Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

driver100

henryn said:

snakeweasel said:

Well I finally pulled the trigger and upgraded my phone to a Samsung S21 since my carrier gave me a lot for my dinosaur of a phone. Current phone is a 5 year old S7 and the battery is dying a slow death and would barley make it through the day without needing a recharge. Anyway it's only upping my bill by $5/month for 24 months. Its being shipped to me and should arrive in the next 48 hours.

Being the smart gentleman that you are, I'm sure you realize that you are paying a LOT more than that for your new phone. The long term contracts lock you in to a rate that is much much higher than what you can get with a prepaid phone plan.

Oh geez, don't tell snakeweasel there was a cheaper way to buy a phone! He won't be able to sleep at night!

fintail

La Soufriere is well known for pyroclastic flows, it's a trait of Caribbean volcanoes in general.

I bet a jet could outrun one

snakeweasel said:

There is no good way to outrun a pyroclastic flow, those can hit speeds of up to 300 MPH. But most boats cannot come close to the typical speed of a pyroclastic flow. However that didn't look like a pyroclastic flow.

snakeweasel

henryn said:

snakeweasel said:

Well I finally pulled the trigger and upgraded my phone to a Samsung S21 since my carrier gave me a lot for my dinosaur of a phone. Current phone is a 5 year old S7 and the battery is dying a slow death and would barley make it through the day without needing a recharge. Anyway it's only upping my bill by $5/month for 24 months. Its being shipped to me and should arrive in the next 48 hours.

Being the smart gentleman that you are, I'm sure you realize that you are paying a LOT more than that for your new phone. The long term contracts lock you in to a rate that is much much higher than what you can get with a prepaid phone plan.

Not really, I do use a lot of data and prepaid plans don't help me in that area. Sure if I just look at talk and text I could save myself a lot of money but when you add on the amount of data I use prepaid doesn't help me at all.

snakeweasel

driver100 said:

henryn said:

snakeweasel said:

Well I finally pulled the trigger and upgraded my phone to a Samsung S21 since my carrier gave me a lot for my dinosaur of a phone. Current phone is a 5 year old S7 and the battery is dying a slow death and would barley make it through the day without needing a recharge. Anyway it's only upping my bill by $5/month for 24 months. Its being shipped to me and should arrive in the next 48 hours.

Being the smart gentleman that you are, I'm sure you realize that you are paying a LOT more than that for your new phone. The long term contracts lock you in to a rate that is much much higher than what you can get with a prepaid phone plan.

Oh geez, don't tell snakeweasel there was a cheaper way to buy a phone! He won't be able to sleep at night!

Do we know each other?

stickguy

we switched to xfiniti mobile about a year and a half ago (from Verizon). Way cheaper, and same service since they use the Verizon network.

we both got new phones (whatever was current, I think an 11) and are paying for those monthly, along with unlimited calls/text and I think 3 gigs shared data. All in, including tax and fees, we pay $75/month. And at least $40 of that is the cost of the phones, and those will be paid off in December.

tjc78

We use a ton of data (30-50gb) so our bill is high with AT&T. We also have three financed phones (2 - 11 Max and 1 12 Max). Pay to play unfortunately.

kyfdx

tjc78 said:

We use a ton of data (30-50gb) so our bill is high with AT&T. We also have three financed phones (2 - 11 Max and 1 12 Max). Pay to play unfortunately.

AT&T
Three lines, only one phone still being paid for
35 GB service
$150/mo + $25 for the one phone (just two payments left)

We (wife and me) generally get 4-5 years out of our phones. My son trades out of his iPhone all of the time, but that's through Apple, so I don't see that bill.

abacomike

stickguy said:

we switched to xfiniti mobile about a year and a half ago (from Verizon). Way cheaper, and same service since they use the Verizon network.

we both got new phones (whatever was current, I think an 11) and are paying for those monthly, along with unlimited calls/text and I think 3 gigs shared data. All in, including tax and fees, we pay $75/month. And at least $40 of that is the cost of the phones, and those will be paid off in December.

I went with Xfinity mobile about 2 years ago - 1 gig of data a month - everything else is unlimited - $13.53 a month, includes tax and fees. If I go over 1 gig of data (which I never have), it’s $12.00 for each additional gig. Since I am at malls and stores that provide WiFi most of the time and am home after 1:30 PM where I have my own WiFi, I don’t use more than 100-200 mega bites a month.

