Plus, the problems you listed, credit card theft, that can apply to any provider, as can customer service complaints. Which provider doesn't have cust service complaints? Would need to know the ratio of complaint to happy customer to make an fair comparison.
The billing if you go over the minutes, that's a gotcha. You should disable automatic top off. That's why I said in the OP, read the fine print and disable services you don't need. If you disable auto top off you don't get to make calls when you hit your limit.
It's a pretty low risk. I bought a used Sprint phone off eBay, and if it doesn't work out I'll sell it back on eBay for about what I paid for it. There is a $20 activation and I had to pay attention to cancel the free upgrades within a month.
I agree with the others tho that it's probably not best for a primary phone but I'm sure someone out there might have good Sprint reception where they go and have a phone already but are tight on funds and want a hotspot. Or, they want a free/cheap backup. Not for everyone, but this may help someone.
