This summer marked a big event for me. For the first time in 15 years, I looked for a new cell-phone carrier: Republic Wireless.
You see – I’d been with the same cell phone carrier since college – Verizon – and frankly, I hadn’t run into any issues.
That is, until a couple of months ago when I went to upgrade our two Verizon phones to last years model “iPhone” – for 99¢ each…. They wanted to charge me around $180 in fees to do it.
I walked out the door and immediately started shopping around.
When we got home, I began scouting out other companies and even asked the Crumbs Facebook Community for service provider recommendations. Many of you had already evaluated this area of your budget and were using services like Ting and Page Plus.
After several days of internet sleuthing, one company really stood out to me and kept coming up over and over again: Republic Wireless.
Naturally, I did what anyone else would do: I googled them.
Here were the top results (as in user submitted reviews, less-biased). Notice the stars for the four major carriers.
Then notice the stars for Republic Wireless.
Tiffany and I were intrigued and wanted to know more. I talked to a few reps, learned more about their company philosophy and asked how their phone service worked (and how in the world they are able to make it available so cheap!).
They answered all my questions and offered to send us a couple of demo phones to try so we could share our experience with you guys… assuming we liked it, of course.
If the fact that we’re writing this post hasn’t given it away, Republic Wireless totally rocks (and no, we’re not getting paid to say that)!
Republic Wireless – Cell Phone Service for the Budget Conscious
(1) Republic Wireless Leverages Wifi
They are the ONLY cell phone company that utilizes Wifi to its fullest potential.
I know that sounds a bit geeky, so let me explain.
When you make a phone call or send a text with all other cell phone companies (Verizon, AT&T, etc.), your message is sent through your local cell phone tower. Republic Wireless was designed to route through Wifi FIRST, and THEN the local cell phone tower.
It’s a hybrid of connectivity, so to speak.
- When you’re at home, your phone connects to your Wifi. Your calls/text/data will be routed through your home internet.
- When you’re at Starbucks or the library or any other place that has Wifi, your calls/text/data will be routed through that internet connection.
- If you’re somewhere where is isn’t any Wifi, your calls/text/data will be routed using the local cell phone tower.
- If you start with Wifi and then go out of range, your phone will automatically transition to the local cell phone tower. And you won’t even notice.
Wondering if you can get service in your area? Republic Wireless has this awesome coverage map to help you out.
(2) They’re super affordable
Their phone plans start at just $5 per month. Seriously.
Republic Wireless can offer crazy cheap plans because of the Wifi leverage.
Remember how Republic Wireless is using Wifi first? Well most people have Wifi set up at home, or at work or a friend’s house. Wifi is really everywhere!
Regardless of where you are, Wifi data is free.
While the $5 plan is Wifi only, they also offer a $10 plan that allows you to have unlimited talk and text anywhere you go. You can get data – without any additional charges – by hooking up to available Wifi.
If you want to have data all the time, even when you’re not in range of Wifi, you can get 0.5 G for $7.50. Think you need more? Not sure if you’ll use it all?
Republic Wireless refunds you for any unused data every month.
Republic Wireless recently conducted a trial to see how much data customers were actually using, so that they could refund/charge for the usage appropriately. The average customer only used 0.3 G data.
This is what makes Republic Wireless so different. Most other cell phone carriers charge you for the full data package, and leave it there. It didn’t matter whether or not you used it all – you paid for it, and that was that.
For the average customer that uses only 0.3 G of data, this is a refund of $3, making the average cell phone bill for text, talk and data just $14.50 each month.
Update: I just found out that Republic Wireless offers an INCREDIBLE discount to teachers! Half off wireless plans AND half off data. This is in addition to the incredible prices I already shared.
(3) They have cool phones
As of posting date, Republic Wireless offers three phones that work with their Wifi-first hybrid technology: Motorola Moto E, Moto X and Moto G.