This rate is offered to xfinity customers only.

abacomike

Waiting for call from service to go and pick up my car this morning. Been in service for 9 days. Before I take it home, I will check out everything including radio and Sirius/XM since that is what they have been working on most of the time. Also I will check on exterior damage just in case they were careless with the car.

snakeweasel

stickguy said:

we switched to xfiniti mobile about a year and a half ago (from Verizon). Way cheaper, and same service since they use the Verizon network.

we both got new phones (whatever was current, I think an 11) and are paying for those monthly, along with unlimited calls/text and I think 3 gigs shared data. All in, including tax and fees, we pay $75/month. And at least $40 of that is the cost of the phones, and those will be paid off in December.

Many years ago I was using a prepaid Tracphone for business reasons, just talk and text. It worked out to be about $10/month and maybe $30 for the phone (very basic phone, limited minutes and text over 90 days and use it or lose it). Now looking at Tracphones website I see I can get prepaid service for $30 with unlimited talk and text and 3 gigs a month with unlimited carryover. According to Xfinity two lines with unlimited across the board is $80/month excluding taxes. With what I have now I will be now be paying around $95/month including the price of the new phone and taxes.

tjc78

abacomike said:

stickguy said:

we switched to xfiniti mobile about a year and a half ago (from Verizon). Way cheaper, and same service since they use the Verizon network.

we both got new phones (whatever was current, I think an 11) and are paying for those monthly, along with unlimited calls/text and I think 3 gigs shared data. All in, including tax and fees, we pay $75/month. And at least $40 of that is the cost of the phones, and those will be paid off in December.

I went with Xfinity mobile about 2 years ago - 1 gig of data a month - everything else is unlimited - $13.53 a month, includes tax and fees. If I go over 1 gig of data (which I never have), it’s $12.00 for each additional gig. Since I am at malls and stores that provide WiFi most of the time and am home after 1:30 PM where I have my own WiFi, I don’t use more than 100-200 mega bites a month.

This rate is offered to xfinity customers only.

Mike... you probably know this but Xfinity hotspots and mall WiFi is basically asking to have your credentials for websites skimmed and possibly identity theft.

A few bucks a month is NEVER worth using public WiFi. Don’t do it everyone. You are much safer on your cellular network. If you need to use a laptop or IPad use your phone’s hotspot.

If you must use public WiFi disable your email from push notifications so it’s not logged in and don’t dare open and login to any banking apps.

imidazol97

https://www.tracfone.com/shop/plans

For $199 I'm thinking of going with one of the 1-year "card" plans which has unlimited talk and text and includes 12 GB of data. My wife goes through texts the way some talk on the phone all the time while driving... Any talk, text, data I currently have on phone is available after the 1 year of unlimited talk/text.

I bought Samsung J7 phones for $75 a few years back on amazon directly from tracfone. New. Verizon service on the phones. Available to be unlocked after 1 year if I want to take them elsewhere. They welcome transferring phones and phone numbers --bring your own phone, BYOP.

Tracfone data is available for $10 per GB, $8 if purchased as an add on when purchasing $5 for 1000 texts. A year's service time for 365 days can be added for $49. These show up as offers after clicking to purchase any a la cart item (at bottom of page)

Part of the 1-year plan attractiveness is not having to back every several weeks to add texts for me or my wife's phone. If she had more data, she's use more data while we're driving. I always remind her when we're not on WIFI that she's using data.

All additional purchases can be done on the phone, but I prefer logging into my account on a PC that I scour to keep clean.

tjc78

kyfdx said:

tjc78 said:

We use a ton of data (30-50gb) so our bill is high with AT&T. We also have three financed phones (2 - 11 Max and 1 12 Max). Pay to play unfortunately.

AT&T
Three lines, only one phone still being paid for
35 GB service
$150/mo + $25 for the one phone (just two payments left)

We (wife and me) generally get 4-5 years out of our phones. My son trades out of his iPhone all of the time, but that's through Apple, so I don't see that bill.

We are on the unlimited plus or whatever they call it. With three phones financed and insured it’s about $300.

