Need Advice on Cell Phones

[Werewolf]

Cell Phones - in my opinion - border on being the BANE of modern society.

But reality is reality and I've reached a point where I've decided I need one just for on the road, out of the house emergencies.

Not gonna do the whole 2 year contract bit, so many minutes a month thingy like my wife and daughters do. I might use 10 minutes a month at most (probably closer to ZERO minutes in most months) so I figure the best route to go is a pre-paid type deal - maybe like you can get at Walmart.

Not knowing jack about cell phones (other than paying the bills that is) and not wanting to get ripped off, I have to ask what's the best kind of deal I can make based on most months never even turning the horrid  thing on, where would I get it?

Suggestions?

[mtnbkr]

I don't like the prepaid deals because the minutes "expire" after a time.  If you wife and daughter have a "family" plan, you can usually add another line for about $10/month and use their minutes.  It's a "2 year contract", but at $10/month, it's pretty cheap.

Chris

[Werewolf]

I don't like the prepaid deals because the minutes "expire" after a time.  If you wife and daughter have a "family" plan, you can usually add another line for about $10/month and use their minutes.  It's a "2 year contract", but at $10/month, it's pretty cheap.

Chris

Thanks for the suggestion. I have considered that but it would extend the T-Mobile contract on my wife's phone - which is almost up - for another 2 years.

Cheap - that's me. My wife call's me CAM - Cheap ass Michael and my daughters CAD. The thought of paying $10 bucks a month for something I will rarely use chaps my behind.

Are there pre-paid plans where the minutes won't expire for a year or even 6 months maybe?

[mtnbkr]

I haven't seen any.  I went down this path when I thought I might want a "disposable" phone for biking and only biking (don't want to take my bulky and expensive smartphone).  Considering I might use it once a month, it was about the same price to get another line on our family plan and add my spare phone to it. 

It does look like the pay as you go plans carry the minutes over if you're an active user, but I'm not sure what exactly "active user" means in this context.

Edit to add: I would love to find a pay as you go plan where I could buy 60 minutes and have it last for a year.  That would be perfect for my biking needs, but they all seem to expire after 90 days if you're not using them.  At that rate, along with the cost of the phone itself, I'd end up spending about half what I'd spend on the extra line and have the hassle of keeping the minutes fresh.

Chris

[Harold Tuttle]

virgin mobile with a 15 dollar auto paypal every 90 days works for me

the phone is ~20 bucks and the time rolls over

[Manedwolf]

You usually end up paying more with a prepaid, because the minutes expire. If you add up month to month, you're paying more than you would for a basic cellphone plan with a "free" phone. Expiring minutes is how the prepaids make money.

It's like renting to own. Looks good, but you pay much more than just buying it.

[Scout26]

Cell Phones - in my opinion - border on being the BANE of modern society.

I refer to the ones my employers have provided as "The Electronic Leash".....

[bedlamite]

I have a Tracfone Nokia 1100. The minutes only expire if you do not add more time before the 90 days are up. So far I've only used their 60 minute cards which are good for 90 days and cost $20, and I've got several hundred minutes left on the phone. The phone cost me $10 and it's averaged out to $7/month to keep it active for the last 4 years. I probably use 15 minutes a month.

[Dntsycnt]

I use Tracfone.  Costs me around 20 bucks a month, and while there is a time limit it's pretty big and the time/minutes roll over.  Right now my minutes wont die until November 25th, and I've got nineteen minutes left, so I'll be buying another 20 dollar card here soon, which will kick that ahead several months.

I don't talk much...so it works well for me.  I'm in kind of the same boat you are; cellphones as a rule annoy me, but it's nice to have for emergencies/occasional practical matters.

[Werewolf]

I have a Tracfone Nokia 1100. The minutes only expire if you do not add more time before the 90 days are up. So far I've only used their 60 minute cards which are good for 90 days and cost $20, and I've got several hundred minutes left on the phone. The phone cost me $10 and it's averaged out to $7/month to keep it active for the last 4 years. I probably use 15 minutes a month.

That's what I'm looking for... Where can I get one of those?

[mtnbkr]

Cell Phones - in my opinion - border on being the BANE of modern society.

I refer to the ones my employers have provided as "The Electronic Leash".....

I'll take the "leash".  It means I don't have to be in the office.  This past year, I have been able to take my daughter to school every day (she doesn't go till 9:30am), attend her school functions, work from home, work insanely flexible hours, etc.

Without the phone and laptop, I'd have to spend 9-5 m-f in the office, missing a lot of my little girl's "firsts", not spending as much time with my family, etc.

Chris

[Manedwolf]

FYI, any cellphone, even if it hasn't any service, will still dial 911. That's the law.

Good to keep a massively overpowered old analog in your car for that reason.

[Bogie]

I'm thinking of getting The Teenager a "text only" phone... Any ideas?
 
(FWIW, there are three folks in the extended family with varying degrees of deafness, including The Teenager's Mother, and pretty much everyone except grampa texts a lot).
 

[Vodka7]

I have a Tracfone Nokia 1100. The minutes only expire if you do not add more time before the 90 days are up. So far I've only used their 60 minute cards which are good for 90 days and cost $20, and I've got several hundred minutes left on the phone. The phone cost me $10 and it's averaged out to $7/month to keep it active for the last 4 years. I probably use 15 minutes a month.

That's what I'm looking for... Where can I get one of those?

Tracfone is a great suggestion, but depending on how much you'll actually use the phone, a 1year card may work better than a 90day card.  The cheapest 1year plan works out to $8.33/mo for the life of the card and gives you fifty minutes.  The cheapest 90day card works out to only $6.66/mo, but you also only get 20 minutes/mo.

