Where to buy a sim card and prepay plans?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’ve got a 13 year old that needs a phone for communication and an old Nokia feature phone. Rather than put her on my plan, I’d like to just get a sim card and pre pay. I’m not sure where to get a sim card in the US? What’s an easy way to get one?

I’ve seen prepaid plans at the super market or at Costco. Better to get one on line? Any recommendations?

The phone will be 99% used in the US to call in the US. There may be a family vacation to China, and it would be useful for talk and text to work there as well but this is a nice to have.

2

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3

I have walked into AT&T stores (not resellers) and just asked for one. Four years ago, $15 with 150 minutes, not the best deal now. Am now using a TMobile SIM I ordered at Walmart.

You can try StraightTalk - an AT&T MVNo for good deals too. They run Tracfone.

4

I use NET10, and I think that they are great, service wise. Get the phone, buy a loading card, try to connect it, per instructions on the card. If the sim card is no good, they will send you a new one, free.

5

Just to let you know you can walk into any Wal-Mart or the equivalent and find newer pre-paid phones that are actually decent for pretty cheap.

6

I love my StraightTalk phone. It’s $45 a month for unlimited minutes, texts and data, but by far the best part is that I don’t get billed incorrectly every other month and have to fight with a bunch of dishonest morons at a call center.

My StraightTalk phone uses Sprint’s network. I was as surprised as anyone because the Internet was pretty unequivocal about it using AT&T’s network - but I’m quite certain about my actual phone.

7

The SO bought a Tracfone from Wal-Mart. She’s not a heavy user of mobile phones. (Her philosophy is that they’re for emergencies, or at least for ‘urgencies’ – she doesn’t feel the need to talk to people right now, and that anything important enough to talk about is worth leaving a message on the landline.) Tracfone has double-minutes offers that she buys, and her mobile bill works out to around $10/month. Tracfone’s minutes expire (after a year?) unless she renews them. Neither of us has a smart phone, so I don’t know how much they charge for data.

Such a plan might be enough for a kid who is no paying for her own phone service. If she wants more minutes, she can buy them herself. Or, she’ll spend less time on the phone.