Best Pre-paid cell phone and best place to purchase?

[lisaross]

So hard this year with hanukkah gifts for my boys..i'm thinking for my older son who is 10 1/2, a prepaid cell phone. I pretty much want him to get use to using it since next year he'll be in middle school and would like him to carry it with him since he'll be on the bus.

anyway, i just want a prepaid one since he won't be making many calls. Where is th best place to buy one? do they go on sale?

thanx..any thing else i should be thinking of also with it?

lisa

 

[MickeyDisneyFan]

I use net10 and have no problems with it, its a basic no frills phone and its .10 per minute for voice and .05 per text.

http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/hot-deals/979822/

 

[robinb]

My DD has one from Page Plus Cellular. You can buy a phone from them for about $40 or you can pick up a phone from Craigslist or eBay. You can check the Howard Forums for a list of phones that work with Page Plus:
http://www.howardforums.com/showthr...D-BEFORE-ASKING-Phones-That-Work-On-Page-Plus

I looked at all the prepaid plans (including Net10 and TracFone) and the reason why I chose Page Plus was their "Top up" requirement for keeping the account active is longer than their competitors. It is 120 days instead of the traditional 90 days. I didn't expect my DD to use her phone often (and I was right) so I looked at the minimum a phone would cost me to keep activated. I can buy 100 Page Plus minutes for $10 and they last 120 days. So, my yearly cost for the phone is $30. TracFone sells 60 minute cards for $20 but they only last 90 days. So, I would have buy and extra card to cover the year and I would end up spending $80 for about the same number of minutes (assuming they are doubled as many TracFone minutes are).

I bought my DD's phone in December of 2009 and I put a total of $45 ($25 - $10 - $10) on it. She still has $31 worth of minutes left on it and I don't need to add any more until this December.

ETA: It looks like the cheaper Net10 airtime minutes expire in only 60 days so I don't think that's a poor choice for a light user like a 10-year old.

 

[lisaross]

Thanx for the info.

Do i go to the website to order it? and whre do i buy the extra card with minutes every 120 days? from the website or do the stores carry it? i have never used a pay as u go card - my husband and i have Verizon but don't want to add him to the account now as its pretty much used for emergencies etc.

My DD has one from Page Plus Cellular. You can buy a phone from them for about $40 or you can pick up a phone from Craigslist or eBay. You can check the Howard Forums for a list of phones that work with Page Plus:
http://www.howardforums.com/showthr...D-BEFORE-ASKING-Phones-That-Work-On-Page-Plus

I looked at all the prepaid plans (including Net10 and TracFone) and the reason why I chose Page Plus was their "Top up" requirement for keeping the account active is longer than their competitors. It is 120 days instead of the traditional 90 days. I didn't expect my DD to use her phone often (and I was right) so I looked at the minimum a phone would cost me to keep activated. I can buy 100 Page Plus minutes for $10 and they last 120 days. So, my yearly cost for the phone is $30. TracFone sells 60 minute cards for $20 but they only last 90 days. So, I would have buy and extra card to cover the year and I would end up spending $80 for about the same number of minutes (assuming they are doubled as many TracFone minutes are).

I bought my DD's phone in December of 2009 and I put a total of $45 ($25 - $10 - $10) on it. She still has $31 worth of minutes left on it and I don't need to add any more until this December.

ETA: It looks like the cheaper Net10 airtime minutes expire in only 60 days so I don't think that's a poor choice for a light user like a 10-year old.

 

[spiceycat]

tracfone
here the website

http://www.tracfone.com/

buy the phone from them - it is a better deal than even the dollar store.

always buy the minutes from them - there is a couple of websites with codes to get even more minutes.

it depends upon what card (minutes) you buy. the best buy is 1,500 if you have their double minutes and you will if you buy the phone from them (and pay more than $19.99 for the phone)

think it works out to $.07 per minute really (.0666667)

text is under a minute .03 of a minute I think. That say hate texting and try to discourage it use. Yes it is cheaper but have a phone to talk on it - not text - that is a computer (notebook)

they have the monthly plan - but I just used their minutes - have not even consider their (or anyone else) monthly plan.

