Straight Talk is a prepaid MVNO that offers the ability to buy SIM cards that you can pop into any AT&T-compatible, T-Mobile-compatible, or unlocked GSM phone. This includes many Samsung Galaxys and iPhones that you can buy refurbished or on the used market. For $45 a month you get unlimited minutes, unlimited text, and 5 GB of high-speed data with no contracts and no credit checks. You also avoid the usual cell phone taxes that can add $5 to $10 per line. Unlimited data means 3G/4G data speeds for 5 GB per month (recently improved from 2.5 GB) and then 2G data speeds after that.
$45 a month is the everyday price. Last year, there was a nice promo that let you buy 4 months of the Straight Talk unlimited plan for $26 a month, a significant 42% savings off the regular price. I’m actually just updating that old post here and pruning stale comments.
Right now, you can buy 8 months of the Straight Talk unlimited plan for $22.50 a month. To access this promo, either try clicking on this promo deep link or entering your info at this promo intro page. You should see the following offer text in red:
For Limited Time only get a FREE SIM + FREE Service Plan Card with the Purchase of a 30 Day Service Plan Card
- Each package includes 2 monthly plan cards, and you can buy 4 packages for a total of 8 months for $180 + taxes and shipping where applicable.
- While the link only let you buy a T-Mobile SIM card as part of the package, the actual monthly plan cards can be activated with any provider SIM. They also sell AT&T SIM cards on the same website, if you prefer that.
- You can also try to stack with cashback shopping portal. For example, BeFrugal.com normally offers $30 cashback for airtime + SIM purchase. BeFrugal also has $10 bonus for new customers that earn $25 in cashback. See reader Shoe’s comment.
- If your desired SIM size is sold out, know that you can buy a simple $4 SIM cutter which can cut any SIM card into a micro SIM or nano SIM. (Or a $4 SIM adapter will make a nano into micro or regular SIM.) You may have to use a bit of sandpaper as well for the nano SIM as they are a little thinner than regular SIMs. Read the reviews, they work.
- You can also check back later to see if they restock, but I’d rather just lock in the savings with whatever SIM is in stock.
- Finally, the $60 international cards are also buy 1 get 1 free, making them $30 and still cheaper than the $45 plan. The $60 plan has the features of the $45 plan plus unlimited calling to Mobile in Mexico, China, India and Canada and some other features. So it’s still a pretty good discount (33% off) if the rest are out of stock.