Wireless provider for a newbie

[diymark]

I know it might be hard to believe but I've been living without a cell phone. Still have a land line that is bundled with my internet and TV. I'm giving the cable company a scrub and see that I'm paying $25/mo for the phone (was just $14 three years ago). After reading MMM posts about Ting/Republic seems like I might be able to ditch the land line and take the cell phone plunge. But I really don't have a handle on all the challenges most of you have been facing...overages, outages, dropped calls, no coverage. Can a newbie like me make the transition to a low cost provider without frustration?
I'm already concerned when I went to the republic site and could not find a phone number to discuss with a support person. I read IP Daley's primer..but I'm not ready to go full on tech savvy. I make a dozen calls a month to order a pizza every other week, call mom, or talk to the hardware store before I make the trip. The rest of the time when it rings it is most often someone trying to sell me something. I'm sure it would be nice to use the web where ever I am, but have lived fine with waiting until I get home. And I'm baffled watching most of the world walking (or driving)  around while looking at their screen. Is that text really that important?? Am I just an old fart or have I missed the invasion of the mind snatchers to this point? Still if I can save some money and get increased convenience to boot (without frustration)...now you have my attention. Tell me its true.

[the_gastropod]

I switched to Ting from Verizon two months ago. After tax, both of my bills have been $26. If Sprint coverage is decent in your area, I'd definitely recommend them.

[Future Lazy]

It sounds like you might do fine with a Republic Wireless $10/mo plan and their most basic phone (or a used phone). That gives you phone calls anywhere, and data at home if you were to use the smartphone for anything besides phone calls or text messages. Smartphones are just little computers, and if you're ok at computers, you'll be just fine with a mind snatchy smartphone. Republic uses the Sprint network, so check the Sprint website's coverage map, and that should give you a good idea of coverage and quality of service.

Republic also doesn't have any way to call customer service - their customer service is email based, but my experience working with their customer service through email was speedy and pleasant.

That being said, I know almost all major carriers have pay as you go dealies with flip phone options. If there's a Best Buy in your area, you could try walking in and talking to one of them to help you compare the nuances of available pay as you go dumb phone plans. If you do decide to get a smartphone, don't let them up-sell you on any pay as you go data; if you start using data with a smartphone, then definitely go for one of the unlimited/throttled data options out there, since data usage can get out of hand a lot faster than you realize.

[Daley]

Mark, if you already know that you don't need many minutes (if you have an average usage number), it won't be that difficult for you. Pick up a good, cheap, carrier unlocked $20-35 GSM feature phone (from say Nokia, LG or Samsung), and shop around and compare PAYGO and package prices between PureTalk USA, Airvoice or P'tel. So long as you get good AT&T or T-Mobile reception, you're golden.

If you find you need CDMA/Verizon coverage instead, look into digging up a good shape, used, non-LTE Verizon flip phone that you can activate on an annual PAYGO plan with either Page Plus or Selectel.

If you want to go Sprint, go Ecomobile. Ting is only a good deal for multiple lines.

If your normal usage patters will never spend more than $10/month anyway, you can get a cheaper feature phone and no Republic plan will ever save you money in the long run. Just pay for what you need, and don't worry about trying to do the more technical usage hacks.