Cell phones: Pre-paid or contract?

In My Humble Opinion
1

After years of resistance, I finally broke down and admitted I need a cell phone. The problem is that there’s so many options, I have no idea how to keep from getting ripped off.

So I seek the advice of the doperbase: I have a home phone. This new cell would be for emergencies or to call someone and tell them I’m running late. Would you recommend I go plan or pre-paid? The pre-paids at Wal-Mart range from 25¢ to a staggering 45¢ a minute, plus you lose your minutes if you don’t use them after a certain amount of time. At the same time, however, I don’t want to get locked into a one- or two-year contract where I’ll have to pay $175-200 to get out if I don’t like the service, nor do I want to pay punitive overage rates if I accidentally use too many minutes.

That said, whether it’s recommended that I go pre-paid or contract, what are the best deals around? I like Verizon’s plan and coverage, but it’s a two-year agreement with $175 early termination fee. I’m just so lost. Someone help!

Adam

2

I’m a brand-new cellular telephone user myself. I just signed a two-year contract with Verizon, but despite my initial cognitive dissonance, I am pleased with their service so far, and they have several good plans, depending on your needs and your budget. I even got my phone for free at Best Buy!

I don’t have a land line at all where I live, so I actually needed a phone with a decent amount of monthly minutes. You’re in a different boat altogether. I have heard mixed things about the prepaid phones, but it might be your best option if you seriously use it for emergencies only.

3

AT&T, which recently merged with Cingular, has a deal that’s kind of in-between a traditional contract and pre-paid service. If you get your bill direct-debited from your bank account or credit card, you get however many minutes you signed up for, but there is no penalty for cancelling the service, and no contract. The downside is that you have to pay full price for a phone.

This is what I have.

Robin

4

Whether you should go pre-pay or contract is best determined by how often you’ll use the phone, IMHO.

I was in the same situation two years ago. Also, as WhyKid got old enough to stay at home for short periods, I decided I wanted a cell phone “just in case” he needed to get ahold of me. Still, I did not intend to become like many of my friends who have turned their cell phones into their only phones, or called three people every time they left one store and were entering another.

Emergency and my convienence only, thankyouverymuch.

I chose a prepay phone through Virgin Mobile. Their marketing is obnoxious, because they’re trying to appeal to 17-23 year olds, but their service is just what I need.

Phone: I got the cheapest model, about $50

Service: They have a somewhat weird plan. The first 10 minutes of each day (begins at 5:00 AM, I believe) is 25 cents a minute. After that, 10 cents a minute for the rest of the day. This actually works to my benefit, because there are days when I use the phone quite a bit. If I’m traveling in a caravan, or trying to keep up with groups that split off at the amusement park or something similarly odd, I like the 10 cents a minute thing. There are also weeks and even months I don’t use it at all, hence the pre-pay decision.

Minimum Payments: Every 90 days, I must put at least $20 on my phone. If I use more than $20, I can put more on whenever I like.

Payment methods: You can buy prepaid Virgin call cards pretty much anywhere. Putting them on your phone is a matter of entering a few codes. I, however, have registered a credit card with them, so when I want to “Top-up,” (put more money on the account) it’s charged to my card. THEY DO NOT MAKE AUTOMATIC CHARGES FOR ME! (This was important to me.) If my account gets low, or if 90 days is nearing, they send me a text message and an email to remind me.

Lose minutes you don’t use?: No.

I generally put on and use about $20 for every 90 day period. The one time I put extra money on was when WhyKid was in the hospital for two weeks and I used my cell phone to communicate with the outside world. Other than that and a few rare instances, no one even has my cell phone number. I’m pretty clear to folks that, although your caller ID may show this number as my cellphone, it’s not a good way to get ahold of me. I don’t even leave it turned on unless WhyKid’s home alone or I’ve made prior arrangements with someone to call me.

5

I was like you and refused to get a cellphone. But then I got a job that necessitated one because I had to be in constant contact with my boss. It’s a pre-paid dealskie.

It has been much more of a help than I that it would.

