I do not presently have a cell phone. However, I’m thinking about purchasing one because of a potential move. I live in Rochester, NY and may be moving to the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. If I do purchase one, it would be before moving. This is primarily because I’m not sure I trust my car to make the 1000 mile journey, and I want to be able to call someone should I have car trouble. There is also the added benefit of having a phone when I get to MN so I won’t have to worry about getting phone service set-up immediately.
But my question for you guys deal with moving after activating the phone. What’s involved with cell phone arrangements when you move from one locale to another. Are there any types of fees for moving from one Area Code to another? Does it apply to both pay-as-you-go and contract service?
What about setting up national plans vs. local plans. I’m assuming I’d want to set up a national plan initially, so that when I first get to MN I’m not paying long distance charges to call other numbers in MN. But once I’m settled, is it easy to change to local plan? Or is that even worth it? Is it best just to have a national plan, especially considering that I may just forego a land line once I get to MN (My family lives in Illinois, so I do have monthly long distance calls)?
And please feel free to express your opinions on service providers and manufacturers based on your experiences. What’s good? What’s bad? Why do you feel that way?
I’ve used Bellsouth prepaid (you buy the phone and put time on as you need it) and I currently have ATT Wireless on a monthly plan.
I found my prepaid phone was a lot less reliable (the one time I needed the damn thing, it didn’t work) and it could only accept incoming calls in the local area. However, it may have just been Bellsouth and the times (1999-2000).
I’m on ATT Wireless now with Nationwide long distance. It’s the $35/month plan. My coverage is pretty good. I can (and have) made calls from the middle of nowhere–a rest stop in the middle of nowhere in Alabama, the middle of nowhere in South Carolina–and they’re usually pretty clear. The only time I’ve been roaming is down in the MARTA station, where the phone doesn’t usually work anyway. However, my contract is for a year and I just renewed it, so if I cancel, there may be some penalties for leaving.
My husband and I are very pleased with Verizon Free-Up. You just have to put at least 30 dollars on every two months, so, since we never actually use up the $30 bucks, we’re essentially getting phone service for $15 a month. which is better than any contract price I’ve seen.
No complaints about coverage; we don’t get enough signal to make a call from our house, but that would be true if we had a contract, too. (That Verizon “can you hear me now” guy is apparently too busy wandering through deserts and swamps to get to our house.) But the dead zones have not proved egregious, for us. YMMV.
I can’t speak to transfering from one area code to another, but we use our phones extensively while traveling, and the roaming rates didn’t decimate our account balances, or anything, so that could give you some time to get situated in MSP. (Enjoy the Twin Cities, by the way! I interviewed for a job in St. Paul, and was very excited by the prospect of moving htere, but they passed me over. sigh)
I’m happy with Suncom. I never have any problem with reception, the service is great, the deposits are low.
I have the unPlan, which means I never worry about minutes. Daytime minutes vs. nighttime minutes, blahblahblah…Nope, unlimited minutes, and I know my bill will never be more than 65.00 dollars a month.
I was worried last month. I went to New Orleans for a week and used my phone a little. My bill was going to be sky high!! Nope. 59.00 dollars. That’s it.
Anyone using Virgin Mobile? Mr. TeaElle and I got rid of our cell phones back when I retired, but we’ve been thinking about picking a up a couple of the VM phones just for emergencies, since I’m often out alone in the car with our kids. Our former phones were SprintPCS and VM piggybacks on the Sprint network, so we know coverage wouldn’t be an issue, we’re more concerned with VM’s customer service and so forth. Anybody have experiences to share?
I just got a Virgin Mobile pre-paid cell phone. The phone itself was about $100 at Best Buy but they had one that was a bit cheaper. The coverage is okay as far as I’ve been able to tell. You have to “Top Up” at least $20/90 days. Phone calls cost .25/min for the first 10 minutes in a day and .10/min after that. I’m pretty pleased with the whole thing so far.
Before this I had a Verizon contract. I could write a book on that shitty service.
When you get here (I live a bit north of the Cities), sign up with Qwest long distance service on your landline. I get unlimited long distance for $20/month. I think it’s another $25.99 for the basic service, but it’s still a great deal IMO. Of course I’ve only compared it to MCI which is $60 for all the same things I have.
Let us know when you’re going to get here so we can plan a reception Dopefest!
I have Cingular’s KIC service. I don’t get great coverage at home (I live in the middle of nowhere, and no one can get good service out here), but I get service throughout Cingular’s calling area. The phone wasn’t expensive ($30 after rebate, I think) and I have to put a minimum of 20 on it every 90 days, but my old minutes don't expire if I top it off in time. The rate they charge is .10/minute on nights and weeekends (nights start at 7:00) and $.30/minute during the weekdays. Since I don’t use it to idly chat, it works very well for me. I do know that calls made out of your local area are more expensive, but I don’t know how much.
I live in Minneapolis and I used to have a Sprint cell, but after about a year I lost reception on it. This was not isolated; it happened with two different Sprint phones, both times after a year’s use. I could be walking down the street by the University or sitting in my house when suddenly, gone, “signal lost.” I don’t know why this happened, but, and this was my experience with Sprint everytime I called customer care, they couldn’t do anything about it but sell me a new phone (or hang up on me).
Also, BTW, you can get McLeod service for your landline, which is comparable to the price of Qwest. I have McLeod, because I hate Qwest for reasons I can no longer remember…
I miss my portable phone so much, but I’ll never get a contract again. I too am considering a pay-as-you-go option, but mostly for travel to IL. So this is a great thread for me. Thx
From people’s thoughts here, as well as the (minimal) research I’ve done elsewhere, I think I’ll pick up a pay-as-you-go phone if I find out the move is on. This will give me time, and experience, to evaluate options in the Twin Cities area.
A couple of you mentioned specific land line services (I had McLeod when I lived in central Illinois 6 years back). This prompts an idea for another tread: Utility options in the Twin Cities area. I’ll wait until I find out for sure that I’m moving before I start such a thread. But that information will definitely be helpful.
I got Virgin Mobile and I LOVE the service- I’ve had it for 1.5 years now, and am still very pleased with my phone and my prepaid plan. I only use it occasionally, so it doesn’t cost me very much money- the rate (I believe) is .25 for the first 10 minutes of the day, .10 per minute thereafter (per day). It’s not a phone to chat on, but emergency/occasional use will not break the bank.
It also has text messaging, which I love- incoming messages are free, outgoing are .10 each. My phone - like this one, but an older version: Virgin Mobile Phone
gets great reception- I’ve not really had any trouble with reception except in the mountains, where no one gets service. All calls are the same price- no roaming or LD charges. It has several handy tools in it, too, like a check splitter/tip figure-outer.
So basically, for about $75 (including tax), you can get a good, reliable phone that gets good reception and no surprise bills in the mail or problems with cell companies that you read so much about. Oh! And they have a 411 information service that calls directly to a HUMAN BEING who will look up anything from movie times/locations to driving directions for you- the charge is like .75 plus call time. Wonderful and they’ve saved my ass more then once. It’s also very easy to buy more minutes- most Wal-Mart stores sell the “Top Off” cards, or you can put a credit card on file and do it right from the phone, or you can use the 411 and do it with a credit card while speaking to a person.
