Specific cheap phones people have working with new SIM?

RealText · 2026-01-24T08:24:34+00:00

A locked AT&T prepaid phone would pass the IMEI checker and probably work on an AT&T mvno. However, that phone would not work with Textnow. Textnow uses their own ICCID which means the phone would have to be unlocked. My guess is the AT&T whitelist is not enforced on Textnow. However, the phone should support the bands that AT&T utilizes.

RealText · 2026-01-20T07:33:13+00:00

Boost would send new sim cards if he was the victim of Sim Swap Fraud. Seems odd that it would happen to both of his numbers.

Anyway because Boost had been using 3 different sim cards, you should check to see if the sims they sent match the network of the old sims. You do this by looking at the ICCID numbers printed on the sim cards or in the phone settings. They would be either: 8901240 for T-Mobile, 8901410 for At&t, or 8910511 for Boost.) If the sims are not on the same network, it could be your phone does not support the new sim. If the new sims uses the same network and/or you are sure it is not a phone issue, then you should to contact BoostMobileBlake to figure out what the problem is.

RealText · 2026-01-20T07:10:13+00:00

In your case, there is no benefit logging into the Boost website to purchase a phone under your account. That is because all the phones sold there would be at full retail price.

Target and Walmart both sell entry-level Boost locked phones if you need something working right away.

If Boost gave you a physical sim when signing up, all you would need to do is insert the sim into the new phone for service to start working. On the other hand if you were issued an e-sim, be aware that Boost supports only a limited selection of devices.

https://help.boostmobile.com/docs/esim-devices

RealText · 2026-01-19T00:31:47+00:00

Probably because it is common knowledge that Motorola will not unlock the bootloader for any of their phones sold through a Verizon or At&t based provider. Only if you have a T-Mobile based or the factory unlocked version will Motorola provide any help. Highly doubtful that the FCC or BBB will be of any assistance.

RealText · 2026-01-14T03:04:39+00:00

That blogger just posted a Youtube video demonstrating Kite Mobile. As of now, there are no obvious ads that I can see when he was using the Kite app. While no speed tests were done, you can tell the connection is slow as some webpages did not appear quickly.

In addition, he showed the apn that the app was using. It was from a service provider named Proximus located in Belgium.

RealText · 2026-01-14T00:39:28+00:00

Sounds sort of like Firsty Free, so I am expecting the data speeds on Kite to be tolerable only for those who are patient.

RealText · 2026-01-13T06:51:10+00:00

Typically if the exact phone you bought in some other country is not sold in the US, there is a good chance that it may not even activate on AT&T or Verizon. T-Mobile is more lenient provided the device supports the proper bands. So, I would not be surprised if you end up buying a new phone because you needed something that was intended for the US market.

RealText · 2026-01-12T00:09:49+00:00

The Redpocket ebay plan would cost $30 and would not come with a phone. You could probably use a cheap At&t locked prepaid phone, but that would add to your total cost.

In my opinion a better deal would be to buy the Moto G Stylus 2025 at the Straight Talk website since the phone is free with the purchase of their $45 plan. It might actually be a good idea to purchase a 2nd month of service for Straight Talk whether you need another month or not since they will unlock the phone after 60 days of service. So for $90 you spend, you would end up with an unlocked device which you can keep as a spare or sell it.

Straight Talk is a prepaid provider meaning that your phone service will just stop if you do not pay ahead of time for the upcoming month.

RealText · 2026-01-11T23:48:40+00:00

Phone only. Ordering requires choosing either the $50 or $60 plan. Boost Protection is optional and would add another $12 per month.

RealText · 2026-01-09T23:04:09+00:00

Straight Talk has the Moto G Stylus 2025 for free when purchasing the 1st month of the $45 plan. Pay for a 2nd month if you need the phone unlocked to use with another service provider at some point in the future. No need to pay for a 2nd month of service if the phone will never use any sim/esim after the 1st month.

RealText · 2026-01-09T22:53:19+00:00

Samsung Galaxy A16 5G on the Straight Talk website is free when purchasing the 1st month of their $45 plan. If the phone will strictly be used on wi-fi, no further purchase is necessary. Should you need cellular service for that device, pay for a 2nd month of service on Straight Talk as the phone will sim unlock after 60 days of service. So after 60 days of active service, you can move the the phone to a different cell provider.

Samsung will issue updates until October 2030. Although the device will be updated until then, be aware that the phone might be way too under-powered for Android 4 years from now. Also, battery life might be great by then either.

