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#1
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OT - cell phone advice
My parents are still able to drive, go shopping, eat out,
and so on. But, there have been a couple moments when the car broke down. Or, one was out, and the other didn't know why it was taking so long. I suggested they get a cell phone. The reply was that we don't have the money to support another monthly bill. I've heard of phones where you buy the minutes in advance. Has anyone used such a phone, and which brand, where bought, etc? If it was twenty bucks or so, I'd buy the phone outright, and give it to them as a gift. -- Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus www.lds.org .. |
#2
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OT - cell phone advice
Stormin Mormon wrote:
My parents are still able to drive, go shopping, eat out, and so on. But, there have been a couple moments when the car broke down. Or, one was out, and the other didn't know why it was taking so long. I suggested they get a cell phone. The reply was that we don't have the money to support another monthly bill. I've heard of phones where you buy the minutes in advance. Has anyone used such a phone, and which brand, where bought, etc? If it was twenty bucks or so, I'd buy the phone outright, and give it to them as a gift. I have little need for a cell phone but have a Tracfone. Wife had bought it for her emergency use but gave it to me when son put her on his family plan which probably costs him $20 month. http://www.tracfone.com/index.jsp You can get into a years plan for $99 which includes minutes. Cost per minute might be as much as a quarter but if you use as little as I do, it is a bargain and when you renew, they roll the minutes over. I keep the phone in the car or carry it when out in the woods. Never keep it on for incoming calls and now have 1,200 minutes I don't know what to do with and need to renew in Oct. Still a very cheap insurance option. |
#3
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OT - cell phone advice
You can buy a pay as you go phone at Wal Mart for around $30. As long as
they don't use it much it will not cost too much. The phone card you buy to load minute onto the phone expires at some point after it is activated so if you buy 30 minutes and don't use all those minutes within that time frame they will expire. Good luck, cm "Stormin Mormon" wrote in message ... My parents are still able to drive, go shopping, eat out, and so on. But, there have been a couple moments when the car broke down. Or, one was out, and the other didn't know why it was taking so long. I suggested they get a cell phone. The reply was that we don't have the money to support another monthly bill. I've heard of phones where you buy the minutes in advance. Has anyone used such a phone, and which brand, where bought, etc? If it was twenty bucks or so, I'd buy the phone outright, and give it to them as a gift. -- Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus www.lds.org . |
#4
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OT - cell phone advice
On Tue, 11 Aug 2009 09:08:31 -0400, Frank wrote:
Stormin Mormon wrote: My parents are still able to drive, go shopping, eat out, and so on. But, there have been a couple moments when the car broke down. Or, one was out, and the other didn't know why it was taking so long. I suggested they get a cell phone. The reply was that we don't have the money to support another monthly bill. I've heard of phones where you buy the minutes in advance. Has anyone used such a phone, and which brand, where bought, etc? If it was twenty bucks or so, I'd buy the phone outright, and give it to them as a gift. I have little need for a cell phone but have a Tracfone. Wife had bought it for her emergency use but gave it to me when son put her on his family plan which probably costs him $20 month. http://www.tracfone.com/index.jsp You can get into a years plan for $99 which includes minutes. Cost per minute might be as much as a quarter but if you use as little as I do, it is a bargain and when you renew, they roll the minutes over. I keep the phone in the car or carry it when out in the woods. Never keep it on for incoming calls and now have 1,200 minutes I don't know what to do with and need to renew in Oct. Still a very cheap insurance option. We have a Tracfone that my wife carries. I have seen them on sale for less than $15.oo and you can buy minutes in any increment of 30 minutes at a time that last for 90 days before you have to add minutes. I add the minutes on line with a credit card. All you need is the serial number of the phone. I keep this in a text file so when needed, I copy and paste it to the order form on the net. Unused minutes are rolled over every 90 days. They email me special offers to buy extra time and notify me by Email a week or more prior to the expiration date of the current minutes that are left on the phone. We don't give the number out so as to not be bothered with calls. We carry it because of health reasons and to call AAA if required. It doesn't take pictures or any thing else that I'm aware of, but don't have any use for any other services either. My personal opinion is that this is as simple as you need and no more complicated than need be. |
#5
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OT - cell phone advice
In article , "Stormin Mormon" wrote:
I've heard of phones where you buy the minutes in advance. Has anyone used such a phone, and which brand, where bought, etc? Prepaid phone? Sure, try Costco! Here's an even better way, IMO. Procure a used cellphone; one that you upgraded and tossed in a drawer. If you don't have any, maybe another friend or relative does. You need one that will take a SIM card and is or can be unlocked. Now buy a pre-paid SIM card. I've done this when travelling overseas to the UK and to China. Just walk into a local cell phone store and buy a prepaid SIM card with $20 worth of calls. Works great and much cheaper paying your domestic carriers International roaming rates. -- |~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| | Malcolm Hoar "The more I practice, the luckier I get". | | Gary Player. | | http://www.malch.com/ Shpx gur PQN. | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
#6
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OT - cell phone advice
On Aug 11, 10:53*am, "Stormin Mormon"