I use my phone maybe once a week, but because I’m often in the middle of nowhere, I like having it just in case something bad happens. Sure, I pay more per minute than I would if I had a monthly plan, but I only use maybe 30 or 40 minutes each month. If I had a plan, I’d feel tremendous guilt for wasting all my minutes.

You say you’re only going to use it for emergencies–just as I said I was going to do. But now I also use it to inform someone them that I’m going to be late. Or call someone to confirm that I’m going to meet them at so-and-so-a-place. People call me on it when my land line is busy, or when I’ve stepped out of the office for an unknown amount of time. When my car broke down in Hialeah a couple of months ago, it was a life-saver. These little conversations don’t seem like much on their own, but combined that take up a lot of minutes.

Get a pre-pay cellphone and start off with the smallest number of minutes. If you go through them too fast, get a larger amount. If that’s too few as well, think about getting a plan. It’s as simple as that.

6

That’s just it. I don’t know how often I’ll use the phone. Initially, I was going to get the phone as a replacement for my landline, but then I realized that I would not get any reception in my basement apartment.

sigh I feel that no matter what I choose, I’m going to get screwed somehow. Everyone thinks their own plan is the best, so there’s no objectivity. :frowning:

Adam

7

Here’s a page that compares prepaid phones: http://markson.net/cell_prepaid_compare.htm

For most or all of the plans, if you buy more minutes before your current ones expire, you don’t lose the current ones, they just roll over.

Note that for AT&T, the store sells a Nokia 1260 Free2Go phone, but the website sells a 2260 for the same price. The 2260 has a few extra features.

A month or 2 ago I saw the AT&T Nokia 1260 Free2Go phone in my local Walgreens for a very low price, $50 IIRC. The catch is no returns. Normally, if you buy from the AT&T store or online, you can return it in 30 days or less if you don’t like it. But you pay more.

For AT&T, I’ve heard about the 12/20 promotion. I’m not quite sure, but I think the deal is that you pay $25 and get 20 minutes a month for 12 months. Call customer service and inquire.

AT&T also has the GoPhone deal - X dollars a month, no contract.

8

I got the Verizon pay as you go plan in September. The phone was $155, with a $50 rebate. It has all the regular features, text messaging, ringtones, game downloads, etc. I can pay $15 to keep my account activated for a month, if I use more than $15 for calls in that month, I need to add more money. Any time I have left is rolled over to the next month as long as I add another $15 or more before the month is up. For $30, I only have to renew every 2 months, if you put in 75 or more, the time it lasts goes up. It is .30 to connect then .10 a minute, .05 for text messaging. I like the plan and have good experiences with their customer service.

9

Well, there’s no objectivity because no plan is best for everyone. *My *plan is best for me.

Maybe some thinkin’ questions will help:

Are you a technophile? Will you gleefully use any new gadget you can get your hands on? Do you talk a lot? How long are your normal phone calls? How often in a month do you find yourself thinking, “damn! Maybe I should get a cellphone - it would sure come in handy right now!”? (Keep a log for a month if you have to.) Do you have kids or sick relatives who should be able to get ahold of you quickly? Will they do it a lot? How disciplined are you generally? If you limit yourself in your diet, your movie viewing habits or your spending, can you generally stick to the limits you set yourself, or are you a “self-cheater”? Do you lose, drop or break things easily? (Only the first phone is free or rebated with contracts, and after that you pay generally higher prices for replacements.)

The thing is, we really don’t know you. We can only say why we made the decisions we made, and you have to decide which of us your situation most closely resembles, or find a plan that resembles you better.

Good luck!

10

WhyNot, is your reception and coverage pretty good?

11

I’m fairly sure about this, but you might want to call Verizon and verify it. You enter into a one or two year contract and in return, you get the phone at a discounted price. If you already had a phone, you should just be able to sign up for the monthly service without a contract to fufill. There are a ton of inexpensive used phones out there.

12

I got my phone for ten bucks, refurbished. It normally retails for about $120, I got it for ten.

