I would like to get a phone for emergency and short important calls.
Any agreement on what the cheapest cost option is?

On 8/13/2012 2:39 PM, Metspitzer wrote:
I would like to get a phone for emergency and short important calls.
Any agreement on what the cheapest cost option is?

Find out which carrier provides the best cell coverage in the area you
plan to use the phone. If it turns out to be Verizon, you can get really
nice rates with pageplus. You buy just about any phone you like, that
was built for Verizon, except ones that were built for Verizon pre pay
plans, or you can buy new or used phones from pageplus. The cheapest
plan is a $10 card, which I believe is for 100 minutes, and it lasts for
I believe 120 days. As long as you get at least another $10 card before
the first one expires, whatever minutes you had left, rolls over.

On Mon, 13 Aug 2012 14:50:11 -0400, RBM wrote:

On 8/13/2012 2:39 PM, Metspitzer wrote:
I would like to get a phone for emergency and short important calls.
Any agreement on what the cheapest cost option is?

Find out which carrier provides the best cell coverage in the area you
plan to use the phone. If it turns out to be Verizon, you can get really
nice rates with pageplus. You buy just about any phone you like, that
was built for Verizon, except ones that were built for Verizon pre pay
plans, or you can buy new or used phones from pageplus. The cheapest
plan is a $10 card, which I believe is for 100 minutes, and it lasts for
I believe 120 days. As long as you get at least another $10 card before
the first one expires, whatever minutes you had left, rolls over.

10 bucks at 100 min for 120 days is perfect. I have yet to find a
package like that. I have found a couple 10 bucks for 100 min for 30
days.

Thanks

On 8/13/2012 2:39 PM, Metspitzer wrote:
I would like to get a phone for emergency and short important calls.
Any agreement on what the cheapest cost option is?


I use Tracfone:

http://www.tracfone.com/?lang=en

A year's service, maybe ~600 minutes, is $99. Not cheap minutes but any
remaining minutes with renewed purchase are rolled over and you don't
lose them. You can buy Tracfones all over and re-up minutes on line.

My wife had the phone, which I would sometimes borrow if I was out
hunting but gave it to me when a son put her on his family plan.

You have to buy the phone but can get a serviceable one for less than
$20. I had to do this this year as original phone about 10 years old
was getting long in the tooth.

They piggyback the other carriers so you will get service wherever there
is service.

On 2012-08-13, Metspitzer wrote:
I would like to get a phone for emergency and short important calls.
Any agreement on what the cheapest cost option is?

I've been using a Tracfon for over 3 yrs with no probs. Any Walmart
has the cheapest flip phone fer around $12. With 1 hr time, about
$25-30. Anything under a couple hrs prepaid time is about $.35-.50
/min. I live in very rural CO Rockies, 8K ft elev, the closest
1-traf-signal town 10 miles away, yet have no probs getting a
connection, even indoors. Cheap, but good enough for emergency, but
mostly jes cheap.

nb

--
"I don't know the key to success,
but the key to failure is trying to
please everybody"
http://www.nongmoproject.org/

On 8/13/2012 2:39 PM, Metspitzer wrote:
I would like to get a phone for emergency and short important calls.
Any agreement on what the cheapest cost option is?

Living in western NC, Verizon, unfortunately, is the only game in town.
There are other carriers, however, their coverage is very spotty here.
We have one prepaid phone and one contract phone. The prepaid one is
a small flip phone. We have been fueling it up every 3 months where we
basically put $30. If you re-up before the 3 months are over, the
leftover dollars roll over. If you fuel up with a year, the price per
month is a bit cheaper. So, if you add money like we do, it costs up
$10 per month to maintain the number. This plan charges $1 each day you
use the phone, plus $ .10/minute. Because we have and use 2 phones, the
are quite a few dollars on the prepaid phone. Here's how the Verizon
prepaid plan works:
http://support.verizonwireless.com/c...e_service.html.
Scroll down about 2/3 of the way under payments. I don't know why
anyone would want to put $75 for 180 days, 1/2 year, when you can get it
for 2 payments of $30 for each group of 3 months. My last refuel was
for a whole year, which is the best deal, if you are looking at minimum
usage, like mine ... actually, my wife's.

