Amazon: Cricket Wireless Universal SIM Card Only $1 (Allows You To Activate Your Own Phone)
Interested in being a Cricket Wireless customer? Head over to Amazon where you can score this Cricket Wireless Complete Starter Pack: Nano SIM Card with Standard & Micro Adapters for just $1 (regularly $9.99).
This SIM Card allows you to activate your own phone from home – simply replace the SIM card in your current unlocked, GSM-compatible phone with the SIM card that is included in this starter pack. You then visit cricketwireless.com/join to activate your phone – you can choose to keep your current phone number or choose a new one.
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It is possible when you buy this you will need to pay a $25 activation fee. When you buy the sim card on cricketwireless.com for $9.99 they waive the activation fee. Just something to look into…..
I bought this on Amazon for $1 about 14 months ago. The activation fee only applies if you go in-store and have a sales associate activate for you. If, however, you do it yourself at home, then no activation fee applies. At least, that’s how it was for me. I did not pay an activation fee because I did the activation myself. It was easy to do, and very straightforward
How do you like cricket and what are their rates?
Margie- I commented below about their rates.
Errr is correct. Only an activation fee if you have an employee do it in the store for you. Free if you do it yourself.
I love Cricket too, but it’s not for everyone. If you are the type to constantly upgrade your phone to the latest and greatest, Cricket is not for you because unlike the major carriers, Cricket does not subsidize the cost of your phone. Ultimately over time, though, it’s not really a subsidy because you are paying higher monthly bills.
If, however, you are like me and don’t care what phone you have as long as it works and you just want to minimize overall phone-related bills, then Cricket is fantastic. Cricket uses the same cell towers as AT&T, so where there is AT&T coverage, you will have coverage on Cricket. Nowadays, unless you live in a rather rural area, most major carriers, including AT&T, have very decent coverage. In fact, the ONLY time I’ve never had cell service was when I was in certain parts of Vermont. But evidently, there are a lot of areas in Vermont where NO ONE gets cell service, regardless of the carrier.
I, too, was skeptical about Cricket initially. I’ve been with Verizon since 2003, but we were paying an arm and a leg for a family plan, so I was looking into switching carriers. My Verizon contract had expired, so I was on a month-to-month plan. The great thing about Cricket is that there is no contract. You pay upfront for your use every month. This gave me an opportunity to try out Cricket for a month for $40, which is the cheapest plan they offer. If I did not like Cricket after trying it out for a month, that would just mean that I lost $40, and I would look into other carrier options. If, however, I did like it, then I could switch to Cricket permanently. I ordered the SIM card from Amazon for $1 and popped it into an iPhone 5 that was a castoff from a family member who had upgraded. Then I signed up for Cricket online. During sign up, you have the option to bring your old phone number over (this is called “porting”). Since porting my old number would require me to terminate my Verizon contract, I simply requested a new phone number and paid my $40 for the cheapest data plan. I did the activation myself. It took minutes. Once activated, the service was GREAT. I was SOLD.
A few days before my first month with Cricket was up, I canceled my Verizon account. Since I wanted to port my old number, I had to buy another SIM card. Again, that was only $1 from Amazon. I popped the new SIM card into my phone. During account set up with my new SIM card, I selected the “port old number” option so that I could keep the same phone number I’ve had for 13 years. The whole process was seamless.
MONTHLY FEES ARE LOW: Since then, I’ve added my sister to the plan. We signed up for automatic monthly billy payments, which entitled us to a discount. I pay $70 for the two of us. Each of us get 2.5 GB of data per month. What is great is that there are no additional fees, taxes, or costs. I simply pay $70 every month.
NO OVERAGE FEES: The best part is that once you’ve used up your allotted data for the month, you can still surf the web, text, and email, but at a slower speed, WITHOUT INCURRING ANY OVERAGES. This is because you’ve already paid for your use upfront, so Cricket does not assess you any additional fees after the fact. I’ve ran out of data before my billing cycle was over a handful of times, and surfing the web at the slower speed has not been an issue, UNLESS I’ve tried looking at a webpage with a lot of photos (like Target.com). If what you’re looking at is mostly text (like Gmail), then the slower speed was not really an issue.
CUSTOMER SERVICE: Customer service has been surprisingly terrific. My sister’s galaxy was acting up during the first week. She went into the Cricket store, and they ordered her a replacement phone on the spot. The replacement phone was delivered via FexEx in 2 days. No problems with the phone since. When I have questions about my bill, I can chat online with a Cricket representative. I don’t know whether or not the reps are overseas, but they’ve always been able to answer my questions promptly. All of my chats have been pleasant.
I am embarrassed to admit this, but I once went into a Cricket store because my internet browser was not working. I thought something was wrong with the Cricket network. The sales rep in the store showed me that I had turned a button off in my phone setting. She turned it on, and MAGIC! My internet was working again!
BRING YOUR PHONE, OR BUY ONE: If you sign up for Cricket service, you can bring your old phone, like I did. Or, you can buy a phone from Cricket. I bought my sister a very basic, early generation Samsung Galaxy smartphone for $140 from Cricket. The resolution on the camera is so-so in comparison to the brilliant resolution on the most recent Samsung Galaxy phone. However, the phone still has all the other bells and whistles and gets the job done. My sister is not into having the newest gadget, so for her, the phone got the job done satisfactorily. Cricket does sell the latest and greatest phones, too, but at full price.
I highly recommend Cricket. If you are on the fence, try it for a month (with a new phone number). If you like it, port your new phone number over and get ready to save some big bucks. If you don’t like it, you’ve only lost $40. Sure $40 is still $40, but at least you didn’t have to sign up for a 2 year contract.
You can use my link to sign up, if you want: https://refer.cricketwireless.com/8lbPPgw
You and I will both get some money applied to our accounts.
Margie-
I use Cricket Wireless. 3 lines, unlimited calls and texts, 2.5 gigs for each phone. Reliable since it’s through AT&T. $90 and that includes tax and fees. You can bring most unlocked phones or outright buy them from Cricket.
More phones are even cheaper per line.
1st phone is $40. (if you only have 1 phone, and you auto-pay, it’s $35)
2nd is $30.
3rd is $20.
4th is $10.
5th is free.
All taxes & fees are in those prices.
If you sign up through this link you and I both get a $25 credit, but I’d seriously recommend them regardless: https://bit.ly/CricketWirelessCredit
You can check out their plans here: https://www.cricketwireless.com/cell-phone-plans
What is the $1 for? Do I still pay 40$ a month? Or it’s prepaid.
This is for the SIM card to activate a current phone to the Cricket Network. Hope that helps!
Does anyone know if I need to buy one sim card for each phone I am activating or if I need to buy one for each phone that I activate?
It appears to be one per phone.