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Does anyone use a pre-paid cell phone plan?

J

jgirvine

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I am paying $30 a month for my mom to have a cell phone for when she is out and about. She used 7 minutes this month. There has got to be a cheaper way.

Does anyone use a pre-paid cell, or pay as you go cell? It needs to be one I can monitor her usage and add more money to.

Thanks for any and all advice.
 
I use a pay as you go phone. I used to pay $30/month and made maybe 6 calls a year. I keep my phone off unless I know I am expecting a call and use it for emergencies. I started out with cingular and it is now ATT. I usually buy $25 worth every 3 mo and have never used up all my minutes. I can buy a card at the store and renew on the computer using the card # I purchased, renew on the computer by going to the website, or calling in on my cell phone to renew, They now have an automatic renewal if you sign up for it but I haven't subscribed to this yet. I think this is good for people who don't make many calls. Saves me lots of money
 
My daughter used T-mobile for emergency purpose (until she discovered texting). $10 charge will get you 3 month use. Once you spent $100 total, it's 10c/min.
 
I have used Tracfone for the past 8 years. http://www.tracfone.com/ It's about $99 per year and I get about 400 minutes for the year. If you don't use all your minutes, they roll over if you don't let the subscription expire. You can also buy additional minutes either on line or at places like a drug store or Best Buy. Sometimes you can get a free phone or else you can upgrade. They also promotions where you can get double minutes when you purchase minutes. They also have texting available for .3 units (minutes).

Sue
 
I will be! Currently on the AT&T family shared minutes plan. DW re-upped and gave me a smartphone for Xmas. Neither of us use many minutes and last time I looked we had 10,000+ minutes in the pool.

As soon as the commitment she signed onto is satisfied, I'm bailing out. After a post here in the TUG Lounge, I researched TRAC-Phone. Looks like I can transfer my phone # to them and keep it as long as the account is active, and International calls cost the same as domestic, so that also solves the dilemma of travel communication. It may even be worth paying the early out from AT&T.

Pay as needed and no need for Skype- what's not to like?

As to the question from the OP- I can't answer if you can monitor usage, but you can certainly add time for your mom.

Jim Ricks
 
We all use Tracfone. My DH and my kids don't use more than about 15 minutes a month, so I buy the smallest card possible every 90 days, and the extra minutes roll over.

That's $20 every three months to keep the phone activated, and there are usually codes available to give bonus minutes on top of the 60 minutes I'm buying.

I bought several $10 Tracfones at Target a while back. My kids often manage to lose a phone here and there, so I don't like to spend too much on the phones or the minutes. If I were buying a new phone for me or DH, I would get something a bit nicer than these cheapies.

The one thing to look out for with some prepaid plans is that you buy the minutes and then the company charges an additional $1 fee every day you use the phone. Tracfone doesn't do this--you can use the minutes whenever you like. Their customer service is the absolute worst in the history of the world, so I did some looking around when I was really aggravated with them a couple of years back, and I was surprised by how many of the other companies do charge that per-day fee.
 
We used TracPhones for many years before we went on a Sprint family plan. My only complaint is customer service, but other than that they work find.

Nancy
 
Jerry uses Consumer Cellular. You can get a free phone from them, or an upgraded one for $$. They have a $35. activation fee, and no contract. You can pay $10. a month and $.25 a minute for any minutes used, or for $20. a month you get 250 minutes. If you are a member of AARP you get 5% off. You can order and activate by telephone. I think you'd probably be able to pay either automatically or by the year if that would be more convenient.

Its slightly more money than a Tracphone, but Jerry likes it better because he doesn't have to remember to add minutes, etc.

And if you lose a phone, it is only $35. to get a new one!

Fern
 
I forgot, with Consumer Cellular, as long as you have the account number you can monitor usage online, too, which seems to be one of the requirements.

Fern
 
Thanks guys

I knew my Tuggers would know. I will look at all the options everyone mentioned. Thanks again.
 
Used to have T-Mobile. Loved it. No dropped calls, easy to use. We no longer have it though. Why, because cell phones is not my department, it is DH's.......he wanted apps. I have the dinosaur phone (which I am perfectly happy with), he has the I-phone.
 
Virgin Mobile

Take a look at this one. You can cut it to $20 per month or less.
https://www.virginmobileusa.com/
I have only payed 30 dollars since July 13, when I joined, And I still have 115 minutes left.
 