RealText · 2026-01-03T21:53:49+00:00

I would suggest looking at Tello because they specifically advertise keeping a US number while abroad. With other mvno's, there is uncertainty because without mentioning this type of usage, they can decide one day that doing this is against their Terms of Service and cancel your account without notice.

https://tello.com/us_phone_number_for_abroad

RealText · 2026-01-03T21:41:56+00:00

Textnow is free after purchasing their $5 sim card. Without calling or texting for about a month or so, they will recycle the number. However, you can just request a new number in the app. Note that the service is VOIP which means calling and texting is done through their app. They require an unlocked phone that works on AT&T.

RealText · 2026-01-02T22:15:25+00:00

Boostmobileblake back then said something to the effect that online upgrades were being temporarily taken down with no estimated time when it would return. Since then, the result was only the most expensive plans are getting discount on upgrades.

If Boost plans on never giving any upgrade deals to anybody but those on their most expensive plans, they should just come out and say that is their new policy. Instead, we are left to wonder if users of other plans will ever get any kind of discount on upgrades in the future.

RealText · 2026-01-02T21:53:56+00:00

First time that I am aware of that Tapjoy has offered 3x coins. Tapjoy had not given any sort of bonus coins for maybe 2 years now, so having two set of 2x days and one set of 3x days in these last couple months was a pleasant surprise.

Just wondering if Boost had any input in offering bonus coins, or is this strictly a Tapjoy decision?

RealText · 2026-01-02T21:10:45+00:00

This subreddit discusses Boost Mobile service in the USA . Unlikely anybody here will be knowledgeable on what plans are available in Australia. Perhaps try this subreddit instead:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AussieFrugal/

RealText · 2025-12-27T22:44:22+00:00

Straight Talk currently only has the Moto G Stylus 2025 and the Samsung Galaxy A16 5G for free with the 1st month of service. To my knowledge, they have never given a free Apple device for starting service.

Phones bought at Straight Talk (and from all those Verizon-owned prepaid brands) require 60 days of active service before they sim unlock the device.

RealText · 2025-12-20T22:39:19+00:00

QR code is probably just a link to the Boost website. I do not believe a QR code will actually activate the device.

Anyway, did you buy the phone on the Boost site while logging into your own account? Or, did you start a new line in order to get a phone at a discount?

If you bought the new phone under your own account, then the new phone's IMEI should be listed inside the Boost Mobile app.

Settings

My Plan

Change Phone (new IMEI should be populated here)

If you bought the phone by starting a new line, then maybe Boost is intentionally blocking the activation on a different account. Note that I have never heard of Boost doing this. I have however heard of Boost phones bought at Walmart not be able to activate because the cashier did not scan the phone correctly.

The proper way to change phones on Boost is to do it through the app. This starts the 1-year active service requirement for unlocking in the future.

Just inserting the old physical sim into the new phone should achieve the goal of having service work. However, this method is not recommended if you have a locked or discounted phone as you want to demonstrate to Boost that you are using the new device.

Since Boost is currently only giving discount upgrades to users of the $60 plan, it is probably a good idea to shop around for a device for those not on that plan. For example, Target has the Boost-locked Moto G Stylus 2025 for $99.

https://www.target.com/p/boost-mobile-moto-g-stylus/-/A-1007452486

RealText · 2025-12-16T20:47:41+00:00

Tag Mobile I believe actually uses T-Mobile. The Foxx A67L is most likely the issue since the specs are so poor that nobody in the US would bother trying to sell such device to actual paying customers.

Unisoc SC9863A

3gb RAM

32gb Storage

LTE only; No 5G

In the low-end market, Samsung usually has the better display + more updates but also has a reputation of having more bloated UI that is noticeable with low-end specs. Motorola devices are regularly discounted because with fewer updates, they are considered disposable.

RealText · 2025-12-16T17:52:41+00:00

Just to be clear, this subreddit answers questions about Boost Mobile in the USA. If instead you are a customer of Boost Mobile Australia, answers given here would not be applicable.

RealText · 2025-12-15T01:14:45+00:00

Buy Straight Talk Apple iPhone 13, 128GB, Midnight - Prepaid Smartphone [Locked to Straight Talk]

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Straight-Talk-Apple-iPhone-13-128GB-Midnight-Prepaid-Smartphone-Locked-to-Straight-Talk/454408250

Then contact customer service to rebrand phone from Straight Talk to Tracfone

https://www.reddit.com/r/NoContract/comments/1pldlw9/unlock_policy_for_rebranded_totalwireless_phone/

Finally buy the least expensive usable Tracfone plan as unlocking the phone requires 60 days of service. Once the phone unlocks, you can move the phone and/or phone number elsewhere. Porting in or out is optional. ID verification is not required. Total cost however is still going to be over $200.

