Hey guys,
I am tired of searching new cell phones and service providers. Actually what happened, I tried to buy a cell phone with AT & T as a service provider in individual plan but it says that you need to deposit initial 500 $ amount coz' i don't have credit history and how is it possible for me coz' i just got a credit card.This was damn bad thing we need to suffer from.Is there any possibilities of  having AT & T as service besides this. And the rest fundamental thing's that in my area there's no T-Mobile service and I dnt want Verizon. I looked through Sprint but I am confused about it's roaming charge. Any Sprint mobile can suggest me about this? Should I have to pay the roaming charge if I need to access from another state or from a place that covers area of another service provider like AT & T, T-Mobile etc.

Could you please help me. Any useful comments are highly entertained. Thank you. And by the way I am a Nepali Guy from Iowa.

Fearzone I guess every carrier will ask you for the deposit as you have got ur credit card just recently but most probably sprint will ask less than any other services. If you don't have that much financial issues then I suggest you to deposit 500 and get AT&T, their network and roll over minutes are very positive aspect. Regarding roaming charge of sprint, it is not like that if you go outside ur state and u have to pay roaming charge. But in some areas where the signal of sprint is poor or no signal then in that case you have to pay roaming charge if u use ur cell phone. I have used sprint for abt 8/9 months but was not satisfied, the network is poor.

Don't used Sprint...........customer service is very bad. Coz of their mistake, I lost 100 pts in my credit history.

Better get prepaid AT&T. Bit expensive but good for someone who doesnt have credit history . No contract at all.

FearZone, you didnt specify the reason not to go with Verizon. Verizon has the best reception and the customer service is ranked second after TMobile. T mobile would be the best option if it worked for you in your area. Dont go with cingular and sprint. their customer service sucks and the coverage area is not good either.If your credit is not good, you may have to pay a deposit of 400 dollars at the max, but I am sure you will like the service. Cingular's rollover sounds good but if you dont keep track of how many rollover minutes you have left for each month, you will be f****d up. One of my friend thought he had tonnes of minutes and went over the minutes. he was billed for 1200 dollars.

You may want to check consumerreports.org and check for yourself where these companies stand.

I have had Tmobile (coverage sucks, customer service is awesome, had some roaming charges), Sprint (cancelled service coz it sucked really bad), had cingular (it was awesome but after they merged with AT&T, got lot of drop calls) and then finally switched to Verizon. I have had service with them for 2 years and I am really happy.

Good luck.

Dear Fearzone,

                      Looking at the situation you have few but limited options. Please be wise to pick them as it best suits you.

a. Since you just received your credit card its most likely that it will take another 5-6 months for you to get your credit score up and if you have a credit card with $1000 you wont have to put a deposit since the credit card is a major factor in increasing your credit score. So it will definitely take time. Don't get any cell phone rite now. Wait for another 5-6 months and then apply again with Cingular. You would get one with zero deposit.

b. As someone has mentioned above, yes you can deposit that $500 its not a bad idea, Take it like a saving that you would use after a year. They would refund your $500 after one year or two years(please check this if you are going to sign the contract with them) and i think its not a bad idea. But be prepared to put down at least $700-800 up front since ($500 deposit + $36 activation fee + $40 first month bill + $100 (depending on the phone you like if you dont wanna get free phone )).

c. There is another way to get around this issue. Some phone companies such as verizon would create your account without social security number. You can mention that you don't to use your social security and they will run a background check on you. Now i dont know how much that would cost and how much amount they might ask you. And i am also not sure weather AT&T would do that. But there is nothing wrong on checking with them.

d. You can consider sprint, lets say if AT & T is asking you $500 then most likely sprint will ask you for $250 this is the case as they want more costumer. Call their costumer service and ask them about the roaming charges or go to www.sprint.com and search as roaming charges you would see all of them listed there. Sprint is a Reston,VA based company which is tumbling around due to lack of proper guidance since they are switching their CEO's quite often. And their service is not as good as AT &T and verizon.

e.Another option is prepaid and this is a very good option. If you plan to go by option "a" as listed above then for that 5-6 months you can get a prepaid phone for backup. It should cost your $50 a month with cingular. And you can buy a really cheap A T & T phone from www.ebay.com This will save you lot of money and you wont have to invest $500 since you are pay in advance.

I hope this helps you to predict on what you really want to get?


Best Wishes,
YekloYatri

Panasonic, I am wondering how ur friend was billed $1200. As a consious customer we have to keep track of how many minutes we have, its very easy and it doesn't cost at all. AT&T definitely adds the roll over minutes I think ur friend was unaware of the remaining minutes and used the calls. Me personally check my minutes everyday online its so simple and easy, just log on and check the used , remaining and rolll over minutes. If we have any questions then we can call the customer assistance and even there is online chat for customer assistance with AT&T. Little note: I am not marketing guy of AT&T hai feri.