All three phones are smartphones (obviously), but even the “low end” phone has high-end specs (which you can read about here).
Price wise, the Moto G is the most affordable. It’s recently been slashed to just $99 – a HUGE discount compared to the $180 price tag you’ll find other places. (Republic expects to be out of stock on the Moto G before the month is up though. Just a heads up if you’re interested!).
Even the Moto E and Moto X (mid- and high-level, respectively) are competitively priced too. The Moto X in particular is $200 less than if you bought through Verizon!
iPhone users should also know that the Moto X has more features and costs less than the iPhone 6… which is cool, because Tiffany used to be an iPhone user (before she switched to Republic Wireless).
(4) 30 Day Money Back Guarantee
Directly from their website:
If you are not completely satisfied with Republic Wireless or your phone with WiFi Hybrid Calling, you can return it for a full refund (minus shipping). We figure a month is long enough to know whether the phone and our service are for you. Simply contact us within 30 days of joining and we’ll cancel your service, provide instructions for returning your phone, and process your refund upon receiving it.
Republic Wireless will refund the cost of the phone AND the service so you’re not stuck owning a phone that you’ll never use. Pretty nifty if you ask me.
Feel free to test it out and forward your phone number. If for whatever reason you don’t like Republic Wireless, you’ll get a refund on what you paid them and will still have your old provider to fall back on. Read the full terms and conditions here.
(5) No Contract and the Ability to Change Your Plan Twice per Month
There’s no contract with Republic Wireless. Leave if you want to, when you want to.
Or don’t. It’s your choice.
If you want to change your plan, no worries there either. You can change it twice each month without any penalties. Republic Wireless is constantly testing to improve their service, and it’s kinda cool to be able to test new plans to see if it saves you money in the long run (and not be penalized for doing so)… instead of being stuck in whatever was a good deal at the time.
(6) It Works Internationally Without Strings Attached
There are no roaming fees, no international fees and no hassle with international SIM cards. You only need Wifi, and there are very few places on earth now without internet.
We visited Costa Rica earlier this year without a phone. Simply put, our Verizon phones would not work. We would have had to “rent” a phone from a third party phone rental provider and pay several hundred dollars in return.
Um, not gonna happen.
If we had been with Republic Wireless while on our trip, it would have cost us just $5 for the month.
Too Good to be True?
We are so impressed with Republic Wireless, that we’ve completely switched over and cancelled our Verizon accounts.
Even the coolest services out there have some drawbacks. Before you jump ship, here are three things worth mentioning:
- You must use a Republic phone. Because of the super cool technology of seeking Wifi first, you will have to buy one of their phones (they start at $99).
- Their phones come with big, beautiful screens… which means you need to get a case. This might be a non-issue if you already have a smartphone, but it’s something I’ve had to learn coming from an old school flip phone… and I learned it the hard way, unfortunately. The good news is cases are easy to find. I chose a simple black one and Tiffany picked one with a pink/teal chevron design – and we paid with Swagbucks!
- You might get a little “static ” if you’re teetering the line between wifi and cell tower service. This is a rarity, and as we’ve been testing and using Republic Wireless exclusively for the past 30 days, we’ve noticed it just a couple of times (it resolved itself within seconds). Republic releases updates frequently (which we downloaded) and haven’t heard it since.
Republic Wireless is a hidden gem among cell phone carriers, and we’re honored to partner with and support them.
We love their hybrid service, which is both frugal and geeky. We love their phones and how easy they are to use. We love their customer service and understand why 95% of customers who try Republic Wireless stay.
The fact that we ended our 15+ year relationship with Verizon Wireless is proof in the pudding!
Is Republic Wireless right for you? Use this handy tool – they’ll walk you through your concerns and help you make the right choice.
Have you heard of Republic Wireless before? What do you think about their hybrid connection model?
