Consumer Cellular advice

bob_nestor wrote:
Consumer Cellular may be great if most of your calls are outgoing. What they don't tell you (or it's in the fine print) is incoming calls are counted against you and most are rounded up to the nearest minute. That's fine for calls from people you want to hear from, but it can kill all your savings if you're the target of a lot of SPAM calls like telemarketers, car warranty scams, political advertising and money donation organizations.

If you are on the cheapest bargain basement Consumer Cellular plan of $20 per month (250 minute and no data), you would be correct. Not only outgoing calls are counted against your minutes but all incoming calls including spammer robocalls.

Per HERE

"Consumer Cellular is a small, no-contract mobile phone provider that offers low-cost cell phone plans starting at $20 per month (not including tax or data add-on) for unlimited texts and 250 minutes. From there, plans can be customized to include unlimited minutes and data amounts up to 25 GB per month per line for customers who want to take advantage of app downloads, high definition video, and other uses of the 5G, 4G LTE, 4G, and 3G network. For Consumer Cellular's most advanced plan of two phone lines, unlimited talk, and 25 GB of data, you'll pay around $75 per month."

Charging in incoming calls is 100% normal business practice for all carriers that offer limited minutes plans and has been that way since the 1980s when cell phones first hit the market.

You should not have been surprised.

To get around that move up to the next plan, I believe for $25 per month you get unlimited talk and texts..

For about $30 per month including taxes I am on prepaid $25/month ATT service with unlimited talk and text and 2 GB of Internet data.. I rarely use the data but for the unlimited talk/text it is a no brainer for me and I don't talk/text all that much (well below 100 minutes per month and maybe 10 texts per month).

Sometimes trying to shave off costs by running with the basement level plans ends up costing more..

Isn't the $25 only for "Party Pay" of 4 people or more?

Bob,
I get a number of bogus calls as you mentioned plus those from relatives & friends and have not been charged for any of them as long as I we don't go over the plan's allowance. Don't know where you heard that.

Consumer Cellular may be great if most of your calls are outgoing. What they don't tell you (or it's in the fine print) is incoming calls are counted against you and most are rounded up to the nearest minute. That's fine for calls from people you want to hear from, but it can kill all your savings if you're the target of a lot of SPAM calls like telemarketers, car warranty scams, political advertising and money donation organizations.

I'm using the same Party Pay Group as Barney. Though my Motorola Note was also not supported on Visible. I switched to an iPhone Plus I bought on Ebay, and have not had any issues with Visible.

Thanks for the info. Just checked on Visible site and my phone is not compatible with their system. We have motorola android phones

I use my phone as a hotspot when travelling and it is on Visible by Verizon. The cost is only $25/month all in for unlimited talk, text, and data, taxes, fees etc. They do not throttle either - at least they have never throttled me.
Visible is a part of Verizon and is their answer to the phone resellers as talked about here.

I have never found a place yet where I could not get service although there have been several where it was sketchy.
If you ever decide to go that route, let me know and I will provide you a link to the Party Pay group that I am in.
Barney

We have also had good results with Consumer Cellular.
My wife has been with them for 10 years and I switched from Verizon about 3 years ago. The only exception has been in Nebraska where phone calls and text work okay but in many areas we cannot access data. We have to be in a good size town/city or wifi in a campground.

Romer1 wrote:
Currently have 2 phones using Tracfone and a straight talk hot spot. Recently have been having problems with the hot spot since Verizon bought them. Looks like they are also changing pricing for everything.
Therefore, considering changing to Consumer Cellular. We are not heavy users and only use the hot spot when on camping trips. Comparing pricing, for our usage costs would be pretty close to a wash.



Interested in any comments any one may have as to the change.

I've been using Consumer Cellular for years and have had great results. Only caveat, check to see what carrier they use in the areas you'll be operating in most. My service is on T-Mobile and there are places in the West where their service (at least 4G/LTE) has some serious "holes". The other network they use, ATT, may be better in those areas.