No sure what my son pays for mom but he said my Tracfone deal is much better. He also tells her to try to limit calls to the off hours or weekends, whatever. I figure I'm paying a flat $8.25/month, can call any time and have 1,200 minutes left and need to renew in Oct. They'll roll over the old minutes so at the rate I call, it's not important that I get a double deal. Not interested in text messaging or using phone as a camera.
Won't do me much good, unless I write off the couple of hundred in airtime I have on account. They Don't Do Refunds. Maybe when I retire and move south in a couple 3 years, I'll switch then, or get a real cell phone in lieu of a landline. In the meantime, it works well enough for MOST of the places I go.
-- aem sends...
Combine that Alltel service with Google Voice and chose one of your free options as a "favorite number" that you set to your Google Voice number. You then have unlimited incoming and outgoing calls without using any minutes because incoming calls are routed through Google Voice and come from your "favorite number" and you call your Google Voice number to place all outgoing calls and all outgoing calls are to your "favorite number." Alltel has discontinued offering their own prepaid plans and the 75 cents/day plan is no longer available.
Yeah, there are a very few areas where Sprint is the only major carrier, and it looks like you found one!
My first Tracfone (bought in 2000) required typing in these long code numbers. The one I got in about 2005 did not. You still have to call customer service to transfer units. Both units and days were transferred. I did have to get a new phone number, possibly because of the change from CDMA to GSM.
BTW, in case you don't know about the technology, GSM phones are the ones with SIM cards.
Brandon McCombs wrote in news:bongm.11846$ snipped-for-privacy@unlimited.newshosting.com:
If you buy a 90 days card, it expires in 90 days. There are also minutes that come with the card.
Been a Tracfone customer since the begining many years ago...Love it....Highly recommend it...The only drawback is their assortment of phones...SWMBO wants a camera phone and Tracfone doesn't have one for Maine for some reason...Only the basic phones are available...Kinda sucks....I only use mine for work so I could care less...LOL...We have the LG flip phone.....
Guess it comes down to what you need. Per minute cost means little to me as seldom as I use my cell. I don't burn up the 27 minutes included with the $5 required monthly charge.
I seldom text\\email. When I do it's still cheaper than cell use.
Again I'm not up to speed on current\\new requirements, but with our plan we incur NO monthly minimums.
My mom is 84 and has no problem with a plain, normal cell phone. Don't put all seniors into the same category. A plain phone with relatively large buttons, like an LGVX3300 or a Motorola V325i is not difficult to use for seniors, or anyone else for that matter.
That's nice, but you can plug your phone into your computer and manage your phone directory locally.
Free directory assistance is already available, but not live. I guess if they want to place calls with a live operator, versus entering the number or selecting the name from a list of contacts, that's an advantage of Jitterbug, but boy do you pay a premium for that.
$100 a year, that seems to be what everyone else here is saying. If you have kids scattered across the country toll free incoming calls is a plus too. I know you said there were services as cheap as $30 a year but what kind of service is that? Who is the carrier?
For about $10 per month you can probably add a line to YOUR account for them. Then YOU pay the bill and they get it for free. They then use YOUR minutes. Plus the phone will probably be free with a contract. They will then be able to call you for free and that'll make you the good son.
snipped-for-privacy@aol.com wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
It kinda sounds sub-sub par - the $30 one. Like something mentioned on Law and Order all the time. "can't track it, it's a prepaid phone".
Any cell phone I've ever heard of can always call 911 even if it's not paid, registered or whatever. If you keep it in the car, better have a charger that plugs into the cig lighter. Actually my brother just told me there is a cheap low wattage $10 inverter so you can use the free
120VAC charger in the car and never buy another special car charger again.
And that is a Bad Thing?
But seriously- prepaids aren't for everyone, and there are better and worse companies. I apparently chose one of the worse with Virgin, but at the time, that is all I saw in the stores around here, and a coworker recommended it. I was preparing for a road trip for a family emergency (cleaning up after a suddenly deceased relative), and had other things on my mind. I just needed a portable phone. I was in a hurry, and it was 'good enough' at the time, and most of the time since then. For as little as I use it, a conventional cell phone and account is simply out of the question. I could care less about texting and pictures- I just need a phone.
-- aem sends...
My vote is for Net10. The phones are cheap, and the air time is 10 cents a minute. You might want to check their web site for coverage in your area but I went on a 2700 mile road trip and it worked everywhere except the very boonies.
A couple I know has does exactly that. They have a 1000 minute a month plan and in a good month, mom uses 2 of them.
Net10 is good for a moderately heavy user, but the minimum monthly cost is $15 which is pretty high. The 10 cent a minute cost is also rather high. On the plus side, they do allow roaming off of AT&T onto other GSM networks at no extra cost.
For a phone that is more likely to work in the boonies, albeit at extra cost per minute, use Tracfone CDMA phones, or PagePlus, or Verizon InPulse.
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911 cell is a required federal law mandate.but do try your old phone, the analog ones no longer work since every carrier went all digital. the phones will still power up, but not see any system since analog no longer exists
If you get an unregistered CDMA phone, you can sign up with ARN for $10/year.
Outgoing calls only. You don't get a phone number. From 25¢ to $1 per minute.
"
That last one is important since I do want this for occasional use (glove compartment phone).
I found out that Virgin does NOT cover Brownwood (Sprint does, but it's roaming).
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