RINGPLUS Current Phone Deals (ongoing sales) Tribute 2 $39 at Best Buy

Quote from bonosloveslave : I am not techie at all so wondering if anyone can give guidance- Looking at getting phone for 9 year old daughter, do not need any bells and whistles, just something mostly in case of emergency and can have a few pre-programmed numbers that she can call out and/or text to. Seems like Ringplus could be a good option, and obviously don't want to spend much on the phone with potential for loss/damage. But I'm not understanding how this would work if I bought one of these $39 phones from Best Buy. Normally they have the activation directions in the package when you buy the phone correct? Would we bypass that and do it all thru Ringplus? The phones Ringplus has on the site are pricier than I would like esp with $18 shipping. I'm just generally confused about the process of getting set up.

Hey,

A few points:

1) If it's for emergencies (as in out of the norm emergencies, like you have some reason to be concerned), then consider how good Sprint coverage is in your area. In all likelihood it's fine - especially considering just for making phone calls (where as possibly MMS and data may more likely have issues). Probably not a concern, just mentioning. If, on the other hand, you have particular reasons for concern, then you might consider a cheap add-on to your current plan (most providers have $10 add-a-line.

2) As far as I know, all these various phones will be fine (as long as it's a phone for Sprint or one of their resellers like Virgin or Boost). But, and this is of paramount importance: if it's a prepaid phone, be sure to (open an account and) submit all the relevant phone-ID information to RingPlus before powering the phone on for the first time. Repetition for clarity: Yes, ignore all the activation directions that come with the new phone. Don't even open the box! Go to the RingPlus website. Login/create account (or do the ESN Checker on their BYOD page first); submit all the info. This will get things started from their end so you don't have to do any of the 'heavy lifting' (or screwing up anything badly/permanently). Then, when you turn the phone on, most of the updating/transfering to Ringplus will happen automatically. As a final good measure, you can follow the instructions on the Ringplus page about doing a PRL Update and Profile update. But, if you do that first, you shouldn't have any major problems.

You should be fine.

(Check back here if you have any problems.)


Finally, I don't have any experience with most of those phones. I have used a (VM) Kyocera Hydro and a (Boost) Moto E on Ringplus. Although I don't like the Moto E specs and features 'on paper', it works very smoothly with decent to good reception and I would recommend that. It just works.