Cingular prepaid phone plans- Opinions?

[puffkin]

I am trying to decide what to do with our cell phones once our contract runs out in November. Currently we have a family plan for our two phones, and we pay about $65. We have approx. 600 anytime minutes and free nights and weekends. I do use the cell to make all our long distance calls since we don't have long distance on our home phone.

With that being said, I am looking into a prepaid plan. I currently use my phone about 100 minutes a month and my husband is lucky if he gets 20 minutes on his phone. I used to use my phone all the time at my old job, but not at all with my current employment. We have Cingular now and I am happy with the service/coverage in our area.

There are two plans to choose from. One is 10 cents a minute, but with a $1/day access charge for each day you use the phone. The other is just a straight 25 cents a minute. If we use our average of 120 minutes a month, that is only $30, so less than half our monthly bill.

So what am I missing? Is this the plan for us? Are there hidden costs with the prepaid plans. I assume I will need to get new phones when we switch, but anything else. I also assume I can still keep my number? It just seems crazy for us not to switch and save the money. Any opinions on these plans?

 

[Steven]

Hello

I live in the United States and have a tmobile phone. I searched the internet for a calling card company. There based in Eastern Canada. The name of the company is telesmt. You can call from up to 8 numbers without the use of a pin. Price is 4.4 cents to USA/Canada. If they have a local number in your area its 3.4 cents U.S. You will just be using your airtime minutes, and the long distance goes through them. I hope I have helped you.
Sincerely,
Steven

 

[Chuck S]

If the 25¢ per minute is both local and long distance, and your calling patterns are as you presented, I'd go with that. We have a pre-paid minutes, same price local or long distance, through Onstar...it is pricey, but still cheaper, based on our calling habits, than paying the monthly fees for a regular contract.

 

[EthansMom]

We have the Cingular Pre-paid Phones and use the $0.25/minute plan on both mine and DH's phones. We use our phones for emergency use and for quick casual calls ("I'm on my way home and hit traffic" kind of calls.)

If you refill the phones (can do this with a credit card over the phone, don't have to purchase the cards at the store), the best deal for low-use is the $25 refill, which doesn't expire until 90 days after you apply it, so that's 100 minutes for 3 months. If you have money left over and it is about to expire, you can add another $25 and your old balance will carry over for expiration purposes. So, if you have $3 left and then add another $25, you'll have $28 that expires in 90 days.

Hidden charges? Here in CT, we have to pay 6% sales tax on the time, but that's the only other charge. No fees, handling charges, etc.

I've noticed that the time starts charging as soon as you hit "send" rather than from the point the call is picked up -- that's annoying, but I'm not sure if it's any different than with any other cell phone.

I use a calling card from Costco for long distance from home -- pay less than $0.03/minute and can refill the card by calling and using a credit card. So, I save my cell minutes.

Here in CT, my phone service has been no different than my in-laws who have Cingular and are paying much more for their plans.

 

[swilphil]

I have the Cingular Prepaid phone. One great thing about it is you don't have to pay all the fees like you do with a monthly plan. You can refill your minutes online, over the phone or with a card. If you tend to make lengthy calls, but only a few days a week, you might want to go with the $1 a day/10 cents a minute plan. If it doesn't work out, you can change later to the 25 cents a minute plan. The rollover minutes are wonderful. You may need to buy a new phone if you switch to this plan, but you can keep the same phone number with no changeover fee.

 

[Kirby]

Don't have an opinion on Cingular but I like my Tracfone.

 

[bigbabyblues]

We're looking at it too.....DH works less than 2 miles from home and I do too, so we no longer need both our regular phones. We're going with one pre-paid and one regular cell phone, as DH goes to school 3 nights a week and still uses his cell phone a lot. I probably use mine 10 minutes a month if that, but I don't want to be without one for emergencies or car problems, etc.