delphernina Posted November 10, 2007 Posted November 10, 2007 My question is, which deal is better? Can we have a thread similar to the laptop, digital camera, etc. threads to review the tracphone, net 10 etc. deals? My 12 yo wants a cell phone in the worst way and there is NO way I'm putting him on my line. I'd rather get him a pay as you go phone, and there seem to be many inexpensive offers for bf this year. Problem is, there seem to be so many it's hard to pinpoint actual costs of minutes and such. Any suggestions on which is the best deal long term? They all seem pretty cheap. :)
Mikesgirl Posted November 10, 2007 Posted November 10, 2007 I got my DD7 a firefly phone.. I have it on auto fill every month for 9.99 that gives her 40 minutes. and she can only call who i program and no calls received unless i program them into the phone book! http://fireflymobile.com/
Ripn Posted November 10, 2007 Posted November 10, 2007 Tmobile is 10¢/minute(for the $100 card) after you reach gold status, all minutes last for 1 year then. http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/phones/prepaid.aspx?WT.mc_n=PayasUgo_index&WT.mc_t=OnsiteAd
tjredsox4 Posted November 10, 2007 Posted November 10, 2007 With Virgin Mobile they have plans that you pick from but you still use pre-paid minutes. The one I used to use was $6.99/mo with minutes being $.10 each and you can ad up to 5 free minutes a day by watching ads that are less than a minute and answering a few questions (called Sugar Mama) You can get more information from their website if you are interested. Good luck in your search. P.S. I did not like Trac-Fone when I had that, it was too expensive if he will make a lot of calls
llist Posted November 10, 2007 Posted November 10, 2007 I've had a tracfone for 3 years now and love it. You can get 400 minutes and one year of service for about 100.00. And you can buy a Double Minute for life card for 50.00 that will double your minutes with any airtime card. For example, buy a 60 minute card for 20.00 and get 120 minutes. I'm getting my step son one and suggesting that the grandparents get him airtime cards. Then when he runs out, he'll have to earn more...chores, grades, etc.
VonnegutFan Posted November 10, 2007 Posted November 10, 2007 I've been using Virgin Mobile for 5 years now... I refuse to sign a contract with any carrier, even if that means paying a little premium for my minutes. VM has a lot of plans for both calls and texting... I suggest you check it out. Also, like someone mentioned above, they have a great plan that allows you to receive free minutes just by watching a few ads on their website.
amyers12345 Posted November 10, 2007 Posted November 10, 2007 I have had Tracfones for probably 7 or 8 years now. They typically run a refurb phone with chargers and 2 60 minute cards on their website for $20. This is much cheaper than even buying hte 2 cards separately, because they are around $18 each. Also, they always run promo codes (redeem a 60 min, get X free). I will buy the phone and 2 cards, and if the codes fall well, I can get up to 360 minutes for the $20. It is a great deal, especially for a teenager. DS 8 wants a cell so badly, I am thinking about doing this for him, and when he runs out, he's done. Cheaper than a toy!
cassgurlie04 Posted November 10, 2007 Posted November 10, 2007 i havent really noticed any deals on att pay as you go but i love that phone and you get free calls to anyone with att/cingular. so if ya got friends and family you benifit, and all other calls are only 10cents a inin
RaineeDay1 Posted November 10, 2007 Posted November 10, 2007 Everyone in my family has the virgin mobile phones. ALL the kids my sister and her family my brother and his family even my mother has one. we ALL Love them. and the sugar mamma is a sweet deal. I set and do everyones free mins for them every other day. They have differnt plans and such but NO contracts.. My daughter broke her phone the other day and will no wbe getting a new one for Christmas..
L239x Posted November 10, 2007 Posted November 10, 2007 I did my research last year when I decided to go with a pay as you go phone. The best deal for me was Net 10. I don't have long conversations on my cell phone. I mostly use it to let someone know I'm on my way or that I am running late (the cell phone's original purpose). Every now and then I'll have a 20 minute convo with my mom or sister, but my average call usually last about 2 to 3 minutes. .10/minute talk (always).05 for text messagesunused minutes are carried over I usually buy the 300 minute card for 30$ every two months which equals $15 per month. I have never run out of minutes. With Net 10, your only pay for minutes. I've noticed that most of the other pre-pay plans have an additional monthly plan charge in addition to the minutes you have to buy.______________________________________________ The first pre paid phone I got was for my son. It was the Cingular Go phone. Wall Mart had the phone on sale. The call plan was the .25/minute. (this was before I did my research) After doing some research I switched him to the Net 10 plan and got one for myself. (he was able to transfer his #) He use to run out of minutes ( and that was just too tuff because, unless he was paying, I refused to buy more than his alloted 300 minutes every 2 months) He use to talk to friends on his cell phone while he was at home and our land line was available. He has since learned how to limit his unnessary wastful cell phone usage. Now 300 minutes every two months is more than enough for him as well.....By the way, he has a job now and pays for his own minutes, which may be another reason he has curbed his talk time ... because he now knows the value of a dollar.