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. By making a purchase through those links, I will earn commission that helps to keep the lights on in the Crumbs house – with no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting Crumbs in this way. This post was sponsored by Republic Wireless: we were not paid to write this post, but received a phone to keep. All opinions are 100% mine. Read my full disclosure statement here.
You spoke too soon on praising them. All of their plans are changing and their $25 plan will no longer exist soon. Now it’s $15 per gig in addition to the $10 voice / text
Hi Jason,
While they did eliminate their unlimited data plans – the post accurately states that you can buy data in increments ($7.50/.5gb) – which is the same thing as what you mentioned in your comment.
RW is still an excellent deal, especially for those who use wifi a lot. In fact, there is so much wifi around us, we are looking at doing one $10 plan and one for $17.50. That could make our monthly total $27.50, depending on how much data we decide on getting.
I have been with Tmobile for about 10 years now and have always thought they had the best customer service (although the actual coverage hasn’t been the best). I’m always looking to save money though! I am currently in a plan that sounds similar to what Verizon is doing. We still “owe” on our phones, so I’m wondering if we are going to have to pay those off in order to cancel our service? Did you have to pay off the remaining balance of your phones before canceling with Verizon? If we did, I think the upfront cost would be too much for us with paying off balances and then having to purchase new phones on top of that. It’s something I’m going to bookmark to look at when we get our tax refund next year 🙂
Hi Lily,
We had already completed our Verizon contract, so owing or being penalized for early termination was not something that we had to deal with.
If you’re locked in a contract, you’re are probably better off completing it before switching carriers, unless your monthly costs are really high with TMobile. I know those early termination costs are really high!
Good luck with it all, and let me know how it goes!
Just curious … RW sounds great! We are always on the lookout for better ways to help with our household’s bottom line. My wife and I currently use Puppy Wireless (Verizon re-seller). We both have iPhone 4 and 3g (yep … slower than other services). We could upgrade to a better iPhone and get 4g, but we’re ok with what we have based on costs. Most of our family has iPhones and we can all send texts to each other for free since they are iPhones. Data cost does come into play when not on Wifi for texting pics of the kids, etc.
We use currently use about 600 to 750 Mb a month (each of us) and our plan gives us 1 Gb/month – 750 min and 750 texts (iPhone to iPhone doesn’t count). The plan cost is approx $30 (x2 for both of us). We do our best to use the least amount of data when we are not around wifi. At work and on the road are different stories though since there is no wifi there for us. I’ve noted a few things we may need to change to get our data cost down, like using the Nokia Here s/w for maps instead of google maps (eats quite a bit of data – gotta have maps and traffic data here in this area). Even though RW looks extremely attractive, it seems like my wife and I may be good with what we have. Lastly, aren’t there vulnerabilities to your personal information and credit card numbers if you use wifi at restaurants etc so much? What can you tell me about switching to RW from what we currently have based on the information I’ve shared with you?
Hi Scott!
That really depends. I’m assuming your data, minutes and texts are shared (similar to what we used to have). If it is, you have two phones sharing 1GB data, 750 talk 750 text = $60/mo (total for both)
If you went with the comparable plan with Republic, you could get it down to $35/month and save almost 50%. This would give you Unlimited Talk/Text, and .5/GB data (per phone) = 1GB of data. Now if each phone needed a full 1GB of data, RW would run you $50/mo. Keep in mind, you get refunded for the data you don’t use, so you could come out significantly ahead! Plus, I think with RW, you’d get 4G service.
Vulnerabilities? Well, I guess there are vulnerabilities everywhere: every-time you hand a waiter/waitress your credit card, or use a social security # online (think credit reporting agencies) you are putting sensitive information on the wire. I mentioned to another comm-enter about bluetooth being easily hacked: and almost all smart phones have this feature!
If you are concerned about security over wifi (on the phone), make sure you are using a secure network. If not, switch wifi off on your phone, and use the cell tower. Make sure the sites you are accessing are using https instead of http. Those are my best guesses anyways, but anything security related you’d need to talk to RW.