We also get a free premium service that I never remember to sign up for (Pandora plus, etc)

snakeweasel

abacomike said:

stickguy said:

we switched to xfiniti mobile about a year and a half ago (from Verizon). Way cheaper, and same service since they use the Verizon network.

we both got new phones (whatever was current, I think an 11) and are paying for those monthly, along with unlimited calls/text and I think 3 gigs shared data. All in, including tax and fees, we pay $75/month. And at least $40 of that is the cost of the phones, and those will be paid off in December.

I went with Xfinity mobile about 2 years ago - 1 gig of data a month - everything else is unlimited - $13.53 a month, includes tax and fees. If I go over 1 gig of data (which I never have), it’s $12.00 for each additional gig. Since I am at malls and stores that provide WiFi most of the time and am home after 1:30 PM where I have my own WiFi, I don’t use more than 100-200 mega bites a month.

This rate is offered to xfinity customers only.

I really would avoid any WIFI that isn't secure like at the mall or stores. The risk of hacking or exposing yourself to nefarious attacks is to great. The only WIFI I use is at my house.

driver100

Sorry about changing the topic from phones to the bolt in the tire on Mrs D's GLK.
We drove it into the service garage.....you drive up and the door opens and you drive right in.
Carlos has been with them for over 20 years......he came over. Pried the bolt out of the tread.
He said it was through the tire and it was leaking......it could probably be fixed with a patch.
They will call later today when it is done or if there is a problem.
OK, back to discussing cell phones.............

snakeweasel

OK back to cell phones, this was my first cell phone back in the back in the early 90's.

jmonroe1

driver100 said:

Sorry about changing the topic from phones to the bolt in the tire on Mrs D's GLK.
We drove it into the service garage.....you drive up and the door opens and you drive right in.
Carlos has been with them for over 20 years......he came over. Pried the bolt out of the tread.
He said it was through the tire and it was leaking......it could probably be fixed with a patch.
They will call later today when it is done or if there is a problem.
OK, back to discussing cell phones.............

C’mon man, did you really think that friction was holding that bolt in there?

Glad we can get back to cell phones now. Phone plans make more sense.

jmonroe

oldfarmer50

snakeweasel said:

stickguy said:

we switched to xfiniti mobile about a year and a half ago (from Verizon). Way cheaper, and same service since they use the Verizon network.

we both got new phones (whatever was current, I think an 11) and are paying for those monthly, along with unlimited calls/text and I think 3 gigs shared data. All in, including tax and fees, we pay $75/month. And at least $40 of that is the cost of the phones, and those will be paid off in December.

Many years ago I was using a prepaid Tracphone for business reasons, just talk and text. It worked out to be about $10/month and maybe $30 for the phone (very basic phone, limited minutes and text over 90 days and use it or lose it). Now looking at Tracphones website I see I can get prepaid service for $30 with unlimited talk and text and 3 gigs a month with unlimited carryover. According to Xfinity two lines with unlimited across the board is $80/month excluding taxes. With what I have now I will be now be paying around $95/month including the price of the new phone and taxes.

My Trac phone costs me $6 a month for talk and text. I only have to buy more minutes for days as I never run out of minutes. I believe it has other functions like access to the internet but I never use them so I’d be wasting my money buying something more advanced.

tjc78

snakeweasel said:

OK back to cell phones, this was my first cell phone back in the back in the early 90's.

I had one similar to this around 1994 or so.



This was my favorite phone though. So small and convenient.

sda

abacomike said:

Waiting for call from service to go and pick up my car this morning. Been in service for 9 days. Before I take it home, I will check out everything including radio and Sirius/XM since that is what they have been working on most of the time. Also I will check on exterior damage just in case they were careless with the car.

Also check the interior for scratches and scuffs, grease tracked in.

driver100

oldfarmer50 said:

snakeweasel said:

stickguy said:

we switched to xfiniti mobile about a year and a half ago (from Verizon). Way cheaper, and same service since they use the Verizon network.

we both got new phones (whatever was current, I think an 11) and are paying for those monthly, along with unlimited calls/text and I think 3 gigs shared data. All in, including tax and fees, we pay $75/month. And at least $40 of that is the cost of the phones, and those will be paid off in December.

