Questions About StraightTalk and TMobile

2248 Views 9 Replies 4 Participants Last post by OmnipotentBeing, 2 mo ago

fakiesk8r333

Discussion Starter · Oct 30, 2012

So ive been seriously thinking about switching to a GSM carrier and now that the nexus 4 is GSM only i have the last reason i needed to make the switch. My question is if i want to use straight talk how exactly do i set it up. Do they give you the sim free if you have a phone already? I checked their site but honestly i got confused lol. I wanna leave VZW's BS and get a decent carrier and ST seems like the best for me so any help you guy can give would be greatly appreciated.

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Don Serrot

· #2 · Oct 31, 2012

The sim is $15.
It's actually fairly easy to find the info you want on their site. On their homepage they have a big "BRING YOUR OWN PHONE" banner. That's what you want. After clicking the big red "Buy SIM" button a couple times it shows the price. $14.99 + Free shipping. One more red button and it'll ask what kind of phone you have. You'll probably want the "Unlocked GSM Phone" option and enter your zip code. The Default Unlocked GSM phone option seems to be the same as the AT&T sim, if T-Mobile is a bit better in your area the T-Mobile card might be better. Definitely something for you to look into. Here is where my knowledge gets fuzzy. I'm not 100% but I want to say it uses the micro-sim card, not the full sized sim card. I'll let someone else confirm this for sure though.

I'm actually going through the process right now as I type this and one thing that is jumping out at me is the price they are giving me for the sim is actually $9.99 right now. Might be a sale to entice more people.

Anywho, back to adventure! The next screen asks you if you want to get just the sim, the sim + a normal unlimited prepaid card, or the unlimited international card. Just pick the one you want and you are ready to checkout!

Once the sim comes you'll need a time card to activate it. Just head back to the site and click the "Activate/Reactivate" button and follow the instructions.

I'm planning on doing the same, and probably sooner than later. The nice thing is you can either set up automatic payments with Straight Talk, or just go to a Wal*Mart and get the prepaid time cards there.

A bit of a disclaimer here, I've not done this myself, not even got the GNex cause I'm still on Verizon too. I've been going over it for a while though so I'd have a good idea of what I was getting into once the time came. If I've gotten something wrong I hope that people who know better than me say something, but as far as I can tell my info is correct. It's been my plan for a long time to get away from Verizon though, and this is exactly what I'm planning on doing.

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fakiesk8r333

Discussion Starter · #3 · Oct 31, 2012

Don Serrot said:
The sim is $15.
It's actually fairly easy to find the info you want on their site. On their homepage they have a big "BRING YOUR OWN PHONE" banner. That's what you want. After clicking the big red "Buy SIM" button a couple times it shows the price. $14.99 + Free shipping. One more red button and it'll ask what kind of phone you have. You'll probably want the "Unlocked GSM Phone" option and enter your zip code. The Default Unlocked GSM phone option seems to be the same as the AT&T sim, if T-Mobile is a bit better in your area the T-Mobile card might be better. Definitely something for you to look into. Here is where my knowledge gets fuzzy. I'm not 100% but I want to say it uses the micro-sim card, not the full sized sim card. I'll let someone else confirm this for sure though.

I'm actually going through the process right now as I type this and one thing that is jumping out at me is the price they are giving me for the sim is actually $9.99 right now. Might be a sale to entice more people.

Anywho, back to adventure! The next screen asks you if you want to get just the sim, the sim + a normal unlimited prepaid card, or the unlimited international card. Just pick the one you want and you are ready to checkout!

Once the sim comes you'll need a time card to activate it. Just head back to the site and click the "Activate/Reactivate" button and follow the instructions.

I'm planning on doing the same, and probably sooner than later. The nice thing is you can either set up automatic payments with Straight Talk, or just go to a Wal*Mart and get the prepaid time cards there.

A bit of a disclaimer here, I've not done this myself, not even got the GNex cause I'm still on Verizon too. I've been going over it for a while though so I'd have a good idea of what I was getting into once the time came. If I've gotten something wrong I hope that people who know better than me say something, but as far as I can tell my info is correct. It's been my plan for a long time to get away from Verizon though, and this is exactly what I'm planning on doing.

ah i see, so you can buy cards in advance and just enter the info when the time comes? thats good to know. i wasnt aware that they use tmobile and at&t, so your essentially paying ST price for tmobiles service?