wrote: My parents are still able to drive, go shopping, eat out, and so on. But, there have been a couple moments when the car broke down. Or, one was out, and the other didn't know why it was taking so long. I suggested they get a cell phone. The reply was that we don't *have the money to support another monthly bill. I've heard of phones where you buy the minutes in advance. Has anyone used such a phone, and which brand, where bought, etc? If it was twenty bucks or so, I'd buy the phone outright, and give it to them as a gift. -- Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus *www.lds.org . I have a cell phone which costs me $11.40 per month. This low cost plan includes a certain amount of air time. I carry it only for a possible emergency; to phone in from scene of an accident etc. or if I had a heart attack etc. It can be recharged and or used from my vehicle. Since the monthly bill is paid on time (which is done by standing payment order, so it is ALWAYS paid as due) unused air time accumulates. I now have some $200+ of unused air time! And/or I can lend the phone to a visiting relative and tell them to call if they get lost etc. Day air time with this plan cost 35 cents/min. Evening/night/ weekend air time costs 5 cents/min. But as mentioned I hardly ever use it. My son got the used phone quite cheap as a replacement last year when the cell phone company changed from analog to digital. Recommend you look for some plan along the above lines. Understand that there are plans where you buy minutes and/or by means of a card. |
#7
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OT - cell phone advice
Stormin Mormon wrote: My parents are still able to drive, go shopping, eat out, and so on. But, there have been a couple moments when the car broke down. Or, one was out, and the other didn't know why it was taking so long. I suggested they get a cell phone. The reply was that we don't have the money to support another monthly bill. I've heard of phones where you buy the minutes in advance. Has anyone used such a phone, and which brand, where bought, etc? If it was twenty bucks or so, I'd buy the phone outright, and give it to them as a gift. We have phones with Virgin that run $5 a month each at $.18 a minute or about 27 minutes a month. Any un-used minutes carry over to the next month. We gave them a CC #'s and they "top up" the account for $15 every 90 days or before if you run out of minutes. We paid for our phones but received credit for the purchase price in minutes on the 1st month. The phones and service have been flawless for the last 2 years. Haven't checked lately so I'm not sure if this plan is still available. https://www.virginmobileusa.com/myvirginmobile/home.do |
#8
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OT - cell phone advice
On Tue, 11 Aug 2009 09:08:31 -0400, Frank
wrote: [snip] I have little need for a cell phone but have a Tracfone. Wife had bought it for her emergency use but gave it to me when son put her on his family plan which probably costs him $20 month. http://www.tracfone.com/index.jsp You can get into a years plan for $99 which includes minutes. Cost per minute might be as much as a quarter but if you use as little as I do, it is a bargain and when you renew, they roll the minutes over. I keep the phone in the car or carry it when out in the woods. Never keep it on for incoming calls and now have 1,200 minutes I don't know what to do with and need to renew in Oct. Still a very cheap insurance option. You can get a Tracfone for $15, but it comes with only 10 minutes. Tracfone uses the AT&T system, so your coverage area should be the same. I use a prepaid phone from Alltel (now Verizon Wireless) because it works well here and AT&T doesn't. I got a phone with a camera. Sometimes it's nice to have a camera with you. With many Motorola phones you can get software to transfer the pictures directly to your computer, rather than having to email them (25 cents each). BTW, my spell checker thinks "Tracfone" should be "Racoon". -- Mark Lloyd http://notstupid.us "Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived." -- Isaac Asimov |
#9
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OT - cell phone advice
Stormin Mormon wrote:
My parents are still able to drive, go shopping, eat out, and so on. But, there have been a couple moments when the car broke down. Or, one was out, and the other didn't know why it was taking so long. I suggested they get a cell phone. The reply was that we don't have the money to support another monthly bill. I've heard of phones where you buy the minutes in advance. Has anyone used such a phone, and which brand, where bought, etc? If it was twenty bucks or so, I'd buy the phone outright, and give it to them as a gift. The best quality and least expensive prepaid service is PagePlus. As low as $2.50/month, and the minutes cost from 6 cents to 12 cents (actually a bit less since refills are sold at a discount). You need to add a minimum of $10 every four months. PagePlus uses Verizon's network which means it has excellent coverage. If you have Verizon service in your area, it's great. You can roam onto non-Verizon networks for an extra charge so it works almost everywhere (this is _not_ the case with some prepaid services such as Virgin, which do not allow roaming off their native network (Sprint for Virgin)). Most people wanting an emergency phone would like it to work outside urban areas. If you buy from PagePlus directly, they offer a few refurbished phones for low prices. Or you can use any phone that was previously used on Verizon, so you should be able to pick one up on craigslist for a low price, or for free from friends or relatives. The best web site for information is "http://prepaiduswireless.com". When selecting a prepaid plan pay careful attention to the minimum monthly cost (how often you must add money, and how much you need to add). Avoid Tracfone, Virgin, Verizon InPulse, AT&T GoPhone, Boost, Jitterbug, Net10, and Only1 Mobile. Basically, for an emergency phone, look for plans where you're on the Verizon or AT&T network, and the minimum cost is under $3/month. T-Mobile can be a really good deal, _if_ you have decent T-Mobile coverage in your area. Order a phone and $100 of airtime, and subsequent airtime purchases are good for 365 days. So you could add $10 and it would keep the phone on for a year, at a net cost of $0.83/month (less because you can get airtime at a discount). Last week PagePlus also started offering unlimited voice, unlimited texts, and 20MB/data per month for $39.95 (actual discounted cost is about $34 a month). This is an amazingly good deal. Remember that with prepaid there are no free phones. You buy phones on your own. But the savings can more than make up for it. |
#10
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OT - cell phone advice
tom wrote:
