Straight Talk Unlimited Talk, Text, & 25 GB Data for $45 – Feb 2019

In this article I am going to take a look at the Straight Talk Wireless plans and features for February 2019. Straight Talk recently updated their plans to add significantly more data. Before getting started, I want to point out that this is not a review, just a look the plans and features currently offered.

If you are interested in more information about signing up and using Straight Talk, check out the numerous articles and videos on smartphonematters.com and the YouTube channel.

Straight Talk is a prepaid wireless carrier that is exclusively available from Walmart and online at StraightTalk.com. Straight Talk is a one of the many prepaid wireless owned by Tracfone. Straight Talk doesn’t own their own cellular network, they use either the AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, or Sprint networks depending where you live and which phone you use.

When you sign up for Straight Talk you can buy a phone directly from Straight Talk or Bring your own phone. If you want to bring your own phone, you just need to buy a $1 Bring Your Own Phone SIM kit.

Plans

Straight Talk offers six different plan options, all of the plans include unlimited nation-wide talk and text. Five of the plans include a fixed amount of data, one of the plans include unlimited data.

$35 Plan Unlimited Talk and Text with 3 GB Data

The $35 plan includes unlimited nationwide talk and text meaning you can make and receive calls as well and send and receive texts from the United States to the United States.

The price drops to $34 per month when you sign up for Auto-Refill. Auto-Refill is Straight Talk’s automatic payment program. Let Straight Talk automatically charge your plan to your credit card each month and they will give you a $1 per month discount.

The plan includes 3GB of high speed data. If you use up all your data before your plan renews, you’ll still have 2G data. 2G data is significantly reduced speeds. With 2G data you can maybe check email, send and receive messages, or browse the Web very slowly. You will not be watching video or listening to music streamed over you cellular data connection at these speeds. If you use up all your high speed data, you can buy more Add-On data. More on Add-On Data below. If you do not use up all your 3GB of data during the month, the remaining unused data expires. The unused data does not carry or roll over to the following month.

$45 Plan Unlimited Talk and Text with 25 GB

The $45 plan includes unlimited nationwide talk and text. The price drops to $44 per month when you sign up for Auto-Refill, a $1 discount.

The plan includes 25GB of high speed data. Data works the same way as the $35 plan except that you will have an additional 22GB of high speed data.

$55 Unlimited Talk and Text with Unlimited Data.
The $55 plan includes unlimited nationwide talk and text. The price drops to $50 per month for the first three months when you sign up for Auto-Refill, a $5 discount. After three, months, the price is $54 per month, a $1 discount.

This plan includes unlimited high speed data. When you check the fine print, Straight Talk says At 60 GB, we reserve the right to review your account for usage in violation of Straight Talk’s terms and conditions.. Many people report using more that 60 GB without issue, some tell me they have been temporarily suspended or terminated for using too much data.

There is no set maximum download speed for the unlimited data. Video playback is limited to Standard Definition(SD) that’s 480p or DVD quality.

$60 Unlimited Talk and Text with 25GB data and unlimited international calling and texting

The $60 plan is the same as the $45 plan except they add international calling. The price drops to $59 with AutoRefill, a $1 discount,

The international calling gives you Unlimited Mobile-to-Mobile to Mexico, China, Canada, and India phone numbers. You can all up to 15 unique destination numbers per service month, and included 400 bonus minutes to call Claro Guatemala phone numbers.

You can check the list of countries you can call on straighttalk,com they are adding new countries.

Make sure you understand the details. First, they don’t support direct international dialing, you need to dial an access number first. They have an international dialing app, to automate that for you. Second, you can call the 15 unique numbers per month. Next, check the list of countries you can call to make sure you can call the country for free and whether that includes, land lines, mobile phones, or both. They offer additional international calling at low rates.

$30 Basic Plan

The $30 basic plan is only available for selected low cost phones that Straight Talk sells. You can not use this plan with their smartphones nor any BYOP plan. I’m not going to go into the details.

Extended Plans
You can save $5, $15, or $45 total if you choose to pay for three, six, or 12 months of the $45 plan. You save some money but pay in advance.

Add-On Data

Straight Talk offers Add-On data for their fixed data plans. You can add 1GB for $5 or 2GB for $10. The add-on data does not expire as long as your account remains active.

Global Calling

You can add international calling credit to your plan in $10 increments. You’ll pay as low as 1 cent per minute for international calling. Somewhere they claimed the credit expired. I added one once and it seemed to carry over.

Straight Talk’s benefits is that they offer service on different networks so that there is likely coverage when you use your phone. They also tend to include generous amounts of high speed data for the money. On the downside, they lack features that many customers want.

Voicemail

Straight Talk includes voicemail, not Visual Voice Mail. While some customers report it works for them, Straight Talk will tell you its not supported.

Mobile Hotspot

Straight Talk does not offer mobile hotspot. Mobile Hotspots lets you connect your laptop, tablet, or other Wi-Fi device to the internet using your phone’s cellular data connection. They state this in their terms and conditions of service as well on their phones page. For some reason though, many customers find that hotspot is enabled on their phones and use it anyway. Unfortunately many unlimited plan customers decide to use it and only later to receive a warning, be suspended or, be terminated.

Wi-Fi Calling

Straight Talk does not consistent support for Wi-Fi Calling. With Wi-Fi calling, your phone can make and receive calls and texts using your Wi-Fi connection rather than the cellular network, This lets use your phone in areas where you have Wi-Fi but have little or no cellular network coverage.

Straight Talk claims that some of their phones will use Wi-Fi calling and they have a website where you can check your number and sign up if your phone supports it. Most find their phone is unsupported. Some claim its only works with selected phones that use Straight Talk’s T-Mobile towers, but that isn’t the case for many. However others , including myself, have found it worked on their phone on Straight Talk’s AT&T towers.

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