Cricket Wireless

Bottom Line

Cricket receives mediocre marks for plans, performance and customer service in reviews. Prepaid cell phone users in J.D. Power and Associates' survey place Cricket in second-to-last place with a ranking below the industry average, and users at PrepaidReviews.com give the carrier only 2 out of 5 stars.

Breaking It Down

Plans and Flexibility

Inexpensive but limited. Subscribers report that Cricket Wireless is cheaper than average, and TopTenReviews.com gives the carrier top marks for the flexibility of its monthly plan options.

Cricket's cheapest plan is $25 per month and gives 300 talk minutes (including domestic long distance), unlimited text, picture, mobile web and voice mail, and caller ID, call waiting and three-way calling. Cricket's closest plan to an unlimited monthly plan is $35 a month for 1,000 talk minutes, and unlimited text and mobile web use. At $45 a month, the Muve Music plan gives you the features of the $35 monthly plan plus unlimited song downloads, ringtones and ringback tones. Roaming charges can be of concern, given that Cricket Wireless has only partial coverage in certain states.

Performance

Limited regional coverage. Reviewers rate Cricket highly for features and praise its domestic coverage. However, Cricket is a regional carrier and some reviewers detract points for its limited coverage.

Customer service

Different ratings from users and experts. In J.D. Power and Associates' survey of prepaid wireless users, Cricket Wireless receives low ratings for overall customer satisfaction, just above the last-place AT&T GoPhone (*$50 per month and up). User contributors to PrepaidReviews.com more often than not cite poor customer service as their top complaint. In contrast, editors at TopTenReviews.com give full marks for customer service at Cricket, but it's unclear how extensively they tested the carrier.

Phone Selection

Not much. Cricket has a very limited selection of phones. Right now, you can choose from one flip phone, two bar phones and three smartphones, or one other non-smartphone just for the Muve Music service.