Don't you want news-server access? That's the most common deal-breaker for me.
Budget ISPs often contract with dialup providers. The quality of service can depend on this, and the ISP's representative may not be in a position to know what's wrong.
At $9.95 I've been with localnet a couple of years, I guess. At times I've looked for alternatives, but in the long run things have worked out.
Last January I began experiencing incidents where I'd get an error message when I tried to send email. I kept assuming it would quickly be fixed. When it happened over a period of months I finally called. Mine was the first report of trouble. From their end, their servers checked out fine.
I discovered that it happened when I was assigned IPs from a certain sequence, and it didn't matter what email application or what OS I used. They agreed that it must have been affecting all their customers in my area for months, so they were glad I'd reported it.
They called back to say they thought it was fixed. I had to complain a couple more times before they solved the problem. Still, it was a positive experience for me. Some ISP reps tend to insist that any problem is at the customer's end. Others try to help but don't get anywhere. Localnet reps didn't know what was going on at first, but they listened to me and pursued the problem until they fixed it.