We switched to Republic Wireless several months ago and have no complaints at all. Our monthly bill for 2 phones is about $40. We were paying $100 more than that every month with Sprint. I’ll take $100/month savings any day!
Agree. 100%!
A friend told us about RW late last year, and my husband and I have been customers for about 6 months now. We LOVE it!! I always hated the idea of being tethered to one company in a contract, so we had been doing non-contract plans with another carrier, but RW is far superior. They really try to do right by their customers- for example their first “lab” called “Maestro” was recently completed and was basically beta testing for the new pricing tiers. Feedback from customers was that the lower limit of data (1GB) was too high, so RW responded by adding an additional, lower level of .5GB for $7.50 (as mentioned in the post and is now what is available to all customers). So you really can buy just what you need and get refunded for what you don’t use. My husband’s bill last month was $11. 🙂
Awesome Jennifer! We love it too! Thank you so much for your great comment!
This is our first go around with a no-contract plan, and as of right now, we have zero plans of going back to Verizon. The phones are beautiful, the call quality is good, and our monthly bill is pennies compared to what it used to be!
We saw the Maestro lab while they were testing it and were surprised at how little data their customers were actually using!
You CANNOT BEAT an $11 bill!! That is awesome!
Thank you, thank you, thank you for making me aware of Republic Wireless. I’d never heard of them before, and I’ve been struggling to decide what carrier to go with after moving to a different state a few months ago. The only disappointment is I’ll have to switch phones, as I have a Samsung now. Or there must be a way to port my data and photos over to a new phone, right?
Thanks again!
Jeanmarie
You’re most certainly welcome Jeanmarie!
We hadn’t heard of them either until a few months ago! I believe you can migrate your contacts and photo’s over through one of the Google Apps on the phone. It may seem like a scary process (I’m a former iPhone user), but thankfully there is plenty of information out there on Google to help you make the transition. Porting your phone number over shouldn’t be an issue either – they have a tool on the RW website to help you with it!
Good luck!
So do you need virus protection or do phones come with it already?
Hi Deanna,
I’m not sure what you mean. Whether the phone operates on Wifi or phone towers, the internet is still the internet 🙂 Any technical questions, you’d probably want to forward to RW! 🙂
This sounds amazing, but unfortunately my husband is a heavy data user. I’m talking 50 GB per month. We have unlimited data with T-Mobile right now, and that’s the best I’ve found so far. 🙁
Wow! 50GB of data is a lot! It sounds like your T-Mobile plan may be the better fit for you.
RW used to have unlimited everything for $40/mo. but they eliminated that and do pay-as-you-go – and offer refunds for what you don’t use. They found that by refunding wifi-conscious people, the average phone bill was $14.50(ish). I believe it benefited the majority of their customer base.
Maybe we could convince them to offer the $40 unlimited everything again 🙂
It doesn’t matter how much data you use if you are on WiFi. The plan I got is for cell data only… I use very little.
We switched off Verizon to Republic about a year ago, and I have never been sorry! In fact, it allows us to use our phones in the house and we could never get enough signal with Verizon. I am almost always on WiFi, and use very little data unless I am traveling so I switched to the new plan where you buy your data in increments. I did have to buy extra while camping, but I won’t now that I have come home. I was able to get the lowest plan and save even further! We saved $120 a month by switching! I would also like to add you can get phones cheaper on Ebay, mine was from a certified dealer and was less than the regular website.
$120 a month! That’s a HUGE savings! We’re finding that Wifi is literally “everywhere” with these phones, and wonder why their is such a need for those overpriced data plans.
I’ve read about being able to buy Republic phones off of ebay. A great way to save a few bucks.
Thanks for sharing Cindy!
I have Verizon Edge. How do I get out of that to switch to Republic? My bill is so high and we owe so much on the phones.
Jennifer – I don’t know how to get out of current contracts. My best advice would be to call them, or go in-store, and see what they can do for you.