Many years ago I was using a prepaid Tracphone for business reasons, just talk and text. It worked out to be about $10/month and maybe $30 for the phone (very basic phone, limited minutes and text over 90 days and use it or lose it). Now looking at Tracphones website I see I can get prepaid service for $30 with unlimited talk and text and 3 gigs a month with unlimited carryover. According to Xfinity two lines with unlimited across the board is $80/month excluding taxes. With what I have now I will be now be paying around $95/month including the price of the new phone and taxes.

My Trac phone costs me $6 a month for talk and text. I only have to buy more minutes for days as I never run out of minutes. I believe it has other functions like access to the internet but I never use them so I’d be wasting my money buying something more advanced.

Me too......I make 4 or 5 calls a month to say I might be late coming home for lunch or something. Or I am at the drug store do you need something....but that is rare as my phone stays in the car 99.9% of the time.
Oldfarmer, I can use my phone for internet if wi-fi is available, but I can't be bothered. Whatever happened to actually talking to people? I think the art of conversation is dying and will disappear by the next generation.

stickguy

What, you want to call JMonroe 20 times a day instead of posting here? His wife might get suspicious!

snakeweasel

tjc78 said:

snakeweasel said:

OK back to cell phones, this was my first cell phone back in the back in the early 90's.

I had one similar to this around 1994 or so.



This was my favorite phone though. So small and convenient.

I had a Razr too, great phone.

tjc78

driver100 said:

oldfarmer50 said:

snakeweasel said:

stickguy said:

we switched to xfiniti mobile about a year and a half ago (from Verizon). Way cheaper, and same service since they use the Verizon network.

we both got new phones (whatever was current, I think an 11) and are paying for those monthly, along with unlimited calls/text and I think 3 gigs shared data. All in, including tax and fees, we pay $75/month. And at least $40 of that is the cost of the phones, and those will be paid off in December.

Many years ago I was using a prepaid Tracphone for business reasons, just talk and text. It worked out to be about $10/month and maybe $30 for the phone (very basic phone, limited minutes and text over 90 days and use it or lose it). Now looking at Tracphones website I see I can get prepaid service for $30 with unlimited talk and text and 3 gigs a month with unlimited carryover. According to Xfinity two lines with unlimited across the board is $80/month excluding taxes. With what I have now I will be now be paying around $95/month including the price of the new phone and taxes.

My Trac phone costs me $6 a month for talk and text. I only have to buy more minutes for days as I never run out of minutes. I believe it has other functions like access to the internet but I never use them so I’d be wasting my money buying something more advanced.

Me too......I make 4 or 5 calls a month to say I might be late coming home for lunch or something. Or I am at the drug store do you need something....but that is rare as my phone stays in the car 99.9% of the time.
Oldfarmer, I can use my phone for internet if wi-fi is available, but I can't be bothered. Whatever happened to actually talking to people? I think the art of conversation is dying and will disappear by the next generation.

Wait you don’t do the forums on your phone? How do you pay bills, and shop? A computer? That’s so 2005!

stickguy

I can’t forum on anything smaller than an iPad. Only use apps on the phone and occasionally look up something on the internet.

bwia

We have the Consumer Cellular post-paid plan with two lines, unlimited talk and text and 3 gigs of data for $40 plus $9.20 in fees and taxes for a total of $49.20. We purchased our phones and plan at Target Stores, their primary partner (me thinks?). Consumer Cellular runs on the AT&T network so service is great both domestic and international, although I use for free WhatsApp for international messaging. My wife has the Samsung J7 (2018) and I have a Motorola G Power which has a massive 5,000 mAh battery that delivers up to 3 days of battery life, plus 10W rapid charging capability. The Moto G is as an excellent phone but perhaps too many bells and whistles which confuses my aging brain, so sometimes I switch back to my old Samsung J7 2017.

By the way, Consumer Cellular has been rated by J.D. Powers and others having the best customer service for several years running and I agree; but their in-store (Target) tech service is unremarkable.

tjc78

stickguy said:

I can’t forum on anything smaller than an iPad. Only use apps on the phone and occasionally look up something on the internet.

I have a pad to but use it less and less. I swear I do everything on my phone.

I even used DocuSign on documents when I bought the house, although that was only a handful. I did have to breakout the laptop for most of that.

What drives me nuts is my personal phone is a 12 Max and my work phone is a standard size 8. That’s a little too small.

ab348

tjc78 said:

What drives me nuts is my personal phone is a 12 Max and my work phone is a standard size 8. That’s a little too small.