Stormin Mormon wrote: My parents are still able to drive, go shopping, eat out, and so on. But, there have been a couple moments when the car broke down. Or, one was out, and the other didn't know why it was taking so long. I suggested they get a cell phone. The reply was that we don't have the money to support another monthly bill. I've heard of phones where you buy the minutes in advance. Has anyone used such a phone, and which brand, where bought, etc? If it was twenty bucks or so, I'd buy the phone outright, and give it to them as a gift. We have phones with Virgin that run $5 a month each at $.18 a minute or about 27 minutes a month. Any un-used minutes carry over to the next month. We gave them a CC #'s and they "top up" the account for $15 every 90 days or before if you run out of minutes. We paid for our phones but received credit for the purchase price in minutes on the 1st month. The phones and service have been flawless for the last 2 years. Haven't checked lately so I'm not sure if this plan is still available. https://www.virginmobileusa.com/myvirginmobile/home.do Avoid Virgin Mobile at all costs. The problem is that you can only use Sprint's network. There is no roaming at all, even at extra cost. Sprint's network is very limited, especially outside urban areas. See "http://prepaiduswireless.com" for details on the best prepaid services. |
#11
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OT - cell phone advice
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#12
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OT - cell phone advice
Malcolm Hoar wrote:
In article , "Stormin Mormon" wrote: I've heard of phones where you buy the minutes in advance. Has anyone used such a phone, and which brand, where bought, etc? Prepaid phone? Sure, try Costco! Here's an even better way, IMO. Procure a used cellphone; one that you upgraded and tossed in a drawer. If you don't have any, maybe another friend or relative does. You need one that will take a SIM card and is or can be unlocked. Not really, you can activate a CDMA phone that was previously on Verizon, on PagePlus for about $6. T-Mobile will sell you a SIM card for an unlocked (or T-Mobile) GSM phone for about $6 as well. Now buy a pre-paid SIM card. I've done this when travelling overseas to the UK and to China. Just walk into a local cell phone store and buy a prepaid SIM card with $20 worth of calls. Yes, this is the best way to go when spending time in one country. For multiple countries there are SIM cards with higher per minute costs, but that work in most GSM countries. BTW, it isn't always as simple as "walking into a store and buying a card." I used to buy SIM cards in Taiwan that way, then the government decided that criminals were using those cards, and now allows the cards only to be sold at the carrier's own stores, with a lot of hassle (two forms of ID so bring your driver's license as well as passport. |
#13
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OT - cell phone advice
SMS wrote:
Stormin Mormon wrote: My parents are still able to drive, go shopping, eat out, and so on. But, there have been a couple moments when the car broke down. Or, one was out, and the other didn't know why it was taking so long. I suggested they get a cell phone. The reply was that we don't have the money to support another monthly bill. I've heard of phones where you buy the minutes in advance. Has anyone used such a phone, and which brand, where bought, etc? If it was twenty bucks or so, I'd buy the phone outright, and give it to them as a gift. The best quality and least expensive prepaid service is PagePlus. As low as $2.50/month, and the minutes cost from 6 cents to 12 cents (actually a bit less since refills are sold at a discount). You need to add a minimum of $10 every four months. PagePlus uses Verizon's network which means it has excellent coverage. If you have Verizon service in your area, it's great. You can roam onto non-Verizon networks for an extra charge so it works almost everywhere (this is _not_ the case with some prepaid services such as Virgin, which do not allow roaming off their native network (Sprint for Virgin)). Most people wanting an emergency phone would like it to work outside urban areas. If you buy from PagePlus directly, they offer a few refurbished phones for low prices. Or you can use any phone that was previously used on Verizon, so you should be able to pick one up on craigslist for a low price, or for free from friends or relatives. The best web site for information is "http://prepaiduswireless.com". When selecting a prepaid plan pay careful attention to the minimum monthly cost (how often you must add money, and how much you need to add). Avoid Tracfone, Virgin, Verizon InPulse, AT&T GoPhone, Boost, Jitterbug, Net10, and Only1 Mobile. Basically, for an emergency phone, look for plans where you're on the Verizon or AT&T network, and the minimum cost is under $3/month. T-Mobile can be a really good deal, _if_ you have decent T-Mobile coverage in your area. Order a phone and $100 of airtime, and subsequent airtime purchases are good for 365 days. So you could add $10 and it would keep the phone on for a year, at a net cost of $0.83/month (less because you can get airtime at a discount). Last week PagePlus also started offering unlimited voice, unlimited texts, and 20MB/data per month for $39.95 (actual discounted cost is about $34 a month). This is an amazingly good deal. Remember that with prepaid there are no free phones. You buy phones on your own. But the savings can more than make up for it. Thanks Lou |
#14
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OT - cell phone advice
"SMS" wrote in message ... tom wrote: Stormin Mormon wrote: My parents are still able to drive, go shopping, eat out, and so on. But, there have been a couple moments when the car broke down. Or, one was out, and the other didn't know why it was taking so long. I suggested they get a cell phone. The reply was that we don't have the money to support another monthly bill. I've heard of phones where you buy the minutes in advance. Has anyone used such a phone, and which brand, where bought, etc? If it was twenty bucks or so, I'd buy the phone outright, and give it to them as a gift. We have phones with Virgin that run $5 a month each at $.18 a minute or about 27 minutes a month. Any un-used minutes carry over to the next month. We gave them a CC #'s and they "top up" the account for $15 every 90 days or before if you run out of minutes. We paid for our phones but received credit for the purchase price in minutes on the 1st month. The phones and service have been flawless for the last 2 years. Haven't checked lately so I'm not sure if this plan is still available. https://www.virginmobileusa.com/myvirginmobile/home.do Avoid Virgin Mobile at all costs. The problem is that you can only use Sprint's network. There is no roaming at all, even at extra cost. Sprint's network is very limited, especially outside urban areas. See "http://prepaiduswireless.com" for details on the best prepaid services. Can only speak about the Chicago and New Orleans areas but I've never had any connection issues in either of those two areas. |
