Best place to buy unlocked phones?

**BC13** · 12-18-2021, 10:09 PM

We currently have 4 lines on Verizon. 3 if the phones are paid off while my wife has another year to pay off her I phone on whatever "deal" she signed up for when begged off going with her when she got her new phone. Our total VZ payment is about $250/month for F'ing phones.

Spectrum offers $30 (tax included) per line with unlimited data. We are trying to figure out whether to switch the whole family to Spectrum ot leave my wife on the VZ account until her phone is paid off.

We've always just bought phones through the carrier, so we dont know jack about buying "unlocked phones". One of the kids needs a new phone yesterday, so if we go Spectrum we either need to buy a phone from them or elsewhere. If costs are the same I would just buy through spectrum for simplicity.

I know a bunch of you probably know your way around the cell phone shit show. Are there places other than apple or samsung we should be looking at for new or refurbished I phones and or androids? Any help is appreciated.

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**Thaleia** · 12-18-2021, 10:15 PM

I'm usually buying stuff a year or two out from it's release date but Amazon refurbs have been good to me.

**TAFKALVS** · 12-18-2021, 10:17 PM

Back Market (backmarket.com) is a great place to buy a lightly used fully unlocked refurbished phone.

Right now in the refurbished market the Samsung Galaxy s10 and s20 are good buys, along with the iPhone XS Max and iPhone 11.

**scmartin69** · 12-18-2021, 10:42 PM

Originally Posted by The Artist Formerly Known as Leavenworth Skier

Back Market (backmarket.com) is a great place to buy a lightly used fully unlocked refurbished phone.

Right now in the refurbished market the Samsung Galaxy s10 and s20 are good buys, along with the iPhone XS Max and iPhone 11.

+1 for back market, bought several phones and they were good when I had to return one.

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**I Skied Bandini Mountain** · 12-18-2021, 11:21 PM

We've been doing the no-contract cell phones for awhile, usually buy the unlocked phones off fleabay for the buyer protection and make the monthly ipayments with amex for the cell phone coverage.

**nickwm21** · 12-18-2021, 11:51 PM

The corporate mothership pays for my phone now, but before that I’d buy an unlocked phone off eBay then go into the carriers store to have them drop in a new SIM card.

Back in those days you needed to make sure the unlocked phone was setup for GSM or CDMA network depending which carrier you had. I don’t think that’s the case anymore, not sure…

The real savings was in buying the previous generation phones… IE the newest iPhone/android was $1000 but the one released 13mos ago was $300…

Vibes… anyone who finances a phone thru a carrier is not using their brain….

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**riser4** · 12-19-2021, 06:56 AM

It depends on what I want. I never buy refurbished. Fuck that. A used computer that people shove in their pocket?!?! My son bought a refurbished iphone off some site and it has not gone well.

If I want a cheap phone and I don't care that's it n-2 or older, I try B-H Photo. I also buy direct from manufacturer websites. iPhone for my wife I get direct from apple full price. I sometimes get Moto direct and sometimes from B-H. I don't buy Samsung. Since 3/5 of family is on Fi I get phones from them which lately means longer and longer minimum service activation periods, so that doesn't help you. They figured out that a 30 day period was too short to prevent people from taking advantage of them.

**gravitylover** · 12-19-2021, 07:01 AM

I think it was Swappa that I got an unlocked pixel 3a for my daughter. The phone was new and cheap and the transaction was smooth. All I had to do was put her sim card in and it worked fine.

**TAFKALVS** · 12-19-2021, 08:28 AM

Originally Posted by riser3

It depends on what I want. I never buy refurbished. Fuck that. A used computer that people shove in their pocket?!?! My son bought a refurbished iphone off some site and it has not gone well.

If I want a cheap phone and I don't care that's it n-2 or older, I try B-H Photo. I also buy direct from manufacturer websites. iPhone for my wife I get direct from apple full price. I sometimes get Moto direct and sometimes from B-H. I don't buy Samsung. Since 3/5 of family is on Fi I get phones from them which lately means longer and longer minimum service activation periods, so that doesn't help you. They figured out that a 30 day period was too short to prevent people from taking advantage of them.

