Red Pocket, Tello, other?

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jeffyscott
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Red Pocket, Tello, other?

Post by jeffyscott »

We have had my spouse's phone on Red Pocket's Verizon plan with 100 minutes, 100 texts, and 500 MB for the past 3 years. This has been adequate, she has never needed to buy any add-ons. Red Pocket is apparently no longer offering this plan on Verizon.

Given that, we are considering the following options:
Red Pocket T-Mobile plan with 200 minutes, 1000 Texts, and 200 MB for $30/year
Red Pocket ATT (or T-Mobile) plan with 100 minutes, 100 texts, and 500 MB for $60/yr
Tello T-Mobile plan with 100 min, 500 MB, unlimited texts for $6 per month ($72/yr)

The phone is an unlocked Moto G4, so we can use any network, though I believe that it is missing some of the newer LTE bands on T-Mobile.

Is there any other low cost plan that I might want to look at?

I am inclined to just have her take the $30 per year plan. The thing she has been most likely to use up has been texts, so adding to those eliminates that possibility. We do use a little data when travelling, so the 200 MB may not be enough at those times, but for $5 she could add 250 MB and bring it up almost to the level of the other two during any months that we do travel and that's only likely to happen during 2 or 3 months of the year.

I think Verizon gave her better coverage than T-Mobile or ATT in a few areas (I have had ATT and now T-Mobile during this time), but don't think it will be a big issue.
Last edited by jeffyscott on Mon Oct 18, 2021 10:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
runner3081
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Re: Red Pocket, Tello, other?

Post by runner3081 »

I use Tello, wife is on RedPocket. Absolutely recommend both of them. Zero issues.

She has the the Red Pocket ATT with a Moto G4, I have a G6 on Tello.
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H-Dog
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Re: Red Pocket, Tello, other?

Post by H-Dog »

My wife has that redpocket plan at $30/year. I have a similar cost tracfone plan which gives 3gb per year and all the minutes and texts upfront. I like the tracfone plan more because normally we don’t use data but when I do then we might need more that $200 mb that red pocket allocates. You may want to look into this tracfone plan, available on eBay.
acegolfer
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Re: Red Pocket, Tello, other?

Post by acegolfer »

My family use Red Pocket, Tello and Tracfone. The last one is $30 per year and you get 1200 min/1200 txt/3GB data for the whole year. Of course, not for everyone.
sneezeslayer
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Re: Red Pocket, Tello, other?

Post by sneezeslayer »

I have used Tello. It used to be Sprint CDMA but is now T-Mobile GSM (and now they are the same corporation). For $14/month it has 2GB data and unlimited SMS/minutes. It's quite fine and I have no complaints. I would just choose the MVNO with the best coverage near you. You can always change later.
rooms222
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Re: Red Pocket, Tello, other?

Post by rooms222 »

Note that both ATT and Verizon are taking a whitelisting approach to activations and remaining on network as they phase out 2G and 3G. Beyond that, phones that do not have VOLTE that they recognize are being kicked off. There is a lot of discussion about this on howardforums.com and the reddit prepaid section. Note the G4 is not on the ATT list for phones that will work after early 2022. https://www.att.com/idpassets/images/su ... etwork.pdf


Also note that the whitelist approach often does not approve international versions of the phones, such as the dual sim Motos. It is done by specific model number variation of phone.
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jeffyscott
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Re: Red Pocket, Tello, other?

Post by jeffyscott »

H-Dog wrote: Sun Oct 17, 2021 3:10 pmMy wife has that redpocket plan at $30/year. I have a similar cost tracfone plan which gives 3gb per year and all the minutes and texts upfront. I like the tracfone plan more because normally we don’t use data but when I do then we might need more that $200 mb that red pocket allocates. You may want to look into this tracfone plan, available on eBay.
acegolfer wrote: Sun Oct 17, 2021 5:16 pm My family use Red Pocket, Tello and Tracfone. The last one is $30 per year and you get 1200 min/1200 txt/3GB data for the whole year. Of course, not for everyone.
I see that Tracfone plan on Ebay, but it's $60, rather than $30?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/283448464240
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jeffyscott
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Re: Red Pocket, Tello, other?

