Best deal on a prepaid phone?

[MommyMK]

We are getting to the point where we are ready to add a prepaid phone to our household for very occasional use by our almost 10 yo when she is away from us. Other than these few times a year it will not be used.

I have no idea where to start shopping for a basic phone like this, any tips would be appreciated!

 

[bjscheel]

I like Tracfone, been with them for probably 20 years! My girls are both on it too. You can get the annual service for $100. The minutes provided with the annual service will be plenty for your usage, it sounds like, and you only have to worry about re-upping it once a year. You can buy the phone directly from Tracfone and activate it online, or you can get one on Amazon from shopcelldeals. Tracfone can be a pain when doing things like changing phones (last May I moved the three of us to iPhones on Tracfone and it was a bit hair-raising to get them going and with the correct phone numbers and minutes transferred). But for a single phone that you won't be changing out for a long while, you should get along fine.

When you put in your zip code, it will show you either G model phones (AT&T towers) or C model phones (Verizon towers). My zip code directs me to the G model phones, but we get along a lot better with C model phones in our area, especially the town where work and school are. But this is rural Iowa, if you live in a more populated area, this probably isn't a concern.

 

[cruisers5]

We've been with Tracfone for about 10 years now. Check QVC, HSN, etc. for deals. We bought phones with 1200 minutes of talk, data and text and it was about $100. Easy to port over our old phone number. We do have a new smart iphones. The only complaint I have is the battery doesn't seem to stayed charged for a long time (compared to my other phones I've had), but they are a great phone for what we need them. Beats the heck out of paying $125+ a month for a phone. If you have minutes left over just add more minutes (we get triple minutes for life) and you roll over the minutes. I have something like 4,800 minutes good until 2018 (you can tell I don't use the phone a lot! *L*)

 

[kaytieeldr]

Thirding TracFone. My current one is an LG smartphone from QVC with the 1200 free minutes and triple minutes for life. When I transferred my number from my old Tracfone, the only "glitch" was I ended up with 3400 minutes.

 

[clori]

My dd's first phone was a $5 tracfone with triple minutes I got from ebay using shopcelldeals. Shopcelldeals also occasionally sells discount minute cards. The $5 phone wasn't a smartphone so only calls and texting. I did switch dd to a $10 touch screen non smartphone tracfone at one point because she asked if I would. For cheap phones dd never had any issues and they only needed to be charged once a week or so. If you go with tracfone look up bonus codes before applying minutes - I always found one. Tracfone worked well for dd since she had it mostly for emergencies.

I think it was September when I switched dd to my family plan primarily because I had 4 lines on it and was offered pay for 4 lines get a 5th line free so no extra charge. I gave dd's friend (with parental permission) dd's tracfone with about 2500 minutes on it. The girl ran out of minutes within a 3 months so in her case a tracfone wasn't worth it.

 

[hsmamato2]

tracfone is cheap- I keep an older android model 'smartphone at home with pageplus cellular.... it's got great coverage and it costs maybe 5-8 bucks a month to refill every 4 months. We don't use it often

 

[hollypoast]

Not sure if this is considered a prepaid phone but I use Republic Wireless and I pay, on average, $15 a month for a smartphone. (talk/text/data)

Prior to RW I was with US Cellular and paid $109 per month.

 

[ajwolfe]

Hmm, now I'm wondering if this isn't the way to go for our youngest. We told him he could get a phone at 9 - coming up in May but I was dreading adding a 4th line to our At&t bill for him. I the best place to get these on QVC or where else are they available?

 

[Lisa0620]

We have prepaid iPhones with Ting. $6/month for each phone plus $ for minutes, texts and data you use. We bought our used phones at Glyde.com. I average about $50/month total for 3 phones. We've been really happy with both price and service.

 

[ceecee]

We use Tracfone as well. I travel and have never had issues with coverage. I bought my Samsung on Ebay for $50 so I now have a "Smart" phone, honestly I liked my LG Android best. I get triple minutes and have only had to add minutes a few times in 20+ years of using them. DD got her own plan since she texts a lot but she pays for it herself and she has coverage issues. The most you are out is $100 for a year of service and triple minutes, try it at least. You can sometimes get refurb phones on the Tracfone site for $5, I got my husband's LG like that before he upgraded to his smart phone (which we also bought on Ebay).

 

[starry_solo]

I use Tracfone for the parents and got the type of phone that is the one that runs on Verizon networks. The other people in the family that use the phones for data, we use Verizon.

Parents were originally on the shared family plan, but when we upgraded to smart phones, they didn't want to. And it wasn't worth $25/month to have non-smart phones on phones that they don't even use except for emergencies. One of the phones, we have a year's worth of minutes on. The other, we load up every 90 days.

 

[zoemurr]

Hmm, now I'm wondering if this isn't the way to go for our youngest. We told him he could get a phone at 9 - coming up in May but I was dreading adding a 4th line to our At&t bill for him. I the best place to get these on QVC or where else are they available?

You can find them most anywhere.. Target, WM.. start by looking at the Tracfone website. We have been with them for 15+ years. You can also bring your own phone. DH and I both have iphones from ebay and are light users. (mainly in wifi) We should be able to stay around $100 a year each.