in the last 5 months, I have noticed the credit rewards has gone from good deal to very bad.
Yup coupons gone 1st Aug. Not enough easy rewards in the rewards program to make it worth it.
Paid Plans are still reasonable but there are plenty of decent att mvnos out there with better communication and offerings.
Free plans are still available but lower allotments for new accounts. Old free accounts with more mins/texts/data are currently grandfathered in but no idea if that will last.
What other MVNO's are you considering? I'm looking at Tello and Red Pocket but I am not sure either is better than FreeUp is (or was)
Redpockets been good. They have all the major carriers. Bought the annual plan.
With redpocket I found out the att plan comes with voicemail app.
Not the other carriers
Purely as a matter of price, FreeUP is still competitive (at the new rate plans) with the $15 plan for AT&T or Verizon service, offering at least 1000min/1000text/500mb (or better). Red Pocket and Pix match the price, but include 1gb of data on month-to-month plans. Red Pocket beats it by $1/mo if you prepay for 12 months (non-sale price.) If you truly need unlimited t/t,I don't think anyone beats the new plan/price, either. (Edit: Pix does.)
If by chance you end up grandfathered on FreeUP's old $15 plan, no one beats it on a month-to-month plan on AT&T or Verizon, especially if you really need unlimited talk/text.
If you're OK with T-Mobile or Sprint, the competition comes out ahead. If you need less talk/text, the competition comes out ahead. For now, it looks like FreeUP has chosen to not compete at lower allotments.
@KentE, Thanks for your post. Do you happen to know when FreeUP added Verizon coverage? (I wasn't aware of that; I thought they only used the AT&T network.)
I'm still on the grandfathered free 500 minutes or text / 100 MB plan, and I believe my FreeUP SIM is for AT&T only. But if Verizon is indeed available, here are a couple more questions for you (or anyone else in the know, too):
--First, I am assuming that I would need a new Verizon SIM to switch to their network, correct?
--And, is Verizon available only on one of their paid plans?
Thanks very much for any further details you can provide!
Diedrich_Duo , Ooops..., my wording implied something I didn't intend it to!
You're correct that FreeUP is AT&T only, no Verizon.
When I compared prices, I selected AT&T OR Verizon simply because those 2 are generally the more expensive networks, and have the best nationwide coverage
For that reason, I think of comparing pricing on AT&T or Verizon MVNOs as 'apples-to-apples', while comparing FreeUP's AT&T price to Tello/Sprint or SpeedTalk/T-Mobile (for example) is more likely to be 'apples-to-oranges' for many folks. (Don't get me wrong-- our family has some primary Sprint-network lines, and it's worked well for us.)
I like both tello and redpocket. I think if you have an old freeup plan you might as well stick.
Thanks for the clarification! We, too, have had no problems on the Sprint network where we live (my FreeUP phone is an extra "in case" one), but I'm always looking and planning ahead for whenever / if ever our Sprint MVNOs disappear due to the T-Mo merger.
Hmm... as of today, other than my accrued rewards showing correctly, I am having no luck with any of the rewards tabs on the FreeUP/billaway website. All I get is a generic "an error has occurred" message. Is anyone else seeing the same?
I cannot even login to the rewards site with either of my accounts(not that I really care or want to) and get the red lettered "incorrect mobile number or pin" message. So much for those "exciting new ways to earn rewards" that were mentioned in the email FU sent me concerning the elimination of coupon rewards. Not one word from the people at FU about anything ever----wow.
Well, while I'm relieved that it's not just happening to me, I'm sorry you are in the same boat.
Of course, I (along with @peterquinn) seemed to be among the "luckiest" FreeUP clients when it came to getting credited for coupon printing -- I think I got a total of about a dollar's worth over seven-plus months -- so this latest challenge is not a big deal for me, more of a minor annoyance. But for those who have been counting on being able to earn enough rewards to pay for their FreeUP plans, it's a bigger deal.
And to be fair, my grandfathered 500 min/text, 100 MB free plan is still working just great on my backup phone, so I guess I'm still getting more than my money's worth at this point.
I can still log into my account, my free plan is still active and renewed a few days ago, and I still have $200+ in rewards.
Other than not being able to earn more, I'm satisfied.
At some point I'll change to a paid account and will most likely continue even after the rewards are exhausted.
Same errors as everyone else accessing the rewards page.Also, I generally swipe through 8-10 videos a day but the last credits were 8/31.Generally about half of the videos credited instantly on the app but none for the last few days.
I've got about $150 stockpiled so i'm good for a while anyway.
Like the rest of you I cant log into the website to earn points, but I can still log into the phone app and watch videos or take surveys. (not that I do either) I have enough banked to last about 10 months so no big deal.
Glad that many of you are set for awhile even if the rewards don't start flowing again anytime soon. I sure hope this is just a temporary glitch at FreeUP's end and eventually things will end well for everyone.
Let’s hope the rewards bank doesn’t go poof. Given FU’s propensity to make changes out of the blue with no desire to communicate anything to its customers, who knows what FU will do?
I'm using FreeUP as a primary line, so I'm concerned about the possibility of both the free plan & the rewards going poof at the same time. I do have a valid credit card on file. Worst case (I hope), my credit card would get billed, and I've more than gotten enough value out of the plan to be okay with it in the short term.
Just logged in to view my FreeUP account summary and my rewards aren't showing. Anyone else experiencing this?