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Don Serrot

· #4 · Oct 31, 2012

Pretty much. For me T-Mobile isn't available in my area, but AT&T is. And $45/month for everything unlimited is way better than what you would pay on a contract for the same so... seem's pretty no brainer to me. A lot of the pre-payed service providers actually use the bit carriers networks, it's just they have to compete more for prices, and as is the case with Straight Talk have some of the bigger features available for less.

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fakiesk8r333

Discussion Starter · #5 · Oct 31, 2012

Don Serrot said:
Pretty much. For me T-Mobile isn't available in my area, but AT&T is. And $45/month for everything unlimited is way better than what you would pay on a contract for the same so... seem's pretty no brainer to me. A lot of the pre-payed service providers actually use the bit carriers networks, it's just they have to compete more for prices, and as is the case with Straight Talk have some of the bigger features available for less.

So if at&t has better service in my area I could get an at&t sim from straight talk and it would essentially give me a phone with at&t service? This is pretty cool stuff, its got me really thinking about switching

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

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ixobelle

· #6 · Nov 1, 2012

fakiesk8r333 said:
So if at&t has better service in my area I could get an at&t sim from straight talk and it would essentially give me a phone with at&t service? This is pretty cool stuff, its got me really thinking about switching

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

wait... is this true?

I don't understand how that would work. I'm on the cusp of getting a brand new phone (nexus 4) and ditching verizon once and for all. I *just now* heard about straight talk trolling these forums.

I basically pick either AT&T or TMOBILE, and grab one of their sims, and just use straight talk prepaid cards from walmart to refill once a month? seriously? seems too good to be true... what's the catch?

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fakiesk8r333

Discussion Starter · #7 · Nov 1, 2012

ixobelle said:
wait... is this true?

I don't understand how that would work. I'm on the cusp of getting a brand new phone (nexus 4) and ditching verizon once and for all. I *just now* heard about straight talk trolling these forums.

I basically pick either AT&T or TMOBILE, and grab one of their sims, and just use straight talk prepaid cards from walmart to refill once a month? seriously? seems too good to be true... what's the catch?

no you get a staight talk sim from straight talk and they use their towers. so they would provide you with an at&t compatible sim and use at&ts service. its kinda weird and i dont think i understand it completely yet myself lol

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Don Serrot

· #8 · Nov 2, 2012

That's pretty much it. Most of the pre-payed phone places aren't able to give the best features, but make up for it with prices. You won't get a subsidized phone price for example, and you don't get tethering as an option with Straight Talk. So you have to trade off some things if you decide to go with them. But if you do the math in two years you save way more paying full price (even for a GS3) and the $45 a month over the subsidized phone and the monthly bill from the carriers. Straight Talk IMHO seems to have the best pre-payed package, so that's where I'm putting my money. A top of the line $300 phone is already an amazing price, and then just $45 a month is an easy bill to pay. And should someone come along with a better package at a better price I can easily jump cause no contract.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

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fakiesk8r333

Discussion Starter · #9 · Nov 2, 2012

Don Serrot said:
That's pretty much it. Most of the pre-payed phone places aren't able to give the best features, but make up for it with prices. You won't get a subsidized phone price for example, and you don't get tethering as an option with Straight Talk. So you have to trade off some things if you decide to go with them. But if you do the math in two years you save way more paying full price (even for a GS3) and the $45 a month over the subsidized phone and the monthly bill from the carriers. Straight Talk IMHO seems to have the best pre-payed package, so that's where I'm putting my money. A top of the line $300 phone is already an amazing price, and then just $45 a month is an easy bill to pay. And should someone come along with a better package at a better price I can easily jump cause no contract.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

I agree completely, my only concern is coverage at my home. It looks line they have good coverage at my school but it looks kinda spotty at my House, but their map isn't zoom able so i can't tell for sure

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

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OmnipotentBeing

· #10 · 2 mo ago

I checked their site but honestly i got confused lol. I wanna leave VZW's BS and get a decent carrier and ST seems like the best for me so any help you guy can give would be greatly appreciated.

Save

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