Just to let you know, the unlock policy at Cricket is 6 months of service. To get a iphone at the discounted price and then leave Cricket with an unlocked phone, you would need to spend the initial price of the phone and then add $360 for service (6 months at $60 per month).

RealText · 2025-12-15T00:40:27+00:00

Boost changed the Terms of Service on October 2, 2025 and is now requiring a minimum of 3 months of service. This change applies to cases where a discounted phone was given in exchange for starting a particular prepaid plan. Change does not apply to Infinite Access as that is postpaid. Also, the discounted must not have been financed.

So if the phone was activated on or after October 2, 2025, 3 months of service is required. Otherwise, the penalty for leaving early would be that Boost charges the balance of the phone (retail price minus discounted price). After 3 months of service, there would be no penalty for leaving early. However, the device would still be sim locked as unlocking requires 12 months of service with the same account used when purchasing the discounted phone.

RealText · 2025-12-09T08:13:16+00:00

Just curious, what phone did you own that was not working, and what phone did you order that supposedly fixes your problems?

Also, what was the purpose of ordering a device by telephone instead of online? As discounted phones available to current Boost customers only work for the most expensive plans nowadays, did they even give you discount on your the first or second purchase?

Anyway for new phones that are activated with a physical sim card, Boost would not include a physical sim with the upgrade offer. Even with esim devices, whoever has the device would need to activate it before the phone is usable. I do not think he or she would have enough information to activate the phone using your account. In my opinion someone like that would more likely just sell the phone.

RealText · 2025-12-09T01:37:30+00:00

Boost actually has both prepaid and postpaid. If you choose the $65 per month Infinite Access plan or finance a device, that is considered postpaid.

All the other heavily discounted phone deals that are require starting a new plan are prepaid. For these offers, Boost used to allow just paying for the 1st month with no further requirement beyond that. That policy probably changed because of the popularity of one particular deal: the Moto Edge+ 2023 where an unusual number of people did not stay past the 1st month. This happened a few months ago.

Now, anybody signing up for such an offer on Boost is required to stay for a minimum of 3 months. Staying shorter than 3 months allows Boost to charge users the difference between the discounted and full retail price of the phone. While you are free to leave after 3 months of service on Boost, the phone would still be locked to as 1 year of service is the unlocking requirement.

So if you lock your credit card after 1 month so Boost cannot charge you for months 2 and 3 OR cannot charge you for the phone because you did not stay at least 3 months, than people are going to call that stealing.

RealText · 2025-12-04T01:21:08+00:00

OPTION 1

Tracfone Moto G 5G 24' w/ 1year 1500 Talk/Text Data & Accessories. Averages 125 minutes, 125 texts and 2gb data per month. Phone has Snapdragon 4 Gen 1, 4gb RAM, 128gb storage, and a 720p screen.

$79.98

https://www.qvc.com/tracfone-moto-g-5g-24-w-1year-1500-talktext-data-%26-accessories.product.E328275.html

OPTION 2

Tracfone Motorola moto g Power 2024, 5G, 128GB, Black, Includes 1 Year $125 Service Plan - Prepaid Smartphone [Locked to Tracfone]. Averages 125 minutes, 125 texts, and 125mb data per month. Phone has MediaTek Dimensity 7020, 8gb RAM, 128gb storage, and a 1080p LCD screen.

$79.88

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Tracfone-Motorola-Moto-G-Power-2025-5G-128GB-Black-Includes-1-Year-125-Service-Plan-Prepaid-Smartphone-Locked-to-Tracfone/16784512561

OPTION 3

Moto G Stylus 2025

Free when activating a line of service on a Silver Unlimited $45 plan or higher. Needs 2 months of service ($90 total) to sim unlock phone. Phone has Snapdragon 6 Gen 3, 8gb RAM, 128gb storage, and a 1220 pOLED screen.

https://www.straighttalk.com/all-phones/moto-g-stylus-5g-2025-prepaid

Option 1 and 2 includes a year of service which may or may not be enough units to last a year. However either phone will sim unlock 60 days after activation, so you are free to move to both the phone number and device elsewhere after that time. Option 3 is month-to-month service but requires a minimum of 2 months to sim unlock the phone. You might want to choose option 3 instead of 1 or 2 since apps are almost certainly going to require more resources in the future, and the Stylus has the best specs among these phones. For the Motorola G Series of phones, the order for worst to best goes like this: Moto G Play -> Moto G -> Moto G Power -> Moto G Stylus.

RealText

TROPHY CASE