Check the options out at http://www.tracfone.com/add_buy_airtime.jsp?task=buyairtime

As for the phone, they have them on the website starting at $15, but you can also get ones at almost any 7-11/gas station/etc that usually come with bonus minutes.  Right now they have two good phone deals on the website--one starts you out with 120 minutes and a phone for $30, and the other gives you a nicer phone and double minutes for life for $50 (meaning the 90day card would give you 40minutes/mo every time you bought one instead of 20.)  If you spend more than $35 on the site, you can get free shipping by using promo code 44424.

[Marnoot]

FYI, any cellphone, even if it hasn't any service, will still dial 911. That's the law.

Good to keep a massively overpowered old analog in your car for that reason.

Unfortunately this is no longer the case for analog as most carriers are shutting down or have already shut down their analog networks:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/15/AR2008021500036.html

[K Frame]

"But reality is reality and I've reached a point where I've decided I need one just for on the road, out of the house emergencies."

That's the exact reason I have mine.

In this day and age there seem to be few really true deals in cell phones anymore. Sure, you can get the spiffy new phone that takes pictures, fries eggs and washes your car, but, if you're me... so what.

Focus on reliability and coverage, and don't get so nervous about signing a contract.

I've had my cell phone contract with Verizon since 1996 or 1997. $9.95 a month access fee. Minutes are expensive, though, but not a big deal since I'm like you, in an average month I use 0 minutes.

The skip to digital is going to kill me. It will knock me off that program and I'll have to figure something else out.

The real deals, what few there are these days, really seem to focus around multi phone family plans. If you're single, don't use the phone, don't want/use camera, internet, text, etc., features, you either get creamed with a high price speciality contract or you simply can't find anything.

I've been looking at replacing my service in the coming months and it's not been easy finding anything that's even remotely useful for me.

[Dntsycnt]

With my tracphone you can receive as many texts as you want for free, but it costs 1/3 a minute per outgoing text.  Not TOO bad.

*Puts on tin-foil hat*

With prepaid phones, if you buy the minutes in the store, your name is in no way associated with the phone. 

*Removes hat*

[AJ Dual]

If you'll REALLY only use the phone in emergencies, you can often just add an additional phone for 9.99/month to an existing user in your family and share the minutes.

And within many carriers, calls between phones on the same carrier don't incur any extr charges or airtime minutes.

Then later, like EVERYONE ELSE I know who was crumudgeonly going to get a phone "only for emergencies", and will "leave it off all the time". You can up the airtime when you start using it regularily within 6 months to a year and it'll still be free "Honey? Can you pick up some milk?" calls within the family. 

[Manedwolf]

"But reality is reality and I've reached a point where I've decided I need one just for on the road, out of the house emergencies."

That's the exact reason I have mine.

In this day and age there seem to be few really true deals in cell phones anymore. Sure, you can get the spiffy new phone that takes pictures, fries eggs and washes your car, but, if you're me... so what.

Focus on reliability and coverage, and don't get so nervous about signing a contract.

I've had my cell phone contract with Verizon since 1996 or 1997. $9.95 a month access fee. Minutes are expensive, though, but not a big deal since I'm like you, in an average month I use 0 minutes.

The skip to digital is going to kill me. It will knock me off that program and I'll have to figure something else out.

The real deals, what few there are these days, really seem to focus around multi phone family plans. If you're single, don't use the phone, don't want/use camera, internet, text, etc., features, you either get creamed with a high price speciality contract or you simply can't find anything.

I've been looking at replacing my service in the coming months and it's not been easy finding anything that's even remotely useful for me.

I think Sprint still has a basic plan of 400minutes/month for $35, but you have to ask about it.

Almost everyone I know no longer has a landline (what's the use of a phone that rings where you're not?) and just uses cellphones. There's docking stations to let a cellphone power your home phone wires and all phones in the house, even with caller ID and other features.

If you do that, it's a significant savings, because there is no such thing as "long distance" in the US with a cellphone.

[K Frame]

"what's the use of a phone that rings where you're not?"

I don't want to be contactable 24x7x365.

I also don't have to worry about long distance charges with my home phone. I have Verizon Fios, which gives me my high speed internet, HD TV, and unlimited phone for about $145 a month.

[mtnbkr]

I don't want to be contactable 24x7x365.

When I don't want to be contactable, I either don't answer the phone or turn it off altogether.  Having a cellphone doesn't mean you're controlled by it.

Chris

[K Frame]

Gee, I never realized that!

I don't even want the impression that I can be contacted when I don't want to be.

When you have a cell phone, especially if you make the mistake of telling your office, you suddenly become "available" 24x7x365.

[lupinus]

for something like you are looking for a prepaid deal can't be beat.  You can go the route of tracphone (best of the pay as you go with a card IMO).  My mother had a tracphone for a long time and she often had better signals then people with regular cell phones.

Also check with the big boy companies, many offer some sort of pre paid deals.

[Bogie]

"Uh... Sorry, Boss, that you couldn't reach me at 3:00 this morning... I guess I left the phone in the car."
 

[Antibubba]

I think Sprint still has a basic plan of 400minutes/month for $35, but you have to ask about it. 

$29.99/mo gets you 200 minutes with nights after 9pm and all weekend free.  If you provide your own Sprint phone (a friend might have one lying around, and you find them at yard sales all the time) you can probably get away with a 1-year agreement.  Just be aware that store reps make their commissions by getting you into a 2 year agreement and selling all the other features.  If you go with Sprint, PM me.