No Contracts!!

[GiantsCheated]

I have a corporate Blackberry that I do not have to pay a dime for and I like that. The less monthly expenses the better. I was getting tired of the limitations of a Blackberry and wanted a phone that I could use for personal stuff so I decided to pick up another phone. Being as how I already had another phone I didn't want a contract or any big commitments with this phone so I just grabbed an A&T Go Phone ZTE Avail last week. It works for what is but I now understand the limitations of this device.

I was thinking of spending a few hundred $ and buying something more capable outright and getting AT&T to just bill me monthly on it but with no contracts. Does anyone have any experience with this? Is it pretty straightforward or should I be taking some thing(s) into consideration? Just looking at what's out there Amazon has an LG P970 Optimus for $230 which seems pretty decent for the price. Any better suggestions in the $300 or less range? I just want something capable with a decent amount of internal memory, a decent camera and that can play most games fairly well. And it has to be capable of being joined to the AT&T network if I just walk in off the street and hand it to them.

I appreciate any suggestions/help/criticisms and apologize if these questions have been asked countless times. Thanks for taking it easy on this Droid Noob

 

[rui-no-onna]

I was thinking of spending a few hundred $ and buying something more capable outright and getting AT&T to just bill me monthly on it but with no contracts. Does anyone have any experience with this? Is it pretty straightforward or should I be taking some thing(s) into consideration?

Do you mean you want to get a phone from AT&T but not be locked into a contract? That only works if you pay full price for the phone in which case, I'm confused as to why AT&T would be billing you monthly. Just buy an unlocked GSM phone from Amazon, ebay, etc. If you can stretch your budget to $400 (+tax), Google sells the Samsung Galaxy Nexus directly.

Just looking at what's out there Amazon has an LG P970 Optimus for $230 which seems pretty decent for the price. Any better suggestions in the $300 or less range? I just want something capable with a decent amount of internal memory, a decent camera and that can play most games fairly well. And it has to be capable of being joined to the AT&T network if I just walk in off the street and hand it to them.

Samsung Captivate: Amazon.com: Samsung i897 Captivate Android smartphone Galaxy S (Unlocked): Cell Phones & Accessories

No need to go into an AT&T store. You just transfer your SIM card from the Avail to the Captivate (or whatever phone you decide on). If it says SIM not recognized or something, just call customer service and ask them to unlock the SIM card. Don't use the Avail/Captivate to call CS as they'll ask you to turn off the phones and switch the SIM card during the call.

By the way, the LG P970 you're looking at may not work on AT&T's 3G network. I've seen different specs for 3G (900/2100, 900/1700/2100, 900/1900/2100) for the P970. AT&T's 3G network is on either the 850 or 1900 band. It may be an issue as I think AT&T probably wants to phase out support for 2G.

 

[GiantsCheated]

Thanks for the response. I do not want to be locked into any sort of contract, I just want to pay for the service as I go. I know the cellular providers do the contracts so they can give you the phones at a cheaper up-front cost and make their money back over the long-term.

So I got this Avail which is an AT&T "Go Phone" but like I said it's not robust enough for my needs but is the most robust Go Phone Smartphone they offer currently. So that Samsung i897 looks nice, is that a pretty decent/capable device? So if I buy that phone right now you're saying I could just switch the SIM card from the Avail to the i897? And as far as billing is concerned I would just pay like I would with the Go Phone? Like prepaid cards or going into the AT&T store?

My other phone is Verizon and I want this phone to be AT&T as I want one phone with each carrier in my area.

 

[rui-no-onna]

So I got this Avail which is an AT&T "Go Phone" but like I said it's not robust enough for my needs but is the most robust Go Phone Smartphone they offer currently. So that Samsung i897 looks nice, is that a pretty decent/capable device? So if I buy that phone right now you're saying I could just switch the SIM card from the Avail to the i897? And as far as billing is concerned I would just pay like I would with the Go Phone? Like prepaid cards or going into the AT&T store?

My other phone is Verizon and I want this phone to be AT&T as I want one phone with each carrier in my area.

With GSM, service is tied to the SIM card, not the phone. You can change phones twice a day and it wouldn't matter. Yes, you can still use prepaid cards to refill. I suggest you buy your cards from places such as CallingMart so you can get additional discounts. I have a couple of phones on AT&T's $0.10/min Pay-As-You-Go service. I got the $100 refill cards (365 day expiration) so I only have to do refills once a year.

The Samsung Captivate is a good phone for that price range but you have to remember that it's already 2 generations old. I'm not really sure what your expectations are but definitely don't expect something top of the line. If you could afford to stretch your budget, though, Google recently dropped the price on the Galaxy Nexus to $350.

 

[GiantsCheated]

I have so much to learn! Do you folks have any threads on here about doing the AT&T prepaid stuff like you do? So I can learn the tips/tricks?

I can swing $350....

 

[GiantsCheated]

I'm an idiot. By the looks of it I should've just bought the Galaxy Nexus right out of the gate and saved myself time and money. That looks great.

I should be able to return my Avail, so that helps. If not I'll just try to sell it. The SIM card I will need to transfer over to the Nexus, did that come with the Avail? If so, will I be unable to return the Avail without it?

 

[rui-no-onna]

The SIM card I will need to transfer over to the Nexus, did that come with the Avail? If so, will I be unable to return the Avail without it?

Now that's a tricky question. I have no idea if you need to return the phone with the SIM card. AT&T will probably just deactivate the SIM card but I don't know if they would require it for refund.

If you don't have a large load balance on the SIM card and don't particularly care if you get a new number, you can just buy an AT&T SIM Card from ebay for less than $5 (AT&T retail stores sometimes charge $10~25 for those depending on the location). It's very easy to activate them online and you don't need to worry about calling customer service about unlocking the SIM card. I don't know when AT&T changed their policy but nowadays, new GoPhone prepaid kit SIM cards are locked to the device they're activated with for 6 months (or was it 8?). You'd have to call customer service in order to unlock the SIM and they require that you have both the original phone (ZTE Avail) and the new phone (Galaxy Nexus) when you call them.