That's because you're trying to do everything on your phone.

The first cell phone I remember was this one that our department's Minister (think Cabinet Secretary in USA parlance) insisted we buy for him when they first became available in the '80s. I'm sure he impressed his Cabinet colleagues when he plopped this on the Cabinet table to make a call.

bwia

fintail said:

Water is probably the best way to outrun a pyroclastic flow if one is into that kind of thing - they should recall what happened to St. Pierre Martinique (just up the street) in 1902, same type of eruption.

bwia said:

After two weeks since La Soufrière in St. Vincent first eruption it suddenly exploded again today.
These fools try to Outrun an active volcano in today. Apparently they made it. Watch this short and dramatic video

Yes, The 1902 Mont Pelée volcanic eruption in Martinique has been the most destructive volcano in the world where 30,000+ souls perished. In fact, it has been the most destructive volcano since 1900. It is reported that one person survived, a prisoner in an underground cell. Many people fled Martinique to neighboring islands where people were down on their knees praying to God because they believed it was the end of the world. Day turned into night. And temperatures dropped to freezing levels as ash blanketed the islands landscape where people thought they had experienced snow for the first time.

The next day a vessel was dispatched from Dominica since there was no communication since the undersea cable was severed. It was reported that the purported rescuers from Dominica stole the gold and precious jewels the Martinicans were carrying when they were stuck like concrete statutes in pyroclastic flows. (This account is cribbed from a conservation with a retired Boston University History Professor)

carnaught

@bwia, I agree that after having Consumer Cellular, their price and the customer service was excellent. Their services offer either a TMobile or ATT sim card for their respectable cell tower usage. My question though is, with their ATT, if your phones are capable, do you have 5G service?

Now that Mrs Carnaught and I have iPhone 12’s and are 5G capable, we have the shared TMobile plan with unlimited everything, and 5G, for $55+ fees. This is only available to “mature” adults of 55 or older.

snakeweasel

ab348 said:

tjc78 said:

What drives me nuts is my personal phone is a 12 Max and my work phone is a standard size 8. That’s a little too small.

That's because you're trying to do everything on your phone.

The first cell phone I remember was this one that our department's Minister (think Cabinet Secretary in USA parlance) insisted we buy for him when they first became available in the '80s. I'm sure he impressed his Cabinet colleagues when he plopped this on the Cabinet table to make a call.

They had cell phones long before that.

fintail

I remember I was really interested in that story when i was a kid, probably a function of effectively living in the shadow of St. Helens (there was ash on the ground in eastern WA for many years after 1980).

IIRC, in the days leading up to the cataclysm, the local authorities in Martinique also downplayed the danger, and encouraged people to remain, if not prevented an exodus.

bwia said:

Yes, The 1902 Mont Pelée volcanic eruption in Martinique has been the most destructive volcano in the world where 30,000+ souls perished. In fact, it has been the most destructive volcano since 1900. It is reported that one person survived, a prisoner in an underground cell. Many people fled Martinique to neighboring islands where people were down on their knees praying to God because they believed it was the end of the world. Day turned into night. And temperatures dropped to freezing levels as ash blanketed the islands landscape where people thought they had experienced snow for the first time.

The next day a vessel was dispatched from Dominica since there was no communication since the undersea cable was severed. It was reported that the purported rescuers from Dominica stole the gold and precious jewels the Martinicans were carrying when they were stuck like concrete statutes in pyroclastic flows. (This account is cribbed from a conservation with a retired Boston University History Professor)

fintail

I didn't get into it until around 2000, my first was one of these:



I worked for a telecom, so I was able to upgrade every 6 months or so for awhile. Never had a RAZR, but I think I had almost everything else of the mid-late oughts era.

tjc78 said:

I had one similar to this around 1994 or so.
This was my favorite phone though. So small and convenient.

abacomike

sda said:

abacomike said:

Waiting for call from service to go and pick up my car this morning. Been in service for 9 days. Before I take it home, I will check out everything including radio and Sirius/XM since that is what they have been working on most of the time. Also I will check on exterior damage just in case they were careless with the car.

Also check the interior for scratches and scuffs, grease tracked in.

