# Prepaid phone for emergency
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prepaid-phone-for-emergency/737948
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [November 19, 2015, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prepaid-phone-for-emergency/737948 "2015-11-19T02:03:02Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Grsz11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grsz11)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2015, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prepaid-phone-for-emergency/737948/1 "2015-11-19T02:03:02Z")
Anybody have suggestions for prepaid phones and plans to keep for emergencies. The issue I see is many require you to load minutes every few months with a minimum cost of maybe 10 bucks. Is there any alternative to having to do this?
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### Author:  [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2015, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prepaid-phone-for-emergency/737948/2 "2015-11-19T02:33:06Z")
> [@Grsz11](#):
>
> Anybody have suggestions for prepaid phones and plans to keep for emergencies. The issue I see is many require you to load minutes every few months with a minimum cost of maybe 10 bucks. Is there any alternative to having to do this?
Not really. There’s nothing in it for the phone company to provide and maintain a connection to the network if they’re only getting $10 when you first charge up the phone, and next to nothing thereafter because you rarely or never use it, and so never need to replace your initial $10 of credit. They’d make a hefty loss on that. So why would they offer a plan to facilitate it?
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### Author:  [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2015, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prepaid-phone-for-emergency/737948/3 "2015-11-19T02:34:28Z")
> [@UDS](#):
>
> Not really. There’s nothing in it for the phone company to provide and maintain a connection to the network if they’re only getting $10 when you first charge up the phone, and next to nothing thereafter because you rarely or never use it, and so never need to replace your initial $10 of credit. They’d make a hefty loss on that. So why would they offer a plan to facilitate it?
QED
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### Author:  [@Grsz11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grsz11)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2015, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prepaid-phone-for-emergency/737948/4 "2015-11-19T02:37:15Z")
Then is there an option to buy a phone, the prepaid card separate, and only activate when needed? Then I would have no problem letting it expire after use.
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### Author:  [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2015, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prepaid-phone-for-emergency/737948/5 "2015-11-19T02:59:16Z")
> [@Grsz11](#):
>
> Then is there an option to buy a phone, the prepaid card separate, and only activate when needed? Then I would have no problem letting it expire after use.
Something like this might be more serviceable
[https://www.consumercellular.com/Info/Plans](https://www.consumercellular.com/Info/Plans)
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### Author:  [@zombywoof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zombywoof)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2015, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prepaid-phone-for-emergency/737948/6 "2015-11-19T03:04:55Z")
> [@Grsz11](#):
>
> Then is there an option to buy a phone, the prepaid card separate, and only activate when needed? Then I would have no problem letting it expire after use.
You want to screw around with trying to activate the phone during an emergency?
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### Author:  [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2015, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prepaid-phone-for-emergency/737948/7 "2015-11-19T03:06:32Z")
You do not need a service provider with a cell phone to call 911. Just keep an old cell phone charged and at the ready.
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2015, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prepaid-phone-for-emergency/737948/8 "2015-11-19T03:17:20Z")
Since the OP is looking for advice, let’s move this to IMHO.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
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### Author:  [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2015, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prepaid-phone-for-emergency/737948/9 "2015-11-19T04:23:15Z")
I have an AT&T GoPhone, which I carry around primarily in case of emergencies while I’m on the road. There was a one-time start-up cost to buy the phone and maybe to activate the service too, but thereafter it costs $25 once every three months.
That $25 buys a fixed number of minutes of time (I forget how much, but it’s plenty for a phone that I only plan to use for emergencies or occasional on-the-road communication), and that time lasts for three months and then expires. But if you renew _before_ it expires, then all the remaining time rolls over. I must have thousands of minutes by now.
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### Author:  [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2015, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prepaid-phone-for-emergency/737948/10 "2015-11-19T10:03:55Z")
In the UK, some of the network providers supply a (free) SIM which has no regular payment plan at all. I have one such from Tesco, a supermarket. It is in a phone that I bought secondhand for £15.
My assumption is that they do this in the hope that I will make more calls than I plan to and, of course, they charge a very high rate per minute. Sadly for them, I only spend around £20 a year on calls and texts.
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### Author:  [@Carryon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carryon)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2015, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prepaid-phone-for-emergency/737948/11 "2015-11-19T12:07:05Z")
I would check out FreedomPop. It is quiet good for emergencies and is free. You would not want to use it for anything other than emergencies or “I’m late for work, and calling to let you know” type of thing.
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### Author:  [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2015, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prepaid-phone-for-emergency/737948/12 "2015-11-19T19:02:34Z")
> [@UDS](#):
>
> Not really. There’s nothing in it for the phone company to provide and maintain a connection to the network if they’re only getting $10 when you first charge up the phone, and next to nothing thereafter because you rarely or never use it, and so never need to replace your initial $10 of credit. They’d make a hefty loss on that. So why would they offer a plan to facilitate it?
Yeah. T-Mobile’s prepaid used to offer a deal where once you’d added a total of 100 dollars (e.g. 10 a month for 10 months or whatever) your minutes / credit lasted a full year - then you only had to add 10 dollars to keep it active.
They changed that, and grandfathered our old spare phone - but when we ported the number over to the family plan on Verizon, that terminated it.
Now the cheapest plan is something like 3.50 a month with a minimum 10 dollars added at a time. Still not a huge sum, but more than the 10 bucks or so a year we were paying before (it was my daughter’s phone and she almost never used it).
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### Author:  [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2015, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prepaid-phone-for-emergency/737948/13 "2015-11-19T19:46:31Z")
[QUOTE=Duckster]
You do not need a service provider with a cell phone to call 911. Just keep an old cell phone charged and at the ready.
[/QUOTE]
As long as the phone isn’t some analog antique that’s not usable at all, [all you need to reach 911](https://www.fcc.gov/guides/wireless-911-services) is a charged battery and being in someone’s service area. Just be aware that a phone without a service plan or even one without a number will work, but the 911 services will not be able to call you back if you get disconnected, and they may not be able to locate you automatically.
OTOH, if the OP’s definition of an “emergency phone” is one that they can use to call home, parents, etc., then you do need to buy some sort of service plan even if you need to top it up every so often
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### Author:  [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2015, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prepaid-phone-for-emergency/737948/14 "2015-11-19T19:52:53Z")
Check out ringplus. They have many different free plans. Some of the plans even offer some out of text and data. Their smallest free plan doesn’t cost anything. The other free plans need an initial deposit which will be used to pay for services like MMS.