#15
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OT - cell phone advice
On Aug 11, 8:53*am, "Stormin Mormon"
wrote: My parents are still able to drive, go shopping, eat out, and so on. But, there have been a couple moments when the car broke down. Or, one was out, and the other didn't know why it was taking so long. I suggested they get a cell phone. The reply was that we don't *have the money to support another monthly bill. I've heard of phones where you buy the minutes in advance. Has anyone used such a phone, and which brand, where bought, etc? If it was twenty bucks or so, I'd buy the phone outright, and give it to them as a gift. -- Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus *www.lds.org . My wife and I rarely use cellphones but we each have a pre-paid card from Cingular, now AT&T. The phones were about $40 a few years ago and it costs $100 prepaid per year. Any day that you use it, there's a $1.00 connect fee for the whole day plus $0.10 per minute talk time. You can re-charge the dollars any time if you use them up before the year is out. If you sign up for another year at $100, you roll over any unused amount. My wife has about $270 in credit and I have about $180. So essentially it costs $8.33 per month per phone for emergencies. The problem is that due to low usage, we have trouble remembering to keep them charged. Paul |
#16
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OT - cell phone advice
tom wrote:
Stormin Mormon wrote: My parents are still able to drive, go shopping, eat out, and so on. But, there have been a couple moments when the car broke down. Or, one was out, and the other didn't know why it was taking so long. I suggested they get a cell phone. The reply was that we don't have the money to support another monthly bill. I've heard of phones where you buy the minutes in advance. Has anyone used such a phone, and which brand, where bought, etc? If it was twenty bucks or so, I'd buy the phone outright, and give it to them as a gift. We have phones with Virgin that run $5 a month each at $.18 a minute or about 27 minutes a month. Any un-used minutes carry over to the next month. We gave them a CC #'s and they "top up" the account for $15 every 90 days or before if you run out of minutes. We paid for our phones but received credit for the purchase price in minutes on the 1st month. The phones and service have been flawless for the last 2 years. Haven't checked lately so I'm not sure if this plan is still available. https://www.virginmobileusa.com/myvirginmobile/home.do The big problem with Virgin is that it exclusively uses Sprints' network which is often not the best choice. |
#17
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OT - cell phone advice
On Tue, 11 Aug 2009 06:14:31 -0700, "cm" wrote:
You can buy a pay as you go phone at Wal Mart for around $30. As long as they don't use it much it will not cost too much. The phone card you buy to load minute onto the phone expires at some point after it is activated so if you buy 30 minutes and don't use all those minutes within that time frame they will expire. Good luck, cm I don't like that. If I keep a cell phone in the glove box of my truck, it expires, I have an emergency, then what? Do Tracfones expire too? |
#18
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OT - cell phone advice
In article , SMS wrote:
BTW, it isn't always as simple as "walking into a store and buying a card." I used to buy SIM cards in Taiwan that way, then the government decided that criminals were using those cards, and now allows the cards only to be sold at the carrier's own stores, with a lot of hassle (two forms of ID so bring your driver's license as well as passport. Interesting. It was easy in the UK last Christmas time -- walked into a Carphone Warehouse store. In China this summer, I had a Mandarin speaking native get one for me -- not sure where they went but it only took about 10 mins ;-) -- |~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| | Malcolm Hoar "The more I practice, the luckier I get". | | Gary Player. | | http://www.malch.com/ Shpx gur PQN. | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
#19
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OT - cell phone advice
Phisherman wrote:
On Tue, 11 Aug 2009 06:14:31 -0700, "cm" wrote: You can buy a pay as you go phone at Wal Mart for around $30. As long as they don't use it much it will not cost too much. The phone card you buy to load minute onto the phone expires at some point after it is activated so if you buy 30 minutes and don't use all those minutes within that time frame they will expire. Good luck, cm I don't like that. If I keep a cell phone in the glove box of my truck, it expires, I have an emergency, then what? Do Tracfones expire too? Well even if it expires it can still call 911. Yeah, it can be a pain in the butt to remember to re-up your prepaid phone every 30-120 days. That's why the T-Mobile 365 day expiration period is good (once you spend $100 in airtime, all future airtime purchases, even ones for $10, are good for 365 days). As pointed out, T-Mobile coverage can leave something to be desired, but they do appear to allow a lot of off-network roaming now, and you can always call 911 no matter what GSM network is available. 7-11's SpeakOut GSM service (on AT&T's network) offers 365 day expiration on their $50/335 minute cards. They subtract a rather high $2.14/month fee, so that'd use up $25.68 of the $50, leaving 163 minutes available from the remaining $24.32 of value. |
#20
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OT - cell phone advice
On Aug 11, 7:53*am, "Stormin Mormon"
