I have a cell phone that I don’t currently use (we switched services and got a new Nokia). My wife uses the new one, I use nothing. I would like to use the old one, if only infrequently–say, to make like 5-15 calls a month (I’m at my office most of the day, so I don’t need it; but it would be useful on rare occasions, i.e., when I go on a long driving trip w/o my wife).
What’s the cheapest service out there for this? There used to be a few pay-as-you-go services, but now I never see anything about them (presumably b/c the phone cos. can make more money by charging huge monthly service fees).
Sorry. I should have specified being able to occasionally RECEIVE calls at locations which have not been previously arranged. (i.e., I call my sister for directions to her country house, she’s not there, and needs to call me back; or my wife needs to call and tell me that my father is in the hospital, and I should turn around, cancel my trip to Boston, and head to Philadelphia instead).
My brother has something called a “track phone.” It’s basically a cell phone (a Nokia, in his case) you “charge” with service minutes via cards you purchase in varying amounts. With his, the minutes roll over from month to month but you have to put at least, hmm, 10? on it per month to keep the account active. Whether or not you can use your old phone this way depends on if the providers are compatible with it, but it seems like a neat idea.
You might look into Tracfone. I bought the phone for $10 after rebate from walmart.com, and 100 minutes for $50 from amazon.com (the plus3 card), giving a total of 150 minutes after the bonus minutes you get for buying the phone and registering through their web site. These 150 minutes are good for one year. The typical low-usage cell phone plan costs around $360 per year, so for the light user, Tracfone might be worth looking into.
Sprint has a service where you can take an existing plan (your wife’s) and add a second phone to it. So you wouldn’t be paying any extra money, you’d just subtract minutes off of your wife’s plan for the time you spend on yours (minimal).
I had bought AT&T pre-paid plan when we got my son a car to drive between Atlanta and Lynchburg, VA. The car broke down [and died] after we’d had it for nine months, and doggone it so did the phone plan!! They just simply said, ‘we aren’t selling plans for this phone anymore.’ So we had a useless plan AND phone, along with the dead car.
So other than not EVER using AT&T phone service, I’m at a loss. I don’t want my son using it haphazardly, but for emergency type situations. They don’t sell them in Lynchburg, since it is such a small town. Atlanta will be considered ‘local’ if I buy it here, and yet he’ll call his friends up in Virginia and it will be called ‘long distance.’
Good luck, I hope you post if you find something helpful.
I don’t know where you are, or what the plans available for you are like, but I am an infrequent cell phone user, and I use a pay as you go plan. It’s big business in this area, because you don’t need a credit check to use that plan, and it’s also perfect for people with an old phone that just want it for emergencies. I know that you mentioned not seeing those plans anymore, but I suggest that you look into it anyway. I buy a $25 phone card every 3 months (pretty much the minimum) and all my unused minutes keep rolling over.
Btw - They’ll hook up any phone, so I was able to hook up my 5 year old Nokia without problems.
Iolagranola, where did you get the plan through? I’m in the same position (work nights, would just like to have a cell phone for breakdown or emergency purposes) but I’m not sure where to go to find a pay as you go plan.
The Tracphone doesn’t sound like a bad deal, either. Thanks, Toadspittle, for starting this!
Lioners - in answer to your question we live in Alberta, Canada and there are a number of companies here that offer the “pay as you go” system.
Telus and Cantel are the largest cellular providers here and they both have similar plans. Since I use my phone more than Lola I have been buying $50.00 worth of time every three months, this gives me 172 minutes of time.
There are smaller companies that also offer pay as you go but their coverage area is smaller.
