Straight Talk Wireless contracts with each of the major wireless carriers, so you can get prepaid cell phone service on the AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile or Verizon network, but for a fraction of the price offered by the big four.
Finding out which network will be your home network can take some sleuthing, though, unless you bring your own phone and purchase a Straight Talk SIM card. Just check in advance to ensure your phone is compatible.
AT A Glance
- Plans start at $30
- Strengths: Partners with each of the four major carriers
- Weaknesses: Lack of plan features; little transparency around which network you'll use
Straight Talk cell phone plans
Straight Talk customers can choose from 100MB, 5GB and 10GB plans, depending on their data needs. With the carrier’s core plans, data and minutes expire after 30 days, but customers can purchase the 5GB plan in three-month, six-month and yearlong increments. Buying in bulk will save you as much as $45 over the monthly plan cost. Straight Talk customers can also earn bonus data or additional discounts by setting their accounts to automatically refill.
All Straight Talk plans include unlimited texts and most include unlimited minutes. The international plan also covers calls to some international destinations, including Mexico, Canada, China and India. But customers on the international plans are limited to 15 unique international telephone numbers during their 30-day plan cycle. Straight Talk’s current plans include:
- 1,500 minutes and 100MB (30 days): $30
- 5GB (30 days): $45
- 10GB (30 days): $55
- International calling and 5GB (30 days): $60
- 5GB per month (90 days): $130
- 5GB per month (180 days): $255
- 5GB per month (365 days): $495
Where to buy Straight Talk
Straight Talk phones, airtime cards and SIM cards, which are needed when you bring your own phone, can be purchased at participating Wal-Mart stores, via Straight Talk’s website or at Walmart.com. In addition to cell phone service, Straight Talk sells home phone service and mobile hot spots.
Straight Talk’s network
Straight Talk is a Mobile Virtual Network Operator, which is a technical way of saying the carrier doesn’t own its own network, as Verizon and AT&T do. Instead, Straight Talk contracts with Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint to give its customers access to some of the largest nationwide networks.
What network you use depends on two things: where you live and the phone you purchase. If you buy a phone online via Straight Talk or Wal-Mart, you’ll be prompted to enter your home ZIP code. This tells Straight Talk where you’ll use the phone most. From there, the carrier presents you with phones that run on the preferred networks in that area. If you’re in a city where several carriers have strong coverage, which network you use comes down to the phone you select, because some models run on CDMA networks and others on GSM networks, a competing technology.
But Straight Talk doesn’t make it easy for you to tell which network you’ll use before you buy a phone, especially if you’re buying online. So if using a particular network is important to you, it may be best to sign up in a store. Then you can ask the sales representative to help you pick a phone that uses a specific network. Or you can bring your own phone and purchase a SIM card for your desired network.
Bringing your own phone to Straight Talk
Straight Talk lets customers activate their own phone on its service — if that phone is compatible. And that can be a big if, depending on the carrier. To find out if your phone qualifies, go to Straight Talk’s website and select “check compatibility.” From there, select whether the phone is from AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint or Verizon. Then you’ll be prompted to enter your ZIP code and the phone’s unique identifying number, which the website will guide you through finding.
If your phone is compatible, you can buy a SIM card or activation kit (often for less than $1) and a cell phone plan, and you’re on your way with Straight Talk’s service.
Current Straight Talk deals
Straight Talk’s deals as of this writing include:
- Sign up for automatic payments and get 50% more data each month on Straight Talk’s $30 All You Need plan (1,500 minutes, 100MB).
- Sign up for automatic payments on select Straight Talk 5GB plans (standard and international) and save $5 per month for the first three months.
- Free overnight shipping on phone orders or phone bundles totaling at least $19.99 before taxes.
How Straight Talk compares on price
Straight Talk is a bargain compared with the prepaid plans offered by Verizon and AT&T GoPhone. Consider this: A 5GB prepaid plan with Verizon or AT&T is $60 per month, but with Straight Talk you could get double the data for $55 per month. When compared with other prepaid-only providers, however, Straight Talk isn’t always the best deal. Virgin Mobile, for example, offers 500MB plus unlimited talk and text for $30; Straight Talk’s $30 plan offers only 100MB and limits your calling to 1,500 minutes. Click below to see a side-by-side comparison of the most popular prepaid providers.
How Straight Talk compares on features
Straight Talk isn’t exactly a feature-rich service. Customers get bonus data or a monthly discount if they sign up for autopay, but only on select plans and the discount lasts only a few months. Other carriers, such as Boost Mobile, offer a $5 monthly discount on all of their plans for as long as you’re enrolled in autopay. And most Cricket Wireless plans include some international calling at no additional charge.
Click the image to see in more detail how Straight Talk stacks up on features. Asterisks indicate features available for an additional charge.
Autopay discount: Straight Talk customers get a $5 per month discount for three months when they sign up for automatic payments. The discount is a limited-time offer and available only on the carrier’s $45 and $60 5GB plans.
Family plans: If you’re looking for a prepaid family plan, you won’t find one with Straight Talk. The carrier offers only single-line plans at this time. Cricket Wireless, Boost Mobile, MetroPCS and Virgin Mobile all have prepaid family plans.
Unlimited 2G: Straight Talk bills its plans as unlimited, because customers can use as much data as they want. But there’s a catch: When you exceed the high-speed data (4G) included in your plan, your data speeds are slowed to 2G for the rest of your plan cycle. The difference in speeds means that uploading 30 pictures, for example, would take more than 20 minutes, instead of about a minute.
Unlimited music streaming: Listening to Spotify or Pandora from your Straight Talk phone will eat into your data plan. Streaming 60 minutes of music a day will burn through roughly 2GB of data per month. To conserve data, use Wi-Fi to stream music and download songs to listen to when you’re on the go. Some prepaid providers, including Boost and Virgin Mobile, offer unlimited music streaming from select apps.
International calls/texts: Limited international service is built into Straight Talk’s $60 Unlimited International Plan, which includes mobile-to-mobile calls to Mexico, China, India and Canada, as well as calls to select international landlines. Customers are limited to 15 unique international numbers per 30-day cycle. On other plans, Straight Talk customers can purchase a global calling card for an additional $10. With either option, calls must originate from the U.S.
» MORE: How does Straight Talk stack up on features?
Mobile hot spot: Straight Talk customers cannot use their phone as a mobile hot spot. They can, however, purchase a separate mobile hot spot from the carrier. Data packages for Straight Talk’s mobile hot spots start at $15 for 1GB of data, which is good for 30 days. Several prepaid carriers do include mobile hot spot access, though. Boost, Virgin, Sprint and MetroPCS all let customers use their smartphone as a wireless hot spot for no additional charge. Using your phone as a Wi-Fi device will use your available data.
Is Straight Talk right for you?
Straight Talk partners with all four major carriers, giving it an advantage over other prepaid providers like Virgin Mobile or Cricket Wireless, which operate solely on Sprint’s and AT&T’s networks, respectively. But Straight Talk lacks many of the features offered by other carriers, including mobile hot spot capability and the option to have a family plan. If you have a compatible phone, though, Straight Talk’s benefits could outweigh its drawbacks. You can save a good chunk of money upfront and have control over which carrier’s network you use if you bring your own phone.
Kelsey Sheehy is a staff writer at NerdWallet, a personal finance website. Email: ksheehy@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @KelseyLSheehy.
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