Thinking of switching to AT&T

[eggsalad]

I'm currently on H2O, about $28/mo for 6gb. There's some buzz on the H2O subforum about the company being in trouble, or at least having major CS issues.

Since I'm happy with the AT&T towers, I'm considering a switch to AT&T prepaid. $300 for 12 months of 16gb seems like a sweet deal.

Problem is, that $300 doesn't include taxes and fees, and they don't tell you HOW MUCH those are until *after* you give them the info.

I live in NV and I want to assume that the taxes and fees will be proportionately the same as what I'm paying now, is that a safe assumption?

[zapjb]

There's a way to pay with AT&T prepaid cards & avoid all additional taxes. It's been explained here at Hofo. I don't remember how though.

[Boz1]

When I signed up for the AT&T Prepaid $300 plan for my wife's line, it appeared that AT&T would charge my CC $304.99+taxes/fees (the SIM card was $4.99 at the time), but AT&T only ACTUALLY charged $4.99+tax for the SIM card, which I discovered after her line wouldn't work, even after it was ported successfully to AT&T. According to an AT&T chat CSR, AT&T was SUPPOSED to charge my CC $300+taxes/fees AFTER the port was complete, but they didn't. Obviously, this turned out to be a good thing, since AT&T would have also collected taxes/fees on the $300. Once I knew the $300+taxes/fees wasn't automatically charged to my CC by AT&T, I created an AT&T online account, and used AT&T Prepaid refill cards with no taxes/fees from Target to pay $256.50 TOTAL for the initial $300.

My theory is that AT&T didn't charge my CC because I didn't select auto-pay when I signed up. But if I were to sign up for a new AT&T Prepaid $300 plan today, to ensure that I could fund the $300 with AT&T Prepaid refill cards purchased from Target, I'd still do that, but I'd ALSO use a prepaid or virtual CC with only enough availability to pay the initial $4.99+tax for the SIM card, so that if AT&T DID try to charge the CC the additional $300+taxes/fees, it would fail, and then I'd fund the plan in an AT&T online account with $300 worth of AT&T Prepaid refill cards, that I would have purchased from Target during one of their sales for $256.50 TOTAL.

I pay $256.50 for $300 worth of AT&T Prepaid cards by buying when they are on sale for 10% off ($5 Off $50) at Target, and using my Target Red Card to get an additional 5% off, so each $50 card is $42.75 ($50-$5=$45x0.95=$42.75) and $42.75x6=$256.50 for the $300 worth of AT&T Prepaid cards. Target collects no additional taxes/fees on prepaid refill cards. Also, just to clarify, you need to buy each of the 6, $50 cards in 6 separate transactions, for $42.75 each.

[zapjb]

Thanks for explaining.

[sillyette]

I'm currently on H2O, about $28/mo for 6gb. There's some buzz on the H2O subforum about the company being in trouble, or at least having major CS issues.

Since I'm happy with the AT&T towers, I'm considering a switch to AT&T prepaid. $300 for 12 months of 16gb seems like a sweet deal.

I looked on https://prepaidcompare.net/ (just for fun and because I like the prepaidcompare site!).

There's Boost's $240 per year plan on AT&T that gives 15 GB at high speeds with the full 15GB for hotspot.
So a saving of about $60 over AT&TPrepaid.

[Boz1]

I looked on https://prepaidcompare.net/ (just for fun and because I like the prepaidcompare site!).

There's Boost's $240 per year plan on AT&T that gives 15 GB at high speeds with the full 15GB for hotspot.
So a saving of about $60 over AT&TPrepaid.

Does Boost collect taxes and fees on top of that $240? If no, $240 is only $16.50 less for the whole 360 days compared to to the $256.50 for $300 AT&T funding method I posted above. If yes, Boost is probably more expensive. On top of that, Boost does NOT have rollover data and Canada and Mexico roaming, in case that's important to someone.

The Boost deal is not bad, but given what we know, I'd recommend the AT&T Prepaid $300 plan for $256.50, if the purchaser is able to wait until the next $5 off $50 Target sale to make the purchase.

The Target Red Card, for the extra 5% off, is available as either a Debit Card or Credit Card.

[october262]

Does Boost collect taxes and fees on top of that $240? If no, $240 is only $16.50 less for the whole 360 days compared to to the $256.50 for $300 AT&T funding method I posted above. If yes, Boost is probably more expensive. On top of that, Boost does NOT have rollover data and Canada and Mexico roaming, in case that's important to someone.

The Boost deal is not bad, but given what we know, I'd recommend the AT&T Prepaid $300 plan for $256.50, if the purchaser is able to wait until the next $5 off $50 Target sale to make the purchase.

The Target Red Card, for the extra 5% off, is available as either a Debit Card or Credit Card.

see this here - https://www.phonearena.com/news/att-...-data_id140779

[Boz1]

see this here - https://www.phonearena.com/news/att-...-data_id140779

See what??

[zapjb]

https://prepaidcompare.net/profiles/...obile-att.html
Boost
"Taxes collected: Point of sale plus telecom taxes and fees (USF, cost recovery fee, etc), averages about 20%."

[Boz1]

https://prepaidcompare.net/profiles/...obile-att.html
Boost
"Taxes collected: Point of sale plus telecom taxes and fees (USF, cost recovery fee, etc), averages about 20%."

I got around to checking this. For the Boost $300 unlimited plan, for my city/zip, the taxes/fees would have been $0.92, so significantly less than AT&T Prepaid, and much less than 20%. But this probably varies widely by location.