I recently got involved with the refurbished business and I can tell you if you buy from the right vendor (Back Market has very stringent vendor standards) you're getting a phone that has had extremely stringent functionality testing and other than a maybe a tiny scratch here and there you're getting a good as new device.

**El Chupacabra** · 12-19-2021, 08:40 AM

I usually get phones through Amazon - check specs to be sure it's unlocked, compatible with your Verizon carrier network (ie CDMA).

I like Motorola for minimal skin / bloat, low price, does what I need. If a higher end camera is important, probably look elsewhere. But I can get two years or more out of a $100-150 Motorola, so am happy with that.

**KenJongIll** · 12-19-2021, 09:11 AM

Originally Posted by gravitylover

I think it was Swappa that I got an unlocked pixel 3a for my daughter. The phone was new and cheap and the transaction was smooth. All I had to do was put her sim card in and it worked fine.

This. I haven’t bought from there but I sold a phone on Swappa.

The one I sold was pristine. When I got it, it went straight from the box into a case.

**Cruiser** · 12-19-2021, 09:40 AM

Another vote for swappa

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**bagtagley** · 12-19-2021, 10:11 AM

Alternative, unTGR frontier spirit scheme. Switch to T-Mobile (for example) and get free/cheap phones trading in your current phones with the trade-in promo, and cover remaining device balances and other fees with the switch promo. It’ll cost you taxes up front, but that’s less than buying phones yourself (if you’re really persistent and pretend to be clueless enough, they may even add some of the taxes to the reimbursement promo. YMMV). If you hate T-Mobile, switch back to Verizon the next time they have a similar promo.

There’s a lot to consider such as the monthly cost of the promo-required service plan, and the cost difference between major carrier and MVNO. Sometimes it makes sense, sometimes it doesn’t.

**::: :::** · 12-19-2021, 10:14 AM

Re: you phone plan
You may want to go back & look hard at your usage. Maybe see what other plans are available?
We pay $100/mo less for three lines + a watch w/ Verizon (I believe the lines are $20/mo on ours (watch line is $10) so the extra lines shouldn’t be the delta). We do not have unlimited data.

**BC13** · 12-19-2021, 10:29 AM

Thanks for the feedback. I've been on VZ since day 1 so this is all new to me.

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**liv2ski** · 12-19-2021, 10:42 AM

My wife and I are over 55 so T Mobile gave us a plan for $30 each that includes everything. I have bought a few used phones off Ebay with no issues except for the time I bought one that was not specifically locked to T Mobile. I could not activate it even though the add said "Unlocked, use with T Mobile, etc, etc". Ended up selling it on Ebay and buying a locked phone that worked.

**KenJongIll** · 12-19-2021, 11:30 AM

I had TMobile, 16 years ago and liked it then. How’s the service compare to Verizon these days?

**RShea** · 12-19-2021, 11:48 AM

There are the direct from manufacturers like you state (add Motorola, Google, and a few others to the list) if you want new phones. Used then there is Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, Ebay, and then options like Swappa. But just because the phone is unlocked does not mean it will be 100% compatible and have all the bands for every carrier. Verizon has different bands than the other 2 GSM carriers- AT&T and T-Mobile. The differences with 5G are fewer than older 4G only phones, but they still exist. So if you are the type that hops from carrier to carrier and want to take your phone with you, an unlocked phone may just allow you to use it on another carrier that uses the same towers (like a prepaid MNVO using the carrier towers) and not always allow you to jump from all the 3 major US carriers.

**liv2ski** · 12-19-2021, 12:42 PM

Originally Posted by KenJongIll

I had TMobile, 16 years ago and liked it then. How’s the service compare to Verizon these days?

Where I live, T Mobile reception blows, so I like the wifi calling feature. Back in the day, that was their thing as Verizon did not offer it. I haven't had Verizon in at least 10 years, so my opinion is dated. I found their service to be the best but the most expensive. T Mobile was a lot cheaper and I learned to live with their service which has improved with time.

**BC13** · 12-19-2021, 04:14 PM

Originally Posted by KenJongIll

I had TMobile, 16 years ago and liked it then. How’s the service compare to Verizon these days?