Got my car back. I checked exterior and interior and all AOK! Still has that leathery new car smell - we all live for that aroma.

Car was detailed and waxed - beautiful job. Now I wait for the part to arrive in mid May. It seems that the manufacturer of the radio and communications header has proprietary rights over the system and won’t share the coding sequences with Genesis engineers. That is why a whole new radio-audio-Bluetooth-call dialer must be installed to correct SOS and Genesis Connective Services malfunctions.

Other than those 2 minor bugs, car is perfect in almost every conceivable way. That’s why I refused a new car replacement - nothing in inventory within 700 miles that I would accept. Car has 500 miles on the odometer after 1 month of ownership.

If the new radio header and system does not solve the glitch, they will either replace the car at that time (3 weeks) and compensate me for 3 monthly loan payments ($3100) or buy the car back including taxes and fees + the compensation ($3100+). The ball is in their court now.

graphicguy

@tjc78 ….I concur….it’s NEVER a good idea to use ANY public WiFi….at malls, at airports, even when I was car shopping and I was checking on pricing, I wouldn’t use the car dealer’s WiFI. I used Cellular Data. Public places offering WiFi is as much a boon to scammers (who are just invisibly waiting for you to log on) as well as unsuspecting users….I don’t care what security measures you take.

On top of that, public WiFi is also known to be loaded with malware.

carnaught

graphicguy said:

@tjc78 ….I concur….it’s NEVER a good idea to use ANY public WiFi….at malls, at airports, even when I was car shopping and I was checking on pricing, I wouldn’t use the car dealer’s WiFI. I used Cellular Data. Public places offering WiFi is as much a boon to scammers (who are just invisibly waiting for you to log on) as well as unsuspecting users….I don’t care what security measures you take.

On top of that, public WiFi is also known to be loaded with malware.

But, would probably be okay if you are on a VPN, no?

henryn

My original point was, anytime you think you are getting a good / great price on a new high end phone, whether Apple or Samsung or Pixel or whatever, you really aren’t. They subsidize the cost of the phone by locking you in to a long term contract at a higher cost than prepaid.

Now if you’re going to be using the postpaid plan from AT&T or Verizon or whomever anyway, then you might as well let them subsidize the phone. In the bad old days, it was nice having a Verizon account so when things went wrong you could just walk in to any Verizon store and get help. But you know things don’t go wrong with cell phones anymore, or in my experience it is very rare and can almost always be fixed with a factory reset.

I used Mint Mobile for 3 years, T-Mobile service, 3 gigs per month (more than I need), and a yearly payment of $180 plus sales tax. This year I went to Red Pocket, $240 plus sales tax yearly. 8 gigs of data, and your choice of Verizon, AT&T, or T-Mobile. I am currently on Verizon towers, and here around Houston I notice no real difference coming from T-Mobile. Whenever I infrequently go out to the boonies, Verizon is much better.

Both Mint Mobile and Red Pocket do not have stores. They offer a limited amount of help online, but I have never needed help from either, so why should I pay a LOT more money to have help available?

I have heard some very good things about Xfinity, if I were on their cable service I would probably use their cell phone plan like @abacomike. I almost jumped to the new Verizon eat-all-you-want plan (Visible) for $25 a month, but I read too many complaints in the forums and decided to hold off on that. Anyone here using Visible?

And if there’s anyone left who doesn’t know it, you should never buy the latest greatest phone. Buy last year’s model, brand new, for half price. Unless you’re an Apple fan, their phones do not depreciate apparently.

driver100

tjc78 said:

driver100 said:

oldfarmer50 said:

snakeweasel said:

stickguy said:

we switched to xfiniti mobile about a year and a half ago (from Verizon). Way cheaper, and same service since they use the Verizon network.

we both got new phones (whatever was current, I think an 11) and are paying for those monthly, along with unlimited calls/text and I think 3 gigs shared data. All in, including tax and fees, we pay $75/month. And at least $40 of that is the cost of the phones, and those will be paid off in December.

Many years ago I was using a prepaid Tracphone for business reasons, just talk and text. It worked out to be about $10/month and maybe $30 for the phone (very basic phone, limited minutes and text over 90 days and use it or lose it). Now looking at Tracphones website I see I can get prepaid service for $30 with unlimited talk and text and 3 gigs a month with unlimited carryover. According to Xfinity two lines with unlimited across the board is $80/month excluding taxes. With what I have now I will be now be paying around $95/month including the price of the new phone and taxes.