On 8/13/2012 3:08 PM, Metspitzer wrote:
On Mon, 13 Aug 2012 14:50:11 -0400, RBM wrote:

On 8/13/2012 2:39 PM, Metspitzer wrote:
I would like to get a phone for emergency and short important calls.
Any agreement on what the cheapest cost option is?

Find out which carrier provides the best cell coverage in the area you
plan to use the phone. If it turns out to be Verizon, you can get really
nice rates with pageplus. You buy just about any phone you like, that
was built for Verizon, except ones that were built for Verizon pre pay
plans, or you can buy new or used phones from pageplus. The cheapest
plan is a $10 card, which I believe is for 100 minutes, and it lasts for
I believe 120 days. As long as you get at least another $10 card before
the first one expires, whatever minutes you had left, rolls over.

10 bucks at 100 min for 120 days is perfect. I have yet to find a
package like that. I have found a couple 10 bucks for 100 min for 30
days.

Thanks

It's been about two years that I've been with PP, having switched from a
Verizon wireless family share plan. Unlike Verizon, this has been
nothing but a pleasure, and an inexpensive one at that. The variety of
plans are so flexible, you can set up automatic bill pay, so your credit
card is charged, prior to running out of time, and essentially buy
almost any phone, that's made to use on Verizon, including smart phones.
Here's their site:

http://www.pagepluscellular.com/

"Metspitzer" wrote in message
...
I would like to get a phone for emergency and short important calls.
Any agreement on what the cheapest cost option is?

Depends on where you live/travel.

We use pagepluscellular.com which is a reseller on the Verizon back bone.
(not 100% coverage everywhere Verizon goes). You can also get 2000 min per
year for $80 bucks.

You can buy $10 (100 min.) every 120 days (not 4 months but 120 days) and
roll over the min.

Wife and I have one each and our service cost run ~ $15/ month. We also
have one phone in each vehicle ($10 ever 120days) just incase of emergency
or if we have the grand kids and need to track them when we're out and
about.

Page plus will use almost any Verizon phone. Can be had on freecycle.org or
craigslist for cheap.

On Mon, 13 Aug 2012 15:11:27 -0400, Frank wrote:

On 8/13/2012 2:39 PM, Metspitzer wrote:
I would like to get a phone for emergency and short important calls.
Any agreement on what the cheapest cost option is?


I use Tracfone:

http://www.tracfone.com/?lang=en

A year's service, maybe ~600 minutes, is $99. Not cheap minutes but any
remaining minutes with renewed purchase are rolled over and you don't
lose them. You can buy Tracfones all over and re-up minutes on line.

Even more.. if you purchase a double or triple minutes for life phone..

I.E.. 800+promo code.. 1200+promo code minutes...
(Google for "tracphone promo codes")...

Deals on the airtime cards can also be found..

On Monday, August 13, 2012 2:39:08 PM UTC-4, Metspitzer wrote:
I would like to get a phone for emergency and short important calls. Any agreement on what the cheapest cost option is?

I have the AT&T pay as you go plan. I pre-pay $100 for a year's service. When I use the phone, there's a fixed $1.00 daily connect fee which covers the entire day, plus I pay $0.10 per minute of call time. If I don't use the phone on a given day, I don't pay anything.

If I pay another $100 at the end of the year, I keep the same number for the next year plus any unused prepayments are rolled over. I currently have about $350 in prepayment credit because I don't use the phone very often.

Voice mail is included.

Metspitzer wrote:
I would like to get a phone for emergency and short important calls.
Any agreement on what the cheapest cost option is?

I got a Net10 phone three or four years ago. A straight 10 cents a
minute and piggy backs on ATT's system, at least mine does. 15/month
for 200 minutes auto pay plan. The unused minutes roll over, I've see
I now have 1800 minutes to use.
http://www.net10.com/ wally world has them it's the same company as
straight talk and trackphone... I think Carlos Slim owns the company.
and interesting one,
Republicwireless.com 19/month runs off Sprint network. Uses VOIP when
it can via wifi and the sprint network when it has to.

