What prepaid phone is best for me?

[iknowjohnny]

I barely know anything about these other than you buy minutes and they expire at a given interval so you need to buy more. My situation is that i have no cell phone and never wanted or needed one. But i just switched at home from a ATT landline to Ooma VOIP, so now i am dependent on my internet connection for phone service. The only issue is the fear that if internet goes down i have no way to call my ISP to get service fixed since if service is down so is my phone. So i want a prepaid phone solely for emergencies where internet is down and i need to call my ISP and get it rectified, nothing else. Therefore i will likely use it only on rare occasion. In fact, maybe never since my internet has been 100% reliable. So it will sit at home charging 24/7 and likely not get used. Therefore i want the simplest cheapest solution. Something preferably where the phone itself is cheap, the service requires no taxes and fees if possible, and the longest possible interval from purchase to timing out of minutes. Ideally a phone thats under $40 and don't have to spend more than maybe $50 a year on minutes unless i use them.

 

[indianacarnie]

Try TracFone. I use it myself as my only phone. The minutes never really "expire", especially after you've loaded it a few times. I spend $100 or less a year on mine. The phone itself cost me $10 (on sale admittedly). I don't shill for many products but I'm a real TracFone fan.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I switched from Virgin Mobile to a Verizon Pay As You Go phone (phone only, no data) late last year to get the better coverage of the Verizon network (Virgin uses the inferior Sprint network). I paid $12 for a Gusto 3 flip phone (I love flip phones; no butt dialing or broken screens). Since I rarely use a cell phone (I carry it primarily for emergencies), I have the plan that costs $1.99 for unlimited use nationwide for each day I use the phone (if I don't use it on a given day, there is no charge; otherwise I can yap all day long for the same price as one minute). I have automatic withdrawal set up to take $5 ($5.45 with the added fees) out of one of my debit accounts every month. Any unused balance in a month rolls over and accumulates until I use it. Verizon will also take an additional $5 out of my account if my balance drops below $5.

 

[iknowjohnny]

Try TracFone. I use it myself as my only phone. The minutes never really "expire", especially after you've loaded it a few times. I spend $100 or less a year on mine. The phone itself cost me $10 (on sale admittedly). I don't shill for many products but I'm a real TracFone fan.

Thanks. Thats pretty much what i want but the cost is more than i hoped because it's a phone i will almost surely never use. It would be for times when my internet goes down because i use a VOIP and wouldn't be able to call ATT to tell them i have no internet. I don't want to have to buy minutes every 90 days either, but minimum for a year card is $100. Maybe not seem like much but like i said it's only for emergency use. My ATT internet has never gone down so chances are i will maybe need a few minutes once every few years if that. By then i will have paid several 100 bucks for a few minutes on the phone. So i need a cheaper solution.

 

[C-11]

Try TracFone. I use it myself as my only phone. The minutes never really "expire", especially after you've loaded it a few times. I spend $100 or less a year on mine. The phone itself cost me $10 (on sale admittedly). I don't shill for many products but I'm a real TracFone fan.

I'm a TracFone fan too.

I buy one these Alcatel Big Easy Plus with 800 Minutes and One Year of Service Tracfone| eBay once a year.

A year of service and all the minutes I need.

When the minutes or days are about to run out I buy a new one and transfer the number.
If there are any leftover days and minutes, they transfer automatically.

I pay $30 a year!

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Try TracFone. I use it myself as my only phone. The minutes never really "expire", especially after you've loaded it a few times. I spend $100 or less a year on mine. The phone itself cost me $10 (on sale admittedly). I don't shill for many products but I'm a real TracFone fan.

Thanks. Thats pretty much what i want but the cost is more than i hoped because it's a phone i will almost surely never use. It would be for times when my internet goes down because i use a VOIP and wouldn't be able to call ATT to tell them i have no internet. I don't want to have to buy minutes every 90 days either, but minimum for a year card is $100. Maybe not seem like much but like i said it's only for emergency use. My ATT internet has never gone down so chances are i will maybe need a few minutes once every few years if that. By then i will have paid several 100 bucks for a few minutes on the phone. So i need a cheaper solution.

Go back and read what I said about Verizion's Pay As You Go plans. All I use my phone for is emergencies and it is costing me only $5.45 per month. You can set it up for automatic withdrawal from a credit or debit account so you won't have to horse around with refills. The phone itself is only around $12 at Wally World (Walmart).

 

[iknowjohnny]

Try TracFone. I use it myself as my only phone. The minutes never really "expire", especially after you've loaded it a few times. I spend $100 or less a year on mine. The phone itself cost me $10 (on sale admittedly). I don't shill for many products but I'm a real TracFone fan.

I'm a TracFone fan too.

I buy one these Alcatel Big Easy Plus with 800 Minutes and One Year of Service Tracfone| eBay once a year.

A year of service and all the minutes I need.

When the minutes or days are about to run out I buy a new one and transfer the number.
If there are any leftover days and minutes, they transfer automatically.

I pay $30 a year!

Wow, now that sounds more like it ! But when the year is up do you actually buy another phone or just a 800m/1y card? And it says internet access ? You actually can be online with it? How does that work with the minutes? Does it use them up at the same rate as when used as a phone, IE: 800 minutes online?