L239x Posted November 10, 2007 Posted November 10, 2007 On more thing about Net 10 I haven't seen Net 10 phones in the stores, however they all (Walmart, KMart, Sams, Target) carry the Net 10 prepaid phone cards. Although I could by the minutes at Walmart for at a small dicounted price, I usually buy my minutes online at the net 10 site. My phone (Motorola C155) was $30 plus it came with:300 minutes30 bonus minutesoutlet charger with adapters Car chargercarrying caseear phoneGREAT DEAL! It was like buying the minutes and getting the phone and accessories free I ordered our phones on line. Here is their web addresshttp://www.net10.com/home_page.jsp
Ripn Posted November 11, 2007 Posted November 11, 2007 you get free calls to anyone with att/cingular. so if ya got friends and family you benifit, and all other calls are only 10cents a ininYou may want to check that...I believe you only get free calling to other AT&T if you have a monthly plan...doesn't work with prepaid...at least it didn't when I had cing/at&t.
L239x Posted November 11, 2007 Posted November 11, 2007 You may want to check that...I believe you only get free calling to other AT&T if you have a monthly plan...doesn't work with prepaid...at least it didn't when I had cing/at&t.The Cingular/AT&T prepaid plan that is .10/minute does include free mobile to mobile calls. HOWEVER, this plan includes a $1 daily usage fee for everyday the phone is used. Which means if you use your phone 25 days out of the month, you end up paying $25 dollars + .10 for every minute of talk time.
kc4braves Posted November 11, 2007 Posted November 11, 2007 We use ATT go phone for both our phones. It works out best for us becasue we pretty much only talk to other Cingular/ATT customers. You do pay $1 each day you use teh phone but M2M is free after that. I don't use my phone more than 25 days a month so I usually pay about $25 a month. They also have a loyalty refill plan. Evey $100 you get $5 extra back and you had $5 each additional $100 after that up to a certain amt. So, this last time I got an extra $10, I will get an extra $15 with the next $100. Also with a $100 purchase you get a year to use your minutes so if you don't talk alot, you don't have to worry about losing your mins if you don't renew it often. Currently, I have mine set to auto refil $25/month , so every 4 months I get extra mins added with the loyalty plan. My husband also has a go phone but he often only uses $25 every 2-3 months. So..it works for us. It is also a wonderful deal for someone who only uses for emergenices like my parents. It gets much better reception than my Mom's tracphone and in many more places. I have had very few places from CA to OK and down to MS , LA and TX that it doesn't pick up well. Tracphone can't say the same. I also like not having a contract. You also have acess to your refill history and basic call history online. The phone selection is slim but you don't need a "Go Phone" to use it. Any Cingualr/ATT phone will work as a go phone.
erinplus3 Posted November 11, 2007 Posted November 11, 2007 I used to have Virgin Mobile and I liked it very much for a pay-as-you-go phone. They have a great deal, spend $19.99, the phone is free and you get the $19.99 in airtime. It's a great way to try it and see if you like it. If you don't, you can use up the minutes and try something else next time. http://www.virginmobileusa.com/phones/phoneDetail.do?skuId=VMKX9D
Ripn Posted November 11, 2007 Posted November 11, 2007 The Cingular/AT&T prepaid plan that is .10/minute does include free mobile to mobile calls. HOWEVER, this plan includes a $1 daily usage fee for everyday the phone is used. Which means if you use your phone 25 days out of the month, you end up paying $25 dollars + .10 for every minute of talk time.Ok, I do remember getting something from AT&T that said I could switch to get the 10¢/minute...along with the $1 / day when you used it.AT&T would have cost me way too much...If I called my wife(then also on AT&T prepaid), a 1 minute call would have cost us $2...we could talk 10 minutes on Tmobile for the same cost...then I switched to Tmobile...spend $100=1000 minutes for 1 year...Can't beat that, especially when you can get those $100 cards for under $90 on eBay :) We have 3 phones...2 were basically free when you factored in the free minutes they gave, and 1 cost about $30. I just can't see spending over $10/month on prepaid...unless of course Tmobile isn't available in the area. I have been using more minutes lately, but still use less than 1000/year.
