ISP rates in USA are overpriced

[SeriousWB]

dunno001 said:

SeriousWB said:

viewtiful_jon said:

I moved to usa from the UK and was shocked at how bad the internet was here, its not the best in the UK but its still better than here. The one thing over here that is far worse value than the UK is cell phones.

 I have never seen such crazy high prices for contracts, and if you dont have a contract that gives unlimited minutes you pay for not only calls you make but calls you recive. I mean WTH someone calls you and not only do they have to pay but you will have to pay too. Same for text messages, its crazy. Pay more per month, pay more for the phone and pay not only to make calls but to recive them as well.

 And if you get a non contract phone and dont top up for a month you lose all your credit and they cut your service, whatever you do you cant win.

Reading through the thread and... WHAT THE FUCK?!

It depends on the company in the US, but yes. You either must have a contract and pay some monthly rate (starting at $40/month for limited minutes), or you can get what many refer to as "Go phones" (though Go is just one of the brands of them) which don't have a contract, but, depending on the company, you have to put a value card on the phone either every 1 or 3 months. I believe Tracfone has a card that lasts a year, but it's the same price as 4 of the 3 month cards... -_- And yes, if you're a day late, you're cut off, and have to also pay the reactivation fee... and hope your number is still availiable. The cheapest rate on these is a $25 card that lasts for 3 months (or 120 minutes of use), but it comes with a $100 activation fee.

...and people wonder why I don't have nor want a cell phone...

Dang. We have 'Pay as you Go', you can add from £5 to however much you want to your credit whenver you want.  The services usually offer incentives such as free texts, minutes or even prizes for buying more credit at a time.  You never get 'cut off' for purchase inactivity though, that's insane.