Sunday, December 25, 2011
When it comes to cellphone carriers, smaller may be better, according to a satisfaction survey of Consumer Reports’ online subscribers.
At the top of the ratings for standard service providers were Consumer Cellular, a national carrier that uses AT&T’s network, and U.S. Cellular, which operates in just over half of the United States. Credo, which offers service to much of the country on Sprint’s network, also bested the major carriers. AT&T, America’s second-largest carrier, again found itself at the bottom of the ratings.
In this year’s annual CR survey on cellphone-service providers, more than 66,000 ConsumerReports.org subscribers weighed in about their service and customer support experiences with standard service (billed at month’s end) and prepaid providers.
Of the four major U.S. national cellphone standard service providers, Verizon and Sprint were the better-rated carriers. Verizon had an edge over Sprint in texting and in knowledgeable support staff, but Sprint rated better in value. T-Mobile was below Verizon and Sprint, but continued to rate significantly better than the higher-priced carrier AT&T, which recently withdrew its application to the FCC to merge with its rival.
TracFone was rated one of the better carriers among prepaid cellphone service providers, with Straight Talk, T-Mobile and Virgin Mobile. All of the top four prepaid carriers received above-average scores for value. Readers who prepaid for their cellphone service were more satisfied overall than respondents with standard service.
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Don’t automatically buy from the company store. Two-thirds of cellphones are bought at carrier stores, but CR has found that prices can be lower at warehouse stores and mass merchandisers such as Walmart, and electronics stores such as RadioShack. In fact, a carrier’s walk-in stores can be even pricier than the company’s own website. CR found phones to be especially inexpensive at Costco. But you might not find the exact model you want there — or at any retailer, for that matter. All retailers don’t sell phones for all carriers, and all models might not be available everywhere.
Consider a lower-priced carrier. When CR compared 100 plans to similar alternatives in 21 matchups covering the full spectrum of plans, both prepaid and standard, Consumer Cellular came out on top. It had the best deals the most often — in more than one out of three cases. Savings usually ranged from $30 to $40 per month over pricier rivals such as Verizon and AT&T, though you might find a smaller selection of the hottest smartphones with smaller carriers such as Consumer Cellular.
Use alternative services. Bypassing the carrier and using third-party services for texting and voice calls can be a real money-saver. New apps such as HeyWire and TigerText let you send text messages for free over your data connection. With most carriers, that means you won’t have to pay 10 cents per text or $5-$30 a month for messaging plans.
Max out on Wi-Fi. Consumers should avoid using their plan’s allotment of data by tapping into the rising number of Wi-Fi networks that are available. Those who own 4G phones should set them to connect only to 3G whenever it’s adequate such as when texting or streaming music.
Investigate employee discounts. AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular and Verizon offer discounts to the employees of companies that use their services. To see whether you qualify, Google the carrier’s name and “employee discount,” and navigate to the Web page that asks for your work email address. Discounts can be as high as 20 percent, though some deals exclude the iPhone or certain service plans.
Copyright 2011, Consumers Union Inc.