On Mon, 13 Aug 2012 16:09:16 -0400, RBM wrote:

On 8/13/2012 3:08 PM, Metspitzer wrote:
On Mon, 13 Aug 2012 14:50:11 -0400, RBM wrote:

On 8/13/2012 2:39 PM, Metspitzer wrote:
I would like to get a phone for emergency and short important calls.
Any agreement on what the cheapest cost option is?

Find out which carrier provides the best cell coverage in the area you
plan to use the phone. If it turns out to be Verizon, you can get really
nice rates with pageplus. You buy just about any phone you like, that
was built for Verizon, except ones that were built for Verizon pre pay
plans, or you can buy new or used phones from pageplus. The cheapest
plan is a $10 card, which I believe is for 100 minutes, and it lasts for
I believe 120 days. As long as you get at least another $10 card before
the first one expires, whatever minutes you had left, rolls over.

10 bucks at 100 min for 120 days is perfect. I have yet to find a
package like that. I have found a couple 10 bucks for 100 min for 30
days.

Thanks

It's been about two years that I've been with PP, having switched from a
Verizon wireless family share plan. Unlike Verizon, this has been
nothing but a pleasure, and an inexpensive one at that. The variety of
plans are so flexible, you can set up automatic bill pay, so your credit
card is charged, prior to running out of time, and essentially buy
almost any phone, that's made to use on Verizon, including smart phones.
Here's their site:

http://www.pagepluscellular.com/

In picking out a phone, I do plan on spending a little more money.
Being able to take pictures and save them over a USB cable would be
nice but not completely necessary. The Sprint phone I was using made
you upload the pictures and pay for each one.

I do also want a phone that will play mp3s.

On 8/13/2012 1:39 PM, Metspitzer wrote:
I would like to get a phone for emergency and short important calls.
Any agreement on what the cheapest cost option is?


I use Virgin's pay as you go. Cheap/free phones, and I think it's now
20 cents/minute on their pay as you go plans. Basically, you are
required to purchase $20 of time every ninety days. If you don't use
it, the money rolls forward and accumulates. You can even use the
accumulated funds to upgrade to a newer phone.

Virgin has also been very, very good about replacing my mom's lost
phones. Twice she lost her phone (she's old); twice they Fed-Ex'd
replacement phones - for free.

I expect there are even cheaper plans out there, but if they don't
provide coverage in your area and Virgin does, you may want to check
them out.

Metspitzer wrote:
I would like to get a phone for emergency and short important calls.
Any agreement on what the cheapest cost option is?

Whatever you do, avoid buying a 'phone from the carrier (or a battery). Get
your 'phone from Craigslist or Ebay. I bought a Blackberry for $54 via Ebay
and activated it at Verizon. Verizon's model was $254 with a two-year
contract. Batteries for my Blackberry are three dollars and change from
Ebay, vs. thirty-something dollars at the Verizon store.

That said, virtually ANY phone, activated, subscribed, or not is capable of
reaching 911.

On 8/13/2012 11:39 AM, Metspitzer wrote:
I would like to get a phone for emergency and short important calls.
Any agreement on what the cheapest cost option is?

The best option is Pageplus Cellular. It uses Verizon's network. It
costs as little as $2.50/month ($10 every 120 days). That $2.50/month
buys you 20 minutes (10¢/minute, but there's a 50¢/month fee so it works
out to 20 minutes/month).

If you buy an $80 card then it's good for a year and includes 1800 minutes.

Just be certain that you have Verizon coverage where you live, and where
you'll use the phone the most, since if you roam onto rural CDMA
networks there's an extra cost per minute.

The cheapest option is T-Mobile where after spending $100 for the first
year you can add only $10 per year (83¢/month). The problem is that
T-Mobile coverage is poor.

Avoid Virgin, Net10, Boost, Tracfone, Consumer Cellular, and Jitterbug
at all costs.

On 8/13/2012 1:07 PM, Art Todesco wrote:
On 8/13/2012 2:39 PM, Metspitzer wrote:
I would like to get a phone for emergency and short important calls.
Any agreement on what the cheapest cost option is?

Living in western NC, Verizon, unfortunately, is the only game in town.

Perfect place for Pageplus, which is a Verizon MVNO. As little as $30 a
year, though the $80/year plan is the most cost effective.