My Trac phone costs me $6 a month for talk and text. I only have to buy more minutes for days as I never run out of minutes. I believe it has other functions like access to the internet but I never use them so I’d be wasting my money buying something more advanced.

Me too......I make 4 or 5 calls a month to say I might be late coming home for lunch or something. Or I am at the drug store do you need something....but that is rare as my phone stays in the car 99.9% of the time.
Oldfarmer, I can use my phone for internet if wi-fi is available, but I can't be bothered. Whatever happened to actually talking to people? I think the art of conversation is dying and will disappear by the next generation.

Wait you don’t do the forums on your phone? How do you pay bills, and shop? A computer? That’s so 2005!

I have Mrs D100 to do banking, payments, and shopping....that is the best plan of all!

henryn

tjc78 said:

driver100 said:

oldfarmer50 said:

snakeweasel said:

stickguy said:

we switched to xfiniti mobile about a year and a half ago (from Verizon). Way cheaper, and same service since they use the Verizon network.

we both got new phones (whatever was current, I think an 11) and are paying for those monthly, along with unlimited calls/text and I think 3 gigs shared data. All in, including tax and fees, we pay $75/month. And at least $40 of that is the cost of the phones, and those will be paid off in December.

Many years ago I was using a prepaid Tracphone for business reasons, just talk and text. It worked out to be about $10/month and maybe $30 for the phone (very basic phone, limited minutes and text over 90 days and use it or lose it). Now looking at Tracphones website I see I can get prepaid service for $30 with unlimited talk and text and 3 gigs a month with unlimited carryover. According to Xfinity two lines with unlimited across the board is $80/month excluding taxes. With what I have now I will be now be paying around $95/month including the price of the new phone and taxes.

My Trac phone costs me $6 a month for talk and text. I only have to buy more minutes for days as I never run out of minutes. I believe it has other functions like access to the internet but I never use them so I’d be wasting my money buying something more advanced.

Me too......I make 4 or 5 calls a month to say I might be late coming home for lunch or something. Or I am at the drug store do you need something....but that is rare as my phone stays in the car 99.9% of the time.
Oldfarmer, I can use my phone for internet if wi-fi is available, but I can't be bothered. Whatever happened to actually talking to people? I think the art of conversation is dying and will disappear by the next generation.

Wait you don’t do the forums on your phone? How do you pay bills, and shop? A computer? That’s so 2005!

Being a computer geek (or is that nerd???) I do everything possible on a computer. Heck, after 45 years working in IT, I do some things on a computer that most would consider impossible. I use a phone only when I can't find a computer.

driver100

abacomike said:

sda said:

abacomike said:

Waiting for call from service to go and pick up my car this morning. Been in service for 9 days. Before I take it home, I will check out everything including radio and Sirius/XM since that is what they have been working on most of the time. Also I will check on exterior damage just in case they were careless with the car.

Car was detailed and waxed - beautiful job. Now I wait for the part to arrive in mid May. It seems that the manufacturer of the radio and communications header has proprietary rights over the system and won’t share the coding sequences with Genesis engineers. That is why a whole new radio-audio-Bluetooth-call dialer must be installed to correct SOS and Genesis Connective Services malfunctions.

All good....just makes me wonder what happens when someone buys that model as a used car in a few years from now.....and that problem happens?

driver100

Why old men shouldn't buy sports cars;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43pCsO7hRNo

snakeweasel

henryn said:

My original point was, anytime you think you are getting a good / great price on a new high end phone, whether Apple or Samsung or Pixel or whatever, you really aren’t. They subsidize the cost of the phone by locking you in to a long term contract at a higher cost than prepaid.

Now if you’re going to be using the postpaid plan from AT&T or Verizon or whomever anyway, then you might as well let them subsidize the phone. In the bad old days, it was nice having a Verizon account so when things went wrong you could just walk in to any Verizon store and get help. But you know things don’t go wrong with cell phones anymore, or in my experience it is very rare and can almost always be fixed with a factory reset.

