I have little need for a cell phone, but 120 days ago I bought a pre-paid TracFone at Walmart, just cause. I hardly used it and now I would have to buy more minutes to activate it again. Since I used hardly any of the minutes during the 120 day period, I’m wondering if there may be a better option for me. Is there such a thing as a cheap pre-paid cell phone that I can buy that I can load with minutes that don’t go away after a certain number of days?
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I also have little need for a cell phone. When I need to make a bunch of calls I use my Magic Jack phone at home that’s only $20 a year.
I have a Cricket cell phone. It’s $1 a day and I only pay the buck on the days I use it.
If I put $15 or more on it the pre-paid minutes are good for 60 days. But, get this, if I use the phone once, the 60 day time re-sets.
For example: I put $15 (15 days worth) on January 1st. This expires on March 1st. But I used the phone on January 20th. The expiration date jumps to March 20th. Then I used the phone on February 10th. The expiration date jumps to April 10th.
Overall this phone only costs me about $3 a month because I hardly use it.
And it receives text messages free. So if people text me and it’s not that important I’ll return the message when I get home to my Magic Jack. If it is important I’ll burn the buck and return the message then.
It’s good to be a skinflint! 
Sorry I don’t have more time to type at the moment, but I was in the same boat as you—we had cell phones, but since we worked from home keeping on a plan was nonsensical.
Long story short: We’re on T-Mobile’s Pay-As-You-Go plan. They changed it a while ago to voice and text only (no data), but it’s exactly what you’re looking for. When you put $100 or more on it the minutes last for an entire year. We’ve overspent by $10–$20 a year, but all in all it’s an excellent value. Minutes work out to .10 per, and texts are .10 as well.
We’re about to change one of our phones to the pay-by-the-day route. Those are the only inexpensive (for those that rarely use the phone) options that have data. For $3 a use I’ll get unlimited talk/text and 200MB of data at 4G, then I think they downgrade the speed to 2G. Whatever, the only reason we want data is to use maps or look something up, not video so it’s a great deal.There are also $2 and $1 per day rates, but with less/no data.
So every time I use my phone, I’ll start a 24-hour clock for three bucks. Over the course of a year it may be a bit more expensive than the $.10 non-plan I’m on now, but I doubt I’ll end up using it thirty times.
My wife and I have used TracFone for years. We buy the one year card every year. $120 per year seems reasonable to me. I even bought the double minutes for life option at one point. We don’t have to buy extra minutes during the year.
If you aren’t going to continue using your tracfone, I suggest that you buy a cord that will let you charge it in your car and keep the phone and the cord in your glove box. Even when the time has expired, it can still be used to call 911 in an emergency.
We have a Tracfone. There is a bit of a “trick” in getting cheap “annual” renewal.
This is done at the web site. You first get a cheapo 3 month extension, then they suggest adding a year for very little. If you do that, it’s something like $72 for a year and 3 months.
Minutes roll over when you do this, if anyone else cares. We have a serious stockpile.
I don’t understand the people suggesting more contract phones for the person who doesn’t want a contract phone. Just get a prepaid cellphone. $10 at Best Buy for 300 minutes. You can buy refill minutes for $15 a stretch that last up to 1 year.
Are Tracfones contract-based?
None of the phones listed are contract phones. They’re all pay-as-you-go.
Then I guess I don’t understand why the OP’s phone expired after 120 days. Seems he doesn’t want an “X minutes over Y months” phone, he wants an “X minutes, period” phone. Similar to the one I linked to.
Yes, I would like a phone that I can buy minutes for with no time limit. So far, the above mentioned phone from Best Buy is the cheapest option. But even that has a time limit of one year on the purchased usage, so unless something with NO time limit comes along that would seem to be the best option for me.
Consumer Cellular is advertising plans starting at 10 bucks a month with no contracts. They might be worth investigating.
Well, I have a Metro phone, $25 a month, unlimited talk and text, no contract.
I was paying $45 for a Straighttalk phone, f**k that!
I have a Verizon prepaid with the same deal and I only buy the $30 cards that are supposed to only last 30 days but have been lasting 90 and the minutes keep racking up as I hardly use the phone.
I bought a phone at Radio Shack for $20. It makes calls through Virgin Mobile (no texting or data). At the beginning of the month, I spend $20 to authorize 200 minutes of talk time. As long as I re-up another $20 before thirty days have passed, any unused minutes roll forward to the next month.
Suits my needs. If I’m not mistaken, you can go as low as $10 for a top-up.
Old thread and this was the best answer. For the second time, I just bought the 3 month extension for $20.00 and then added the one year option for $50.00 more. With tax it came to $75 and change for a year and three months of service. Can anybody beat that?
I have a data+voice plan with CC and even got a refurbbed iPhone 3GS for cheap. I pay $24/mo for decent amount of data and minutes. The nice thing is I can upgrade or downgrade the plan w/o penalty and they let me know if Im getting close to exceeding my minutes. They have cheaper voice only plans and cheaper phones of course and you can use your own phone too IIRC. CS is superb but sometimes in certain cells I have to reboot the dang thing.
I was on Tracfone for a long time. It worked fine but I got tired of playing the minutes refill game, looking for bonus codes, etc. There are many cheap plans, but the one I think has the best cheap/simple ratio is PagePlus. $12 a month will get you 250 minutes of talktime and 250 texts. Another bonus to PagePlus is you can bring your own smartphone, so buy something like a used Verizon Motorola Droid X2 from eBay and you get cell phone phone service, texting, and a WiFi web browser in your pocket.