I have been looking at new service, and we’ll have to dig into this. My problem is that I do not have unlimited internet. We live in the country, and we have capped service. So I am the odd one, we have unlimited mobile data on our straight talk plan, and we use that to do as much as possible since it is ‘free’ with our service plan, and our home internet is not. Hmmm… something to think about. Can you choose NOT to use certain wireless service if it is available? I could maybe make it work if I could tell it that my home wifi is not an option. Certainly sounds like a great deal!
Jenna,
See if you have coverage in your area: https://dontwastethecrumbs.com/rwcoverage. If you do, it may work out for you.
You can choose not to connect to a particular wireless signal, by not connecting to it (you get prompted). If you do connect to it, but don’t want to connect to it anymore – you can click “forget network.”
RW phones are very wifi friendly – which is what makes them different from the other competitors. So you’d lose that “edge” at home since you have a capped service.
If you have unlimited data with Straight Talk at a good price, then you may do better sticking with them, but you’d have to crunch the numbers to determine which is a better fit for you.
After many years with Verizon Wireless, my husband and I decided that we were spending way too much money every year on cell phones we rarely used. DH mostly uses his while he is at work driving truck, but since he is retired and only driving one day a week it was a colossal waste of money! My cell phone is mostly used when I am away from home so I can stay in touch with my husband. We both use our cell phones when we travel, but since that is only a few weeks out of the year, again our cell phone bills were way out of line. As a result, we went with TracFones and now have more than enough minutes each year for less than a quarter of what we were spending on cell phone service before. Admittedly our usage is not normal in today’s society, but paying by the minute works for us.
Hi Grace!
So glad to hear that you found an affordable solution for cellular service! I’ve heard good things about TracFone, Ting, Page Plus, Cricket etc.. There are a lot of great cost effective options on the market now that people should consider! We couldn’t believe how many competitors have come into the market, after we actually started looking around.
I have heard of this several times but hesitate because our wifi is a hotspot that is only turned on when I am using the computer. I do have wifi at work though. The coverage map covers my areas. So when it switches over to wifi do you new to give a password for every wifi connection it finds? Or does it somehow just hook up?
Hi Liz! Once you connect to a network (password or not), your phone automatically remembers it for the next time. You never have to retype the password, or manually connect back to it when you’re in the area – the phone just does it for you when you are in the area 🙂
Being on Republic has made us question if we even need a data package! The main places we go: library, home, sports center, coffee shop – all have wifi. There is free internet everywhere, Republic is just better about taking advantage of it!
We switched to RW in March of this year. Can’t beat the price! We are saving $138/mo over what we were paying with at&t and our iphones. I do miss having the stream for photos like the did on my iPhone (it was a great way to share all the family photos and videos with my extended family). And I would say sometimes the call quality on my moto is bad and my phone acts up…but if I’m being honest it’s not like my iPhone was always perfect either! Overall, I’m happy we made the switch, its a great way to save money on “fixed” ” monthly budget items.
You certainly can’t beat the price 🙂 And yes, no service is perfect, but RW really is a gem that offers something unique 🙂 We haven’t experienced any real call quality issues – other than the occasional blip that we’ve had with Verizon as well. Anything that’s popped up (like a tiny bit of static), resolved itself within a second or two.
One funny thing is, there used to be a spot we’d always lose service with Verizon, but we don’t with RW. Obviously it comes down to the placement of the tower, but it’s funny none the less.
I have been a customer for over two years and to date have saved over $3000 compared to my previous Verizon service. Not once have I regretted my decision. With the addition of multiple carriers in the near future and new phones being tested other than Motorola, I believe Republic will continue to grow and become even greater.
We think so too! My husband is a former network/telecom engineer who worked with a lot of voip phone systems. When he first learned about Republic, he was amazed at “how much sense” it made to use wifi + towers.