I can't understand why anyone would sign up for Verizon prepaid service
when Pageplus prepaid uses Verizon's network and is far less expensive.

On 8/13/2012 1:09 PM, RBM wrote:

It's been about two years that I've been with PP, having switched from a
Verizon wireless family share plan. Unlike Verizon, this has been
nothing but a pleasure, and an inexpensive one at that. The variety of
plans are so flexible, you can set up automatic bill pay, so your credit
card is charged, prior to running out of time, and essentially buy
almost any phone, that's made to use on Verizon, including smart phones.
Here's their site:

http://www.pagepluscellular.com/

Well you really can't set up automatic payment to add $10 every 120
days. You can only set it up to add $10 every month. This is a bit of a
hassle since you need to remember to manually add money every 120 days
(unless you buy the 1 year/$80 card sold through resellers but not
directly from Pageplus).

What you _can_ do is to set up auto payment to add money ever 30 days
but with the first refill scheduled for your expiration date. Then go in
and cancel auto-pay, and then start it again with the next refill 120
days out.

The big advantages of Pageplus are a) it's on Verizon's network, b) the
per minute rate and the per text rate are much lower than other prepaid
providers, c) you can use a smart phone even if you don't have a data
plan, d) if you want a monthly plan with a lot of minutes and texts and
data they sell that too.

On 8/13/2012 2:18 PM, Metspitzer wrote:

In picking out a phone, I do plan on spending a little more money.
Being able to take pictures and save them over a USB cable would be
nice but not completely necessary. The Sprint phone I was using made
you upload the pictures and pay for each one.

I do also want a phone that will play mp3s.

We have four Android phones on Pageplus. For a while I tried one of
their monthly plans but I wasn't using enough data or minutes to make it
worthwhile so I went back to the pay-per-minute/pay-per-text/pay-per-MB
plan.

The ability to use it as a music player and as a camera (admittedly a
lousy camera) was vital. We use very little data since it's 99¢/MB but
Wi-Fi is so ubiquitous that 3G data isn't needed very often.

Besides uploading pictures over USB, you can also stick the MicroSD card
into an SD adapter and read the pictures out.

There are lots of gently used Verizon Android phones out there,
especially since the iPhone because available on Verizon. My kids have
the HTC Incredible (first one) and my wife & I have the original
Motorola Droid A855. When buying a used Verizon Android you need to
ensure that it has a clean ESN, and that it has not been flashed to
MetroPCS (a lot of the stolen phones with bad ESNs are flashed to
MetroPCS). Meet the seller at a Verizon store and the store will check
the ESN for you.

Metspitzer wrote:
I would like to get a phone for emergency and short important calls.
Any agreement on what the cheapest cost option is?

Thread from electronics showed this.

http://www.cellguru.net/prepaid_compare.htm

Greg

On 8/13/2012 5:18 PM, Metspitzer wrote:
On Mon, 13 Aug 2012 16:09:16 -0400, RBM wrote:

On 8/13/2012 3:08 PM, Metspitzer wrote:
On Mon, 13 Aug 2012 14:50:11 -0400, RBM wrote:

On 8/13/2012 2:39 PM, Metspitzer wrote:
I would like to get a phone for emergency and short important calls.
Any agreement on what the cheapest cost option is?

Find out which carrier provides the best cell coverage in the area you
plan to use the phone. If it turns out to be Verizon, you can get really
nice rates with pageplus. You buy just about any phone you like, that
was built for Verizon, except ones that were built for Verizon pre pay
plans, or you can buy new or used phones from pageplus. The cheapest
plan is a $10 card, which I believe is for 100 minutes, and it lasts for
I believe 120 days. As long as you get at least another $10 card before
the first one expires, whatever minutes you had left, rolls over.

10 bucks at 100 min for 120 days is perfect. I have yet to find a
package like that. I have found a couple 10 bucks for 100 min for 30
days.

