Temporary Verizon Pre-paid plan at Walmart

[kaBLOOnie Boonster]

Has anyone signed up with the temporary Verizon pre-paid phone plans at Walmart stores, yet? Do not confuse this with Walmart's "Straight Talk." They are different.

If I have it straight I can buy one of a half dozen smartphones at the store, use it as a personal hotspot, and then run my laptop off of the data.

7 gigabytes of data per month, data carryover, unlimited talk and text -- all for $50 per month. Not sure if there is a $20 line charge that gets added to that.

If anybody has found the "catch", please speak up!

 

[Almost There]

You don't need to go to W/M to get a 'prepaid' Verizon plan...any Verizon store/outlet will have the same thing.

I use Verizon for the 6 months I'm in the US each year and simply go to the closest Verizon outlet when I cross the border. Last winter was my first season down here so I bought the cheapest phone I could get that had a built in Mobile Hotspot (not all phones do apparently).

Last year I had a 5Gig data plan for $40.00 and a $20.00 a month talk and text plan. This year they offered much better plans - now I have unlimited north american talk and text and 10gigs of data for $70.00. This one has a rollover as long as I pay for the next month before my current month service expires. When I am finished with my service for the 6 months I simply suspend my service. No contract, no auto pay, no problem.

And yes, I use the phone for a hotspot and connect wireless to my laptop....can't see squat on my phone so I never use it for anything other than talk and text.

 

[kaBLOOnie Boonster]

Ok I joined the Verizon prepaid plan offered at Walmart. (Not talking about "Straight Talk.") First I walked into the Verizon store on the other side of the parking lot, and learned about their high priced prepaid plans. I gave up.

At Walmart I bought an Android Samsung smartphone for $99. This phone will function as a hotspot, so I can now discard my obsolete 3g half-broken wireless modem (aka, mi-fi).

I will get 7 GB of data per month for $50 plus taxes. After that they throttle the data.

There is NO additional "line charge" that gets tacked onto that $50.

But the $50 also includes unlimited talk and text on the smartphone. So I will have much better communications than in the past, and at a lower price. I have been waiting for years for this opportunity!

 

[RVTravel]

until the price goes up in a few months..lol..kidding.

 

[Goshawk]

Did not realize Walmart did this. Will need to look and see if Walmart has an older iPhone 5s 64gb available as a part of this Verizon plan in store.


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[kaBLOOnie Boonster]

Did not realize Walmart did this. Will need to look and see if Walmart has an older iPhone 5s 64gb available as a part of this Verizon plan in store.


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In the two Walmarts I went to, they were only offering a choice of about 5 new Android phones. But I didn't ask about iPhones.

 

[Goshawk]

Local Walmart here does not have this plan with verizon.


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[kaBLOOnie Boonster]

Local Walmart here does not have this plan with verizon.


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Guess I am naive: I thought all Walmarts were the same. I am in southern AZ right now, and both the Nogales and Sierra Vista Walmarts had the prepaid Verizon plan in question. $50 per month for what I need -- that is great.

 

[Goshawk]

Guess I am naive: I thought all Walmarts were the same. I am in southern AZ right now, and both the Nogales and Sierra Vista Walmarts had the prepaid Verizon plan in question. $50 per month for what I need -- that is great.

Is it android only phones? Or is this available with an iPhone? I will stop at a couple walmarts later today and see if it's android. And the plan is $50 grand total. With Verizon they like to add a like access fee for $20 more to really mess with you. Will double check.


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[kaBLOOnie Boonster]

Is it android only phones?  Or is this available with an iPhone? I will stop at a couple walmarts later today and see if it's android. And the plan is $50 grand total. With Verizon they like to add a like access fee for $20 more to really mess with you. Will double check.


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iPhone? I thought the name of this blog was CHEAP rv living? (grin) Seriously I don't know about "other" phones or phones you already own.

There is no $20 line access charge! That is what made me buy it. That and the 7 GB instead of the 5 I expected. Unlimited talk and text. And the phone will be your hotspot.

 

[rvpopeye]

What is the charge if you go over 7GB?

 

[Goshawk]

iPhone? I thought the name of this blog was CHEAP rv living? (grin) Seriously I don't know about "other" phones or phones you already own.

There is no $20 line access charge! That is what made me buy it. That and the 7 GB instead of the 5 I expected. Unlimited talk and text. And the phone will be your hotspot.

IPhone 5 64gb on Verizon. $150 or less every day on eBay. If you get only 16gb it's less than $100. One time cost mostly. Battery cost $20 every two to three years to replace. Unfortunately I am used to it. Might switch to android sooner or later due to cost of cheaper plan that includes tethering. Am holding out that free tethering will be normal someday in the next two years.