Not to mention, the lower price points and increased competition could put a downward pressure on phone bills in the near future!
Glad you made the switch! I switched to Republic over a year and half ago now from my iPhone. I had the Moto G for a while, and was never satisfied with the camera or space (got the 8 GB model), so I finally upgraded to the Moto X (2nd Gen. 2014 model). I love this phone. Great camera, it’s fast and holds plenty of apps.
Thanks John! We’re glad too! The Moto X is really a great phone. I’ve been an iPhone user for over 2 years, and switching to the X was REALLY easy (podcasts, apps, contacts etc..). Still getting used to it, but it’s SO much faster than my iPhone, and the camera quality is awesome!
Thanks for the advice John! You are the reason I shelled out for the Moto X. Fastest $300 dollars I ever spent in my life. I officially own my tech status as a power user.
Thank you Tiffany and husband for the review! I’m emailing RW to make sure you get your commission. 🙂
~ Meg
Thanks Meg, I think you’ll love it! We haven’t had any regrets yet. And if you don’t like it, they have a money-back guarantee 🙂
That’s so awesome! We love how the phones are able to work internationally!
I still don’t have a cell phone and this sounds like it would work for me. Are the cases easy to find??
Hi Donna! We ordered our cases off of Amazon! Fit great and would definitely go this route again.
Definitely something to consider this next round, We’ve been on Verizon since I got so tired of Sprint. Verizon definitely has it’s issues. We live close enough to Canada to go for the weekend or day trip, a few times a year, and Verizon complicated that matter. My husband even called last time to get the international service and even called back to confirm it was activated. It was NEVER activated so every freaking 5 minutes- the little msg popped up on our screen. Not fun if you are trying to use your phone for GPS. Oh they fixed it- we weren’t overcharged. yet no one can tell us WHY it wasn’t followed through on. The inconvenience was extremely annoying.
Plus we moved in the early part of last year to a newly developing community and Verizon keeps promising a cell tower out here.
As for the phones- we’ve had the Moto Ultra and love it- so I will agree that that while all phones are different, we’ve been pleased with the actual phone, Moto seems to be a good line of phones.
Andrea, I’m so sorry to hear that! Those technical/billing issues can really be a pain can’t they? Even worse, is when the business you are dealing with has become “so big that they “forget” about their customers. That’s how we felt with Verizon, and were disappointed with the new “Edge” plan they offer now (phone financing).
One thing we love about RW, is that you can change your plan – through your phone – up to twice per month. We’ve personally dealt with a few of their reps and they have been a pleasure to work with. I’m sure they’ll have growing pains as they get bigger – but they are the kind of company that we like to support.
1. You mention talking to RW reps. Was that on the phone or by email. Not being able to call RW is a real pain in the backside. If you have a phone number for RW, please publish it!
2. Being able to “switch plans” twice a month is somewhat confusing. That means changing form plan A to B and back to A again – no more changes during the billing cycle. AND, something I think not a majority of RW users know is that you have to be connected to WiFi or a computer connected to the internet to change plans. So, if you have the $10 plan and you are out driving around and need Maps, you cannot just upgrade to get OTA data.
I’ve been an RW user for a little over a year. It’s a good value, to be certain, but there are problems. It is not generally recommended for a business phone, for sure.
Hi A Wolf!
1. We originally contacted RW through FB messaging, which led to an email, and then several phone calls with one of their teams.
We also contacted them through their chat support (once you log into their member portal) when we had a few questions we needed answered. They were incredibly helpful on both accounts.
2. When we talked one of their reps, they informed us that you could change your plan at any time during the month, up to twice a month. From our understanding, if you go from a more expensive plan, to a less expensive plan, you are either refunded or prorated the difference on next months bill. You’d have to check with them for more details.
Whether or not you have to be connected to wifi, or logged into a computer, to change plans really doesn’t seem like much of a hassle to me (I haven’t tried this) – the fact that you are able to change plans mid-month is something I LOVE. I’ve never seen that flexibility with any other carrier!