Post by jeffyscott »

rooms222 wrote: Sun Oct 17, 2021 7:02 pm Note that both ATT and Verizon are taking a whitelisting approach to activations and remaining on network as they phase out 2G and 3G. Beyond that, phones that do not have VOLTE that they recognize are being kicked off. There is a lot of discussion about this on howardforums.com and the reddit prepaid section. Note the G4 is not on the ATT list for phones that will work after early 2022. https://www.att.com/idpassets/images/su ... etwork.pdf


Also note that the whitelist approach often does not approve international versions of the phones, such as the dual sim Motos. It is done by specific model number variation of phone.
Thanks for the information.

And (conveniently :annoyed ) ATT apparently no longer has an IMEI checker. I'm not sure why hers (model XT1625) would not be compatible, it has their main LTE bands and does have VoLTE (Red pocket had turned it on for Verizon).
rooms222
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Re: Red Pocket, Tello, other?

Post by rooms222 »

ATT has stuck to this path since 2020, even though many phones will work with VOLTE. If they are not on the list, they will no longer work on their network in 2/22. https://arstechnica.com/information-tec ... re-phones/
Ependytis
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Re: Red Pocket, Tello, other?

Post by Ependytis »

I’ve noticed that the cell services are like the streaming services, namely you use which ever one works best for you. It’s pretty seamless to change from one to another so there’s almost no reason to be loyal to one service if it doesn’t meet your needs. I happen to use Tello. I get two GB of data unlimited texts for about $10 per month going to $14 per month once the incentive plan stops.
acegolfer
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Re: Red Pocket, Tello, other?

Post by acegolfer »

jeffyscott wrote: Mon Oct 18, 2021 10:37 am
H-Dog wrote: Sun Oct 17, 2021 3:10 pmMy wife has that redpocket plan at $30/year. I have a similar cost tracfone plan which gives 3gb per year and all the minutes and texts upfront. I like the tracfone plan more because normally we don’t use data but when I do then we might need more that $200 mb that red pocket allocates. You may want to look into this tracfone plan, available on eBay.
acegolfer wrote: Sun Oct 17, 2021 5:16 pm My family use Red Pocket, Tello and Tracfone. The last one is $30 per year and you get 1200 min/1200 txt/3GB data for the whole year. Of course, not for everyone.
I see that Tracfone plan on Ebay, but it's $60, rather than $30?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/283448464240
Oh, you are right. $60 is the normal price. But they often go on 50% sale (about 2-3 times a yr). Last sales was 8/2021. https://slickdeals.net/f/15197587-tracf ... e-shipping.
FactualFran
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Re: Red Pocket, Tello, other?

Post by FactualFran »

It would be helpful if the posts here explicitly indicated whether 1) the price is paid monthly or annually and 2) the min/texts/MB limits are per month or per year.

For example, the opening post contained: "Red Pocket T-Mobile plan with 200 minutes, 1000 Texts, and 200 MB for $30/year". Is that a single payment of $30 for a year of service (until the day one year after the payment was credited) or payments of $2.50 for a month of service (often actually 30 days)? Are the limits for a month or a for year?
abracadabra11
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Re: Red Pocket, Tello, other?

Post by abracadabra11 »

I use RedPocket's ATT service. Price is great and lots of data, but voice calling quality has been relatively poor in my experience.
newbie003
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Re: Red Pocket, Tello, other?

Post by newbie003 »

I have my kids on redpocket (using ATT) and am quite happy with it. We buy the annual plans from ebay.
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jeffyscott
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Re: Red Pocket, Tello, other?

Post by jeffyscott »

FactualFran wrote: Mon Oct 18, 2021 2:32 pm It would be helpful if the posts here explicitly indicated whether 1) the price is paid monthly or annually and 2) the min/texts/MB limits are per month or per year.