wrote: My parents are still able to drive, go shopping, eat out, and so on. But, there have been a couple moments when the car broke down. Or, one was out, and the other didn't know why it was taking so long. I suggested they get a cell phone. The reply was that we don't *have the money to support another monthly bill. I've heard of phones where you buy the minutes in advance. Has anyone used such a phone, and which brand, where bought, etc? If it was twenty bucks or so, I'd buy the phone outright, and give it to them as a gift. -- Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus *www.lds.org . I have a tracfone, they are great. I get connections just fine and I replenish it every 3 months or so. If you get a tracfone it is worthwhile to pay the extra $49 at time of purchase to get "double minutes for life", with this plan every time thereafter when you buy minutes they automatically double them. That initial $49 pays for itself after your second replenish. If all you need is basic communication then I can highly recommend a tracfone. |
#21
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OT - cell phone advice
windcrest wrote:
On Aug 11, 7:53 am, "Stormin Mormon" wrote: My parents are still able to drive, go shopping, eat out, and so on. But, there have been a couple moments when the car broke down. Or, one was out, and the other didn't know why it was taking so long. I suggested they get a cell phone. The reply was that we don't have the money to support another monthly bill. I've heard of phones where you buy the minutes in advance. Has anyone used such a phone, and which brand, where bought, etc? If it was twenty bucks or so, I'd buy the phone outright, and give it to them as a gift. -- Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus www.lds.org . I have a tracfone, they are great. I get connections just fine and I replenish it every 3 months or so. If you get a tracfone it is worthwhile to pay the extra $49 at time of purchase to get "double minutes for life", with this plan every time thereafter when you buy minutes they automatically double them. That initial $49 pays for itself after your second replenish. If all you need is basic communication then I can highly recommend a tracfone. I, too, have no problems with my Tracfone. Also live in a low reception area where bars are minimal but it is equally bad for wife's phone with Verizon. My Tracfone is several years old and I would like to get a better looking one but website gives no clues on how to do this. You do not get the hand holding that Verizon or Sprint offer. Also updating minutes is easier on internet than on phone. |
#22
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OT - cell phone advice
windcrest wrote:
I have a tracfone, they are great. I get connections just fine and I replenish it every 3 months or so. If you get a tracfone it is worthwhile to pay the extra $49 at time of purchase to get "double minutes for life", with this plan every time thereafter when you buy minutes they automatically double them. That initial $49 pays for itself after your second replenish. If all you need is basic communication then I can highly recommend a tracfone. With the Double Minutes for Life remember that it goes with the phone. If you get a new phone then you have to pay it again. With the $100/400 minutes card doubled to 800 minutes (after buying the double minutes for life), and discounted 8% by CallingMart, the per minute cost comes down to 11.5 cents. But even this cheapest cost per minute is higher than the most expensive cost per minute on a carrier like PagePlus which allows you to use any Verizon CDMA phone, including smart phones, and which offers data. Nice things about Tracfone: 1. You can sign up for a $5.99/month service that keeps your account active in case it would otherwise expire. 2. The 400/800 minute card has a one year expiration time. 3. Coverage is good, both on their CDMA (Verizon) phones and their GSM (AT&T phones) with roaming available (either included or at extra cost). 4. Apparently it works in Canada. For a seldom used, glove box phone, the 365 day expiration is very nice, though you can get the same thing with a 7-11 SpeakOut phone and pay only $50/year. Incidentally, tomorrow: CallingMart.com: Wednesday 8/12/2009 from 11am-11pm EST. 8% Off Face Value for Net10, Tracfone, Verizon & PagePlus . Coupon Code: CM-20090812. |
#23
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OT - cell phone advice
windcrest wrote:
On Aug 11, 7:53 am, "Stormin Mormon" wrote: My parents are still able to drive, go shopping, eat out, and so on. But, there have been a couple moments when the car broke down. Or, one was out, and the other didn't know why it was taking so long. I suggested they get a cell phone. The reply was that we don't have the money to support another monthly bill. I've heard of phones where you buy the minutes in advance. Has anyone used such a phone, and which brand, where bought, etc? If it was twenty bucks or so, I'd buy the phone outright, and give it to them as a gift. -- Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus www.lds.org . I have a tracfone, they are great. I get connections just fine and I replenish it every 3 months or so. If you get a tracfone it is worthwhile to pay the extra $49 at time of purchase to get "double minutes for life", with this plan every time thereafter when you buy minutes they automatically double them. That initial $49 pays for itself after your second replenish. If all you need is basic communication then I can highly recommend a tracfone. I have Virgin Mobile, which works out to around 8 bucks a month. But with any pre-paid, you need to make sure it has coverage in the area where it will be used. And you can't always trust the maps on the web site. Virgin, for example, is really Sprint system, and has next-to-no coverage down in NC where my sister lives, out at her house. She returned hers and got one of the others. It works fine around SW MI and southern IN, which covers most of the places I use it. I'll probably die with several hundred bucks in unused minutes on it- you can set it to top off automatically as needed (90 days or 20 bucks, whichever comes first), so the phone never goes dead. Most of the time, it lives in my briefcase- I only wear it when I am on call or traveling. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles of a real cell phone, and is oval-ish and silver instead of the current fashionable squared-off charcoal gray, but it does what I need at a price I can live with. No Way would I pay 30-40 a month for a real cell phone that might not get used at all some months. I try to fire this one up at least once a week, to see if I have voicemail, but don't always remember. -- aem sends... |
#24
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OT - cell phone advice
aemeijers wrote:
