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Prepaid: A plan for those not obsessed with cell phones

Posted Mar 13 2008, 01:44 PM by Karen Datko
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We are among the four or five people in the country over the age of 12 who don't have a cell phone. Do we really want to be in touch with everyone all of the time? Why do we need to have a conversation about what the cat threw up, or what Oprah said, when we're driving, boarding airplanes or browsing in supermarket aisles?

Admittedly, a cell phone would come in handy once in a while: When you break leg on a mountain, your car dies in the middle of nowhere, or you really need to make a call and there's no pay phone in sight.

"Paidtwice" at I've Paid For This Twice Already says a prepaid cell phone plan is the way to go for the occasional cell phone user.

Paidtwice used to think that prepaid plans were for people with bad credit, until she realized how much money she could save. She used to pay $60 a month for a family plan. Now she pays about $14 a month total for two prepaid phones, and even got two free phones through company promotions.

"Once I let go of the 'cost-per-minute' factor and started focusing on the 'cost per month,' I realized that I was throwing tons of money away on minutes I wasn't using," she writes.

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Comments

 

I have a TracFone that I'm very happy with. I purchased the phone for around $50 and purchased one years worth of service for $100. Initially the year service came with 400 minutes but after bonus minutes are added I ended up with 1000 minutes for $100. TracFone gives you coupon codes on their website to get these bonus minutes when you look into purchasing additional minutes or a longer service than 30,60, or 90 days. And your minutes are used  in 30 second increments instead of a full minute at a time. I would recommend this company to anyone who doesn't want to pay a monthly charge and have a contract that's not cheap to get out of.

Noelle (Posted 11.06.08 1:58 PM ) Report Abuse

Does AT&T have prepaid cell phone programs, and will they allow you to keep your old phone to use, and will they allow you to switch

Ron owens (Posted 11.06.08 2:07 PM ) Report Abuse

My wife and I use Alltel prepaid....we pay by the minute at 25 cents (in $10 increments that carry over with no loss of minutes), but we use the phone only for emergencies and have some months when we spend  less than $5.00.  You can prepay by phone or internet.  I actually converted two contract phones from a plan that was costing us $50+ a month to this one which is saving us about $450 a year.  You get good service (we live in rural NC) and the normal support that you would get if you had a contract.  It's one of the best cost cutting measures we ever took.

PHIL (Posted 11.06.08 3:56 PM ) Report Abuse

I have tracfone that cost me some $20.00 every 3 months, paid $45.00 onece for a double minutes for the life of my phone, so every time I buy minutes they double them, this incudes long distance within the USA and international.

Carlos (Posted 11.06.08 10:20 PM ) Report Abuse

I have tmobile prepaid and no land line.  I spent maybe $150 for minutes over the last 18 months.  I'll buy minutes at target when they are on sale.  I have my family using skypes free service, so I basically use my cell for emergencies and quick calls.  I hate text messages and don't really like talking on the phone all that long, so this set up works great for me.  Been land line free for almost 2 years and it's nice not getting telemarketers calling.

Marc (Posted 11.07.08 12:23 PM ) Report Abuse

pre paid phones are a rip off! I am having to buy 2 or three cards a month and I only make 1 to 5 calls. I have used Cingular and Verizon pre paid phones with the same results My available time decress $4 or $5 a week with out useing the phone just hiden fees eating up my money.

david (Posted 11.07.08 11:52 PM ) Report Abuse

i have had virgin for three yrs. at&t for two yrs., both were good but i switched to t-mobil last yr. best move i have made.  better coverage, no droped calls, several phones to chose from on the web site,cost .25 per minute, no daily chg. minutes are good for 90 days, unused rool over. once you reach $100.00 in topups you get 15% bonus min. & min. are good for 1yr. for someone like me who doesent live on a phone you cant beat it.

gordy (Posted 11.09.08 2:53 PM ) Report Abuse

I have just bought a net phone and got 300 minutes for free.  I like the service and am soooo ready to dump ATT corp.  My strategy is to go with a cable phone at home and then cell for occasional use.  I beleive it should save me about 300 a year and not enslave me to bad quality phones that i become enslaved to for 2 years or more.  I say consumers should write to their senators and RE-regulate cellular phone companies banning contracts longer than a year.  What a ripoff!

tim (Posted 01.16.09 1:52 PM ) Report Abuse

2 years ago on black Friday I got 3 Virgin Mobile pre paid phones for 9.99 each. One for my 63 year old  mother, my 15 yo son & myself.  This was our first time using / having cell phones. The plan we have is only $15 every 3 months each because we have it come right out of the bank account (so it averages out to only $5 per month to have peace of mind.  Our calls are charged at .18 per minute, local & long distance & texts are .15 each coming & going.  You HAVE to top up on your $$ every 90 days to keep the service available but you Never lose your minutes or remaining balance...it all rolls over as long as your account is current.  Also, you can earn free minutes by referrals or watching a few ads on their website.  Some of their phones are free when you buy your first minutes online...free shipping too.

Cathy (Posted 02.10.09 9:46 PM ) Report Abuse

Cathy you are paying to much, I have a Net10 prepaid and I only pay 10 cents per minute for calls and that also includes long distance and text messages are only 5 cents each. Net10 doesn't charge for roaming and they have the best reception because they get coverage on all the towers. Most of the other prepaids charge $1 per day so you can get the 10 cents per minute rate but not Net10, it's 10 cents from anywhere to anywhere, no hidden costs.

Simon (Posted 03.18.09 6:39 AM ) Report Abuse

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