How to Avoid AT&T's 2 Year Contract

[Swagger]

I was thinking last night, how silly it is to have to sign a two year contract (with AT&T). AT&T gave me, or no one else (that purchased the iPhone at FULL price) anything free or discounted. Therefore, I felt that I should not have to sign a two year contract. Most carriers require a contract to offset the free or discounted phone. You recieve when signing up for new (or renewing) service. AT&T and Apple gave no discount and certainly nothing free. There is a way to get around being locked into a contract. Purchase a PRE-PAID plan!!! AT&T did not widely publicize this option but it is availible (for the iPhone). You can even switch, to a prepaid plan if you started new service with AT&T, just to get the iPhone and have not had your account for 30 days yet. You get all the features of a regular plan. The only drawback is, you get a FEW less minutes for your money. If you weigh the few less minutes, as opposed to being locked into a two year contract, then it's worth it (for me it was, anyway). The prepaid plan offers, free nights & weekends, mobile to mobile, Rollover minutes and unlimited data (for 20.00 extra) just like the regular plans do. All you have to do is, choose your minute plan and you are off and running with NO CONTRACT!!! I thought this was great since, I'm already in a contract with another carrier. I only got AT&T service, to get the iPhone. I switched from a regular AT&T plan, to a prepaid plan today. Ridding myself of yet another phone contract. I have 650 minutes, mobile to mobile, free nights and weekends, unlimited data and Rollover for 59.00 a month. Wow, what a deal and the sweet part is, NO CONTRACT!!! M

[wjp09]

hate to be mr johnny raincloud but its not pay as you go. You need to pay x number of dollars a month

[Swagger]

Originally Posted by wjp09

hate to be mr johnny raincloud but its not pay as you go. You need to pay x number of dollars a month

I never said it was Pay as You Go. I said "PrePaid", meaning you pick a minute plan, and are charged the same price evey month. You have NO CONTRACT though. The only trade off is you get a few less minutes than a regular plan due to not having a contract. Read young man, read..M

[bmwlover0725]

that's actually really cool but kind of pointless unless you plan on canceling soon rendering the iphone useless.

[wjp09]

Well its not useless its just a very very expensive ipod.

[aggieman]

Originally Posted by wjp09

Well its not useless its just a very very expensive ipod.

yup i agree, and who would want a $599 8GB iPod vs a $249 30GB one?? The only tradeoff is, if you don't wanna be stuck with AT&T it's not necessarily a bad idea. you have no ETF and if say, I for example, wanted to switch back to Verizon which i never really had any problems with, I could just unload the iPhone on ebay. Not to say that would ever happen. I'll sacrifice a little data speed to stay with AT&T. so far no problems, and i'm paying a little less as well and did i mention I love the iPhone.

[Michael4989]

how do text work on prepaid?

[2nynbak]

Originally Posted by iPhonian

I was thinking last night, how silly it is to have to sign a two year contract (with AT&T). AT&T gave me, or no one else (that purchased the iPhone at FULL price) anything free or discounted. Therefore, I felt that I should not have to sign a two year contract. Most carriers require a contract to offset the free or discounted phone. You recieve when signing up for new (or renewing) service. AT&T and Apple gave no discount and certainly nothing free. There is a way to get around being locked into a contract. Purchase a PRE-PAID plan!!! AT&T did not widely publicize this option but it is availible (for the iPhone). You can even switch, to a prepaid plan if you started new service with AT&T, just to get the iPhone and have not had your account for 30 days yet. You get all the features of a regular plan. The only drawback is, you get a FEW less minutes for your money. If you weigh the few less minutes, as opposed to being locked into a two year contract, then it's worth it (for me it was, anyway). The prepaid plan offers, free nights & weekends, mobile to mobile, Rollover minutes and unlimited data (for 20.00 extra) just like the regular plans do. All you have to do is, choose your minute plan and you are off and running with NO CONTRACT!!! I thought this was great since, I'm already in a contract with another carrier. I only got AT&T service, to get the iPhone. I switched from a regular AT&T plan, to a prepaid plan today. Ridding myself of yet another phone contract. I have 650 minutes, mobile to mobile, free nights and weekends, unlimited data and Rollover for 59.00 a month. Wow, what a deal and the sweet part is, NO CONTRACT!!! M

I'm not sure if I'm missing something but for what you have listed, 650 minutes and unlimited data the Att site shows is $89 a month.

[el31415]

You get $ 20 dollar discount on every $ 100 paid
20 % discount ( not sure if the discount apply)
GoPhone® Pay As You Go ?!?!?!?
GoPhone® Pick Your Plan ?!?!?
Cost if the plan more like $ 71.somethin
BUT not SMS included
Do you get all the feature of the iphone to work with the $20/moth data plan ?

[umakbill]

Hoorah, iPhonian! A fellow prepaid user! If you were wondering anyone:
to get prepaid service:
1: When activating your iPhone via iTunes, enter 999-99-9999 as your Social Security number, or fail a credit check with your real one. (Note: You MUST fail in order to see the prepaid options. I recommend using the 999-99-9999 so as not to ding your credit)
2: When AT&T tells you "You, sir, phail." It will give you three options. Choose "Use a GoPhone Pick Your Plan" (or something like that)
3: Ta-da! for a minumum of $48.95/month you get: X amount of minutes! Unlimited Data(web browsing, email, stock, weather, google maps, and youtube all UNLIMITED)! No texts (Okay, not true, they just cost about 15 cents each, but you can add unlimited for $19.99 or 200 for $4.99)!

YAY!