 

[gk90]

I agree with spiceycat, tracfone is good for light users. Net10 is the same company, geared to people who use more minutes.

 

[robinb]

Thanx for the info.

Do i go to the website to order it? and whre do i buy the extra card with minutes every 120 days? from the website or do the stores carry it? i have never used a pay as u go card - my husband and i have Verizon but don't want to add him to the account now as its pretty much used for emergencies etc.

You can buy the phone online or see if there is an authorized dealer near you. I bought my DD's phone at Wal*Mart but Page Plus has since discontinued activating Verizon PAYG phones. I top up online. You set up an account when you activate your phone and you can just log in there and add minutes whenever you need them.

My DD's phone is an "emergency" type phone too. That and a "Where the heck are you mom?!?" phone for when I'm late picking her up from swim practice. I thought about adding her to my AT&T account but THAT would have cost me $20 per month ($10 to change to the family plan and $10 more per month for the phone) and her line would have been under contract to AT&T for two years.

 

[robinb]

tracfone
here the website

http://www.tracfone.com/

buy the phone from them - it is a better deal than even the dollar store.

always buy the minutes from them - there is a couple of websites with codes to get even more minutes.

it depends upon what card (minutes) you buy. the best buy is 1,500 if you have their double minutes and you will if you buy the phone from them (and pay more than $19.99 for the phone)

think it works out to $.07 per minute really (.0666667)

text is under a minute .03 of a minute I think. That say hate texting and try to discourage it use. Yes it is cheaper but have a phone to talk on it - not text - that is a computer (notebook)

they have the monthly plan - but I just used their minutes - have not even consider their (or anyone else) monthly plan.

Right ... but you are still spending at least $20 every 3 months to keep the phone activated. For a very light user (like a 10 year old) Page Plus is a better deal even after factoring in the cost of the phone. And while buying 1500 minutes might being the cost down from 10 cents per minute (PP) to 7 cents per minute how many 10 year olds will use the phone that much? *I* don't use 1500 minutes every 3 months on my iphone!

 

[mommyof2princesses]

I have had both tracfone and Net10 and like Net10 better. The minutes are cheaper and you can get a phone for $30 with $30 worth of munutes on it, so basically the phone is free. I did spend a little more to get a better phone...I think $45 but it still had $30 worth of minutes. The Tracfone doesn't come with minutes, but some phone do come with lifetime double minutes, so everytime you buy minutes they double...still wasn't as great of a deal.

We still have the Tracfone, just isn't activated. We sometimes reactivate to use for a trip and just add enough minutes to use it.

 

[spiceycat]

Right ... but you are still spending at least $20 every 3 months to keep the phone activated. For a very light user (like a 10 year old) Page Plus is a better deal even after factoring in the cost of the phone. And while buying 1500 minutes might being the cost down from 10 cents per minute (PP) to 7 cents per minute how many 10 year olds will use the phone that much? *I* don't use 1500 minutes every 3 months on my iphone!

think the 1500 minutes are for a year. when you are first adding minutes - you can add a year for less. can't give the exact numbers because......the tracfone system is not allowing me on it and it kepts trying to use the phone that was lost....

so until they can fix it can't give you the exact amount.

with the monthly system everytime you add on minutes or time - you are also charged for all those federal taxes. So getting a year contract will save you money over the long time.

 

[spiceycat]

boy their prices have increased- the one year add one is now $49.99

the extra minutes are the same - 30 min for $5, 60 min for $10

this does not include the federal tax.

 

[gk90]

My DD has one from Page Plus Cellular. You can buy a phone from them for about $40 or you can pick up a phone from Craigslist or eBay. You can check the Howard Forums for a list of phones that work with Page Plus:
http://www.howardforums.com/showthr...D-BEFORE-ASKING-Phones-That-Work-On-Page-Plus

I looked at all the prepaid plans (including Net10 and TracFone) and the reason why I chose Page Plus was their "Top up" requirement for keeping the account active is longer than their competitors. It is 120 days instead of the traditional 90 days. I didn't expect my DD to use her phone often (and I was right) so I looked at the minimum a phone would cost me to keep activated. I can buy 100 Page Plus minutes for $10 and they last 120 days. So, my yearly cost for the phone is $30. TracFone sells 60 minute cards for $20 but they only last 90 days. So, I would have buy and extra card to cover the year and I would end up spending $80 for about the same number of minutes (assuming they are doubled as many TracFone minutes are).

