All About Phone Plans

Well, maybe not all about phone plans but a lot more pertinent information than you are likely to find anywhere else in one place relative to seniors.

First, you ought to have a smartphone and a plan just for your own welfare and safety.

Second, they are now cheap, along with cheap plans, and are far easier to use than ever before.

Third, they do just about everything a computer can do without the nuisance.

You do need to be able to learn how to use them, which is a whole lot simpler to than using your computer. Read up and even get the manuals ahead of time and before you buy. Look for tutorials on YouTube.

You can get all phones and plans you need online. Search.

I have recommended sub $100 unlocked no-contract phones in past postings.You then need a no-contract plan.

The least cost Puretalk plan costs $5 a month for 50 minutes of talk and text.   This will work with most so-called unlocked phones bought separately without a plan.

Republic Wireless phones start at $100 for a Moto E plus no contract plans from $5 to $25. The $10 plan offers unlimited talk and text. The $25 is for browsing away from Wi-Fi. It is also nice if you want traffic information when you are using the phone's GPS.

The $25 plan gives you unlimited talk and text plus up to 5 gigabytes data per month. The data is 3G (means slow) and only a trickle but still enough for most purposes and often available along the main highway corridors. Don't expect it everywhere.

T Mobile offers a whole lot more data speed in a lot fewer places at much more cost. T Mobile offers plans from $50 a month for unlimited talk and text and just one gigabyte of data, enough for one third of a movie.

I hardly think most people need that at all. Just put a movie on your phone I ahead of time from Wi-Fi.

If you do need data out on the road and away from home it is cheaper to use a hotspot like Freedompop. The monthly rates range from $5 to $25 and make it unnecessary to have any other plan at all.

I recommend ONLY smartphones with the ability to add storage with an SD card. These are now coming down sharply in price and make it possible to use your phone as an ebook reader and music player away from Wi-Fi or cell towers by keeping your books and music on the card.

That is a great advantage when Wi-Fi is not working well or cell towers are not nearby.  The cost runs from about $15 to $45 for 25 to 50 G, which translates to a huge amount of storage of books, music, and even videos and movies.