I have Virgin Mobile, which works out to around 8 bucks a month. But with any pre-paid, you need to make sure it has coverage in the area where it will be used. You really need to be careful with prepaid services that don't allow off-native-network roaming. Many of the prepaid services allow you to use any compatible network (CDMA or GSM), sometimes at extra cost, sometimes included. Virgin/Sprint is not one of those services. Virgin is among the worst prepaid options out there. It has a high price per minute, high texting costs, high monthly minimums, poor coverage with no roaming, and a horrible web site. Maybe now that Sprint fully owns Virgin they'll do something about fixing it. |
#25
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OT - cell phone advice
RobertPatrick wrote:
Frank wrote in : windcrest wrote: On Aug 11, 7:53 am, "Stormin Mormon" wrote: My parents are still able to drive, go shopping, eat out, and so on. But, there have been a couple moments when the car broke down. Or, one was out, and the other didn't know why it was taking so long. I suggested they get a cell phone. The reply was that we don't have the money to support another monthly bill. I've heard of phones where you buy the minutes in advance. Has anyone used such a phone, and which brand, where bought, etc? If it was twenty bucks or so, I'd buy the phone outright, and give it to them as a gift. -- Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus www.lds.org . I have a tracfone, they are great. I get connections just fine and I replenish it every 3 months or so. If you get a tracfone it is worthwhile to pay the extra $49 at time of purchase to get "double minutes for life", with this plan every time thereafter when you buy minutes they automatically double them. That initial $49 pays for itself after your second replenish. If all you need is basic communication then I can highly recommend a tracfone. I, too, have no problems with my Tracfone. Also live in a low reception area where bars are minimal but it is equally bad for wife's phone with Verizon. My Tracfone is several years old and I would like to get a better looking one but website gives no clues on how to do this. You do not get the hand holding that Verizon or Sprint offer. Also updating minutes is easier on internet than on phone. You're going to have to call customer service. The Rep has to give you special code numbers to enter into the new phone and to also transfer any minutes from the old phone. http://www.ehow.com/how_2125116_tran...one-units.html That's what I have been reading. Would be nice if they automated. My phone works fine, just looks almost antique. |
#26
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OT - cell phone advice
RLM wrote:
On Tue, 11 Aug 2009 09:08:31 -0400, Frank wrote: Stormin Mormon wrote: My parents are still able to drive, go shopping, eat out, and so on. But, there have been a couple moments when the car broke down. Or, one was out, and the other didn't know why it was taking so long. I suggested they get a cell phone. The reply was that we don't have the money to support another monthly bill. I've heard of phones where you buy the minutes in advance. Has anyone used such a phone, and which brand, where bought, etc? If it was twenty bucks or so, I'd buy the phone outright, and give it to them as a gift. I have little need for a cell phone but have a Tracfone. Wife had bought it for her emergency use but gave it to me when son put her on his family plan which probably costs him $20 month. http://www.tracfone.com/index.jsp You can get into a years plan for $99 which includes minutes. Cost per minute might be as much as a quarter but if you use as little as I do, it is a bargain and when you renew, they roll the minutes over. I keep the phone in the car or carry it when out in the woods. Never keep it on for incoming calls and now have 1,200 minutes I don't know what to do with and need to renew in Oct. Still a very cheap insurance option. We have a Tracfone that my wife carries. I have seen them on sale for less than $15.oo and you can buy minutes in any increment of 30 minutes at a time that last for 90 days before you have to add minutes. I add the minutes on line with a credit card. All you need is the serial number of the phone. I keep this in a text file so when needed, I copy and paste it to the order form on the net. Unused minutes are rolled over every 90 days. They email me special offers to buy extra time and notify If unused minutes are rolled over then why do you have to add minutes after 90 days? me by Email a week or more prior to the expiration date of the current minutes that are left on the phone. We don't give the number out so as to not be bothered with calls. We carry it because of health reasons and to call AAA if required. It doesn't take pictures or any thing else that I'm aware of, but don't have any use for any other services either. My personal opinion is that this is as simple as you need and no more complicated than need be. |
#27
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OT - cell phone advice
On Tue, 11 Aug 2009 08:53:24 -0400, "Stormin Mormon"
wrote: My parents are still able to drive, go shopping, eat out, and so on. But, there have been a couple moments when the car broke down. Or, one was out, and the other didn't know why it was taking so long. I suggested they get a cell phone. The reply was that we don't have the money to support another monthly bill. I've heard of phones where you buy the minutes in advance. Has anyone used such a phone, and which brand, where bought, etc? If it was twenty bucks or so, I'd buy the phone outright, and give it to them as a gift. I believe if you have Verison or AT&T you can get an additional phone on your account for about $10 a month. |
#28
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OT - cell phone advice
On Tue, 11 Aug 2009 19:44:59 -0400, Brandon McCombs
wrote: [snip] If unused minutes are rolled over then why do you have to add minutes after 90 days? When you add a Tracfone card, you get (for example) 60 minutes and 90 days. These are treated as entirely different things. Minutes is airtime (deducted only when you use the phone). Days are the time period your service is active, regardless of use. When that (Days) expires, you have to renew. You keep the unused minutes. Other companies are different. With my Alltel service, you just add money. Day and usage charges are both taken from a common pool (it's 75 cents/day and 10 cents/minute). [snip] -- Mark Lloyd http://notstupid.us "Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived." -- Isaac Asimov |
#29
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OT - cell phone advice
On Tue, 11 Aug 2009 09:05:10 -0700, SMS
