My cell phone has died!!!

[cheerforchelsea]

Drat - my cell phone has died!!! It is not time for an upgrade and I sure don't want to purchase another cellphone for full price. Do any of you DISers know if you can use an existing SIM card in an AT&T "Go-phone" (I do have AT&T service)....it sure would be a lot cheaper than buying another phone.....

 

[Jenn4615]

I don't know about the sim card... But I know u could prob buy a really cheap one on ebay that you could use till ur ready for a new one
(needs to be a phone on the AT&T network if you were to do this)

 

[PrincessPeyton]

You can buy a to-go phone and just swap out the SIM card, no one at AT&T will tell you that because they want you to spend $$$ on a new phone! I did this a couple of years ago and it worked fine!

 

[Loralei]

Yes...you can buy the cheap go phones at Walmart or Target & put your existing sim card in them no problem. They are the same phones that they sell at AT&T. My husband has used one for several years because he's really hard on phones & doesn't see the point in buying expensive ones to break.

We surprisingly had someone at the AT&T store recommend it to us...though she did say that she probably shouldn't be saying it!

 

[kelly1218]

We did that for my MIL. The sim worked perfectly in the GoPhone.

 

[Mickey527]

Long story, I posted on the water in phone thread... but AT&T told me to buy a go-phone and use it until my 2 year contract was over on my 31 day old phone that broke last week. And of course I spent alot extra for car charger, blue tooth etc... that I can't use now.
I have a few friends who have AT&T and they saved their old phones when they got new ones and I am using one of those. I checked out some of the go-phones and they were too basic, no texting, camera etc... just a phone.
I don't use the fetures all the time but just yesterday I was at the store with my grandson and they had some character cut outs and I got some really cute photos. I had to send tehm to everyone since they came out so cute.

 

[Chelley00]

My Blackberry died in November, and we were due to upgrade in December, so I bought a $19.99 GoPhone at Sam's Club, put my SIM card in it, and used it for 3 weeks until I was able to get a new phone in December (Iphone - so in love)

 

[pixiewings71]

If you have an old phone laying around you an have your phone # transferred to it. My DD22's phone died a few years ago, she had ins but they wouldn't help her at all so I gave her one of my old ones, she used that probably 2 years before she got a new phone. You can also find them on eBay and as long as it's the same carrier you can have your # transferred with no problems.

 

[Sadie22]

We have an AT&T family plan with five lines. If someone in the family has a phone go bad it is possible to trade phones around and have one who is due for an upgrade get a new phone and sim cards be switched among family member's phones. We have done this several times over the years.

 

[Tink9295]

My DD's phone and Ipod were stolen at school on Friday. Yesterday we bought an AT&T Go phone at walmart. We then went to an AT&T store and bought a replacement sim card for $10.00. They opened the pkg. at the AT&T store and put the sim card in and made sure it worked. Our plan doesn't end until August so I refused to buy my DD a new fancy phone until the plan was up and phones were cheaper. This phone at Walmart was $28. It's very basic, but she is learning a valuable lesson. TAKE CARE OF YOUR BELONGINGS!

Yes it can be done. We have also put sim cards in other phones and it works fine. This time we needed to replace a sim so we had to go to the store.

 

[bucket o' butter]

I highly recommend using Ebay. We bought all of our phones refurbished through Ebay sellers and have had no problems with them at all. I am actually getting ready to list my daughter's AT&T phone on Ebay because she found a different one she liked better. You can find them as cheap as $30, depending on what you need. We have the Pantech Matrix (the one I am getting ready to sell) and bought it for about $65. It is currently selling for around $50. I have the Samsung Solstice and paid about $115 and my son has the Samsung Impression and paid about $150 for it. i like doing it this way because we are not under a contract with AT&T and can change phones whenever we want to without being penalized. Good luck!

 

[SandrA9810]

You don't even need to go to the store for the sim card.

A go phone already has a sim card, you just call up AT&T and tell them your new sim card number and they'll attach your line to it. I lost my cell at Disney once, and had to do this.

And sometimes if you meet a good person at the AT&T store, they'll give you a new sim for free. Kari let her CP friend from columbia use the extra phone line, well she wanted to do some traveling in the states before returning home. So Kari let her hang onto the phone until she left the US. Then we didn't have the SIM card or phone. So the guy at the store put the phone line onto a new sim for us so the old one wouldn't work.