Why aren’t you able to buy any unlocked phone?
Unless of course you are in USA that sucks hard on consumer protection.
But in “normal” countries that wouldn’t be a problem.
IDK about them, but I can’t just buy an unlocked phone because that requires dropping like a grand all at once. If I get it through my carrier, it’s either entirely free or I can pay it off $30 a month.
Or you could buy a $200 phone like the Nokia G42, and then go with a cheaper service provider.
My wife chose that because she doesn’t use her phone much, and it’s built for home repair.
Turned out it is a way better phone than we expected. Mine cost about $800,- and there is no way I can say it’s that much better.
I use a small service provider, that has their services through one of the biggest, but it costs less than half per month.
And when I buy a phone, I have complete freedom to choose whichever phone I want, disregarding limited service provider discounts.
And buying from free competition dealers, also gives a nice rebate.
I went from Verizon ($200/mo for 2 lines) to Xfinity ($80/mo for 2 lines) to JMP.chat ($7/mo for 2 lines) to US Mobile (still about $18/mo for 2 lines). I still have JMP as my cell provider for the SMS-to-XMPP bridge (my sms comes through XMPP), and just have US Mobile for data. My current monthly is still about $20/mo for 2 lines with 10gb of data. Additional data is $4 for 2gig if I go over.
Frankly in the US now US Mobile is hard to beat. Their unlimited plan is $45/mo,and they have coverage on every carrier (my phone will switch to the dominant local carrier wherever I go, and it’s usually 5G).
Why aren’t you able to buy any unlocked phone?
Unless of course you are in USA that sucks hard on consumer protection.
But in “normal” countries that wouldn’t be a problem.
IDK about them, but I can’t just buy an unlocked phone because that requires dropping like a grand all at once. If I get it through my carrier, it’s either entirely free or I can pay it off $30 a month.
So you could, you just choose not to.
I personally never bought a phone though my service provider, I don’t care for that kind of bullshit tie in.
This is why I buy a used phone 1 or 2 model years behind.
You’d be surprised how much of a discount you can get when someone upgrades.
I’m currently running Pixel 5, and I own three of them for less than any new phone. This gives me the ability to have a hot spare/test device.
I’m in the same boat as @[email protected], even if just getting a regular phone id need to be able to drop 700-1k$
And ofc the shit consumer protection laws here in the US, at least through my carrier I can have really forgiving insurance LMAO
I could not afford to. That’s not really a choice I am making. 🤦♂️
Or you could buy a $200 phone like the Nokia G42, and then go with a cheaper service provider.
My wife chose that because she doesn’t use her phone much, and it’s built for home repair.
Turned out it is a way better phone than we expected. Mine cost about $800,- and there is no way I can say it’s that much better.
I use a small service provider, that has their services through one of the biggest, but it costs less than half per month.
And when I buy a phone, I have complete freedom to choose whichever phone I want, disregarding limited service provider discounts.
And buying from free competition dealers, also gives a nice rebate.
Yep.
I went from Verizon ($200/mo for 2 lines) to Xfinity ($80/mo for 2 lines) to JMP.chat ($7/mo for 2 lines) to US Mobile (still about $18/mo for 2 lines). I still have JMP as my cell provider for the SMS-to-XMPP bridge (my sms comes through XMPP), and just have US Mobile for data. My current monthly is still about $20/mo for 2 lines with 10gb of data. Additional data is $4 for 2gig if I go over.
Frankly in the US now US Mobile is hard to beat. Their unlimited plan is $45/mo,and they have coverage on every carrier (my phone will switch to the dominant local carrier wherever I go, and it’s usually 5G).