RingPlus Free Cellphone Service

In addition to being able to turn off data or texting from the accounts portal, you can also blacklist phone numbers from being called or make a whitelist of phone numbers that are the only numbers that can be called from the cellphone.

It also allows you to set service timers were the phone can only be used during specific hours or days of the week. You can also view a real-time itemized listing of every number called or texted.

What was the problem you encountered?

The company is having a promotion tomorrow night (Tuesday evening) for 6,000 each of minutes, texts and MB for free ($0/month), indefinitely every month, after a one-time $38 deposit. It starts at 9:30 pm ET (6:30 pm PT) and will run for 2 and a half hours from that time (till 12:00 am ET/9:00 pm PT). It is called the BLT Plan.

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Almost any old or new Sprint phone (as well as most old Boost or Virgin phones), flip, smart, etc., can be used. It is best to have a phone in advance. RingPlus sells phones but they seem to be overpriced on equipment. It’s usually much less expensive to get it elsewhere like eBay, Swappa, C7Recycle or MegaSaver. C7Recycle has very good pricing. Or you could use an old Sprint/Boost/Virgin phone you have lying around unused. Also, when buying a phone through RP directly, I’m not sure how you’d be able to activate new service in the same order when ordering the phone. I think it may be possible, rather than having to wait for the phone to arrive, but I’m unfamiliar with how that might be done.

If getting it elsewhere look for a Sprint phone and try to get the IMEI or ESN so you can check before buying to make sure it’s compatible with RP. RP has a device compatibility checker you can find by googling: RingPlus ESN Check

When checking it there you want to see a response saying “Congratulations, your device will work on RingPlus” and not “it looks like your device is currently in use”.

If you want to signup for a current flash promotion that will expire before you will have a chance to obtain a phone, you can use a “placeholder” ESN. Later when you have your phone you can switch the service to your phone. Switching phones deducts $1.99 from your top up balance (which in the current plan will be the $38 you deposited.)

To find a placeholder ESN, use A0000012345FFE9 as the MEID and change the numbers to something else and leave the zeros/letters, until you find one that works (most work). You can check one now to find one that works. These are from ancient Sprint phones that is almost never used anymore.

If you’re using a smartphone from the last several years or newer, when entering your phone information into the account, in addition to the ESN/MEID you’ll also need its ICC ID.

That’s true about prepaid Sprint, Boost and Virgin phone models first released during the last couple of years. Most older than that will probably work however long they were active or not. Generally old phones should work.

Postpaid Sprint phones (i.e. Sprint’s regular service, not their prepaid services), as far as I know, should work any time, regardless of how short they were active with Sprint or even if they were never active.

It’s best to run it through the ESN checker from RingPlus I mentioned. Ting also has an ESN checker that you can double check if the phone’s ESN/MEID is valid outside of Sprint direct.

The promotion I mentioned above for 6,000 each of minutes, texts and MB at $0 per month, should be starting in a few minutes.

Did you replace the same number of digits as you took out in the 12345?

Try A0000012565FFE9 as that is showing as working for me.

What do you mean by that you took out one digit?

Were you able, per chance, to ask the seller for the IMEI so you could pre-check its compatibility on RP’s ESN checker?

They sometimes offer promotions that state a requirement to link to twitter (I never saw one requiring facebook) and sometimes even require posting a tweet promoting RP to qualify for the promotion. (If someone doesn’t have a twitter account they could simply create one for this purpose.) They usually, though, do not require this and the current BLT plan promo has no such requirement.

I just double checked and there is no social media requirement with this plan. They do encourage members to promote them on social media, so you may have seen a message encouraging that.

Also, regarding the earlier question (which is immaterial to you now but might be useful information to others), if you purchase a phone directly from RingPlus (despite their somewhat high pricing for equipment – the advantage is you’re guaranteed it is compatible with the service), the purchased phone cannot be used to signup for a new plan until you receive physical possession of it.

Also, many phone sellers on eBay, Swappa, C7Recycle, MegaSaver, etc. won’t share the IMEI before you buy it, but if you provide them the URL for the RP or Ting ESN checker they will run it for you and provide you the message the ESN checker returns.

They’re having another promotion later today, Sunday, at 7pm ET – 10pm ET (4pm PT-7pm PT) for a plan called Mad Surfing BBQ Brisket. It is the same details as the above BLT plan, with 6000 minutes/texts/MB (starts at 4750 and becomes 6000 on the fifth month and thereafter), except that with this plan 1) the calls go directly on the Sprint network and do *not* have music/ads while outgoing calls are ringing and 2) the data could potentially be throttled. Also $38 one-time deposit and then $0 (free) per month.

Both the ‘Mad Surfing BBQ Brisket’ and the ‘BLT’ plans are available right now (Monday, Labor Day) until 1 am ET (10 pm PT) for a $38 one-time fee (followed by free every month.) They both give you 6,000 minutes and MB/data. The difference between the two is that the ‘Brisket’ plan goes directly over the Sprint voice network (and as such generally has better quality calls) but the data may have its speed throttled, whereas the ‘BLT’ plan goes over RingPlus’ voice network (also good quality voice but Sprint direct is better) but the data speeds are full LTE.

See above if you need a temporary Sprint phone to signup until you get a Sprint phone to use. (You need a phone to signup during the promo hours.)

DY: How is your line working out?

One thing to keep in mind is that you are required to make at least one or two outgoing calls within any 60-day period in order to avoid losing your plan.

Which vendor was your phone from? What did it run you?

You’ve yet poked around the dashboard showing your live usage balances?

They’re running a promo from now through Monday night (9/19 midnight ET/9 PT) for 7,000 of everything (minutes, MB, etc.) for a $29 one-time deposit. They call it the ‘Hot Pastrami Sandwich’ plan.

You can disable data and/or disable texting on any line via the dashboard, and it will disable it on the network level. The block will affect any phone/handset used.

You can also blacklist any specific numbers or whitelist the only numbers that can be called.

RingPlus announced they’re changing all their plans and everyone must choose a new plan by logging into the accounts Dashboard and choosing Upgrades. The new plans are all what they call “Mad” plans, which are directly routed on Sprint’s voice cellular network. If you already have a plan with Mad in your plan’s name, you don’t have to change plans. The new plans have significantly less minutes, texts and data than the old plans. You need to change plans within the next few weeks in order to avoid losing service (if you don’t already have a Mad plan.)