Last edited:
Fern's post reminded me that Tracfone is always offering me an automatic minutes-per-month plan. You pay something per month and they stick the minutes directly onto your phone. So it's something like the plan she mentioned.

As I say, my kids tend to lose our phones, so this wasn't right for us....
 
Another Tracfone user

In addition to be one of the most inexpensive ways to own a cellphone, Tracfone also can be used almost anywhere. They buy minutes from various companies which gives the phones a wider service area than any other cell phone I know of.
 
I bought a TracPhone for my elderly mother. She doesn't have the ability to pay for a regular monthly plan and I can purchase minutes as she needs them. It works our well for both of us. She lives alone, and I have always worried that if she lost phone service, she won't be able to contact anyone. Plus she can now call all her long-distance relatives. (Prepaid phone cards won't work for her because she STILL HAS A DIAL-TONE PHONE!):rolleyes:
 
I use T-mobile. I only need a phone and I rarely use it, so it works out perfectly for me. Prepay $100 and it's 10 cents a minute.
 
I also use T-Mobile. We have two phones on their prepaid plan. You can add minutes for as little as $10 (30 minutes for 3 months), or prepay a year for $100,which gets you 1,000 minutes. Once you hit the $100, all additional minutes you buy are good for a year even if you only add $10 worth. Minutes roll over if you renew before their expiration date. Like Tracfone, you need to buy a phone when you first sign up.

I used to have a Tracfone, but found the coverage to be spotty on some of our travels. That was several years ago and we had an older phone.

You can check your balance and add minutes on the phone or online. But the expiration date for your minutes can only be seen online, the phone display does not show it.
 
Another T-Mobile user here. We bought the $100 prepay plan and rarely use any of the minutes. After a few years we had almost 1800 minutes to roll over--and I missed the deadline by ONE DAY and lost the minutes!!!! Argh!!!!! I was pretty disappointed that they wouldn't bend an inch on restoring the minutes to my account. But they are still the cheapest option for the way we use a cellphone, and it WAS my fault, so.... So if you get the T-Mobile be forewarned that they do not notify you or bug you to renew your plan.

Anyway, we started over with another 1000 minutes and by rollover time we'll only have to buy $10 worth to keep our service active for another full year.
 
Virgin Mobile

minimum $20.00 every three months, works well for me. I use it seldom, but it's nice to know it's in my purse if I need it. About $7.00/month, not bad.
 
Another vote for Tracfone. Only the person with the phone can monitor the minutes is my only complaint. You can add minutes from your computer (or the phone). I bought mine for kid emergencies. As was said you can get 60 minutes for less than $20 (pinzoo.com) and every time you add minutes old minutes roll over if you do it within the 90 day period after you added minutes last. You can go to Tracfone occasionally and get a phone with lifetime double minutes (whatever you add, they double) and accessories for $30-$40. :D Otherwise, you can look up discount codes and get extra free minutes (add 60 get 20 free). Lately I have noticed those codes are becoming harder to find and use, though.:bawl:
 
Last night I found a Tracfone that we had given up for lost--expiration date 8/20/09. I added a 60-minute card--and lo and behold, it reactivated with all the old minutes it had already had, plus the new minutes and the same old phone number. I was surprised, but I was happy!
 
That's great, Wacky. They must give you a little extra time just in case you forget to renew.

Sue
 
We were forking out $45 a month several years ago to Verizon and hardly using the phone. So we drooped them and bought a Cingular GoPhone. This was great. We purchased a decent phone on-line (instead of the $25 one at Wal-Mart) and have been happy with it. We load it with $100 once a year and it stays active for that year. Adding $25 keeps the money active for only three months.

We did also buy a Wal-Mart GoPhone for our in-laws a year ago. The good thing about the GoPhone is that they or we can buy a refill card at the store and then we can go on-line and add it to the account (they don't have Internet). It can even be added very easily over a regular phone line.

If she is only using seven minutes a month a pay as you go phone can be more than she would even need. The dollars on the phone will build up and never get used. You may be able to add a cheap extra phone to your current plan for a few extra dollars.
 
Used the To Go Phone for years now. Selected the $1.00 per day used and .10 per minute for non-AT&T phones. As my family are all on AT&T I call everyone once a week for $1. Rarely run out of money @ $25. every 3 months or $100. per year.
 
My wife and I each use Virgin Mobile's pay-as-you-go plan. We use an auto top-up charge to a CC. For us, the rate of $0.20/min (or $0.10 with a minute-pack) works out to about $10.00/month (50-100 minutes) for each phone.
 
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