Thanks

It's been about two years that I've been with PP, having switched from a
Verizon wireless family share plan. Unlike Verizon, this has been
nothing but a pleasure, and an inexpensive one at that. The variety of
plans are so flexible, you can set up automatic bill pay, so your credit
card is charged, prior to running out of time, and essentially buy
almost any phone, that's made to use on Verizon, including smart phones.
Here's their site:

http://www.pagepluscellular.com/

In picking out a phone, I do plan on spending a little more money.
Being able to take pictures and save them over a USB cable would be
nice but not completely necessary. The Sprint phone I was using made
you upload the pictures and pay for each one.

I do also want a phone that will play mp3s.

Then you're in luck. That covers about every phone made this
century.(lol) When I need a new phone, I go on Ebay and search Verizon
cell phones, new, no contract, then examine all the models to find the
features I want.

On 8/13/2012 6:32 PM, SMS wrote:
On 8/13/2012 1:09 PM, RBM wrote:

It's been about two years that I've been with PP, having switched from a
Verizon wireless family share plan. Unlike Verizon, this has been
nothing but a pleasure, and an inexpensive one at that. The variety of
plans are so flexible, you can set up automatic bill pay, so your credit
card is charged, prior to running out of time, and essentially buy
almost any phone, that's made to use on Verizon, including smart phones.
Here's their site:

http://www.pagepluscellular.com/

Well you really can't set up automatic payment to add $10 every 120
days. You can only set it up to add $10 every month. This is a bit of a
hassle since you need to remember to manually add money every 120 days
(unless you buy the 1 year/$80 card sold through resellers but not
directly from Pageplus).

What you _can_ do is to set up auto payment to add money ever 30 days
but with the first refill scheduled for your expiration date. Then go in
and cancel auto-pay, and then start it again with the next refill 120
days out.

The big advantages of Pageplus are a) it's on Verizon's network, b) the
per minute rate and the per text rate are much lower than other prepaid
providers, c) you can use a smart phone even if you don't have a data
plan, d) if you want a monthly plan with a lot of minutes and texts and
data they sell that too.

You are absolutely correct. I in fact have one of our five phones using
the $10 card, and I do exactly as you describe. It is a little strange
that they don't offer a 120 day auto renewal.

On 8/13/12 5:47 PM, gregz wrote:
wrote:
I would like to get a phone for emergency and short important calls.
Any agreement on what the cheapest cost option is?

Thread from electronics showed this.

http://www.cellguru.net/prepaid_compare.htm

Greg

Some info here http://www.phonescoop.com/
as well.

On 8/13/2012 3:53 PM, RBM wrote:

You are absolutely correct. I in fact have one of our five phones using
the $10 card, and I do exactly as you describe. It is a little strange
that they don't offer a 120 day auto renewal.

They're trying to raise their ARPU (average revenue per user). They
probably don't like getting only $2.50/month.

On 8/13/2012 6:27 PM, SMS wrote:
On 8/13/2012 1:07 PM, Art Todesco wrote:
On 8/13/2012 2:39 PM, Metspitzer wrote:
I would like to get a phone for emergency and short important calls.
Any agreement on what the cheapest cost option is?

Living in western NC, Verizon, unfortunately, is the only game in town.

Perfect place for Pageplus, which is a Verizon MVNO. As little as $30 a
year, though the $80/year plan is the most cost effective.

I can't understand why anyone would sign up for Verizon prepaid service
when Pageplus prepaid uses Verizon's network and is far less expensive.
I've actually looked at PP. I know that most of the times when company
B uses company A's towers, company A may not give the customers of B the
best service. But, I think I will check PP again.

On 8/13/2012 7:14 PM, Art Todesco wrote:
On 8/13/2012 6:27 PM, SMS wrote:
On 8/13/2012 1:07 PM, Art Todesco wrote:
On 8/13/2012 2:39 PM, Metspitzer wrote:
I would like to get a phone for emergency and short important calls.
Any agreement on what the cheapest cost option is?

Living in western NC, Verizon, unfortunately, is the only game in town.

Perfect place for Pageplus, which is a Verizon MVNO. As little as $30 a
year, though the $80/year plan is the most cost effective.

I can't understand why anyone would sign up for Verizon prepaid service
when Pageplus prepaid uses Verizon's network and is far less expensive.
I've actually looked at PP. I know that most of the times when company
B uses company A's towers, company A may not give the customers of B the
best service. But, I think I will check PP again.

