To update a past thread from last year: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=254673&highlight=tracfone
Background:
My wife has a simple cell phone, she uses it maybe 6 times a year to tell boss that she’s stuck in traffic, or to tell me car has broken down…etc. I’m sick of paying $25 a month for a cell phone that sits in her purse except for an occasional short call. So I’m looking for a prepaid type phone.
All I want is a cheap phone for the rare semi-emergency call. Don’t care about features, just making calls. Any advice/recomendations would be appreciated.
I have a Virgin Mobile phone. It serves me well for an “emergency” phone for the car. I rarely use it. It costs 10 cents a minute. You must use it at least once every 60 days. You must add time to it at least once every 90 days. You can only buy time in increments of 20 dollars. You can usually buy a “top off” card at a local store. I’ve encountered no other hidden fees so far. For what I need it for it is pretty much what I want.
OK, so what if adding time every 90 days isn’t required, supposing of course you don’t use $20 of talk time in those 90 days. Are there any phones out there where you can just buy it, add 1000 minutes and be done with it until it runs out?
I decided on the tracfone after looking at all the plans. You can buy one year of service for $130, with 300 minutes. You can always add more time if you wish, and reception is great.
Just hope nothing ever goes wrong with your Tracfone, or that if it does you have the presence of mind to call Tracfone before it goes wrong. Otherwise you’re completely fucked as far as Tracfone is concerned. They have the worst customer service ever, starting from the presumption that you the customer are a liar and a thief whose only goal in life is to screw Tracfone out of free airtime.
It costs 25 cents for each minute for the first 10 minutes a day, then it’s 10 cents a minute. I know of no rule that says you have to use it every 90 days as I know mine has sat around for months and I forget about it until they call and say you need to add time.
I love my Virgin phone, I’ve never had a problem with it, it’s cheap, and I’ve used it all over the US without a problem. There are some places that I can’t get reception but it hasn’t been a problem yet. It sure beats the $25 a month.