I bought my DD's phone in December of 2009 and I put a total of $45 ($25 - $10 - $10) on it. She still has $31 worth of minutes left on it and I don't need to add any more until this December.

You had me almost sold on PagePlus for DD's next phone (I promised her a new one for her Jr High grad gift next year) BUT it has no coverage in Canada She's there 3 wks a year and wants to keep in touch with friends while she's away.

 

[robinb]

You had me almost sold on PagePlus for DD's next phone (I promised her a new one for her Jr High grad gift next year) BUT it has no coverage in Canada She's there 3 wks a year and wants to keep in touch with friends while she's away.

According to Page Plus (http://www.pagepluscellular.com/Plans/Features.aspx) they do allow calls from Canada (International Roaming) but it's pretty expensive. It looks like it's 60-cents per minute.

I think you might run into the same problem no matter which carrier you choose.

 

[crazelion]

I would check ATT website under prepaid phones. They have phones for Nokia phones for 5.00 a piece. I just bought 5 phones for that price. Plus I got Pantech Link for 29.99 for myself. Yes touchscreen LG Prime is fine but it was about to drive me crazy. I paid for the phones using my survey money that make from survey sites.

 

[bettymae1121]

I got one for $30 from Target, it's a nice little Nokia flip phone with a camera/video feature. They also had more basic models for only $10. I use T-Mobiles pre-paid plan and love it. always a signal, never a droped call, good customer service, easy to reload on their website. Ten cents a minute, but it gets cheaper if you buy more minutes. Minutes are good for three months but rollover if you add more minutes before they expire. If you re-load $100 or more in a year, then they are good for one year (again rolling over if you add more before they expire).

I've had nothing but good experiances with t-mobile and recommend them whenever I can!

 

[niccikatie]

We decided on a tracphone. We bought a $9.99 phone at Target and the $99.99 card that had around 650 (it was 400 plus 250 bonus or something like that) minutes and 365 days of service on it. The card was on sale for around $95.00. Then, when I opened the phone there was a coupon book inside that had a coupon that extended our service by 30 or 60 days (I can't remember exactly). It ended up being less than $9.00 per month for the time that we got (365 + 30/60 days). We only keep the phone at home for when we have a babysitter or something (we don't have a landline) so the amount of minutes was relatively irrelevant. I was just looking for the the cheapest 365 day card and cheapest phone.

 

[lisaross]

thanx for all the replies

 

[KBazzel]

I have a couple questions about Page Plus and thought y'all might be able to help me (I've really appreciated this discussion!). How does texting work if you have the standard pay as you go plan? I know my daughter will want to text as she uses our phones to text back and forth with us already.

And has anyone activated a phone on their system without purchasing it from them? I have a couple of cell phones lying around that were on the list provided (and they were previously activated on Verizon)....I just wasn't exactly sure how that worked.

Thanks!!

Kira

 

[robinb]

I have a couple questions about Page Plus and thought y'all might be able to help me (I've really appreciated this discussion!). How does texting work if you have the standard pay as you go plan? I know my daughter will want to text as she uses our phones to text back and forth with us already.

And has anyone activated a phone on their system without purchasing it from them? I have a couple of cell phones lying around that were on the list provided (and they were previously activated on Verizon)....I just wasn't exactly sure how that worked.

Thanks!!

Kira

My DD's phone was a Verizon PAYG phone purchased from Wal*Mart. It was fairly easy to activate it. I would check over on the Howard Forums and search for "activate phone-name" over in the Page Plus forums.

Texting is counted against the "minutes". All text messages are one price and photo texts are another price. Both are some fraction of a "minute" but I can't remember exactly how much it is.

 

[blondietink]

My DH and I both have Tracfone and love it. Bought ours at HSN and got double minutes for the life of the phone. So, whenever we add time, say 60 minutes, we are credited with 120 minutes on the phone. We can text and take photos with the phone, too. We love it!

We usualy buy our card/add airtime at Sam's Club or Wal-Mart.