I used Mint Mobile for 3 years, T-Mobile service, 3 gigs per month (more than I need), and a yearly payment of $180 plus sales tax. This year I went to Red Pocket, $240 plus sales tax yearly. 8 gigs of data, and your choice of Verizon, AT&T, or T-Mobile. I am currently on Verizon towers, and here around Houston I notice no real difference coming from T-Mobile. Whenever I infrequently go out to the boonies, Verizon is much better.

Both Mint Mobile and Red Pocket do not have stores. They offer a limited amount of help online, but I have never needed help from either, so why should I pay a LOT more money to have help available?

I have heard some very good things about Xfinity, if I were on their cable service I would probably use their cell phone plan like @abacomike. I almost jumped to the new Verizon eat-all-you-want plan (Visible) for $25 a month, but I read too many complaints in the forums and decided to hold off on that. Anyone here using Visible?

And if there’s anyone left who doesn’t know it, you should never buy the latest greatest phone. Buy last year’s model, brand new, for half price. Unless you’re an Apple fan, their phones do not depreciate apparently.

I understand what you are saying, however it may or may not be true for everyone at all times. I am a heavy data user and can burn up a lot in a month so an unlimited plan is good for me and going with most prepaid plans adding enough data to supply me would eat up most if not all of the savings a prepaid plan would save me. Now I know that there are some prepaid companies that will save me some money but for the few extra dollars a month I would rather be with a more established company that I have been with that I trust.

As for the phone, yeah it was a good price considering what a comparable phone would have cost me if I decided to join the prepaid crowd (my carrier gave me a good trade in allowance).

Now if I didn't use data I would likely be on a prepaid plan.

snakeweasel

Well an interesting development in the cell phone saga. When I got my phone my wife got something she always wanted, a Apple watch to go with her phone. Well they both had to be shipped and both were shipped to me. Well they both arrived today, in two different packages on two different carriers. Oh well.

qbrozen

driver100 said:

Why old men shouldn't buy sports cars;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43pCsO7hRNo

It's all fun and games until someone breaks a hip.

stickguy

a big reason I don't want to try out the Miata again. If they fixed the issue of my legs fitting, I might be getting in and out like that. even worse, my wife might get in, and I won't be able to pry her out.

sda

stickguy said:

a big reason I don't want to try out the Miata again. If they fixed the issue of my legs fitting, I might be getting in and out like that. even worse, my wife might get in, and I won't be able to pry her out.

Be nice, she maybe reading this.

ab348

explorerx4 said:

Last night I watched a few episodes of the Mission Impossible TV series from the 60's.
They had a marathon of it on the Decades channel, which I did not know I even had.
I enjoyed watching them.

Years ago in the pre-streaming days I bought most of the DVDs of M:I.. The first 4 or 5 seasons were good but after that they tended to recycle the same 4 or 5 plot schemes with slight variations over and over, and by the end it was fairly predictable.

Up here in Canada there is a station out of Hamilton, Ontario called CHCH which runs 1960s and ‘70s programming much of the day. Last fall and winter they ran all of M:I and when they got through all that they switched to the original Hawaii Five-O which is now on season 4 or 5. I have all of those on DVD somewhere too but I’m capturing those on the DVR and watching them when there is nothing that appeals to me. I enjoy it.

snakeweasel

stickguy said:

a big reason I don't want to try out the Miata again. If they fixed the issue of my legs fitting, I might be getting in and out like that. even worse, my wife might get in, and I won't be able to pry her out.

To me it looks like a early astronaut exiting a space capsule.

henryn

I swear I didn't know anyone was filming when I was trying to get out of that car!!!

In the last week I have had 3 Uber rides, one ride home after dropping off the F150, another after dropping of the T&C, and a third ride to pick up the Pacifica. One Sentra, one Corolla, and one Camry. My biggest problem is not my height (6’2”), but my feet (16EEEE). Yes, the height is a problem, but trying to fit my feet through the very narrow rear door opening on a Sentra or Corolla is NOT fun.

No, it was not as bad as that video, but it was far from pretty, and I’m glad no one was filming. Or at least I hope they weren’t.

abacomike

I still have my iPhone 8+ that I purchased from Apple 3 years ago. It still functions flawlessly and I pay about $8.00 a month for AppleCare so if something goes awry with my phone, they repair or replace it.

I prefer the home button that uses my fingerprint to access the phone and all Apps.

The newer phones have too much tech that I would never use.