Author Topic: Cheap Cell Phone Plans. (Read 391 times)

eskimo2 · « **on:** August 11, 2005, 03:29:46 PM »

I’ve never had a cell phone; I could probably count the number of times that I’ve ever used one. Anyway, we are finally thinking about getting one (set). My in-laws (who are in their 80’s) live with us, so we have four adults in our household. We very often are all together and when I’m at work my wife and I email each other frequently. We don’t use our land line all that much and make few long distance calls. My point is that I am fairly certain that we will not use our cell phones often; they would mostly be used for emergencies. We also would like a deal that comes with two phones on one number. I probably wouldn’t carry one to work, just when I or others are away from the house for more than an hour or two. The single biggest issue is price (which is why we’ve never had one.) We are pretty poor. We saw a plan for $30 a month, but I’m not all that enticed. We also saw one that was a dollar a call, which might work, but dang, a dollar a call!

Anyway, if you have an el-cheapo plan that doesn’t come with a zillion minutes a month, or camera/GPS/microwave oven phones, let me know. I’m just looking for basic, simple and cheap.

Thanks,

eskimo

SkyTex · « **Reply #1 on:** August 11, 2005, 04:07:31 PM »

Tracfone

rabbidrabbit · « **Reply #2 on:** August 11, 2005, 05:31:24 PM »

think cingular has 10 cent per minute pay as you go plan.

Chairboy · « **Reply #3 on:** August 11, 2005, 06:01:06 PM »

One rule of thumb, saving $5 by reducing minutes is usually no bargain. My wife and I had a normally $350 phone bill drop to $100 when we went from 500 minutes to 1500 minutes or something like that for an extra $20.

A cellular telephone is a great device, both for safety and convenience. Help is the sort of thing you can rarely anticipate needing, but not being able to get it when that happens is a terrible thing.

Get something like Cingular (not a fly by night cell company that'll make you invest in hardware that'll be obsolete when they go out of business in 6 months) based on coverage. Get a family plan where each additional phone is like $10 a month, and get a middle of the line phone (eg, $50 out of pocket per phone instead of the FREEBECAUSEITSUCKSANDHASNOACC ESSORIES! ones or the $500 IAMRUNNINGWINDOWSEVERSEENAPHO NECRASH? one). That way, you have a phone that will last until your next upgrade but you won't die if it gets dropped on the floor.

If you get the free phones, they'll work, but check to see if they have the same coverage that the middle of the line ones do. For example, Cingular has 3 different types of networks. My phone (Siemens S66) can take advantage of all three, which means that I have a better chance of coverage in wacky areas then my old phone. My wife's phone (Motorola V551) can connect to all three plus the european/asian GSM networks. Sounds like you don't need super fancy world phones, but being able to take full advantage of the infrastructure your cell provider has here is a good thing.

I don't have a lot of experience with pay as you go phones, but they remind me of Check Cashing places in the sense that yeah, you less commitment and whatnot, but it definately costs you more per unit used.

Staga · « **Reply #4 on:** August 11, 2005, 06:22:57 PM »

GSM phones are best thing after sliced bread; been using one since they became available maybe ten years ago.
I've been traveling in Europe and in Russia and it works in every country I've been in and phone calls from abroad have been... well not cheap but affordable.

Looks like you americans are having same problem as we have in here; it's really hard to find the best plan from different operators.
Plan I'm using now is having 1000 SMS / month "free" but I sold my "Communicator" and type much less SMS now with 6680 and speak more so guess I better get me a new plan...

Edit: Got a new plan already; this one doesn't have "free" SMS but 100mb/month data transfer with 20$ and phone calls ~10c/min.
Gotta install ICQ (Agile Messenger) to the phone and see how much data does it transfer.

I wonder if anyone is going to port "Skype" for Series 60 Symbian OS...

SOB · « **Reply #5 on:** August 11, 2005, 07:13:15 PM »

If you're looking for something that cheap, go with T-Mobile, and live with only having one phone. You can get a plan for $19.99/mo that has NW calling & roaming, and 60 anytime mins & 500 weekend mins. Or $29.99/mo for the same features, but 300 anytime mins & unlimited weekends.

Prepaid is generally crap and more expensive. It could be nice for infrequent use, except that every provider I've seen expires your minutes after a certain amount of time, so if you don't use 'em, you lose 'em. The longest I've seen was a promo T-Mobile had, in which the minutes didn't expire for a year.

