I have a Verizon pay-as-you-go plan and I just upgraded from a flip phone to a smartphone. I got the Motorola Moto E at Wal-Mart; it cost around $70. I've had it a few weeks and so far, I do like it. I mostly text with my cell phone and do very little calling. I have to charge it up about every 2-3 days or so. The screen is big enough so that I can see the text messages well. I even loaded a couple of games on it.
There is a cheaper phone which is very similar - I think that's the Moto G - the only difference being that this one has a slot for a memory card and the cheaper one doesn't. I wanted the card slot so I could also load some music on the phone.