Activate a dumb phone but use an Android

[JohnDoeIII504]

Hi all,

I'm hoping someone can help me with this. My Grandmother wants to add a phone on her account for me. Seeing as how her and I are on a tight budget we are trying to go as cheap as possible with this. So here's what I'm wondering, if I activate an old dumb phone I have laying around the house on AT&T, it will add $20 a month to her plan or if I bring my own Android phone to activate it will be $25 a month, but from what the AT&T rep told me, if I get a phone through them it will be $40 a month. So if I were to activate the old dumb phone I have on hand and as soon as it gets activated pop the Sim card into an Android phone would AT&T know and would they start charging me more for it? I would only use the internet for when I am connected to a wifi hotspot, so I would be careful about my data usage seeing as her current plan only has 300MB of data included per month. If anyone can please help me, I would forever be grateful.

Thank You,
JohnDoeIII504

 

[kate]

Yes, carriers can detect when a SIM card is in a smartphone. I've seen some AT&T customers say they were able to stay on the feature phone plan, but they will bump you up when detected.

 

[JohnDoeIII504]

I said heck with it and ended up ordering a refurbished Galaxy S5 from att.com. They had them for free on the website, so I figured I'd go ahead and get it. I'll be paying 40 a month for it, on my grandma's plan but oh well. At least I will have a phone that works.