Straight Talk iPhone

If you are just here to get information on bringing your own iPhone to Straight Talk, skip directly to the bolded section below.

In case you're not a regular reader, I'm a Straight Talk user. I ditched the big cell phone companies a year ago and made the jump to Walmart's bargain-priced pre-pay. Walmart offers 2 discount cell phone plans, one by Straight Talk and one by Family Mobile. Family Mobile operates on the T-Mobile network while Straight Talk works with all of the major carriers, though I should note that it appears they are phasing out Sprint at this time.

Prior to joining Straight Talk, I had Verizon. My monthly bill was about $65 which included 900 anytime minutes, fav 5 and 250 text messages. Not horrible, but not great either. I didn't have a smart phone. What made me change was when my cell phone needed replacing. I went into Verizon and found out that my plan was kaput, replaced by higher priced options, most of which had data. I didn't really care about doing the smart phone thing and I was put-off by the high price, so I started looking into different options. I'd seen the Straight Talk sign many times before and decided to look into it.

At Walmart, you can join Straight Talk and for about $48 a month (including taxes) you can get "unlimited" talk, text and data. Pretty sweet deal compared to what I was paying! **Note: "unlimited" data is secretly limited to about 2Gb. After that, they cut the speed so badly that you can't use it. As someone who rarely uses the mobile internet and mostly sticks to wi-fi, it's not an issue for me. Also, you can't stream videos or music with them as it is a violation of the terms of use.

Anyway, with Straight Talk you can buy a box with a phone in it and instructions for setting the phone up. You go online, do all the steps and then buy your airtime. You can auto-refill to ensure that you never have a lapse in service. It was really easy to set up, but the choice of phones at my local store wasn't great. You have a better selection online, but one common theme shines through - they're EXPENSIVE! Since it's a pre-pay you're basically paying full price for the phone, but it seems that Straight Talk ups the price a little bit if you want one in a colorful green box.

If having to buy a full-price phone isn't an option or is a turn-off, Straight Talk has begun a bring your own phone plan. You can purchase a SIM card through the company to use on the AT&T or T-Mobile network or you can buy a CDMA access code to use your Verizon phone. There are some phones that can't be brought over, like the iPhone, Blackberry and a few others.

But there's good news if you want to bring your own iPhone to Straight Talk. Users can bring an AT&T iPhone to the network. Then you simply purchase a micro SIM card for $6.99 and you'll be good to go. I confirmed this through Straight Talk - The Verizon iPhone is not allowed and while some people may pull off putting one on the network, it's not allowed and violates terms, which means they can be disconnected at any time. AT&T iPhones ARE allowed.

So instead of paying the $400+ price tag for a 4S (I know that the 5 series is the newest, but hey... who can afford that?!) through Straight Talk, I went on Amazon and bought a used 4S 32Gb in great condition for $170. That's a huge savings. Add in the $7 SIM card and I'm still ahead of the game. A quick check on ebay or even Amazon will show that AT&T iPhones are in more demand (and thus, higher priced) than Verizon because they can be used on Straight Talk. One other good thing to note - Even locked AT&T phones will work on Straight Talk. This was confirmed by Straight Talk. That should help you find an even better deal!