Best Pre-paid cell phone carrier

[tokanm]

I am going to be suspending my Verizon acct in the fall for 4 months while DS is in London

I cannot see paying for phones that he cannot use and I will use rarely if I am not talking

to him.

 

I have seen Trac-phone and Virgin here..any opinions? They both are supposed to get

good reception here. The price seemed comparable but I did notice that trac phone had

cards that said free double minutes. The Virgin phone was only $9.88.

 

I do not want an expensive phone..all is want is to call and answer basically. I do not

need a camera phone and all sorts of bells and whistles on it.

 

I would appreciate your opinions

 

tia

[labnpei]

i have a prepaid t-mobile phone and think it is a great deal. i have had it now for a couple of years and it does what i want it to do and i found it to be the best price per minute.

[Ripn]

T-mobile is cheapest if it's in your area. I have 3 of them, great service for me, no problems ever...been 3 years or so since I got the 1st two phones.

10¢/minute on all cards when you have spent $100 on your account = Gold status.

[tokanm]

I checked out their website...not great coverage in my area...it had the lowest amount

of "green bars"...I don't think it showed very good coverage in Mass in general.

 

OK back to square one...Trac phone? Virgin? others? cheaper is better.

ATT and Verizon looked pricier and the phones were more $$$

[jdoug]

I don't use my phone much either, so I have the Virgin plan. They work with the Sprint network and allow roll over minutes. So I basically top up $20 every 3 months.

[Azzycat]

I had Tracfones for years before joining my mom's cell plan. I travelled across the country with them. Reception seemed to be bad in areas with mountains.

 

We liked the fact you didn't have to buy minutes every month for it.

 

They are running Mother Day Specials on their website. For $50 you get phones that come with a "double minutes for life" card. So when you pay $20 at Walmart for another 60 min, you'll get 120 min instead.

 

if you do a google search for "tracfone specials" you can find some really good bonus code deals that will get you extra minutes for your phone at the time of activation.

 

Even if you don't need a lot of minutes but the minutes roll over (as long as you keep the number active) and you can buy the cheapest card at walmart every few months. Actually, I think if you only need it for 4 months, I think you only have to buy one more card after you buy the phone. A 60 min card ($20 card) lasts for 90 days. I think the cards that come with the phones usually last for 30 or 60 days.

[AndreaInNC]

We have been Virginmobile customers in our house for over 3 years and we love it.

 

If you are setting up a new account, I'd go to their website and see what kind of phone specials they are running. Most of the time, you'll get a phone for $20 and you'll get $20 worth of airtime when you set the phone up online.

 

You "topup" every 90 days regardless if you have a balance or not. If you select to auto-topup, you can do that for as little as $15.00 every 90 days. Your money rolls - so if you don't use it - you won't lose it.

 

Virgin runs off the Sprint network. Calls are 18 cents a minute - you just learn to talk really fast. Voicemail is free, as are calls to voicemail. Text messages are 5 cents to send or receive.

[AndreaInNC]

I don't use my phone much either, so I have the Virgin plan. They work with the Sprint network and allow roll over minutes. So I basically top up $20 every 3 months.

see my note above - you can set your account to autotop up every 90 days with a credit card or paypal and only have to do $15 every 90 days instead of $20.

[Sugar&Spice]

Tracfones here. Love 'em. No complaints. My dd18 has one. I wanted a really small one I could stick in my pocket, so when I got that, I passed my bigger phone to dd10. She thinks she's a big deal and usually leaves it in her backpack in case of some emergency but typically uses it to call me when it is time to pick her up, etc. Neither dd uses them just for chatting. Even dd18 uses it very little. She probably uses hers most for text messaging. They have a new family plan that we'll probably switch to when it is time for my annual renewal. I always look for deals and codes when it is time to add minutes but we usually do the yearly plan. They have an international plan, too. I have never used it but if your son will be in London, it might be something you want to check into.

[persse3]

We have used Tracfone and Virgin Mobile and I would DEFIANTLY go with Tracfone! We moved to SC from NY and drove the whole way, we ended up making the trip numerous times because it didn't work out in SC the way we expected but I NEVER lost service anywhere with Tracfone. You I always get bonus minutes when I add mins and the do roll over I think. (I usually used them up before the time. I think they have phones for 10$ if you don't care about all the camera stuff. Virgin charged us 99 cents a day don't remember if it was only on days we used the phone or not but it adds up pretty quick! The other thing with Tracfone is on my phone you hung up before the person answered or the voicemail picked up they didn't charge us for that minute. Sound measly but when you are actively using your phone it can get expensive.

[nnmfam]

We jsut got rid of virgin mobiel we hate it . We went to trac fone with the codes online it is cheap and we are waitng out these gas prices to renew a contract with verizon again