 

[rvcjew]

My father payed 200 for a LG G2 and it gives you triple minutes when you reload and around 3GB of data and since his is GSM and works off ATT towers he pretty much pays around 40 a year for service. He does not use much data so it is always there for him and since the phone is android he can use it on wifi for pretty much anything when not using it for calls. EDIT: Sorry this is on Tracfone as well.

 

[Barman58]

Not sure about the US but here in the UK you can get sim cards for use in security systems, (alarms that call an emergency centre or the house owner, when tripped), that never run out of credit until it is actually used for making calls,

You would need to buy a cheap phone from somewhere, (Craig's List, eBay) but it may meet your needs better than any involvement with the big providers

 

[iknowjohnny]

This was just too good to pass up so i bought one. One question though...you said you just buy a new one after a year. Is it cheaper to do that than to just buy more minutes for the phone u already have?

Try TracFone. I use it myself as my only phone. The minutes never really "expire", especially after you've loaded it a few times. I spend $100 or less a year on mine. The phone itself cost me $10 (on sale admittedly). I don't shill for many products but I'm a real TracFone fan.

I'm a TracFone fan too.

I buy one these Alcatel Big Easy Plus with 800 Minutes and One Year of Service Tracfone| eBay once a year.

A year of service and all the minutes I need.

When the minutes or days are about to run out I buy a new one and transfer the number.
If there are any leftover days and minutes, they transfer automatically.

I pay $30 a year!

 

[ignatzatsonic]

This was just too good to pass up so i bought one. One question though...you said you just buy a new one after a year. Is it cheaper to do that than to just buy more minutes for the phone u already have?

Johnny:

I assume he means he buys a new phone rather than more minutes for an existing phone.

Let us know how this works out for you or if there are any "gotchas". I had heard that the cheapest Tracfone setup was going to be about 7 a month, plus a 10 dollar phone.

Maybe not, but I'd be interested in the details of this plan.

If it is as advertised. Let us know.

Edit: hear is a thread about that deal from a phone forum. I haven't read it:

Tracfone Alcatel A383G Big Easy Plus for sale on tracfone.com $30

Page Plus is another possibility. The phone service is $10 every 120 days ($30 per year), but you can't use "any old phone". It has to be a certain type of "3G" phone and uses the Verizon network. It has to be a "post paid" phone rather than "prepaid".

This phone is said to be "postpaid" and usable with Page Plus:

New Samsung Gusto 3 Basic CDMA Flip Verizon Postpaid Clean ESN Meid Page Plus 887276689784 | eBay

So--about $40 for the phone plus $30 a year.

You can buy a Gusto 3 off the rack at Walmart for $13, but it won't be a "post paid" model immediately usable on Page Plus.

Beware of "activation fees", which can be as high as $35.

ATT has a "GoPhone" plan for very occasional use. You buy any phone that can access the ATT network and then pay $2 a day plus a quarter a minute for each day you ACTUALLY USE the phone. IF you make one call a month for 1 minute, that should be $2.25.

Verizon and ATT have pretty similar coverages, but they say Verizon can be a bit better if you are traveling out into rural areas.

I've got a Tracfone LG441G phone. 10 bucks at Walmart. I'm using Tracfone pay as you go refiller cards, also from Walmart. They cost 20 bucks every 3 months for 120 minutes. Works fine, but the deal you got sounds better.



I've also got a VOIP phone setup like you, but I use an Obi device instead of Ooma. Obi works very well. $40 or so for the device, a one time fee. I then pay about 3.45 a month for service through Callcentric. But it won't work if the Internet is down, just like your case, so I got a Tracfone as backup.

 

[iknowjohnny]

I will likely try it by making a call or 2 when i 1st get it but after that it will just sit on the charger all the time and probably never get used except for emergencies. So i'm not sure if my review would be of any help. The reviews i have read were all very positive tho, and if you look at the page of the seller i bought it from it says he's sold 3300 of them and 13 in just the last 24 hours ! So they are obviously good or they wouldn't sell like hotcakes.

 

[C-11]

This was just too good to pass up so i bought one. One question though...you said you just buy a new one after a year. Is it cheaper to do that than to just buy more minutes for the phone u already have?

Exactly.
Buying minutes can get to expensive over a year.
There's no cost to activate that phone either.

 

[iknowjohnny]

This was just too good to pass up so i bought one. One question though...you said you just buy a new one after a year. Is it cheaper to do that than to just buy more minutes for the phone u already have?

Exactly.
Buying minutes can get to expensive over a year.
There's no cost to activate that phone either.

Thanks. So $30 a year total out of pocket. Thats pretty amazing, and the fact u get a new phone every year eliminates the issue of breakdowns due to age. No wonder the guy has sold so many of them. I have an old friend who i talk to on the phone every week for 3 hours. I will continue using Ooma for that. But if not for him i'd be able to get by with this tracphone as my only phone because 800 minutes is about 13 hours, and i use probably an average of 15 minutes a month on the phone aside from my ol buddy! Ooma is about $4 a month for taxes but is otherwise free aside fro the initial purchase of the box. All this is crazy to me after years of paying $35 for a ATT landline basic account that would not allow me to call out of about a 20 mile radius and inside i'd pay about a quarter a minute ! When i talked to my buddy he'd call me otherwise it would cost me close to 50 bucks each time we talked !