I figure other people have been through this and may have some info.
I currently have a nokia 1100 on the tracfone prepaid network that I’ve had for the last 4 years. It is sturdy but I want to replace it with another prepaid. I don’t use my phone enough to justify an actual phone plan, so I’m looking at prepaid models. And I am mostly looking at tracfone since I should be able to transfer my phone number and 400+ minutes I have left to a new phone.
I would want a phone that has a camera and internet access (I believe internet access is 0.5 units per minute on tracfone). Several of the phones have cameras, but the LG 290C has a 1.3MP camera (vs the 0.3MP VGA cameras virtually all the other tracfones have). Plus it has mobile web access. So that is the one I am probably going to get. All things being equal I’d prefer the 1.3MP camera over the VGA.
Does anyone have advice on a different phone to look into to get what I’m looking for (a decent camera and internet access), or a reason I should try a different network than tracfone? Because I’ve heard the internet access on the tracfone network isn’t very good, but really have no idea if it is or not, or how it compares in cost and quality to other internet availability on other prepaid networks since I’ve never used a prepaid for internet access.
You can get cheaper prepaid plans and nice phones from TMobile. It’s normally 10 cents per minute if you buy 1000 minutes at a time (they’re good for a year) but if you buy minutes through callingmart.com then they are 9.4 cents per minute, 9 cents when they have a sale, which is just about every 2 months. You can port over your phone number. You can pick up a used TMobile phone with a good camera on eBay. Tracphones are not the cheapest or best; they’re just the most well-known. There are other prepaid companies that are cheap but I don’t know how the phones compare. Make sure you can get your pictures off the phones easily with a removable memory card, which you should look for. Puretalk USA is another one and seems to have reasonably priced phones.
Oops - I don’t know anything about internet access and plans.
Financially its really not a big deal to me, because I’d only save about $2 a month doing that. If I buy 60 and 120 minute cards every 3 months (which are the ones I buy with my tracfone) that has always been more than enough to get me by. If I buy 4 cards worth 120 minutes each and they are double minutes then that is 960 minutes and a year worth of service for $120 vs 1000 minutes and a year of service for $100 via Tmobile.
Plus the minutes expire after a year on Tmobile while they roll over on tracfone, and texting is a little cheaper on tracfone, so its really not a big difference. I would say I only use 200-400 minutes a year on my cell phone. Friends? Hah! Books are my only friends: grown up nerds like Gore Vidal, and even he’s kissed more boys that I ever will.
I would probably use more minutes if I had internet access though.
The last time I looked into it (9 months ago?), it looked like TMobile had the best plan. Can I get any phone, or am I limited to what they will support? How tricky is it to buy a phone on ebay?
I think it needs to be a TMobile phone. I’ve gotten lots of phones on eBay. Just make sure you get it from someone with at least ~50 selling transactions and at least 98% positive feedback. Make sure they’ll accept a return if the phone is not as stated.