HollyBerry Posted November 11, 2007 Posted November 11, 2007 This is another one to add to our list. We want to get one for our 11yodd. Don't want to add her quite yet to our family plan until next year but we have to get her a phone this year. All of your responses are great but now I don't know which one to pick. However we need one that averages less than 10.00 a month for it to be worth it. She will not use hardly any minutes, it is for emergency use.
RaineeDay1 Posted November 11, 2007 Posted November 11, 2007 with the virgin phones you can top up for 20 dollars every 3 months. AND you can also get text packages if she is into all that. I send free text messages from the web site to other phones... i LOVE that feature..
WeileMom Posted November 11, 2007 Posted November 11, 2007 My daughter and I have had T-mobile for a few months now and it works great. I started off with the $100 card for me because I knew that I would end up needing it so my minutes last a year. During tennis season she called me a lot so I had to refill her phone a few times and ended up just getting her the $100 card too. A good way to compare companies is to go to CNet.com, go to reviews and cell phones then find their cell phone buying guide. There is a link to "prepaid cell phone plans" in the choosing a plan section. I wish I could give you a link but I'm apparently too new a member here! Anyway, they compare all of the prepaid plans with pros and cons and show their charges, etc. I was leery about Tracphone because it is a Latin American company. Besides, T-mobile just seemed to have the best plan for us. No daily fee and minutes that would last a year. So far so good! Good luck, Nicole
WeileMom Posted November 11, 2007 Posted November 11, 2007 Yea, I can post links now! Here's a link to the guide: CNet Quick Guide to Prepaid Cell Phone Plans
Guest Mom1979 Posted November 12, 2007 Posted November 12, 2007 My husband and I have TracFones, we got them for Christmas last year. His is already dead, that is the only problem we've had. The pricing is good, and they work wonderfully. So, while we're on the subject, he needs a new one. I saw a pay as you go (I think AT&T) for $5.99; somewhere. Can people of different cell phone types text message one another? I need to find where I found that phone at.
samisma Posted November 12, 2007 Posted November 12, 2007 if you have Cricket phones in your area I would look into them too. all of their 'plans' come with unlimited messages and unlimited calls to anywhere (so long as you're in a cricket calling area). there is one plan that you get unlimited calls, text, 411, etc etc too. you pay it on a monthly basis, and can do so at one of their cash payment centers (looks like an atm - usually in a convenience store or cell phone store). also can pay online and over the phone. don't pay the bill on time? phone shuts off til you pay it. you've 30 days before they give your phone number to someone else. you can't go over what you pay into it, but you can set up a "flex" account which basically you pop in a few extra bucks when you feel like it to buy ringers etc. they've great customer service, and although they're relatively new to the market, they are growing.
knittingarrows Posted November 12, 2007 Posted November 12, 2007 For our son - we're looking into kajeet phones. They are available at Toys R Us and Best Buy.
AndreaInNC Posted November 12, 2007 Posted November 12, 2007 Also with Virgin Mobile, you can select "auto top up" with a credit card or checking account. If you do that, you reduce your top up from $20 every 90 days to $15.00 every 90 days. I have a DD16, DD13 and myself who have a Virgin Mobile phone and we love them! Always great that I can add a top up card in their stocking too or b-days. That being said, it's a great way to teach your kids about being responsible for tracking their money left on their phone. In 3 years, my kids have never run out of minutes. One press of a button and your balance comes right to you!
he8765 Posted November 12, 2007 Posted November 12, 2007 Also with Virgin Mobile, you can select "auto top up" with a credit card or checking account. If you do that, you reduce your top up from $20 every 90 days to $15.00 every 90 days. I have a DD16, DD13 and myself who have a Virgin Mobile phone and we love them! Always great that I can add a top up card in their stocking too or b-days. That being said, it's a great way to teach your kids about being responsible for tracking their money left on their phone. In 3 years, my kids have never run out of minutes. One press of a button and your balance comes right to you!Yes, I do the auto top-up with my Virgin Mobile phone too. I'm very happy with the pre-paid Virgin Mobile service.
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