If you travel off the main corridors in Upstate NY the VZ network is the only game in town. The other providers have spotty coverage off the beaten path. Spectrum uses Verizon's network of towers so they are good to go. Apparently VZ uses Spectrum 5G network so Spectrum got a great deal for using Verizon's towers.

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**El Chupacabra** · 12-19-2021, 04:29 PM

Originally Posted by BC13

Thanks for the feedback. I've been on VZ since day 1 so this is all new to me.

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If you and family are all on Android, look at Total Wireless. They're a Verizon MVNO. We've been using them for a couple of years, coverage is Verizon coverage. Support is online chat. System doesn't seem to work well on iPhone for some reason - friends who tried weren't happy with coverage.

Mrs C and I have two phones on one plan, $57/ mo for 30gb data total, which we never come close to using. Phones will hand off to wifi calling and texting too, obviously depending on the phone supporting that. I don't think the network supports 5G, but our phones don't anyway.

**365wp** · 12-19-2021, 05:16 PM

With four lines, you can get unlimited for $35/line at VZN. You might up being lower priority when towers get crowded at that price point, but the same applies to MVNO customers. I bought a couple refurb’d iPhones off Amazon, one of them was kinda garbage from the battery and screen perspective, probably won’t do that again. I usually try to keep phones for 4 years, and do a VZN BOGO deal when new iPhones come out, or buy one that’s one or two revs old.

**riser4** · 12-19-2021, 07:16 PM

Originally Posted by 365wp

With four lines, you can get unlimited for $35/line at VZN. You might up being lower priority when towers get crowded at that price point, but the same applies to MVNO customers. I bought a couple refurb’d iPhones off Amazon, one of them was kinda garbage from the battery and screen perspective, probably won’t do that again. I usually try to keep phones for 4 years, and do a VZN BOGO deal when new iPhones come out, or buy one that’s one or two revs old.

IDK about Spectrum, but Comcast/Xfinity runs over Verizon, plus it's extensive wifi network. I've been considering switching to Verizon. Except that here in VT, rural coverage is skewed toward AT&T because of the old Unicel footprint, that got sold to Verizon and traded to AT&T.

**UTpowder** · 12-19-2021, 08:15 PM

Any way to swing a business account? I’m with Verizon I have 6 lines and a couple watches. Monthly bill with taxes is about $230. I thinks it’s $30/phone and $10/watch. Unlimited data, text, and calling to US and Canada.

Verizon just has better coverage where I’m at. Was with AT&T but when I moved to my new office I couldn’t get service. Went half a block in any direction and it worked great just not where I was at. I switched to Verizon and been happy. AT&T offered to put a booster (wifi) in my office but didn’t offer anything better price wise the Verizon. The sales rep
Contacted me a couple years later and said they had it fixed. Sent me a phone and a free month to see how it worked. Still not good. Verizon gives me better coverage at the lake as well.

Make sure whatever you end up with you get the coverage you want. Nothing more frustrating then not have cell
service when you need it. That’s worth a few extra bucks a month to me

**RShea** · 12-19-2021, 08:36 PM

Originally Posted by BC13

If you travel off the main corridors in Upstate NY the VZ network is the only game in town. The other providers have spotty coverage off the beaten path. Spectrum uses Verizon's network of towers so they are good to go. Apparently VZ uses Spectrum 5G network so Spectrum got a great deal for using Verizon's towers.

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There are 2 things to remember and understand about Spectrum and using Verizon towers. First is they support wifi calling, so if there is a Spectrum wifi signal, then they will try and use that and not the cellular network. Sometimes that works great for areas that have spotty cellular signals. I am not sure if Spectrum supports calling still if it is not seeing a 4G or higher signal. Visible (prepaid carrier that was started by some previous Verizon higher up managers...) only supports 4G and higher calling. If you are in a rural area with only 3G or even 1X a call probably will not go through on their network. The other issue you have with Spectrum cellular, they require a Spectrum Internet account, so you have to pretty much have their cable modem, which could be an issue if they do not have coverage where you live. Spectrum I think also does not support roaming on other non-Verizon CDMA networks (and many other prepaid plans do not either- just something to be aware of)... Only the Verizon post paid (used to be contract plans in the past) allow roaming on some other carriers like US Cellular and the like that Verizon has agreements with....