I have a TracFone that is a smart phone. It is $100 per year. I have over 3300 minutes that have rolled over. I don't use the phone much since I also have an iPad. I would rather use the GPS that plugs into the car. I have heard that using through the phone can be difficult at times to get reception. YLMV
Hey Frugal-one, Did you get your phone from TracFone? If so, would you mind sharing what model you bought and whether you like it or not?
I think I am clueless about smartphones but don't they require using more minutes plus using WIFI? I don't have Wifi. Then again maybe I don't know what I am talking about with this stuff.
I do have a cheap tracfone but I know they charge more for tracfone smartphone minutes than basic minutes.
With a smart phone, You are charged for data used. This is typically in gigabytes. Most plans give you a generous amount of minutes for voice calls.
I have a cheap Android from Boost Mobile (my only complaint is the camera is crap). Fixed rate for unlimited voice/data, they just ratchet down the data speed after you've gone above a certain amount. But I haven't used data enough to be impacted by this.
About wifi, you want to set up a smartphone to use wifi wherever a secure connection is commonly available to you (home, work, etc.) - it's faster and you don't eat into your data limits when it uses wifi instead.
Free WIFI allows you to use your smart phone, as a smart phone, without using your data, of course for a trade off (security, any restrictions/data logging they put on their system, etc).
Some people supply it either for convenience or to get you to stay longer, others don't, because they need the turnover (don't be sitting at one table drinking a coffee for hours).
I have been with Cricket (a subsidiary of AT&T, so all their poles across the country) since February 2014. $40/mo, less $5 with auto-pay. My first phone with them was a Samsung Galaxy Express that cost about $160. Loved it! Daily use, little streaming. It recently died. They have two Galaxies that are next generations. One was $20, the other $80. I went with the $80 model (Galaxy Prime Amp). Happy so far. Highly recommend Cricket and Galaxy.
Before that, I had an HTC Wildfire S, which died this bizarre, weird death I can only compare to the melting of the Wicked Witch of the West. I used Virgin Mobile, which uses Sprint poles. Both sucked.
I bought the phone from Shopko. It was $50 with 400 minutes. it is a Samsung ... Core Galaxy comes up when I turn it on. I have it set to use wifi first. I just checked the phone and it is model number SM-S820L Android version 4.4. There probably are newer versions but this works great. I found it easy to use. I did not have a Smartphone prior to this.
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