Best pre-paid cell phone deal?
 

What is the best pre-paid cell phone deal now for limited usage? Anybody has any idea?

Thanks.

The best deal on pre-paid phones is probably (where I live) Virgin Mobile., but the coverage area sucks. Boost Mobile is good if your friends also have Boost phones, because you can use the walkie talkie feature for a buck a day.

Pre-paid phones usually aren't a very good deal.

= J

If you are going to use the phone as an integral part of your daily communications, then search around and get a real plan, especially one that includes cheap or free calls to your circle of friends. If you are looking for a phone just to have on hand for emergencies or the occaisional times when you need to be reachable, then pre-paid is fine. Another reason is so you don't carelessly run up a huge bill. We have bought two TracPhones in my household. One was for our daughter, so she wouldn't carelessly run up a huge bill, see? The other for my wife, who hates cellphones, and only uses it to call me when she is out and about or on trips, or for emergencies. My phone is provided by my employer. Yeah, I'm a cheapskate.

Target has a sale on a T Mobile phone right now, that's a great deal if you have it in your area. $100 top up card, free Nokia phone, I think it was the 6030?

I am looking for a pre-paid right now and have decided to go with T-Mobile. They have good coverage and the "plan" is the best. You can get any T-Mobile phone on their pre-pay plan; it is the 1-year contract price plus a $50 activation fee. This is usually better than the prepackaged phones they have.
I was looking at the Nokia flip phones; they have the 6101 prepackaged with 30 minutes that expired in 30 day. Or you could get the 6103 seperately and it comes w/ 60 minutes that expire in 90 days, both for a price of $150. I am getting the Samsung t619, also for $150.

I love my Tracfone. I use their 1-year cards so that I don't have to worry about adding airtime at regular intervals. They run a special a few times a year that offers 200 bonus minutes with the 250 minute 1-year card (it's running right now). $100 for 450 minutes is a lot per minute compared to some plans, but since I probably average about 20 minutes per month, it's a great deal for me. $8 a month for more minutes than I ever use is hard to beat.

I have the Nokia 2600 ($40 now) and have been very pleased with it. Color screen, small and light, and has a hell of a battery life. Lasts about two weeks with my minimal usage. I get out of the habit of charging it, so it's sometimes a negative. :)

When the phone arrived new, I had to install a SIM card in it (which came with the package & simple instructions), so I assume if you wanted to use it with another service later you could switch the card?

I use Virgin with the $15 auto top-up. So a top-up every 90 days runs $60 a year and any unused time rolls over.

A decent phone costs $20, calls are 18¢ a minute, coverage is generally very good. I believe they use the Sprint network.

If you plan on talking a lot, say when you're on a business trip, you can switch to 25¢ per minute for the first 10 minutes in a day then 10¢ a minute thereafter for that day. At least that's the way it has been, they may have changed their plans around a little but I know the 18¢ per minute is still good.

So, no top up cards? You just have automatically $15 charged to you every 90 days? We currently use top up cards, but would like to change it to what you have if that is possible.

You can either buy $20 top-up cards, sometimes at discounts down to $15, or give them a credit card to auto top-up $15 at a time when you either use up your time or the 90 days since last top-up hits. So no cards needed.

You can also manually top-up from a credit card every 90 days, but that has to be for $20. I hardly ever use the phone so the auto $15 every 90 days works for me. I just keep accumulating time that I hope to use up sometime.

I use the $15 every three months Virgin Mobile plan as well. I don't talk on the phone all that much so it works great for me. Plus, the phone has Internet access which I use much more frequently than the voice functions.

I also recommend this. Like the above mentioned Virgin Mobile works excellent for light talkers. We were in NH this summer and my 3 brothers had their expensive phones and services, (Sprint, Verizon and the like), my Mom and I have inexpensive Virgin Mobiles and were the only ones who could get service. My one bother even had an external antenna. I swear by these phones and when you call for customer service just keep telling the automatic phone service you want a "live advisor" and you can always talk to a "real" person.

What ever you do dont sign up for verizon. I had a prepaid plan and everyday they charge you a .99 cent fee plus a different fee if you decide to actually use your phone. And if your money runs out you cant access your messages unless you put money on your account.