Please Evaluate My Cell-Phone Plan

In My Humble Opinion
1

Because an old cell phone recently lost its battery, and because none was available (it was an old Siemenns phone), I broke down an bought a Voicestream pre-paid Nokia 3390.

Up until then, I had been a pre-paid customer, since the cards only cost 10 bucks for a month’s worth, and I’m single and only used a cell-phone while on my bicycle or if I needed to call work from my car. (I rarely ever used the entire 10 bucks and always had time left over which went into the next month’s credit.)

Now Voicestream’s cards only last 15 days, not thirty and so the pre-paid plan is costing me 20 bucks a month instead of 10. Still with me? :smiley:

If I go to a regular plan, the last time I looked it was $19.95 monthly, which saves me a whopping nickel and yeah, the biweekly card purchase, but it also keeps me out of a contract and I don’t need a lotta minutes.

The Nokia purchase also gave me a 50 dollar credit and so now I have 60 bucks worth of time built up, and when I checked with Voicestream about going to a plan, I was told to use up the credit first, or I’d lose it. Well, hell! Why would I wanna do that? Like I said, I don’t call that many people, but I like having the phone for emergencies.

So where is my thinking flawed, and what would you do?

Thanks

Quasi

2

I would ditch Voicestream and go with the Tracfone prepaid plan. The advantage of Tracfone is you can buy an entire year of airtime, not just 15 or 30 days. The yearly plan costs $95 for 250 minutes, and any unused minutes at the end of one year rolls over.

3

Ahem. Now y’all do know, right, that I meant that I needed the cell phone in case something happened to me while riding the bike, not that I would be merrily riding the trails chatting? :smiley:

Quasi

4

Cingular’s prepaid cards that are $20 or more last 90 days.

5

Yeah, I’m just saying that since the $95 averages out to only $7.91 per month you’ll save money in the long run, and you don’t have to worry about the hassle of buying airtime every two weeks.

6

True, but you get less than one minute per day. Do they count fractional minutes as whole minutes??