wrote: tom wrote: Stormin Mormon wrote: My parents are still able to drive, go shopping, eat out, and so on. But, there have been a couple moments when the car broke down. Or, one was out, and the other didn't know why it was taking so long. I suggested they get a cell phone. The reply was that we don't have the money to support another monthly bill. I've heard of phones where you buy the minutes in advance. Has anyone used such a phone, and which brand, where bought, etc? If it was twenty bucks or so, I'd buy the phone outright, and give it to them as a gift. We have phones with Virgin that run $5 a month each at $.18 a minute or about 27 minutes a month. Any un-used minutes carry over to the next month. We gave them a CC #'s and they "top up" the account for $15 every 90 days or before if you run out of minutes. We paid for our phones but received credit for the purchase price in minutes on the 1st month. The phones and service have been flawless for the last 2 years. Haven't checked lately so I'm not sure if this plan is still available. https://www.virginmobileusa.com/myvirginmobile/home.do Avoid Virgin Mobile at all costs. The problem is that you can only use Sprint's network. There is no roaming at all, even at extra cost. Sprint's network is very limited, especially outside urban areas. See "http://prepaiduswireless.com" for details on the best prepaid services. Is there anything wrong with Virgin Mobile, other than limited coverage area? I'm wanting to get a phone that works in Brownwood Texas. It's 49 miles off the interstate highway, and neither AT&T or Verizon provide coverage there. According to their map, it looks like Virgin does. BTW, I don't live in Brownwood, but often visit someone there. -- Mark Lloyd http://notstupid.us "Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived." -- Isaac Asimov |
#30
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OT - cell phone advice
On 11 Aug 2009 22:40:55 GMT, RobertPatrick wrote:
[snip] I never had any connection problems with Tracfone. It works just about everywhere, except at my friend's house who live in "the forest" on a mountain. When I had a tracfone, it would seldom get any signal at all at my house in town. It might get 1 bar at some spots in the yard, but that wouldn't last more than a minute or so. Strangely, I could take it with me into the woods and get 5 bars there. Possibly because my land is close to a rural electric company facility. [snip] -- Mark Lloyd http://notstupid.us "Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived." -- Isaac Asimov |
#31
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OT - cell phone advice
On Tue, 11 Aug 2009 13:31:31 -0700, SMS
wrote: Phisherman wrote: On Tue, 11 Aug 2009 06:14:31 -0700, "cm" wrote: You can buy a pay as you go phone at Wal Mart for around $30. As long as they don't use it much it will not cost too much. The phone card you buy to load minute onto the phone expires at some point after it is activated so if you buy 30 minutes and don't use all those minutes within that time frame they will expire. Good luck, cm I don't like that. If I keep a cell phone in the glove box of my truck, it expires, I have an emergency, then what? Do Tracfones expire too? Well even if it expires it can still call 911. Yeah, it can be a pain in the butt to remember to re-up your prepaid phone every 30-120 days. When I had a Tracfone, I got the 1-year cards (or usually the equivalent online, no card involved). [snip] -- Mark Lloyd http://notstupid.us "Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived." -- Isaac Asimov |
#32
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OT - cell phone advice
On 11 Aug 2009 22:46:49 GMT, RobertPatrick wrote:
Phisherman wrote in : On Tue, 11 Aug 2009 06:14:31 -0700, "cm" wrote: You can buy a pay as you go phone at Wal Mart for around $30. As long as they don't use it much it will not cost too much. The phone card you buy to load minute onto the phone expires at some point after it is activated so if you buy 30 minutes and don't use all those minutes within that time frame they will expire. Good luck, cm I don't like that. If I keep a cell phone in the glove box of my truck, it expires, I have an emergency, then what? Do Tracfones expire too? It's a combination of minutes and the expiration date. With $100, you get about 400 minutes that will expire in one year. This increases often. I first got a Tracfone in 2000 and it was 100 minutes then. For a little extra you have it set up so that for the life of the phone, you'll get double minutes. I seem to remember $50. Of course "for line" refers to the life of that phone, which should be a lot less than your life. I bought my Tracfone around 2002 or 2003. I've had great phone service. -- Mark Lloyd http://notstupid.us "Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived." -- Isaac Asimov |
#33
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OT - cell phone advice
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#34
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OT - cell phone advice
SMS wrote:
aemeijers wrote: I have Virgin Mobile, which works out to around 8 bucks a month. But with any pre-paid, you need to make sure it has coverage in the area where it will be used. You really need to be careful with prepaid services that don't allow off-native-network roaming. Many of the prepaid services allow you to use any compatible network (CDMA or GSM), sometimes at extra cost, sometimes included. Virgin/Sprint is not one of those services. Virgin is among the worst prepaid options out there. It has a high price per minute, high texting costs, high monthly minimums, poor coverage with no roaming, and a horrible web site. Maybe now that Sprint fully owns Virgin they'll do something about fixing it. Won't do me much good, unless I write off the couple of hundred in airtime I have on account. They Don't Do Refunds. Maybe when I retire and move south in a couple 3 years, I'll switch then, or get a real cell phone in lieu of a landline. In the meantime, it works well enough for MOST of the places I go. -- aem sends... |
#35
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OT - cell phone advice
Mark Lloyd wrote:
On Tue, 11 Aug 2009 19:44:59 -0400, Brandon McCombs wrote: [snip] If unused minutes are rolled over then why do you have to add minutes after 90 days? When you add a Tracfone card, you get (for example) 60 minutes and 90 days. These are treated as entirely different things. Minutes is airtime (deducted only when you use the phone). Days are the time period your service is active, regardless of use. When that (Days) expires, you have to renew. You keep the unused minutes. Other companies are different. With my Alltel service, you just add money. Day and usage charges are both taken from a common pool (it's 75 cents/day and 10 cents/minute). Combine that Alltel service with Google Voice and chose one of your free options as a "favorite number" that you set to your Google Voice number. You then have unlimited incoming and outgoing calls without using any minutes because incoming calls are routed through Google Voice and come from your "favorite number" and you call your Google Voice number to place all outgoing calls and all outgoing calls are to your "favorite number." Alltel has discontinued offering their own prepaid plans and the 75 cents/day plan is no longer available. |