Pageplus isn't using Verizon's towers, they are reselling Verizon service.

There are negatives to Pageplus, but they're not too bad:

1. No free or subsidized phones
2. No free nights & weekends, no free mobile to mobile
3. Roaming off of Verizon costs extra
4. No international roaming other than Canada or Mexico
5. No family plans
6. No high-usage data plans
7. Phone numbers not available in all service areas, even if service is
available

On 8/13/2012 11:50 AM, RBM wrote:
On 8/13/2012 2:39 PM, Metspitzer wrote:
I would like to get a phone for emergency and short important calls.
Any agreement on what the cheapest cost option is?

The cheapest
plan is a $10 card, which I believe is for 100 minutes, and it lasts for
I believe 120 days. As long as you get at least another $10 card before
the first one expires, whatever minutes you had left, rolls over.

Remember that there is a 50¢/fee deducted, so if you're getting a $10
card every four months you end up with $8.00 worth of 10¢/minute calls,
or 80 minutes.

We use our phones enough that the $80/1 year refill with 4¢ minutes is
about right, considering that texts come out of that as well (5¢/text).

$80/year is far less than we were paying when we were on Verizon itself,
plus now we can have smart phones even without a data plan.

We have roamed very occasionally, at extra cost, which would have been
included on Verizon itself. The places we roam have no coverage at all
on T-Mobile, Virgin, or Boost (some have coverage on AT&T and its MVNOs,
but not all of the places). Anything other than Verizon is a very bad
idea in the western U.S..

Metspitzer wrote:

I would like to get a phone for emergency and short important calls.
Any agreement on what the cheapest cost option is?

Tracfone - seven bucks and change per month.

You can pick up a refurbed phone with a year's minutes on eBay for a
pittance.

And the unused minutes just add up.

assuming someone talks on a phone and only needs a cell phone for emergencies.....

why have a land line at all?

with unlimited phone and text 50 bucks a month for major carriers like verizon, and as low as 19 bucks a month for republic wireless, with lots of options in the middle f that price range.

why not ditch the land line totally, and go all cell?

On 2012-08-15, Bob(but not THAT Bob) wrote:

And the unused minutes just add up.


Yep.

I remember when I first got one, about 4 yrs ago, they would subtract
mins after a certain amount of time passed if you didn't use them.
That's no longer the case. I've accumutlated up to 5 hrs of time by
only buying minimum time cards over a couple yrs.

I recently upgraded to an entry level smart phone fer a mere $20.
Texting, pictures, qwerty keyboard, etc. It will even send pics to my
email and access the internet!! I was amazed. We then had a power
outaged during the big fires in CO and I hadda use the tracfone to
call family in CA. 4 hrs gone. So, I bought double time mins --10
hrs-- fer $60. That's 10¢ min.

More retirees around here --who have no interest in yakkin' on a
cellphone all day-- have a cheapo tracfon for emergency, than any
other brand of cellphone. And you can get time cards in almost every
store on the planet. I think it's much easier to jes call 'em and
order more time on the phone. Less hassle and works quicker. I
rarely use my cell phone, but it's good to have, jes in case. Plus,
tracfon has had plenty of time to work out the bugs. It's a very
reliable product.

I realize this sounds like a huge plug for a cellphone product, but
that's cuz it is. I seldom shill for a anything, but I recommend
tracfon unreservedly. 'nuff said.

nb

--
Definition of objectivism:
"Eff you! I got mine."
http://www.nongmoproject.org/

On Wed, 15 Aug 2012 03:20:17 -0700 (PDT), bob haller wrote:

assuming someone talks on a phone and only needs a cell phone for emergencies.....

why have a land line at all?

with unlimited phone and text 50 bucks a month for major carriers like verizon, and as low as 19 bucks a month for republic wireless, with lots of options in the middle f that price range.

why not ditch the land line totally, and go all cell?

I did that seven years ago and have never regretted it.

On Wed, 15 Aug 2012 09:34:36 -0400, "
wrote:

On Wed, 15 Aug 2012 03:20:17 -0700 (PDT), bob haller wrote:

assuming someone talks on a phone and only needs a cell phone for emergencies.....

why have a land line at all?

with unlimited phone and text 50 bucks a month for major carriers like verizon, and as low as 19 bucks a month for republic wireless, with lots of options in the middle f that price range.

why not ditch the land line totally, and go all cell?

