Has anyone purchased a prepaid mobile phone?

[Kirby]

I was thinking of buying one of those phones that you can pick up, say, at Target, that you don't have to have a contract for and buy phone cards to use. Has anyone every bought one? What did you get and how did you like it?

 

[snoopy]

We bought one of these for our nephew who was going to college in this area. What we didn't realize is the prepaid card must be used by a certain number of months or it expires. Mening you have to buy a certain number of cards per year, which sort of defeated the whole point of having a prepaid phone to stick in the car in the event of an emergency. We weren't interested in having to buy a card every 3 months. We ended up putting him on our "family" package, for an extra $20 or so each month. It worked out cheaper in the end to do it this way.

 

[MICKEY88]

we have a prepaid phone for our kids..thru ATT..the minutes are good for 45 days,,then you lose them unless you ad more minutes before the 45 days are up..if you ad minutes the other minutes carry over,,,,,you can ad as little as $10 at a time..so 10 for 45 days isn't bad, I don't have to run to a store to ad minutes I just call the ATT number and ad minutes using my debit card....

 

[Karel]

We bought our son a Virgin for Christmas.

It was around $60 and came with a few extra - battery charger, first phone card. The minutes last three months till they expire and you can add $2O worth whenever. He'll get a new card for Easter and hopefully this summer he'll make money to buy his own cards. You can go on the website too and just charge $20 to your CC.

We did a lot of searching and found this was the most cost effective. I might switch to one myself. It was going to be over $20 a month alone to add him to our plan.

 

[mum4jenn]

I use Tracfone because I only wanted one for emergencies or for a quick question if I am at the store etc. It is great for me. My minutes roll over and never expire as long as I keep it current. You can buy a monthly card or one every two months or even yearly card(I have that).

 

[CamColt]

I have the same as Karel described.
I use it very rarely so the minutes do add up. This came in handy when we went to WDW over the holidays and I was able to call home quite a bit. For what I use it for, its perfect.

 

[msdznyduck]

DD (13yrs old) hounded me about a cell phone, and I know that almost all her friends have them, actually parents have added the kids on. She saved up her money, and bought one last year after her birthday. It is a Verizon plan from Radio Shack. It is $30 every 2 months. Her grandma has a regular Verizon, and they can chat at anytime for only 15 cents a minute. It comes in handy, but I don't know if I am ready to make a commitment to a cell phone, prepaid or otherwise. (or should I say DH is not.......it took us forever to get an answering machine. ) But the prepaid cell is nice when DD and I go away for the weekend, I do feel more secure, knowing I can call someone if we have car trouble, etc.
Elaine

 

[Grog]

I used to have a "regular" cell phone, but it wasn't worth it because I didn't use it that much. I'm not the type to just call people while I'm out of the house to chat. If I'm out of the house, I'm usually doing something and don't really want the distraction of a long phone conversation anyway. A few months ago My SO and I decided we wanted to go ahead and get cell phones for each of us, so we decided to go with Tracfone. We use them so little that the minutes really add up quick. I would say in the past four months we have used about 30 minutes each. Once you have a decent supply of minutes built up, you need only purchase the minimum every couple of months, so it's actually a pretty good deal if you don't want to pay too much, and don't plan on talking too much.

 

[chell]

Another happy Tracfone user here. With their phones if you do happen to let your time expire, you do not loose your minutes. When you reactivate your phone all your minutes from before are still there. A friend of mine had over 200 minutes and let hers expire. She was worried that all those minutes would be lost, but they weren't.

You can purchace more minutes on-line too.

 

[Aprille]

Love my Tracfone. Been using it for about 4 years. The minutes just keep piling up. I've accidentally let my activation expire twice and never lost any minutes. Upon reactivation the minutes are all there. The phone number does change if service lapses but that's not a problem for me since mine is used primarily for outgoing calls.

The last couple of years I bought a pre-paid card good for a year. It is less than $100 (for a year of service!!) and I think has 100 minutes. For as little as I use it it's perfect for me and I have the security of having it in case of an emergency.

You can do everything online but I usually buy my cards at Wal-Mart because they are cheaper. Then I activate the minutes online.

 

[EpcotKilterFan]

I was just going to post this same question!!!

Thanks for all of the information. I am going to look into a tracphone for my mother.

Debbie

 

[JerseyJanice]

I bought my husband an AT&T mobile phone for Christmas. With a rebate, it wound up costing $42.

It's been great for him. He hardly uses it, but wants it because he works at night and is often there alone. It's a bit scary like that--he's a big guy, but if someone broke in to steal something...it's nice to know he's not out of touch with the world.

So long as we put $10 on the phone every 45 days, all his minutes never expire. He's got quite a bank of them now.

The best part is to have him on any other plan, it'd be at least $20 plus tax per month. Since Christmas, $20 is all we've spent.

 

[Kirby]

Thanks for answering everyone. I just want one basically for emergencies. Don't plan on using it for conversation. Do they work well for long distance calls? I used to have a cell phone that only worked in certain areas. I'm heading down to San Antonio this summer with my daughter's girl scout troop and it would be nice to have a mobile phone just in case of car trouble.

 

[Nancy]

I have a Tracfone also. I love it. The phone was $69.00 when i bought it but I've seen them for $49.00 now. I'll be buying a second one for the kids next month. Minutes last for 3 months, redemption of airtime is super easy. I used my phone from NYC to call home (buffalo) and it was so much cheaper then paying the long distance charges. Minutes roll over so you can get a good bank going for yourself. I have a Nokia phone. Now the phones I see advertised with Tracfone are Motorola.

 

[chell]

Originally posted by Kirby
Do they work well for long distance calls? I

Yes, they do. I've had my Tracfone service for at least 3 or 4 years now and the phone always goes with me on trips. One advantage these pre-paid phones have over regular ones is that they are made to work off of th nearest tower, not just a specific carrier or network. There have been places where my sister could not get service with her regular phone, but my Tracfone had service.

The newest Tracfone phones also have voice mail. People can call and leave you a message, then you call your phone to get the message off and it doens't use up any minutes. That really came in handy for me when friends were calling me from concerts. I got to listen to the messages over and over and never used up any minutes.

 

[Disneyland_emily]

I have a Virigin Phone also- and I also love it- I dont use it lots so its perfect

Ive used it at Disneyland before and it had a few quirks but worked pretty good- Ive been told it'll work just fine at WDW next month! (I live in Utah as a base)


-em