Talk-Only Cell Phone Plans?

[HLAuburn]

My husband has an iPhone through work, but I'd like for him to have a personal cell phone too, just for making short calls. No text or data - just talk.

He has a basic phone that works fine and he'd like to keep his exisiting number. ATT and Verizon are telling me $40-50 a month, but just for talk minutes, seems like there must be something else less $ out there. (Adding on to my plan isn't an option right now)

I don't really understand how the GoPhones work and I'm not too familiar with the more "unconventional" cell phone companies out there, but I'm willing to give just about anything a try!

Any suggestions?!

Thanks!!

 

[xlxo]

When choosing alternate carriers... talk to neighbours and co-workers about who they use and whether they found problems.

I hate dead zones where signals are weak, especially indoors. TMobile is a good choice in my travels, but I have found weak coverage locations when travelling in suburban areas...

 

[RitaE]

Most of the Prepaid phone services work about the same. You pay an amount upfront and then you get a number of minutes of talk (like 250minutes) and or a set amount of time of talk (like one month). When the minutes or time have expired, then the phone quits working until you pay for another block of use.

Now note that all of these providers basically "lease" space on the major networks. So you'll see people say things like "I use PagePlus running on the Verizon Network" or "I have a Tracfone with an ATT SIM." What they are saying is that they are paying the unconventional (your word) provider and then using the major carriers network towers.

The first question you need to ask yourself is how often is he going to use the phone and then you need to know which Network you want the phone to operate on. Some people only get good reception using Verizon towers or whatever and if you live or use the phone in an area where that is the case, then you don't want to purchase a plan where you will constantly be without reception.

Once you have those answers then you can start searching for who has the best plan to fit your need. Some of the most popular off the top of my head. As far as I know, all of these will allow you to keep your existing phone number.

Tracfone
Cricket
PagePlus
Ting

For info I use Republic Wireless at $13 a month for unlimited talk and text. But you have to purchase one of their phones and they're probably more expensive than you are interested in paying.

 

[blana]

To piggyback on what Rita said, if you know which carrier works well for him, you can check to see which phones at the different pre-paid carriers work on that big company's network. http://www.prepaidphonenews.com/2011/12/how-to-get-tracfone-net10-or-straight.html This has info on some of the big pre-paids.

 

[zoemurr]

We pay about $100 a year total for each Tracfone, but we aren't heavy users. This usually gets us about 1500 minutes. (We have triple minute phones, buy a one year card, and always search for a free minutes code.) A basic phone can be as cheap as $10. Minutes roll over each year as long as we refill before they run out. We have never come close to using all of our minutes. Texts are .3 minutes each.

 

[crazelion]

Check out Virgin mobile Pay-lo plan at Wal-mart . Wal-Mart Pay - lo 20 dollars an come unlimited minutes and 50 text messages a month. You can get a cheap phone for under 30.00 dollars.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Virgin-payLo-20-Web-Email-Delivery/37238932

http://www.virginmobileusa.com/shop/cell-phones/paylo/

 

[McKelly]

Take a look at Consumer Cellular. They have talk only plans. No contracts.

https://www.consumercellular.com/

 

[sherry7]

PagePlus uses Verizon towers, and you can use most deactivated Verizon phones to use the service. Their "12" plan consists of 250 minutes, 250 text, and 10 mb data for $12 a month. 10 mb of data is virtually nothing, so I would recommend to turn it off on the phone, to avoid overcharges. They also have cards that can be bought from $10 and up.