Page Plus Cellular

ByGrace Alexander

I have been using my cell phone more and more for conference calls and I got sick of upping my minutes with Verizon each month.  After the news about Straight Talk offering the iPhone at low monthly fees I began investigating that.  I have a 4S that works just fine, but it seemed like with Straight Talk I would need to buy from them to use Verizon, the BYOD would require an AT&T version (although the 4S is GSM and CDMA apparently the GSM is restricted on the Verizon/Sprint versions to prevent being used on AT&T).

My research brought me to Page Plus.  Unlike Straight Talk which offers unlimited* data, Page Plus offers unlimited talk and text with 2 GB of data for $55/month…more than Straight Talk, but cheaper than buying a new phone.  Some online posts talk about flashing the ROM or paying some third party an activation fee.  I went directly to Page Plus and ported my number and entered the identifying number from my phone.  I took a risk and did this over GoGo during a flight, but luckily when I landed my phone worked just fine and my plan went from $101 for 900 minutes, 500 texts and 2 GB data to unlimited talk and text with 2 GB data for $55.  I did have to pay an early termination fee with Verizon, but the difference between my old plan and the new plan has a break-even point of 4 months.  My company would provide me with a basic phone.  I choose to only use 1 phone and so I accept a cell phone allowance to cover basic service.

I have noticed no difference in service between Verizon and Page Plus and I have been with them for 3 months now.  My reception is still the same and my speed tests are comparable.  I haven’t had to deal with Page Plus customer service, but I never had to deal with Verizon either.  I even managed to check and I was “roaming” in Canada which is something Virgin Mobile would never do.  I have not attempted to make a call or text in Canada since I try to avoid those fees.  The Page Plus site says it would be $0.60/minute for voice and $0.25/text.  That is cheaper than Verizon’s $0.69/minute when not purchased as part of an international plan, but messages would be the domestic text rate.

It seems like everyone I know is on some family plan and this may not make sense for them, but for anyone else out there on an individual plan there are finally options to break free from contract carriers and have a phone worth using.  Depending on which carrier you prefer, you can choose prepaid, no-contract carriers on Sprint, Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile and if you don’t have a phone for that carrier eBay may have a compatible device.

11 Comments

  1. I have been using Pageplus for past 18 months and it has been awesome …Never thought about going back to Verizon ..The only downside is when you are travelling internationally … otherwise ..Its awesome !!

  2. I think you have an extra “Straight Talk” in the second sentence of the second paragraph…

    1. @Jeff, thanks! Makes me think of the cartoon out there of a man saying “I don’t think anyone ever reads my blog. I never get any comments” and the woman says “Make a spelling mistake.”

  3. I have been with Page Plus for over 10 years and it works incredibly well for me. Even better, I have the 12 year old on a plan that costs me $30/year. She doesn’t have many minutes, but if she wants more, she has to work for the money. The husband (who wants a dumb phone) is on $80/year.

  4. I was the project manager for the rebranding project when they switched to the owl logo. They are a great company and I would highly recommend them.

    1. Really I just care that it uses Verizon’s towers (which have the best coverage where I live and travel) and it’s cheaper than my cell phone reimbursement.

  5. I have also just switched from Verizon to Page Plus and am happy with the service – but just found out after only a few days that the data I’ve consumed with my iphone4 is already 477MB. This seems crazy as the data counter on the phone says 25MB (Settings/General/Usage)and this is consistent with what it has been for a few years on Verizon. Anyone know what is happening? At this rate, I will go way over the 2MB, yet never did on Verizon. What am I missing??

    1. Hmmm…Did you change any of your mail settings or start streaming a lot? I’ve only gone over once, last month, because I wanted to know what would happen. To do that I pretty much started streaming Pandora every time I was in the car and finally I maxed out my plan about 5 days before the month ended. I was able to purchase a topup and get through the month since you have to call in to get your month to start sooner.

  6. Thanks so much for responding! I didn’t change anything and I don’t seem to use much data. I do check email a few times but in the past 2 yrs. I’ve never gone over so it’s strange. I will call customer service next but was hoping someone else had this experience.

  7. I was able to figure out the problem with PPC live chat! I had to change some settings on my phone. All is well now, thank you.

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