I’m thinking about getting a cell phone.
I know almost nothing and all I want is a phone. I don’t want internet or to check my email. I just want a phone to talk on. I don’t even care about caller ID or texting or any other bells and whistles.
I have a land line now and just want to know what options I have and how it works.
First thing is to figure out how much you travel, where you travel, and how often you expect to use it. The first two will limit the options to carriers that have coverage. I have one bar and spotty coverage inside my house but really good coverage once I get about 200 yards in any direction. You would probably not go wrong for a first phone with a prepaid one from one of the discount carriers if they provide coverage to the areas you go to. Not much ventured to find those things out.
They still make Nokia 3310, Unihertz Jelly, Punkt MP01, Light Phone and other models of small, non-“smart” phones with good battery life. Many still support texting and such, so not completely minimalistic, but if you don’t use those features, who cares?
You can pay for a subscription or buy pay-as-you-go cards, get a SIM (tiny smart card) that you insert into the phone, and you’re good to go. If you need international roaming, that can get expensive unless you have the right plan.
Shop for the plan you want or need. The phone will come. Go to any phone store and tell them what you want and how much you want to spend.
Your expected usage pattern makes a big difference.
If this is your first phone and you’re not planning on doing much with it, a pay-as-you-go plan might be the best choice.
E.g., we use Tracfone. Once a year I get 30-day fillup, take the offer for an extra year of service and poof, got cell phone service for over a year ~$70. We use them so little the minutes pile up.
They have fairly simple phones (and not so simple) so start up costs can be under $30.
But you get what you pay for. Not so good customer service, etc.
OTOH, if you’re going to yakking for hours a day, then a contract phone should be better.
Moderator Action
I think this will do better in IMHO so that folks can give their opinions and share personal experiences with different phones and carriers.
Any factual information about various plans and phones is of course still welcome.
Moving thread from GQ to IMHO.
A pay-as-you-go type phone from Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy (but don’t let them up-sell you) would work for you, without having to buy a multi-year contract with high fees.
Remember that, according to Consumer Reports, the old flip phones provide better voice quality than the new smart phones. If all you want is phone service, you might look for them. And as they are older, they might be cheaper.
You might look for some phones that are specially designed for ‘seniors’ – these often qre very basic phones, but with big buttons and adjustable volume. But, like lots of special ‘senior’ products, they can be way overpriced.
We’ve had StraightTalk for years, and it has been much better than other no-contract services (even better that Tracfone, which is weird because it’s the same company). They have clamshell phones for less than $40.
I’ve been a Tracfone customer for years now, with the same cheap flip phone that I started with. They’ve got a cheap flip phone similar to mine for $10.
No bells or whistles and they work fine.
I run a basic flip-phone through Verizon and its worked well for the little I use it. The amount of money/minutes I have keep piling up and some day the bubble will burst but its reliable, cheap and fits me pretty well. ($50 per year)