Currently we have Verizon and are paying about $63 a month for two phones/two lines. My husband uses his phone a lot, but days go by when I don’t even turn mine on.
It’s time to renew and hubby’s phone is broken (good timing). Verizon quoted $80 a month for a new plan that includes unlimited texting, new picture phones, etc. which hubby will use but I won’t.
I want to try a pay as you go service, like Tracfone, for me, and let hubby keep Verizon, with a single plan. I checked Verizon’s pay as you go plan and it looks like it’d cost me more – there’s a 99 cent daily access fee in addition to the minutes used.
But before I tell him to go single, I need more info. I’ve checked the Tracfone website and it looks like it’d work for me.
Have you used pay as you go from Tracfone or anyone else? Did it work okay for you?
I’ve got Tracfone pay-as-you-go, and like it just fine. (Hm, yanno, if you sign up through a current customer, I think we both would get some free minutes out of it…)
I almost never use my phone – it’s mostly for emergencies, and I try to remember to turn it on when I’m meeting someone (I don’t even have voice mail set up on it) – but if you don’t use your phone regularly, it’s a perfectly reasonable approach.
I do - Virgin Mobile. $20 every 3 months (they make me add $20 every three months. I usually use about 3-5 of those dollars) - and I almost never use it.
It’s handy for those “just in case I need a phone” moments. If I really used my cell phone, it would be way too expensive. But for the emergency cell phone, it’s a good plan.
I think that our cell phone bills have gone from about $40 a month to an average of $8 a month. Gotta feel good about saving roughly $450 over the course of the year.
Yep. Virgin Mobile user here. Also just an emergency phone. I’ve used it for about 10 minutes worth of calls since last November, so it’s costing me about $8 a minute. :eek:
Until I have an accident and I have to spend two solid hours talking to the rescuers while I’m stuck in a well, that’ll bring the per-minute cost right down, yessirree…
The OP describes our situation about a year and a half ago. We both switched to Tracfones (from U.S. Cellular) and love them. Better signal, more coverage, way cheaper. We are both only incidental cell users (only a few people have the numbers, and they know we don’t carry them 24/7), but Mr. S keeps his on at work because he works as a school custodian and is unreachable by phone otherwise.
I use virgin mobile on their minute to minute plan. No daily fee, first minute of any call is 25 cents, 10 cents a minute after that. I’ve put $80 on it since last december and have $20 of that still left. (you have to add at least 20 dollars of time every 90 days)
I don’t use my phone much, so this is a much better deal for me than a monthly plan.
Yep, I like my Virgin Mobile, for all the reasons listed. I go days without turning my phone on, and then days when I use it a lot - perhaps a trip to the amusement park where all my friends have cells and we’ll use them to go our own ways but meet up again later. Or if I’m taking a long car ride and want to catch up with my calls - which happens like three times a year. Or to call my kid from a traffic jam to tell him I’ll be a few minutes late picking him up.
I use it just enough that I do generally use up my $20 in 90 days, but I don’t often spend more than that. I don’t know any other plan for my number of minutes (whatever that is, I have no idea, due to the 25cent/10cent thing) for $6.66 a month.
The other good thing them is there’s no contract, so if you find that you use it to much, it’s not like you’re locked in or anything. Sure, you’re out the money you spent on the phone, but Virgin’s cheapest phone is around $20.
The absolute *worst *thing about Virgin is their attempt to be cool and with-it. I’m a 31 year old housewife, and even I know they’re trying too hard.
Oh, and give them a bogus home phone number when you sign up. Bastards call with a chipper recording telling me about “Great Deals from Virgin Wireless!” Fuckers.
I have Verizon’s older plan, Freeup I think, grandfathered in from my older phone. It’s $15/month minimum.
When I was shopping, Virgin Mobile was digital-only, which is a deal killer for me. I want the widest coverage possible, so I’ll only buy a tri-mode phone.
Another Virgin Mobile user here, and it’s done fine for both me and my husband. The LEAST expensive subscription plan I’ve seen is $39.95/month, and we don’t spend anything LIKE that much money. One of us occasionally runs out of money before the next required $20 payment, but I’d say the MOST either of us has spent in one 90-day cycle is $40. So it’s costing us approximately 1/3 what it would cost us to have a plan.
I have one from Cingular. It works fine in my area and it’s been a very cost effective alternative to a traditional contract/plan combo. HOWEVER, I noticed that the actual service coverage is much worse than being under the plan. I know this because places I used to have no trouble getting a signal before, are no longer available to me. It’s been confirmed by the fact that my g.f. also has Cingular as her cell provider and is under contract and will have a full strength signal on her phone while standing right next to me, while I cannot connect to the network at all.
Another Virgin Mobile user. The phone is great, the prices are perfect, but I’ve discovered that I don’t have the coverage I wanted. I take a lot of trips to Maine, and I get no service there. It’s probably something I can sign up for, though. I should check into that.
All in all, especially if you’re not the type to spend hours on the cell phone, it’s a good deal. I barely use all my minutes before the allotted time, and most of my fee is spent on texting, anyway.
I currently have a T-Mobile prepaid phone and I’m happy with it.
Before that I had a Tracfone and I wasn’t happy with the sound quality and battery life, but that was probably the fault of the phone itself (Motorola V170) and not the network.
Tracfone user here. Works great for me, since I rarely have a conversation on it that lasts more than a couple of minute.
I have twice done the “buy a 60 minute phone card and get a free reconditioned phone” deal. The phones have been just fine. Last time, I upgraded to a fancier model and my coverage improved significantly. It’s also a “one rate” phone, so roaming doesn’t consume double minutes.
Thank you, this is excellent news. I’m convinced, and I’m kicking myself for not switching sooner. I’ll probably go with the Tracfone, since I see Tracfone signs everywhere. Casey’s (Iowa’s version of 7-11) even sells them.
I have Tracfone, and I use it frequently, but not for long conversations. I give it to my son when he’s out at night with the car, so if he needs to call, he can. I’m on a tight budget, so I only buy one $19.99 phone card at a time…That gets me 60 minutes. Right now I’m spending $40 a month that way…I’d be better off buying a higher minutes card, but until the budget eases, that’s too big a chunk of money at once. But I buy the phone cards at my grocery store, so it counts towards their “Spend $50, get 10 cents a gallon off on gasoline” promotion. But there have been months where I didn’t use many minutes at all. I don’t use the voice mail feature, and only a few key people have my number. And if I really can’t afford the minutes, I just don’t buy them. As long as I buy some before the expiration of service date (three months hence) it stays active.
Me too. Having a cellphone is a semi-necessity for me. But, I doubt that I use even10 minutes a month, and I get decent coverage where I live. The minutes roll over, so I have a growing balance that I may never even use.
Me too. Having a cellphone is a semi-necessity for me. But, I doubt that I use even 10 minutes a month, and I get decent coverage where I live. The minutes roll over, so I have a growing balance that I may never even use.
Me too. Having a cellphone is a semi-necessity for me. But I doubt that I use even 10 minutes a month, and I get decent coverage where I live. The minutes roll over, so I have a growing balance that I may never even use.
