Have any men here switched cell phone service from a major carrier to a discount provider? Was it worth it?

14 comments

1. I’ve been using pre paid for 10 years or so. I buy my phones out right, most of the time used or take advantage of a manufacturer trade-in.

   I don’t regret it at all. I’ve saved so much money.

2. Most discount carriers (if not all) lease from the major carriers so you’re using the same systems anyway.

3. I switched from Verizon to Spectrum a few years ago. It saved a lot of money and still uses Verizons network so it was worth it and easy to do.

   The only time I’ve had a problem was I had to be downtown (Cincinnati) for work one year on Red’s opening day, and it was so crowded at parade time I couldn’t make a call or send a text until I connected to a Wi-Fi network because Verizon customers are given 1st priority. Emergency calls are supposed to still go through though.

4. I buy my phones out right. I currently use a 6 year old phone. Works great. I moved over to a company called [Ting mobile](https://www.tingmobile.com/plans) years ago. You pay for as much as you use. I’m on wifi most of the time so most months I pay less than $20. No regrets

5. Mint Mobile coming from a decade plus with AT&T has been well worth it from an expense standpoint, no real issues with outdoors calls or texts or data, but I’ve had to rely on wifi calling most indoor places, and you miss out on many benefits and perks such as free wifi on flights or free Apple TV if you sign up with a MIMO.

6. Overall the years I’ve used every major company.

   I now just do the $300 annual prepaid contract with AT&T

7. r/nocontract

8. Went to Metro PCS and haven’t looked back. No problems with service. ($~80 for 2 lines) unlimited everything. You can even bring an unlocked phone and have them install service on your device.

9. I switched to MetroPCS a few years ago and was very happy with it. Ended up back on T-Mobile after they bought it for basically the same price.

10. I’ve been using Metro for probably 10 years now and I’ve never had a problem with the service. Many carriers use the same networks as the major carriers you’d be leaving, so there shouldn’t be a huge difference.

11. Moved from Verizon to Mint Mobile when I moved to a metro area. No problems in the metro area but when I travel abroad the international roaming did not work and I had to buy a local esim

12. Yes. Well over a decade on discount providers. Buy my phones outright every few years or so (always a generation or 2 back so I save money on those too).

    Currently been with Mint for over a year and have zero issues.

13. Switched around the different discount providers, like Metro, Boost and now using Mint. Prior to that my family has had T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon.

    Make the switch and save the money, there really is no drop off in quality/performance. If you exceed 35GB of data usage you may get slightly slower speeds because the “main” users (Verizon, T-Mobile, etc.) get priority on the networks.

    Boost uses the Sprint/T-Mobile networks, while the other two use T-Mobile. Spectrum uses the Verizon network.

    In terms of best deals, I would say Mint offers the best options. Boost was good too, the only complaints I had were sometimes spotty performance depending on where we were, but that was when the Sprint/T-Mobile merger was happening and they were consolidating their networks, which uses two different types of radio frequencies. Heard nothing but good things about Spectrum (for once).

14. Moved from Verizon to visible. I definitely had a drop in speed whenever it was 4g areas. So loading webpages at a store to compare prices would be frustrating, but it’s 25$ a month unlimited everything… I’ll take that saves all day every day.