For example, the opening post contained: "Red Pocket T-Mobile plan with 200 minutes, 1000 Texts, and 200 MB for $30/year". Is that a single payment of $30 for a year of service (until the day one year after the payment was credited) or payments of $2.50 for a month of service (often actually 30 days)? Are the limits for a month or a for year?
Both of the Red Pocket plans in my initial post are a single payment of $30 or $60 for a year of service (360 days, actually). The minutes, texts, and data limits are per month (30 days, I believe). You can add increments of data, texts, minutes for $2 or $5, the add ons are only good for the remainder of the month.

The Tello plan is paid monthly and the limits are also monthly (30 days). With Tello, you can change your plan at any time.

The $60 (sometimes $30) TracFone plan that others posted about is a single payment for a year of service. The 1200 minutes, 1200 texts, and 3 GB limits are annual for that one. I believe they use a true year of 365 days. With Tracfone, you can also buy additional of whatever, with many (maybe too many) variations.
FactualFran
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Re: Red Pocket, Tello, other?

Post by FactualFran »

jeffyscott, thank you for the answers.
uslee2004
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Re: Red Pocket, Tello, other?

Post by uslee2004 »

jeffyscott wrote: Sun Oct 17, 2021 1:47 pm We have had my spouse's phone on Red Pocket's Verizon plan with 100 minutes, 100 texts, and 500 MB for the past 3 years. This has been adequate, she has never needed to buy any add-ons. Red Pocket is apparently no longer offering this plan on Verizon.

Given that, we are considering the following options:
Red Pocket T-Mobile plan with 200 minutes, 1000 Texts, and 200 MB for $30/year
Red Pocket ATT (or T-Mobile) plan with 100 minutes, 100 texts, and 500 MB for $60/yr
Tello T-Mobile plan with 100 min, 500 MB, unlimited texts for $6 per month ($72/yr)

The phone is an unlocked Moto G4, so we can use any network, though I believe that it is missing some of the newer LTE bands on T-Mobile.

Is there any other low cost plan that I might want to look at?

I am inclined to just have her take the $30 per year plan. The thing she has been most likely to use up has been texts, so adding to those eliminates that possibility. We do use a little data when travelling, so the 200 MB may not be enough at those times, but for $5 she could add 250 MB and bring it up almost to the level of the other two during any months that we do travel and that's only likely to happen during 2 or 3 months of the year.

I think Verizon gave her better coverage than T-Mobile or ATT in a few areas (I have had ATT and now T-Mobile during this time), but don't think it will be a big issue.
Similar here. DW is on Tracfone with the $30 per year plan and has no complaint. For her, it is real just phone, not much even text. Had my older son on $30 per year RP, but just switched to Mint Mobile since he wants to have more data during his soccer practice/game. I am on RP 3GB/month, $180 per year--not heavy data user but got hooked by having timely update on emails, and also taking work calls on MS Team. The nice thing about RP is that caliing international is included. I am not aware of other better plan and am interested hearing other options as well.
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Re: Red Pocket, Tello, other?

Post by battlese »

i have my high school aged son on RedPocket (Verizon) 1000 minutes/unlimited texts/1 GB data and just paid $90.72 (including taxes) for the year. Works out to $7.56/mo.
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jeffyscott
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Re: Red Pocket, Tello, other?

Post by jeffyscott »

Well, it ends up looking like she can stay on Verizon at slightly higher cost than the $60 ebay plan. Seems like Red Pocket may be secretly semi-grandfathering in those who are on that plan with Verizon. She got a text that said "Your eBay plan expires in 14 days. Annual Plan? Your service will restart automatically....".

After a chat with a lot of nonsensical (and apparently wrong) answers as to what that meant and what would happen when her current plan expires, I found that the online account appeared to let me enter a payment method to "subscribe" to annual automatic renewals of her current plan (500 MB, 100 text, 100 minutes per month). We'll see what actually happens in couple weeks.

Unlike on Ebay, where they only add sales tax, they did add regulatory fees, etc. so that put the total cost at $72.xx rather than $63.
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dual
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Re: Red Pocket, Tello, other?

Post by dual »

For $60 you can get a new phone plus a year of service, 1500 min, 1500 texts 1.5gb data

Tracfone LG Solo Smartphone + 1 Year of Service with 1500 MIN/1500 Text/1500MB

https://www.ebay.com/itm/283841372509? ... DXlhLmQe
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