Prepaid cell phone questions/ advice needed please

[ZPT1022]

DH and I have a cell phone contract with Sprint, currently set to expire in the beginning of December. We can either renew it for two years or drop it.

DH's employer is going to be offering us a deal on cell phones, and we fully intend to get ours through them (they have great deals for their employees), but unfortunately that will be a few months from now.

At this point I don't want to buy new Sprint phones- ours are 5 years old and completely shot, don't hold a charge, bad reception, etc... and the reception is not just Sprint as DH has a work cell with them that gets vastly better reception, ours are just old and busted. So anyhow, staying with Sprint seems to be a bad choice at this point, between new phones and getting locked into a contract longer than we want to be.

I think this brings us to prepaid phones. I use mine a fair amount but not tons. I would love to upgrade and have texting, etc... but I can wait a few months until we get the phones from his work. He could possibly get away with just using his work cell for the time being, I'm really the only one who calls him and the kids' school also has the number for emergencies.

Unfortunately I have no idea about any of the brands, plans, etc... I mostly want something that wont cost a fortune, but is reliable and a decent phone. I also need something that will still work outside of our area if we were to travel- we like to do lots of day trips.

[It'sWDW4me]

You don't have to renew when your current contract "expires". If your phones will last for the few months until you can get added on to you DH's employer plan, just keep on keeping on! There will be no interruption of service as long as you keep paying your bill on time. Years ago I had AT&T and kept their service for over a year after my contract expired and before I switched to Verizon. There's freedom in that you can then switch carriers at any time after contract expiration.

But do beware - don't upgrade or downgrade your plan or your phone because that will lock you in for another two years. And they're going to pummel you with offers of free or drastically reduced prices on phones (if they haven't already) if you renew.

If your phone just won't last a few more months, then maybe I'd go the pre-paid route.

[KristinU]

I have Virgin Mobile and love it. For $20 a month I get 1000 texts and 20 MB of data then I pay .10 a minute for calls on top of that (usually less than another $5 a month). My phone was about $100 (Kyocera XTC), but I know they have way cheaper phones. My first one with them was a freebie that I got when I bought my first $20 worth of credits.

[Thumper_Man]

I was going to give the same advice as It'sWDW4me. I to switched because I get a discount through work. I had Sprint before I had Verizon. I was with them for 5 years. The first time my contract expired with them, I just kept paying the monthly bill for another year after that; and never had any interruption in service. I never had a problem with my phone, so I had no reason to renew. I got tied into another 2 year contract when I finally decided to purchase a new phone with them. They offer free or reduced price phones to trap you into a new contract. If your phone can hold out, I would hold out until such time you can make the switch with your DH's company.

[dfchelbay]

We've had cell phones with the same company (thru their many name changes and mergers) since 1987. We haven't had a contract since then (1987). You don't need to sign up for another year. We've always just paid in full ($69-$139) for a new phone every three or four years, and sometimes longer, and have avoided a contract for over twenty years.

[ZPT1022]

Good to know about the contracts, we may just do that, although I am not sure if my phone will hold out. There are times where the battery bar is red and it says "charge immediately", I plug it in all night, grab it in the morning and by the time I make one five minute phone call it is dead again. Probably doesn't help that it's been dropped, rained on, etc.... did I mention it's five or more years old?


Thank you Kristin for the info on Virgin Mobile, I seem to recall that you live in the same area I do (central CT), so that is particularly helpful. If I get a prepaid I will probably give it to my oldest as a "just in case" phone and also for her few phone calls she makes- not enough to add up to anything but she would be thrilled to have her own phone

[yoopermom]

We're going through the same issue, and I've ordered my DH a cheap unlocked phone off of Ebay to tide him over. AT+T (we've been out of contract for years, too) told me what kind of phone I needed to buy so his SIM card would fit it, and once the phone comes I'll just put the card in, and call them to change it over. They've been really nice considering I've got a really cheap plan from a company they bought out.
Terri

[prncess674]

Originally Posted by ZPT1022

ours are 5 years old and completely shot, don't hold a charge, bad reception, etc...

If your phone is 5 years old, you probably aren't under contract.

[disney1990]

Originally Posted by ZPT1022

Good to know about the contracts, we may just do that, although I am not sure if my phone will hold out. There are times where the battery bar is red and it says "charge immediately", I plug it in all night, grab it in the morning and by the time I make one five minute phone call it is dead again. Probably doesn't help that it's been dropped, rained on, etc.... did I mention it's five or more years old?


Thank you Kristin for the info on Virgin Mobile, I seem to recall that you live in the same area I do (central CT), so that is particularly helpful. If I get a prepaid I will probably give it to my oldest as a "just in case" phone and also for her few phone calls she makes- not enough to add up to anything but she would be thrilled to have her own phone

My telephone wasn't holding a charge and I searched on ebay and bought a new battery for about $15. It might be a better option than buying a new cell phone.

[ZPT1022]

Originally Posted by prncess674

If your phone is 5 years old, you probably aren't under contract.

unfortunately, it said something in the most recent bill about remembering to renew the contract in December. We just hadn't had new phones when we've renewed before. 2 years ago when we renewed the phones weren't quite as bad as they are now.

Originally Posted by disney1990

My telephone wasn't holding a charge and I searched on ebay and bought a new battery for about $15. It might be a better option than buying a new cell phone.

never thought about that!

[Cheshire Figment]

I did a 12-month analysis last year and found during the year I had used fewer than 800 minutes.

I went over to T-Mobile early this year and paid $184 (including taxes) for a brand new phone as well as 1,010 minutes. I was able to have the number transferred from my old Sprint phone so I did not have to give people a new number.

One other interesting ability at T-Mobile is I was able to set up my phone book on their web site and then it would, on my command, automatically synchronize my phone with the database. And if I add or change a number at the phone I can again give a synchronization command and it will update the data base. This way if I have need to buy another phone my directory is immediately available.

[ZPT1022]

Originally Posted by Cheshire Figment

I did a 12-month analysis last year and found during the year I had used fewer than 800 minutes.

I went over to T-Mobile early this year and paid $184 (including taxes) for a brand new phone as well as 1,010 minutes. I was able to have the number transferred from my old Sprint phone so I did not have to give people a new number.

One other interesting ability at T-Mobile is I was able to set up my phone book on their web site and then it would, on my command, automatically synchronize my phone with the database. And if I add or change a number at the phone I can again give a synchronization command and it will update the data base. This way if I have need to buy another phone my directory is immediately available.

That is really neat, I never realized you could keep the same number (I'm techno stupid, what can I say). How convenient that would be though, since all our family as well as doctor's offices, the kids' school, etc... all have that number as a backup number.

The database thing is pretty cool too, what a timesaver! And nice to know that if something happened to the phone, you should easily be able to add the info back into a new one