Best Pay as You Go or Pre-Paid Cell Phone?

[*pixie*dust*]

I was hoping someone with experience with pre-paid or pay-as-you-go cell phones could help me.
My Aunt, (DMom's sister) has issues, has had for a long time. Long story short, she has health issues now and no phone. My DMom is talking about putting my aunt on her cell phone plan but is not sure that her sister will use it responsibly (which is probably what would happen). I suggested the pre-pay type of cell phone instead but I know very little about how they work and what company would be best. Can you make any recommendations? I would like to be a bit prepared if DMom wants to go this route. We are in MI, if that makes a difference.

Thanks!

 

[Cheshire Figment]

I went with a pre-paid plan from T-Mobile. My previous plan (a different provider) ran just over $30 per month with all taxes, but I only used 700 minutes all of last year.

I paid about $160, including tax, for a new phone and 1,000 minutes. The minutes are good for a year, and if I buy more minutes any unused will roll over.

One thing I really like is I was able to set up my phone book online at the T-Mobile site and they tell it to synchronize with the telephone so it put all the numbers and information into the phone. This is a lot easier than loading the individual numbers into the phone.

And I can always check to see how many minutes I have remaining. Note that future purchases will be $90 for 1,000 minutes.

 

[Momto3Girls&Max]

Another vote for TMobile. I chose them over Tracfone, Net Zero and Virgin Mobile because once you buy $100 in minutes they're good for a whole year.

 

[abcboys]

Tmobile and Virgin do not work in my area so we went with tracfone. We have 2 phones and haven't had any trouble with them. We got double minutes for DH so we pay $10/month for 100 minutes and I always get the 60 minutes for my phone but I always get bonus minutes when I search for codes on the internet. It is$20 and gives you 3 months of service. They have year deals but I'm sure just as I do that I will lose my phone and be out that money.

 

[meandmytwogirls]

Just got a Tracfone as my sprint contract was up. Got the double minutes for life phone and a 60 minute card for $19.99. I'm extremely happy with it so far.

 

[thebeesknees]

I've had a Tracfone and a Net10 phone the past couple of years. I think they both add up to about the same, depending on what deals you find for the Tracfone. You can google the promotion codes and usually get minutes for about 10-15 cents each. The Net10 is always 10 cents a minute, but when I first bought it, it came with the phone and 600 minutes for $30. I'm sticking with that for now because I don't have time to go looking for codes every month. You can sign up to automatically buy more minutes via credit card with either Tracfone or Net10.

 

[englishteacha]

We have Tracfones. Like a PP mentioned, nothing else would work here, at least not when we got the phones 18 months ago. Mine is double minutes, so I get 120 minutes for $20 every 3 months.

 

[LanaJae]

If T-Mobile coverage is good in your area, it's the best plan if you start service with a $100 card. That puts you in gold status and you only need to add $10 a year after that to keep it active for another full year (first year minute rate is 10 cents, but it's higher for the 2nd year if you add only $10).

Target has a sale about twice a year where a phone and $100 card together cost less than $100. Sam's Club has a Nokia phone for $9.87 that comes with 10 minutes of free air time. I think they give a discount on the $100 cards too.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

Just watch out for ATT, Sprint and Verizon. They not only charge the 10¢ per minute but they also charge a fee of $1.00 per day that the phone has any use, either incoming or outgoing. So if the phone is used on ten different days in the month the fee will be $10.00 plus the per-minute charges.

 

[luvavacation]

I have Tracphone, had it for years, and am happy with it.

What I like about Tracphone is it piggy-backs onto other networks, so if you are in an area that only has Verizon coverage, you can use it, or if it is only Sprint coverage, you can use it, etc.

I also always buy the one-year plan. I have too much to remember already, trying to make sure I add minutes every few months is too much hassle for me. With the double minutes that my phone has, the one year plan is plenty of talk time for me.

Now my youngest, with all her texting, possibly a Tracfone is not the best option for her, but I will only buy her the one year plan with Trac, so if she wants more minutes, she has to buy them. If she wants a different phone service, she can pay for it. I have a hard time trying to see why texting is better than just picking up the house phone and calling, but then I am old and out of date, so what do I really know?

