Verizon S3; What are my options for plans?

[giantpune]

Somebody has sent me a Verizon S3. I am currently on Virgin Mobile with a $25/mo prepaid plan. I've looked an Verizon's website and all their prepaid plans are 3x the price of my current one. So I come to you guys to ask what are my options with this phone? I want to stay without any contract and I'm looking to pay $40 or less a month. I generally talk less than 300 minutes a month, send less than 50 text messages, and use less than 100MB of data.


Are there some cheaper plans available from Verizon that I missed on their website?

Will this phone accept a prepaid sim card from another carrier in the USA and let me use them instead of Verizon?

Can this phone be flashed to a different carrier?

Should I just try to find somebody with a MetroPCS Galaxy S3 and trade them outright?

 

[spottedcatfish]

You're not going to find a plan offered by Verizon for less than $70/month on a smartphone, and their prepaid plans don't work with 4G phones like the S3.

If you want to use that phone for less than about $100/month on the Verizon coverage, I'd look into getting that phone flashed so out works with Page Plus. It will only have 3G speeds though.

If MetroPCS coverage works for you, they've got some of the best deals around, I'd get a compatible phone for them or Sprint. You may be able to flash the S3 to Sprint, not sure.

 

[Droidwerks]

Verizon does have a $60 a mo plan that caps data at 500mb per mo. Personally, I'd go with PagePlus as you'd be on Verizon's network and have everything (calls, text, data) "unlimited" for $55 a mo.

DW

 

[timelord65]

But I don't think page plus accepts verizon 4G phones. Any Verizon 3g phone will work flawlessly.

 

[spottedcatfish]

But I don't think page plus accepts verizon 4G phones. Any Verizon 3g phone will work flawlessly.

Some of Verizon's 4G phones can work on Page Plus. Depending on the phone and the amount of modification you're willing to do/pay someone else to do (there are a number of flashing services out there, going rate seems to be about $50), you can get certain models working with either 1X/SMS or 3G/MMS.

YMMV though, while some phones seem to be easy to flash, others are still impossible. There are quirks too: for instance, the Sprint Galaxy Nexus is much easier to flash than the Verizon version. I'd recommend a combination of HowardForums and XDA before you purchase to make sure you get the right phone.