Let me toss in my two cents: After almost 20 years as a Verizon customer, I jumped ship, and switched to Consumer Cellular a couple of years ago. Cut my cell bill way down, (by more than half), with zero difference in coverage or service, and without a contract. I'm very happy. They use cell towers for AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint. They offer plans that are pretty good, and for not a lot of money. No contract means you can cancel at anytime. (I have two lines, with unlimited data, texts, and calls, and I pay about $40 per line for the service, including all taxes.) They sell new phones in a variety of brands and such, and also have payment plans if you want a fancier phone without spending a lot up front. Before spending money on a reconditioned phone that will likely go out of useful service in a few months, maybe investigate a new phone that will run the current and future operating system. There is a reason that phone was turned in. I just checked the Consumer Cellular site, and they have a 64gb iPhone SE for sale for $250. That may be higher capacity than the one at WalMart mentioned above, if that's even available.
Also, about your reconditioned phone plans: I gave up my 6S after an iOS upgrade basically rendered the battery useless. Where it had been running fine previously, after the upgrade it wouldn't hold a charge for more than about six hours. I got tired of always having to have the phone plugged in to charge itself, or have it die while I was talking on a call. My new phone is much better for such things, and I'm happy. (It's a 12 Mini, way more phone that you might want, but the price wasn't that bad.)
Let me know if this is something you want to pursue, and i'll get you a referral code that will save you some money on the initial process. I think it's $10. If you use the referral, I get the same thing.
Hope this helps.
Dave