Last year (13 months ago) I brought a $10 basic flip phone for placing local yard sign placards. The Straight Talk Phone (also a tracfone company) has perform well - I use ONLY the phone & text functions by NOT having set up voice mail - my target population for this business USES texting mostly. I monitor my available minutes and buy a 90 day card to extend the service. This phone came with DOUBLE minutes (texting uses partial minutes).
Last month, I caught a QVC Daily Special (24 hour very low price offer) for a Straight Talk Phone Smart phone for $99 with lifetime TRIPLE minutes. My Verizon personal family phone (a flip phone) was out of contract and I JUMPED on to the phone and brought it. I ported my number and terminated the Verizon contract (for that phone) - took about an 90 minutes to set up with the number transfer terminating my Verizon $60-70 monthly charge. The QVC special was 1200 minutes, 1200 texts, 1.2 GIG DATA (the tripled numbers) with 1 year service on the smart phone. Yes, there was a slight language zitch with getting it going - but I called during a slow service time and the phone got LIVE inside of 75 minutes.
I also set this phone up with ONLY CALL and TEXT service - no Voice Mail - relatives will get with it - TEXT ME or call me back later.
My 3rd cell will be out of contract in 11 months. It is the SMART phone I managed to lose 4 days ago. It had insurance and I loved the phone - but I have to pay $99 to get the new one. I put its older version back on and will mostly bite the bullet and pay the $99 to get a clone phone back (I was hoping it would come out of its hiding place). And when its contract is over, I will again get a non-contract (Smart Phone) - whatever service is best them.
So, my HIGH bills for Cell Phone service was about $170 monthly. The contract phone service is down to $60 plus $7 and $7 per month for the other 2 lines ($74 monthly). 11 more months. I will activate Voice Mail on the future 3rd Straight Talk phone - its client base is NOT the texting population.
And my 2 "landline phones have been Ooma service for the last 13 months (under $5 total - down from over $100+ monthly).