Cell Phones

[axis]

I have a Sprint LG 5350 but I hate Sprint as my service provider, and I want to switch to a Cingular plan. Do the service providers support using other phones like that or not?

[BlackMantis]

well.. depending on if cingular support the network that your phone is designed for, whether GSM, TDMA, T-Mobile etc.. you shouldnt have a problem hooking it up.

[axis]

The model I have is a Sprint PCS network phone, I really hope they support it.

[KingCobra]

Check out:

www.sprintpcs-sucks.org

[sigmazeta314]

It is very unlikely that your phone will woprk on another network...Sprint does that on purpose.  I reccommend buying a new GSM phone as they are very transferrable between other providers and you can take your phone numbers with you to other providers and even other phones.

As for services, I have heard horror stories about ALL the major and minor providers.  I have dealt personally with AT&T, Sprint and Cingular and I have had excellent service from Sprint for going on 2-1/2 years and AT&T has served my brother very well despite stolen phones and defective returns.  I reccommend AT&T if leaving Sprint.

[axis]

Another question, I do not have a 'standard' Visa anymore, just the Visa linked to my chekcing account. Will that be good enough to use or will they try and rape me with a huge down payment?

[griz]

I've never heard of any company supporting another company's phone.  My best bet is you'll be getting a new phone.  Some companies do not charge for the phone when you purchase a contract.  ...griz  

[sigmazeta314]

The Visa linked to your checking account does not act like a credit card for the purpose of building credit, but simply for making transactions at your bank.  You can probably get out of the down payment if you can provide proof of another form of credit...like a car payment, an electric bill, etc.  If you have a good enough credit rating, you are likely to not need any of these.

The only other way out of the down payment would be to get another credit card...but that would not show sufficient credit history unless you had it a while in most cases.  A credit check will be run on you, and depending on the service provider, you may need a hefty chunk up front and that chunk is often hard to get back.  There are ittle stipulations in the contract like," must pay bill on time every time" and "refundable only in certain areas" and other fine print that allows them to keep the money.  Do your best to keep from paying that money up front.  My girlfriend got burned for $400.00 because she lived in the wrong area (mail in refund not available in that area- $150.00) and her payment was 2 days late once (Late pay = no refund of $250.00 deposit).

Read all the fine print and ask lots of questions and if worse comes to worse get one of the prepaid plans (that don't require anything down) many places are offering while you build some credit and then switch to your provider of choice.