Robin

13

I’m another Virgin Mobile user. You have to put at least twenty bucks in it every ninety days whether you use your minutes up or not, so I don’t know how “pre-paid” that is. My coverage, at least in this part of the country is not all that good. If I go off of the main highways it seems to have little coverage.

14

I bought a Virgin Mobile phone at Target after looking at the coverage map in the brochure at the store. The map looks as if the coverage is fairly extensive. However, the map is not of the Virgin Mobile Coverage, but of the Sprint PCS Coverage. The Virgin Mobile Sevice uses the Sprint PSC system, but does not have the agreements with other carriers that Sprint has to extend their coverage. So where the map states that extended coverage is available, they are really saying that the coverage is available for Sprint customers, not Virgin Mobile customers. In reality, ‘extended coverage’ really means ‘no coverage’ for Virgin Mobile users. If you go the the Virgin Mobile website and look at the coverage maps online, you can get an idea of how sparse the coverage actually is. The brochure is simply a very deceptive marketing ploy. Luckily, I found this out before I even opened the package, so returning the phone was not a problem. I should go back to the store to see if they are still using the deceptive brochures.

I ended up going with the Verizon prepaid service, which costs a minimum of $15 per month. The good news is that the Verizon Prepaid coverage is exactly the same as the Verizon contract coverage, which is pretty good in my area. I end up using about $15 per month anyway. Since my old service was $40 per month, I’m looking at saving $300 per year with the prepaid service.

15

(Sorry, I’m outta town and being held prisoner by my family. They insist on my being “social”, which is cutting into my Dope time dramatically. :wink: )

I have no problems with coverage from Virgin. BUT. I live in Chicago. (Well, Evanston, so close enough). I get reception in most buildings and everywhere outside, in the city or in any suburb within two hours’ drive. Highway reception is always good. The only time I’ve had trouble was in the Middle Of Nowhere, IN, where there is no reception for anyone whatsoever. (I take that back, 6 months ago, ATT Wireless people started getting reception when on the hill, but they were just bought out, I hear, so I don’t know about them anymore.)

I’m getting reception just fine here at Dad’s, which is near Princeton, NJ, but fairly back in the woods.

16

I’ve also got WhyNot’s Virgin Mobile…wait…let me rephrase: I also have the Virgin Mobile prepaid service, similar to WhyNot.

I like it. It seemed to me to be the cheapest prepaid, which I wanted because I never use the phone. It was also extremely important to me that I control when I pay, not the cellular company automatically deducts something, charges my card, or sends me a bill. When I was looking, AT&T seemed to have a nice deal, but instead of letting you choose when to add more money, they automatically charged your card the fee. I didn’t see how this differed from a regular phone plan, which I knew I didn’t want. With Virgin, they do send you reminders, but it’s entirely up to you when you choose to add money.

Virgin also has a bit of a grace period - say you forget to add money every 60 days, they’ll send you a reminder and deactivate your phone. But if you add money within 30 days, the phone’s reactivated. Ran into that once.

Adding money is easy - if you do choose to connect your phone account to a credit card, you can add money over the internet or through your phone, or you can buy a card that’s available everywhere.

I’m in Minneapolis, and my coverage has been good. We’ve also travelled with the phone and it seems to work well. Keep in mind that we’re either in or travelling to major cities, however. I don’t know how well my phone will work when we go to my parents in podunk rural USA.

Another thing to remember is that I’m happy with my phone because I never use it. Never. I think we use it maybe 10 minutes a month, tops - we’re not used to carrying it around and it’s not that important to us to always be in touch. Sometimes we’ll take it with if we’re going out to call friends, but mostly it’s plugged in at home, recharging. We really only take it with when we travel. If it was something I used more, perhaps I would have other criticisms or wouldn’t be as happy with it.

The only thing I’m not happy with is that since I never use it, I’ve got gobs of money on it. And I’ll have to put more on in January. Perhaps I should buy some more ringtones or take it to work and actually use the stupid thing.

Anyway, I like my Virgin Mobile. It serves my purposes quite well. There was another poster around here 5 or 6 months ago that also loved is - a search might track his thoughts down.