Depending on where you live, there is more than likely no reason to tie yourself into a contract these days. PAYG is most certainly the way to go, IMO.

Walmart offers a plan with unlimited everything for $40/Mo and others offer the same or similar, with no contract and, with the cheap phone subsidies disappearing, you'll be paying full price for the hardware anyway!

Many PAYG companies allow you to BYOD, as long as it's compliant with their network and many can be found online at reduced cost, either new or used.

If you MUST have a contract, then you're likely to be tied into paying more for service with no option to trade up or get out of it for two years without penalty.

Bob

Loads of threads on the PAYG, discussing the merits of the different kinds. Worth a search.

Welcome to BE though

hungryhorace

Some guidance:

1. ATT and VZW are the main players - by a mile. VZW is overpriced for what they offer. Ignore their 'LTE everywhere' claims. It's marketing nonsense. Whilst they do have the widest LTE coverage, they certainly don't have the best speeds - regardless of LTE coverage.

2. ATT's HSPA+ network (VZW went straight from 3G to LTE, missing out HSPA+ / UTMS) is often faster than VZW's LTE network.

3. T-Mobile are making huge inroads into the cellular market here since John Legere took over. Be aware that outside of metro areas their coverage can be pretty patchy data wise (I saw 2G for the first time in 10 years when using their network). However, they are committed to migrating their 2G network to LTE by 2015.

4. In NYC T-Mobile is *very* competitive network wise. Both ATT and VZW suffer hugely from slow down and network issues.

5. ATT's prepaid is called 'GoPhone' and is very competitive - mainly due to losing customers to T-Mobile's offerings. Their $60 2.5GB LTE / unlimited txt / calls is a good choice, though you cannot roam on this plan either domestically or nationally outside of Mexico or Canada. If you use them renew through callingmart.com - $54 all in including taxes.

6. You may also wish to consider Cricket (formerly AIO wireless) though be aware they are a budget prepaid offering, but they are backed by the ATT network which is vast. They route everything through a proxy server which results in high latency (300ms here in Boston) though on the West Coast it's <80ms in my experience.

SIM only doesn't exist here, not in the same way you and I know it existing in the UK. The closest alternative offered here is 'prepaid', which is the equivalent to PAYG.

I wish SIM only contracts were offered, but as you'll soon come to experience, the US cellular market is essentially a duopoly.

IRJ

The carriers such as Verizon, AT&T are very expensive. It works out less expensive if you buy you own phone then take one of the prepaid (monthly) services such as:|
Straight Talk (Walmart sells it)
or
Cricket (owned by AT&T)
or
GoSmart (T-Mobile
Personally I think that the new Cricket provides good coverage and great prices.

The HowardForums are a useful resource for services:
HowardForums: Your Mobile Phone Community & Resource - HowardForums Home

hungryhorace

Myself, personally, I would avoid Straight Talk with a barge pole. They are truly awful. You are FAR better off with Cricket. I don't see any benefit in going with GoSmart when you don't get access to T-Mobile's domestic roaming, which is absolutely vital.

+1 to the Howard Forums.

scrubbedexpat027

I'm on a $35 a month prepaid deal with Virgin Mobile (300mins, unlimited data & texts). It was the cheapest I could find. Coverage isn't great everywhere but a good deal if the coverage is ok in your area.

hungryhorace

Virgin (Sprint MVNO) are beyond awful. Cricket $40 ($35 with autopay) plan wins everytime.

notshipman

Yeah basically you need to buy a device outright as a newbie and it's better because subsidies for contract smart phones are crap with huge monthly tariffs!

Plenty of mvno options that use the AT&T or t mobile network e.g red mobile for att and spot mobile for t mobile etc their line rentals tend be lower than going with carrier direct. Bit like using tesco lyca giffgaff etc in the uk

hungryhorace

What is Red Mobile? Why would anyone go with an ATT MVNO when they don't allow access to ATT's LTE network (with the exception of Straight Talk), and offer no where near the value of Cricket or the quality & speed of GoPhone?

IRJ

The go with Cricket as it is now 100% owned by AT&T and the prices are excellent.

notshipman

Not everyone has a 4G phone to take advantage of LTE also RED has 4G data options if you want that. My colleague has it and uses with no problem. Take your pick.

hungryhorace

If they're going to be buying a phone over here, it will have LTE connectivity. If they don't have an LTE enabled phone, they should obtain one given (Vo)LTE is the current best way to ensure good coverage.