Virgin mobile or Republic Wireless?

Bran_ham

Help. I'm having a dilemma. My contract is expiring soon with Verizon and I still want to have a cell phone and try a smart phone but don't use many minutes (and probably wouldn't use too much data either). DH and I have a family plan with 500 minutes shared and we barely use 200. It costs us about $80/mo. DH will be cancelling his phone and using his work phone which he has to carry anyway. I'm seriously considering either Virgin mobile or Republic Wireless. I'm a SAHM so I use the home phone more often than not.

For those who don't know RW is a wifi based service, so it utilitzes wifi connections over cell connections when it can, reducing the price to $20/mo and also unlimited data/text/min etc so long as you don't go crazy with your usage while on the cell connection. I wouldn't be able to get the service until the summer, although I don't know of a specific date yet. I'm not sure how well their service works and they're very new. You pay $200 upfront for the first month/phone/activation and get a 30 day return period. 

On Virgin mobile I would pay $35/mo for 350 minutes (least expensive plan) and unlimited text/data. It runs on Sprint's network so I know it works well in my town. Aside from going out of town I wouldn't foresee my usage going above 350. 

Which of these options would you choose and why? I don't really think the difference between $20 and $35 is a big deal. With Virgin I could cancel Verizon sooner and start saving faster whereas with RW I'd have to wait at least a few months before I could start their service. 

TIA! 

emisi

Republic Wireless sounds pretty cool, although they only have one phone.  What are the phone choices on Virgin Mobile?  Does that matter to you?  I'd probably go RW, personally.  I use my cell a lot at home, so it would just piggyback off my wireless.