On the other hand, if you rarely use your home phone, you could axe it, and just get a family plan. $49.99/mo will get you two phones with NW calling and roaming and 500 shared whenever minutes, plus unlimited nights, unlimited weekends, & unlimited calling to/from other T-Mobile customers. For this, though, I'd definitely make sure you have good signal where you're at.

As for having two phones with the same number, I don't know any provider who will do this. The best you could do is have two phones with two numbers, but use one as the primary, and just have it forward calls to the other phone instead of to voicemail. Then, the other phone could forward to voicemail.

ramzey · « **Reply #6 on:** August 11, 2005, 07:18:24 PM »

chk Nextel,
last one i had for 40$ had 300 unlimited minuts nationwide, free income calls, ad free weekends

WindX · « **Reply #7 on:** August 11, 2005, 08:02:33 PM »

I just left Dell computers where I worked for several years as a tech support supervisor and I am now working for T Mobile and I get 1000 minutes a month for 20 bucks =).

RedTop · « **Reply #8 on:** August 11, 2005, 09:00:30 PM »

Eskimo,

My wife and I have T-Mobile. 1600 anytime minutes , free nights and weekends , and NO long distance and free T-Mobile to T-Mobile. It's not the cheapest but we also don't have a land line at our house.

It's way easier.

Haven't had any problems with T-Mobile at all. Prepay stuff is a bit shaky from what I have seen.

Good luck

SOB · « **Reply #9 on:** August 11, 2005, 09:00:55 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by WindX
I just left Dell computers where I worked for several years as a tech support supervisor and I am now working for T Mobile and I get 1000 minutes a month for 20 bucks =).

Yeah, the phone plan is nice, but now you have to talk to idiots who are too stupid to figure out how a cell phone bill works, or Lateekwa who's full of attitude and devoid of intelligence and can't figure out why her SmartAccess account was shut off even though her bill isn't due yet, but it sure it was something you did.

Ouch, nasty flashback. I'm feeling better now.

WindX · « **Reply #10 on:** August 11, 2005, 09:46:43 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by SOB
Yeah, the phone plan is nice, but now you have to talk to idiots who are too stupid to figure out how a cell phone bill works, or Lateekwa who's full of attitude and devoid of intelligence and can't figure out why her SmartAccess account was shut off even though her bill isn't due yet, but it sure it was something you did.

Ouch, nasty flashback. I'm feeling better now.

LMAO What makes that any different from working at Dell and having to deal with IT's?

Meatwad · « **Reply #11 on:** August 11, 2005, 10:36:27 PM »

First cellular has 43,200 anytime minutes for $50 a month after taxes, but you have to be in southern IL to use it though

lazs2 · « **Reply #12 on:** August 12, 2005, 08:22:07 AM »

I went with verizon because so many of the people I know have it and it is free minutes to talk to them.. I got a phone for my girlfriend and my mother on the plan and have like 1500 anythime minutes for anywhere in the U.S. My mom uses the phone to talk to relatives in the South so no she can talk as much as she wants on weekends and still keep in touch during the week... they both (and me) have phones they can use in an emergency and the whole deal costs me like 100 bucks a month.

I also put 10 bucks a month extra on my home phone to get 500 free long distance minutes.

Both my mom and girlfriend have had car trouble since I got them the phones and they have been able to use them to call AAA and me.

None of us use the phones that much but my son has verizon and so do some friends who are all long distance. It allows me to keep in touch more and so far... my bills have not exceeded the plans... mostly we don't even come close.

lazs

stantond · « **Reply #13 on:** August 12, 2005, 09:17:14 AM »

I have a tracfone. It sounds pretty good in concept, but they don't have good coverage. That's just been my experience and depending on where you are it might be good. In major metropolitan cities it is ok, but in more rural areas the tracfone usually doesn't work.

The tracfone is inexpensive (~ $100/year) to have service so I suppose you get what you pay for. It would like to see some info on what cell phones work well in various parts of the country. I doubt I will find it.

Regards,

Malta

Mustaine · « **Reply #14 on:** August 12, 2005, 10:11:24 AM »

i also do not have a land line...

us cellular, 700 anytime, free after 7PM and all weekends, free long distance (that is typical of cell phones nowadays)

i used about 500-600 minutes a month, and i'd say 1/4 of those are "long distance"

bill after fees and taxes is $51 / month