Regarding using GPS offline when on the $10 plan – or when not connected to the internet, I know Republic has covered this before:
https://community.republicwireless.com/people/carlh/blog/2014/10/21/navigation-without-data-for-free–the-solution-is-here
You can always upgrade to a plan with actual data for a few more bucks and not have to deal with the hassle. We’ve used Maps before (with data) and it worked great.
There are certainly problems with every business! However, this is one that we think does a great job catering to consumers – not to mention it’s a frugal option – which is what we are all about.
That’s funny. We switched to Verizon after some horrible issues with Sprint, as well. We had an unlimited plan with Sprint. When we went to get new phones, they wouldn’t let us have that plan anymore (this was just the last in a long string of issues) so we left.
Now Verizon seems to be pulling something similar. We switched last year & went with a program called “Edge”. Basically, you lease the phone & once you’ve paid off 50% of it, you can upgrade. Well, we went in this weekend & found out now you have to pay off 100% of your phone. So it works out the same as purchasing it!
Plus, to switch 4 phones, they charged us $250 in taxes & fees, plus another $200 for cases. Cell phone companies are making a fortune & it’s extremely frustrating. I think I’ll have to check out Republic.
Tiffany,
I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised with Republic. Reasonable plans and reasonably priced phones…. The same Moto X is $299 at RW, and $499 at Verizon! Also, our bill has dropped from over $100/mo to $35. And we get more for our money (we’ll talk about that in our next post)!
We’d investigated the “Edge” plan (like you) a few months ago when the terms were more favorable towards consumers. Then, when Verizon changed terms (again), to where you have to pay off 100% of the phone, we couldn’t believe it. Edge really means phone financing, and it seems Verizon took away the incentives they used to offer for repeat customers.
We still can’t believe how two $.99 cent iPhones (last years model) magically cost around $180.
Only time will tell with RW, but we’re saving a lot and like how they are flexible with the customer. No service is perfect, but we have nothing to complain about 🙂
Hi Tiffany, how badly I’d lile to change to Republic .. dropping Verizon but Iam signed into a nother yr contract which will end Sept. 2016…. Wish there was a way but a contract is a contract I guess…. I very much enjoy “don’t waste the crumbs” & thank you for sharing so many healthy menu’s & advice ! May the Lord of all .. good health continue to bless you & yours, continually holding you & yours in the Palm of His Hand!!
I know Verizon just recently revamped their whole wireless system. I believe they have wiped out contracts moving forward and if you are in an existing contract you can keep it or change to the new way.
Hi Michelle!,
Thanks for updating us! It does look like Verizon made some changes, but it still looks like a poor deal compared to Republic. Looking at the cost breakdown, here’s what I see for the “new” Verizon plan.
1GB of data = $30. With Republic, it’s only $15.
Each line = $20/mo. for unlimited talk/text. With Republic, it’s only $10.
So, apples to apples, Republic is still 1/2 the cost of Verizon. $25, instead of $50/mo.
I’m not sure if Verizon makes you sign a contract, but I do know their phones are incredibly overpriced. The same Moto X is $450 at Verizon and $299 with Republic.
It looks like Verizon has made a few moves in the right direction – trying to be a little more flexible – but after it’s broken down, their pricing hasn’t really changed much.. Good news is that it looks like they got rid of that terrible plan called “Edge” – which we know as phone financing.
One other thing to note, your old number may or may not be portable with Republic. We were not able to get a number in our area code due to who they get their phone numbers from. We did not consider that enough reason not to change, though. We got new numbers in a nearby area code and never looked back. We had 2 Straight talk phones and two headphones and it still saved us $60 a month. We love Republic!
We were able to port our old numbers over to our new phones.. However, we’d have switched regardless! The cost savings is incredible and have had a great experience with their customer service dept (we used the chat feature).