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Best Deals on AT&T GS4?

Best deal requires some money up front and going to a different operator (or mobile virtual network operator), but the money saved over the contract life with AT&T should more than make up for it.

With AT&T:
99.99 Phone (if you get that $100 trade in mentioned)
36.99 Activation fee
2879.76 (119.99 x 24) (individual plan for unlimited minutes and text with 3GB data for 24 months, not including taxes)
$3016.74 Total

Straight Talk:
764.99 Phone (unlocked)
$50 Straight Talk SIM for AT&T network(can get micro-SIM or cut a standard, need to get from eBay or other party as Straight Talk can't sell them right now, prices are varying)
1200 (50x24) Straight Talk unlimited voice, text and data (used $50 instead of advertised $45 due to taxes or such, so it will vary I just went to a high number
$2014.99 Total


Since both are on the AT&T network for the actual service there is little to no difference in coverage. From what I've read the only time you may notice a difference is if you were to be in a roaming area on someone else's network that has a roaming deal with AT&T. With Straight Talk you only get service directly from AT&T when using the AT&T network Straight Talk SIM. I've not found a place I normally go without AT&T though.

Heck, with that difference you could even update annually and still be a little better on the price.
 
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Umm..thanks? I joined my sister's family plan 3 years ago and only pay $40/mo. So, it's her contract to worry about (I'm just tagging along, so what I do doesn't affect them anyway), and I couldn't possibly save money elsewhere.

Hate that you wasted all that time on that..

Yeah, if you are just paying for the cost to add on to a family talk plan you can't beat that price. No real waste of time, I only had to look up the activation cost as I just switched my 3 lines on a family talk plan to Straight Talk last week. AT&T didn't like me using smartphones that I bought overseas on their $10/month data plan and were going to up my rate. Did that for 2 years since getting the S2 in June of 2011 in Norway, but with the new S4 they detected it.
 
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