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[DannyB1954]

Guess I am naive: I thought all Walmarts were the same. I am in southern AZ right now, and both the Nogales and Sierra Vista Walmarts had the prepaid Verizon plan in question. $50 per month for what I need -- that is great.

It has more to do with what system the local carriers are using in that town. The phone I bought in a Las Vegas area Walmart would not work in Sonora Ca. 
There are two popular systems in use here in the USA. Some phones can do both, but not all. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2407896,00.asp

 

[Goshawk]

Guess I am naive: I thought all Walmarts were the same. I am in southern AZ right now, and both the Nogales and Sierra Vista Walmarts had the prepaid Verizon plan in question. $50 per month for what I need -- that is great.

Okay found the Verizon $50 per month prepaid plan at Walmart super center. For 7gigs data on 4g network. They have an iPhone 5s with 16gb internal memory for $200 on this plan. They also have a cheap android phone for $30 called LG OPTIMUS ZONE 3 that has hotspot. The data can roll over if you don't use it. You need to use the Walmart phones on this plan as you can't seem to bring your own.


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[kaBLOOnie Boonster]

Walmarts typically have a wireless mini-store at the front of the Walmart supercenter, by the bank, restrooms, eyeglass place. They usually have more information than the electronicis department at the back of the store.

I gulped a bit when doing it, but I shut down the old plan and mi-fi. Soon I'll hit the road with the new Android phone serving as the hotspot. So far, so good.

Just bought a Weboost signal amplifier 4G-S for $180. It holds big smartphones. First test showed that it increased the 4G signal by 23 dB, as was promised by the advertising.

 

[kaBLOOnie Boonster]

Wowie zowie, do I look happy, or what! I started my second month on the $50 Verizon pre-paid plan (7 GB data plus unlimited talk and text plus data carryover plus throttling when you go over), purchased at Walmart. Going to "My Verizon" I see 8.7 GB prepaid for the next month. (Chose auto-pay.)

That is, 8.7= 7.0 + 1.7 carryover from last month.

There might be a caveat or two: I DID buy a new phone at Walmart, and I wasn't already a pre-paid customer with Verizon. (My previous Verizon DATA plan was called "month to month", that is, post-paid. ) Are these two requirements necessary? It is worth clarifying that with Walmart before you sign on.

I am almost afraid to jinx myself or somebody by gushing over this too much.

 

[Goshawk]

Wowie zowie, do I look happy, or what! I started my second month on the $50 Verizon pre-paid plan (7 GB data plus unlimited talk and text plus data carryover plus throttling when you go over), purchased at Walmart. Going to "My Verizon" I see 8.7 GB prepaid for the next month. (Chose auto-pay.)

That is, 8.7= 7.0 + 1.7 carryover from last month.

There might be a caveat or two: I DID buy a new phone at Walmart, and I wasn't already a pre-paid customer with Verizon. (My previous Verizon DATA plan was called "month to month", that is, post-paid. ) Are these two requirements necessary? It is worth clarifying that with Walmart before you sign on.

I am almost afraid to jinx myself or somebody by gushing over this too much.

Your plan is a good deal. Have gone the regular Verizon unlimited data path. So single account $85-$5-$5=$75 per month. At least I think that is how much it will cost. (Plus $30 one time activation fee). The two $5 discounts are auto payment, and Veterans Advantage. Will report after I get the first bill what the real costs are.

Used the BRING YOUR OWN PHONE plan as I have a Verizon iPhone that was on the STRAIGHT TALK plan for $55 and 10gigs data (no tethering). But kept running out of data the last week. The new regular Verizon plan should give me 10 gigs tethered (can use my laptop) and unlimited regular data all at 4g speed. Will see.




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[happiergnome]

I'm not sure how this phone plan you all are talking about works but with cricket (att), i found out if you run out of data you can go to the website and change your phone plan from whatever it is to anything else and the service will reset the data limit when you make the change. I found out by calling their customer service to complain that I had run out of data 2 weeks in when I spent most of my use time connected to wifi. i hadn't been turning off the data connection when i would connect to the wifi and it apparently was still using data? i don't fully understand that part. The very nice but difficult to understand overseas lady asked me if it would be alright to change my plan and then change it back because that would reset my data without having to charge me the additional fee for more data. I don't know if she told me this because i was nice or because i acted incompetent. I swear it was acting.

If there is a service you can login to and change your plan from 7 gigs to something else it might reset your data limit. My bill was also lower that time and the three other times I had to do it myself before they finally came out with "unlimited". I wouldn't actively look to do this aggressively or monthly but just a rainy day back pocket trick to keep in mind (if it works).