Was just talking to my daughter about Verizon and their ever esculating bills and shrinking benefits, She and her husband were pushign 200/month for the plan they had 700 minutes, very little data, 2 phones shared
For half that with another carrier I got 1200 minutes and 5 gigs 2 phones.
I now get unlimited/unlimited/unlimited for about 100/month.
As for the phone.
Go first class... The newer smart phones have some very good cameras in them, And if you never use the other features.. Well.. What I paid for my phone (Which has a very good digital camera, not as good as the Noika Lumina but still better than the digital camera I used to use) is less than I paid for the digital camera it has replaced.
Then, later, if you want to add function.. Well, the upgrades are easy.
(Example of adding funciton. Phone as "hot spot" weather reports, Calendar, Word processor (and my phone even prints pictures to my home printer).