#36
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OT - cell phone advice
Mark Lloyd wrote:
On Tue, 11 Aug 2009 09:05:10 -0700, SMS wrote: tom wrote: Stormin Mormon wrote: My parents are still able to drive, go shopping, eat out, and so on. But, there have been a couple moments when the car broke down. Or, one was out, and the other didn't know why it was taking so long. I suggested they get a cell phone. The reply was that we don't have the money to support another monthly bill. I've heard of phones where you buy the minutes in advance. Has anyone used such a phone, and which brand, where bought, etc? If it was twenty bucks or so, I'd buy the phone outright, and give it to them as a gift. We have phones with Virgin that run $5 a month each at $.18 a minute or about 27 minutes a month. Any un-used minutes carry over to the next month. We gave them a CC #'s and they "top up" the account for $15 every 90 days or before if you run out of minutes. We paid for our phones but received credit for the purchase price in minutes on the 1st month. The phones and service have been flawless for the last 2 years. Haven't checked lately so I'm not sure if this plan is still available. https://www.virginmobileusa.com/myvirginmobile/home.do Avoid Virgin Mobile at all costs. The problem is that you can only use Sprint's network. There is no roaming at all, even at extra cost. Sprint's network is very limited, especially outside urban areas. See "http://prepaiduswireless.com" for details on the best prepaid services. Is there anything wrong with Virgin Mobile, other than limited coverage area? 1. High per minute cost (recently increased) 2. High texting rates (they used to have the lowest texting rates) 3. Comparatively high monthly minimum (not really suitable for a glove compartment phone). I'm wanting to get a phone that works in Brownwood Texas. It's 49 miles off the interstate highway, and neither AT&T or Verizon provide coverage there. According to their map, it looks like Virgin does. Yeah, there are a very few areas where Sprint is the only major carrier, and it looks like you found one! |
#37
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OT - cell phone advice
On 11 Aug 2009 22:54:20 GMT, RobertPatrick wrote:
[snip] You're going to have to call customer service. The Rep has to give you special code numbers to enter into the new phone and to also transfer any minutes from the old phone. http://www.ehow.com/how_2125116_tran...one-units.html My first Tracfone (bought in 2000) required typing in these long code numbers. The one I got in about 2005 did not. You still have to call customer service to transfer units. Both units and days were transferred. I did have to get a new phone number, possibly because of the change from CDMA to GSM. BTW, in case you don't know about the technology, GSM phones are the ones with SIM cards. -- Mark Lloyd http://notstupid.us "Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived." -- Isaac Asimov |
#38
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OT - cell phone advice
"Frank" wrote in message ... windcrest wrote: On Aug 11, 7:53 am, "Stormin Mormon" wrote: My parents are still able to drive, go shopping, eat out, and so on. But, there have been a couple moments when the car broke down. Or, one was out, and the other didn't know why it was taking so long. I suggested they get a cell phone. The reply was that we don't have the money to support another monthly bill. I've heard of phones where you buy the minutes in advance. Has anyone used such a phone, and which brand, where bought, etc? If it was twenty bucks or so, I'd buy the phone outright, and give it to them as a gift. -- Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus www.lds.org . I have a tracfone, they are great. I get connections just fine and I replenish it every 3 months or so. If you get a tracfone it is worthwhile to pay the extra $49 at time of purchase to get "double minutes for life", with this plan every time thereafter when you buy minutes they automatically double them. That initial $49 pays for itself after your second replenish. If all you need is basic communication then I can highly recommend a tracfone. I, too, have no problems with my Tracfone. Also live in a low reception area where bars are minimal but it is equally bad for wife's phone with Verizon. My Tracfone is several years old and I would like to get a better looking one but website gives no clues on how to do this. You do not get the hand holding that Verizon or Sprint offer. Also updating minutes is easier on internet than on phone. Been a Tracfone customer since the begining many years ago...Love it....Highly recommend it...The only drawback is their assortment of phones...SWMBO wants a camera phone and Tracfone doesn't have one for Maine for some reason...Only the basic phones are available...Kinda sucks....I only use mine for work so I could care less...LOL...We have the LG flip phone..... |
#39
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OT - cell phone advice
https://www.virginmobileusa.com/myvirginmobile/home.do Avoid Virgin Mobile at all costs. The problem is that you can only use Sprint's network. There is no roaming at all, even at extra cost. Sprint's network is very limited, especially outside urban areas. See "http://prepaiduswireless.com" for details on the best prepaid services. Is there anything wrong with Virgin Mobile, other than limited coverage area? 1. High per minute cost (recently increased) Guess it comes down to what you need. Per minute cost means little to me as seldom as I use my cell. I don't burn up the 27 minutes included with the $5 required monthly charge. 2. High texting rates (they used to have the lowest texting rates) I seldom text\email. When I do it's still cheaper than cell use. 3. Comparatively high monthly minimum (not really suitable for a glove compartment phone). Again I'm not up to speed on current\new requirements, but with our plan we incur NO monthly minimums. |
#40
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OT - cell phone advice
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