Update On Straight Talk Wireless
Since my article on Straight Talk is consistently in my “top posts” list, I thought it was time for an update.
At the time of my previous post we were happy with the cell coverage, and with the price, but we were having issues with making payments, and with reaching customer service. At the time Straight Talk also wasn’t offering any really great phones.
Well I don’t know if a lot of folks made complaints and were heard, or if Straight Talk is just catching up with the times, but they’ve made improvements and I’m extremely happy with them now.
First, I finally signed up for auto refill, which I was hesitant to do before. I was concerned that I would forget a payment was coming out of my account and get overdrawn. I decided I just needed to get on top of it and remember it the way I do for Netflix, ABC mouse, and Hulu. Not that big a deal. I get a text message each month letting me know my service is about to refill, so if I need or want to I can go online and cancel the payment. I didn’t even have a problem updating my payment method when I recently switched banks. My service has been seamless.
Second, they’ve gotten some really good phones on board and they allow you to bring your own phone by purchasing a SIM card from them. I finally went back to using a smart phone, the Huwei W2, a Windows 8 phone. It runs Pandora, Netflix, Hulu and all the games my kids want to play. We may use these features less than the average family, but we’ve never had a problem with the service getting bogged down and buffering a lot, except when we’re in poor cell coverage. At home, where there is no cell service, I am able to connect to wifi, which is nice when the rest of the family is hogging the media devices and I need to check my email.
It seems like the $45 Unlimited plan really is unlimited, which is getting to be a thing of the past with the other carriers. Like I said, we may not use it as much as most folks do, but we haven’t gotten any nasty-grams about using too much data, and we’ve never been cut off.
As I said before, either enough folks complained and were heard, or Straight Talk finally caught up with the times. They are providing comparable service to the “big guys” for no contract and at a reasonable monthly price.
I am currently a satisfied customer!
Thanks for the StraightTalk info. It is helpful to read. We have been using ST for several years after leaving VZ for cost reasons. Two phones among us. One phone we have on $30 plan w/VZ coverage, the other is on $45 plan w/AT&T coverage. I have been concerned about getting on auto-refill with ST. As you stated going to Walmart can be a challenge. I have been using Walmart.com and buying activation cards by email, then adding to reserve with ST. Has worked well so far.
Next event with ST is coming up later this month. We am about to let $45 plan expire, then would like to port phone number from $30 plan to the $45 phone as an upgrade. I do hope it works. I like the $45 phone, Nokia E71, and want to keep the old number.