Prepay cell phones...advise on how they work

[tangentgirl]

My bf does this, and it has worked out great for him for a long time. He usually spends very few minutes each month and goes a few months before having to renew them.

He is using the phone for work more lately and is considering getting a traditional plan, but otherwise, he's been happy with this setup for years. We even considered getting a family plan with my regular company, and the math just didn't work out to it benefiting him.

Also, he is on Net10, and they use the exact same network as AT&T, so he has service everywhere pretty much. We don't use a land line, so this is his main phone and it still works out.

It kinda seems like the big company "pay as you go" plans are kind of sketchy. Last time I looked into them, they wanted you to pay ~$20 a month PLUS the pay as you go costs. Not sure what that extra $20 gets you - maybe ability to use their fancier phones. It sounds just as expensive as the base plans that they have, at the end of the day.

[Zen]

My experience is the same as Eden's with the TracFone. If you buy on-line you have a wider selection of phones.

[Red Rock]

Thank you for all of your input here.

Unfortunately I have become a Blackberry (BB) addict. So I love my blackberry along witheveryone else who ones one. Are there other phones that do everything else a BB does without the extra cost?

I have a sperate phone that I use for going on rides and everything else since I do not want to take my BB with me. We are helping an older man with his cell service too. He was on the tractphone before we put him on the reguar cell service. We are looking at other options. Perhaps the older man going back to his tractphone or something similar. I would drop the other line that I have and go with a prepay phone. This way I can at least have some communication while out on bike rides but it is not costing a whole lot of money.

Any ideas and help are appreciated.

Red Rock

[Zen]

I don't know what other services a Blackberry comes with. Cricket sounds like a good possibility.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

My husband and I use Tracphones too.
$99 gives a whole year service plus hundreds of minutes. That's about $9/month each.
We don't blab on our phones so we never really need hours and hours of minutes. No monthy fees or anything, plus since they lease piggybacked reception from other towers, we get reception just about anywhere we go, and no roaming fees. Whatever minutes you dont use up when you renew just get added and carried over to the next year, you dont lose them.

And yes, you get a better selection of phones to choose from if you order it from tracphone online.

I LOVE my tracphone.

[smilingcat]

I too have a pre-paid plan that I love. It used to be tracphone but now its with T-mobile.

For the same $100, I too get the full year plus 1000 minutes of use. It's enough for me to last the whole year. And no I don't have regular old fashioned phone. For that I use Ooma, thing called voice over IP, one time payment of buying the machine and no monthly charge Long distance call in the middle of the day FREE!!! Got to love that. Been using to talk to my sister and my mother...

Something similar to Ooma is magic jack but there is a monthly service fee of $20. The added feature is that where ever there is a computer with internet connection, mic and USB, you can make a call. Ooma can only make calls from your house.

Really love Ooma and my pay as you go cell phone. My Ooma has paid for itself over a year ago. no phone bill, no expired minutes... This is a good thing.

I do not have implanted bluetooth headset. Besides, I think they are bad for your brain.

[Red Rock]

Thank you for your input here. I think I spent two hours on the computer today looking at different sites and phone plans. There is a lot to digest. I am still months away from the end of my contract, but looking now will help with the forthcoming decision.

smilingcat-thank you for your experience too. I had never heard of Ooma or Magic Jack. I will have to check them out as well.

Red Rock

[Zen]

Thank for the heads up on that one. Wow!