Prepaid Cell Phones

[Chazz 0]

My current cell phone plan is about to expire, which is good because I don't use it a lot anyways. Somebody told me I should go with one of these prepaid, "pay as you go" cell phones. Since I live under a rock, I have never heard of these before until now. I was just curious if anybody here has or has had one? If so, how does/did it work out for you? Also, how does this "pay as you go" work? Big thanks to anybody that can shed some light on this subject.

[CanadianChris 0]

http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3504_7-6260217-1.html

[Big Ol' Smitty 0]

No questions, chazz!

[KingPK 0]

If you just want a secondary phone or one for emergencies, this is definitely the way to go. I have a TracFone one. It isn't very flashy, but I don't really care about all that stuff. The minutes are pretty cheap and I get 20 free minutes whenever I get a new card.

[JJMc 0]

Virgin Mobile is without a doubt the best. Easy to add minutes, good coverage. I had it (still do, actually) for over 3 years before switching to Cingular (big mistake) back in November.

[CanadianGuitarist 0]

A quick rundown, but figures will almost certainl vary(due to my being Canadian and using their figures):

 

Pay As You Go means you're buying the phone outright as opposed to a contract, in which you essentially lease the phone. We carry three providers at my Wal*mart, and there's different rate plans, expiry dates and coverage for both (I'll be using the three aforementioned carriers as examples, to give you an idea).

 

Telus offers 3 or 4 different phones, and they range from 75-225 dollars, depening on features. The 75 dollar model has basic features like a speakerphone, the higher end models offer MP3 players, cameras etc.

 

The same concept applies to Rogers and Virgin (and presumably, Cingular, Verizon, etc.).

 

Where the differences come into play are:

 

-Coverage

-Rates

 

Coverage is dependant on towers in your area...www.howstuffworks.com will explain the science of this infinitely better than I can. Almost every display will have a map to give you an idea of which has the best coverage.

 

Rates (again using my WalMart example) are based on the denomination of card, and provider.

Telus offers 10,25 and 50 dollar cards, and they'll charge 40, 35, and 30 cents a minute respectively for those cards. Cards will expire 30 days after 'topping up' on the 10 dollar, and 60 days on the greater two. Virgin offers a plan of 25 cents a minute all the time. Rogers rate is always 33 cents a minute (I believe), also available in 10,25 and 50 dollar cards. Also, if you buy a new card before the old one expires, remaining minutes will rollover. Example: You buy a 10 dollar card (35 minutes of time,roughly) on April 1, which will expire May 1. When you buy a new card on April 25, you still have 3 dollars left unused. You'll then have 13 dollars of credit.

 

If in the event you let your account lapse, you'll usually have 90 days to re-fill it or it'll be deleted.

 

 

Wow, that's quite a spiel I went on. Sorry if it sounded condescending or anything; if there's anything else you'd like to know, fire away.

[Prophet of Mike Zagurski 0]

My dad has a TracFone and I have a Virgin Mobile phone. My phone is about two years old and it's got some nice features. As for prices I think the VM phones start about seventy dollars. It's at least $20 for every 3 months in order for you to keep your service. Depending on you usage, this may be too much or too little. What I mean is that when I was on the East Coast, I was calling my parents a lot and I ran out of money on my phone.

 

Ringtones cost about $2.00 and $2.50.

 

Target sometimes has Virgin Mobile phone cards on sale. I bought $60 of minutes for $50.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

T Mobile 1150 Minutes - $100 (15% bonus if you buy the $100 card, and you get 15% extra on all other cards too)- minutes are good for 1 year on the $100 card but less on the lesser cards.

 

I think a minute = 10 cents and txt messages are 5 cents I think.

 

Coverage is ok..not that great

 

I was fine with it til I started talking to the Girl I met yesterday, who only has a cell phone with a long distance # and I dont have long distance on my home phone. Ive burnt through $50 worth so far this month..so Im going to buy 1 more $100 card but if we keep talking and texting Im probably going to switch to a monthly plan.

[Chazz 0]

Thanks guys! I really do appreciate all the feedback. I more question: So all I have to do to turn one of these phones "on" after I purchase it is to buy a phone card worth so many minutes?

[Perfxion 0]

Pretty much, buy the phone and card, and call up on a land line to setup phone.

 

 

Count the mins you plan on using first, if in a given month, you are going to use LESS than 1 hour of total phone phone useage, go prepaid. If you are going to use more than that or do go over than, get a basic monthly plan. It is cheaper and will save you money on the long run.

[KingPK 0]

I did my activation over the 'net. I'm sure most companies would offer the same.

[Guest orthogamous]

cingular has a pretty good pay-as-you-go system. i had a phone from them for awhile and it was pretty good