 

[rdevine10]

Just wanted to touch base on the Verizon prepaid plan:

there are different levels. The very basic only costs $0.25 per min for call or text. The next level up, where min are only only $0.10, it costs you $1 per day you use the phone.

I just got a verizon prepaid cell, after having tmobile for years. I LOVED tmobile. best rates, never dropped calls, but it does not come in well in an area I need to be in a lot. The only cell provider that has service in that area is Verizon.

That being said..... the last 2 years with tmobile it only cost me $10 per year. I just bought a verizon phone ($20), $25 actvation fee, and $100 worth of min (they are good for year).

good luck!

 

[GottaLuvMickey]

Depending on where you are in Michigan you might want to look into MetroPCS also - they are only in the east side of the state tho (metro Detroit), they have rate plans starting at $30 a month (unlimited local calls only) and the most expensive plan is $50 a month, that one has unlimited local & long distance & TONS of additional features that are all unlimited - if you're in that area of the state, I definately reccommend looking into it!

 

[Zandy595]

OP, I hope you don't mind me asking a question here.

We're thinking about getting DS a prepaid cell phone just for emergencies. He never uses our house phone so I know he won't use the cell very much, if at all. He's at fishing camp this week and it has ended early a couple times, if he had a cell he'd be able to call to let us know to pick him up earlier. Also when he's at a friends house in the neighborhood, we could just ring it so he knows to come home. He wouldn't even have to answer it and use any minutes.

What would be a good plan/phone to get for a situation like ours?

 

[gk90]

I just bought a phone for my daughter so went through the numbers and reviews on this. For a user that doesn't need too many minutes, prepaid and Tracfone makes the most sense. Net10 works better if you need more minutes.

If you get one of the 9.99 Tracfones and then buy a 60 min airtime card for 19.99 you can find promo codes to add free minutes--the codes will give you anywhere from 20 to 60 minutes. Also when you buy minutes online they give you the option to "supersize" and extend the minutes life from 90 days to 365 days for 49.95.

Right now the Tracfone website has a great deal for a refurbed phone--$19.99 for a camera phone, with a 60 minute card and any minutes you add are doubled. If you add a $9.99 30 minute airtime card and "supersize" it to 365 days for an additional $49.95 you'd have 14 months service and 180 minutes for $80--that's less than $6 a month. The deal is on the top left of the page of phones.

If you want to look at Tracfones before you buy, they also have them in a lot of stores, I think BigLots and Walmart do good deals on them but from what I can see the website deals are even better.

 

[Zandy595]

...so if I bought a 60 min. card, would the minutes expire after a month? I thought they lasted until you used the whole 60 min., then you had to buy more. I'm so confused...

 

[CyndiLooWho]

We have used net10 and tracfone, and we much prefer tracfone. We have 2 at the moment.

The reason I like tracfone is that with the doubler ($50 or free with most new phones), we pay $100 per yr for dh and about $120 per yr for me. The number never gets reassigned if you don't use it for 30 days (had to get a new number almost every time I used the net10 phone), as long as you still have days and minutes. A 12 month card gets 900 minutes w/ the doubler, and a 3 mo card with 800 minutes (doubled) is $80. For me, it works out to around 11 cents per minute, w/ no daily charge. I like that.

I would definitely not get a net10 phone for someone who will only use it sporadically, as they could lose their number AND get calls for everyone else who has had that number in the last few months (happened to a good friend of ours who only used her phone when visiting the US).

 

[gk90]

Zandy595, with the prepaid plans you're buying 2 things, minutes and days of service. Your minutes don't expire as long as you have days of service left. DH uses around 30 minutes a month tops so I wish there were a way to buy days and not minutes. Still, Tracfone is a good deal for us because when we buy a 60 minute + 90 days of service card, the minutes that he still has on the phone carry over.

With Net10 the minutes are cheaper but they're bundled with fewer days of service so their service is a better deal for people who are going to be using 300 minutes in 60 days.