I'm curious about the TOTAL cost of a prepaid cell phone for someone on a very limited budget.
It seems to me that you can pick up the phone at Walmart for less than $100 and buy a prepaid card for about 10 to 20 cents a minute.
And then if you don't use it but a few times a month, it would be an excellent deal.
What am I missing?
What brand or service works well here in Houston/La Porte?
Sherman
Tried it in Calif and it sucked. (AT&T I think) I wanted it basically for emergencies only and thought it would be perfect. When the wife upgraded I took her old phone and bought a card. What I found was that every time I got called they whacked of a lot more than the minute I was hooked up and if there was any unused time left at the end of the month I lost it and had to start over with a new card.
There is one deal from Trac Phone that you can keep the minutes for a year and even roll them over again if you buy a ? 80$? card, I think its
240 minutes for 80-90$. Good if the phone is for emergency use only. Trac Phone has the only deal where minutes dont just expire automaticly in 20-60 days, but you must buy their big card, at radioshack, wall mart etc. Now though there might be others to offer this. You can get their phones from 35$ and up. The bad deal is the cheap cards expire in 30 days. With Track phone you can get a phone and one years minutes for 130$ or 11 $ a month.
Usually, the time "expires" if you don't use it within a certain time frame.
I use Tracfone, and am very happy with it. But I purchase 150 minute cards, which don't expire for 1-year. If you keep purchasing cards, the minutes roll-over, so you don't lose them. But for me, I don't use anywhere near as many minutes as I have to sign up for to keep the service in place.
It's still much less expensive than the normal monthly rates from Singular/Verizon, etc. It's great if you don't use the phone much.
Another disadvantage, at least with Tracfone, is that if you lose the phone or it is stolen, you lose all your minutes and time. They will not transfer those minutes or time to a new phone.
I'm in western NY, so can't help you there. But all the prepaid plans use some other sevice provider's network to arry the signal. In my area, Tracfone uses Verizon, which is good because they have the best coverage in this area. When I vacationed in the Southwest, my phone used Singular, which was also the best coverage in that area.
So ask the provider what network they use in your area. Then ask friends and coworkers what service they use, and how their coverage is.
Terry
You are right Terry, a 150 minute Trac Phone card, I forgot the card size we purchased, the phone is for my mom for emergencys, but she got
60? minutes free for signing and 2 extra months I believe before a new card is needed, 14 months. Phone works fine and has only needed a partial charge in 1 year, Now they have a camera phone avalaible, I think phones start at 35$ up to 100+.
Yea, that's an answer, but I doubt if I would average even one call a year, and that would still mean I would be paying about $100 a year for the service and at my rate of calls that would be $50 or more a call. Now if I could buy the card, keep the minutes and only pay say $20.00 per year, I think I would go for that.
=========== I am NOT on a budget..but both my wife and I are retired and we both have Virgin Mobile phones (at about 100 bucks each) and we Both have to pay at leasr 15 bucks every 3 months to keep the phones active..
After the initial expense of the phones ...and with our usage (pretty darn low) it works out that each phone costs us about 5 bucks a month... and to be honest we never even come close to using the minutes we buy (25 cents per minute..for the 1st 10 minutes each day then it dropsw down to 10 cents a minute)...I do not think we ever used them 10 minutes in a single day...
The minutes roll over....I just checked my balmnce on my phone...shows that I have $105.50 balance....thats a little over 400 minutes ...and IF my 90 day was tomorrow I would have to purchase another 15 bucks worth of time.. which would bring my balance up to $120.00 ...and we both have our accounts set up that the 15 bucks comes out automatically so we do not have to keep track of anything...
For me and my wife...IT WORKS... and at about 5 bucks a month it is damn cheap imho...
The only problem I have is neither phone rings extremely loud...thank the good lord it does vibrate or I may not even know the wife is calling... lol
Bob G.
There are several prepaid carriers that would fit your requirements. STI Mobile and Beyond Wireless, for example, let you keep your minutes forever, and only require you to make a one minute call every 60 days to keep your service. STI mobile charges 12 cents a minute peak, 10 cents a minute off-peak and weekends, so you only have to spend a minimum 60 cents a year. I believe beyond wireless is similar. Beyond Wireless is a little more expensive (about 16 cents a minute, or so, IIRC), but has better coverage.
STI Mobile is reselling Sprint PCS, and Beyond Wireless is reselling Cingular (formerly AT&T) TDMA.
I noticed in Staples' flyer this week that they are selling an STI Mobile phone for free after rebate ($100), so all you need for over eight years of service (if you never use it, except for the requisite calls) is your local sales tax on the phone, a $5 activation fee, and a $5 prepaid card.
I think there's a third carrier that does this, too, but I can't remember their name.
I've never used these people, so it's conceivable there are problems I don't know about. And, of course, you risk them going out of business, since they seem to be small companies working on small margins.
snipped-for-privacy@webtv.net (m Ransley) wrote in news:29175-43957C36-2356@storefull-
3136.bay.webtv.net:
I use Tracfone for a number of years now. I buy the one year card. I hardly talk on the phone so now I have a lot of minutes rolled over (if I ever need minutes). What's great is that you get a voice mail with it. Call the VM (retrieve messages) from a land line and you don't use any minutes.
I also use their Long-Distance service. I just signed up this summer. It's perfect for me. Marina
Sherman wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
I've had very good service with my TracFone,Cingular is my local network for them.$100 got me a refurb'd phone and 150 minutes(units). I've seen new phones at WalMart for $30.00,but you have to buy minutes separately. Prepaid plans vary,and with some,your "minutes" are only valid for a couple of months. With Trac Fone,I buy a 150 minute card that the units last for a year,and rollover when I buy a new yearly card.(which only cost me $89.00 last time around,and also got bonus minutes.)
Outside of your local service area,usage is *double* minutes. (2 units = ONE minute of talktime)
TracFone does not yet offer a camera-phone.
Trac phone just came out with a camera phone
Thanks for the response. I will look into it.
But, can you change phones (both from TracFone), and keep the same phone number and accumulated minutes/time?
Does Tracfone receive incoming calls and does that apply to your minutes?
Mark Lloyd wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
Yes, I changed to a different model and I kept the same #. That was a while ago. They sometimes change their business, but ususally it's to give better options.
"badgolferman" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.readfreenews.net:
Yes, when you answer or make a call the minutes are being used. If you call your voice mail from your cell the mintues are also used. Call your VM from a land line and it's free to get messages.
Do all of these prepaid cell phones having roaming capabilities when out of your service area such as on a car vacation?
All the ones I've seen do. Tracfone allows you to roam, but you're charge 2 "units" per minute, instead of the normal 1 unit/minute. Similarly, they charge 2 units per minute for long distance calls from your home service area.
Terry
Prepaid only differ in that you use and buy one of the phones they offer and you prepay. I bought a Motorola but now I think Trac Fone has a camera phone available, they are good for kids or as an emergency phone. The phones cost apx 30-120.
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