Prepaid Cell Phones

[TheGreatSatan]

Time to drop the bomb....

I don't own a cell phone! In fact I don't like them and don't want one either, but I'm being forced by the wife into at least getting a prepaid one for occational use.

I've looked at:


T-Mobile
GoPhones
AT&T
Tracfone
Net10

Phones are phones, but the plans confuse me. Some you are buying a set dollar amount , while other you are paying for a specific amount of minutes.

Help?

[Crazy Buddhist]

If your wife has a phone on a calling plan - and especially if she has been with them for a long time - I would suggest she call her company and say she wants a phone for her partner, that it will be for very occasional use and what are they prepared to offer her? Then start negotiating.

Cell phone companies, phone companies, ISP's, and all utilities in denationalised markets are absolutely scared of something called "churn" which basically means people running from one company to another to get better deals.

If she is a long term customer of one phone company on contract they will want to keep her business and might do a very good deal on a prepay for you.

Crazy

[TheGreatSatan]

Another thing, why are all cell phones so damn small? I need something BIG

[nevermind1534]

I know that AT&T lets you add another phone to an existing plan for an extra $10 a month. Most people just want a small phone. When I lose mine, I just call it.

[TheGreatSatan]

That's the thing, I once lost my wife's and we never found it again....

[Canadian Eh?]

Well Cell phones are good to have in case of emergencies, or just general communication, even if you dont see yourself using one that much.

just my 2 cents...

[OvRiDe]

If you can get on a shared or family type plan, that would be your best bet. We looked into getting my elderly Aunt a cell phone. She only wanted it in case of an emergency, such as being stuck on the side of the road. The problem with the prepaid plans that I ran into, is the minutes expire!?! So if you don't use your minutes withing a set period, you pretty much forfeit them, and have to buy new ones. In most cases its per month. The most economical solution was to add a line to my Dad's plan for 10 bucks a month. Now the only problem is to explain to her, why she has to charge it, if she doesn't ever talk on it...

[Omega]

As far as prepaid phones go, I doubt you can get one that's large at all. Even with cell-plan cellphones, they're pretty small. Biggest phones I've seen recently are smartphones and they're about the size of an iPod or so.


What I would suggest, instead of a prepaid phone, is trying to find a cheap cell plan. If you know you're not going to talk very much, then don't bother with one with a lot of minutes. OR see if you can get another line on your wife's cellphone plan. Will probably be cheaper and the minutes won't expire like a prepaid plan will. You won't get to keep them (unless you're on Cingular), but if you're only paying $10/15 a month for it, it's a good deal.

I forgot the rates on my prepaid phone that I used to have, but it was something stupid like 10 cents a minute. I don't use my phone very often at all but even that burned up pretty quickly.

[Airbozo]

I agree with the small phone issue. I got the mondo fingers and those tiny little doll toy phones just piss me off. I didn't want a cell phone either and only got one so my customers could get a hold of me. The wife got one for the same reason and she used hers 100x more than I did. I thought about the prepaid ones and found out it was cheaper to add a phone to her plan. Now I use the thing a lot and mostly for texting. I got one of the LG flip open phones with a regular (although tiny) keyboard. I love it now but still barely use it for making calls.

FYI: ANY cell phone can be used to call 911 even if it is not activated with any company.

TGS: is this what you are looking for:

[.Maleficus.]

Hehe... small cell phones.. Reminds me of Dane Cook's Vicious Circle, talking about people with big heads and small cell phones .

ANYWAYS... One of the bigger phones out right now would be an iPhone (a review of which could be appearing soon ) or a smart phone like a Blackberry or Palm. Prepaids don't usually get cool phones like those, so you'll usually be stuck with what they have in the boxes. Virgin Mobile makes prepaids has well, check out those. I used to have one and it was extremely easy and not too expensive.