I did that seven years ago and have never regretted it.

I have read that lots of people are doing that. I don't do it for
two reasons. The first is that I get the land line for 22 bucks per
month, and I do need more talk mins at home.

The second and most important reason is that I don't want to have to
tote my phone around at home. I have 6 wireless phones throughout the
house to use when it rings. I even have one in the bathroom. I
actually use the one in the bathroom to call out on the most. I leave
my mail in the bathroom and go through it there. It really is a good
place for procrastinators to keep up with business mail.

On 8/15/2012 11:42 AM, Metspitzer wrote:
On Wed, 15 Aug 2012 09:34:36 -0400, "
wrote:

On Wed, 15 Aug 2012 03:20:17 -0700 (PDT), bob haller wrote:

assuming someone talks on a phone and only needs a cell phone for emergencies.....

why have a land line at all?

with unlimited phone and text 50 bucks a month for major carriers like verizon, and as low as 19 bucks a month for republic wireless, with lots of options in the middle f that price range.

why not ditch the land line totally, and go all cell?

I did that seven years ago and have never regretted it.

I have read that lots of people are doing that. I don't do it for
two reasons. The first is that I get the land line for 22 bucks per
month, and I do need more talk mins at home.


All of our family and most of our friends are on Verizon wireless. So
there are never any extra charges when we call each other. We initially
removed the long distance plan on the landline and then shortly
thereafter cancelled it.

Also at one time wired carriers maintained their systems and you could
always count on dial tone being there. Not so much anymore. I think a
good wireless carrier (they are definitely nor all the same) is more
reliable today.



The second and most important reason is that I don't want to have to
tote my phone around at home. I have 6 wireless phones throughout the
house to use when it rings. I even have one in the bathroom. I
actually use the one in the bathroom to call out on the most. I leave
my mail in the bathroom and go through it there. It really is a good
place for procrastinators to keep up with business mail.


Thats easy. There are BT docks you can buy to connect your cellphone to
your house phones.

On Monday, August 13, 2012 4:35:44 PM UTC-4, Fat-Dumb and Happy wrote:
Metspitzer wrote:

I would like to get a phone for emergency and short important calls.

Any agreement on what the cheapest cost option is?



I got a Net10 phone three or four years ago. A straight 10 cents a

minute and piggy backs on ATT's system, at least mine does. 15/month

for 200 minutes auto pay plan. The unused minutes roll over, I've see

I now have 1800 minutes to use.

http://www.net10.com/ wally world has them it's the same company as

straight talk and trackphone... I think Carlos Slim owns the company.

and interesting one,

Republicwireless.com 19/month runs off Sprint network. Uses VOIP when

it can via wifi and the sprint network when it has to.

I had tracfone/net10 and after awhile I ended up switching to AT&T gophone.

I got tracfone and signed up for a monthly plan, every month they charge your card 10 bucks and you get 50 minutes (If you buy the right phone they give you double minutes). I signed my wife up too, then also recommended it to friends. My friends ended up having trouble where they would charge their cards but not send them any minutes. After a year I had the same trouble too. I think the problem was that since they don't own the network (my tracfone used AT&T network) they would basically send a message to your phone to tell it to add more minutes and I think it wasn't making it through sometimes.

I dropped them and switched to gophone. The good thing about the gophone, eventually I wanted to switch to a smartphone, when I went to the AT&T store they gave me credit for all my gophone minutes and switched me to a real AT&T account (smart phones aren't technically allowed with gophone contracts).

On Wed, 15 Aug 2012 11:42:30 -0400, Metspitzer wrote:

On Wed, 15 Aug 2012 09:34:36 -0400, "
wrote:

On Wed, 15 Aug 2012 03:20:17 -0700 (PDT), bob haller wrote:

assuming someone talks on a phone and only needs a cell phone for emergencies.....

why have a land line at all?

with unlimited phone and text 50 bucks a month for major carriers like verizon, and as low as 19 bucks a month for republic wireless, with lots of options in the middle f that price range.

why not ditch the land line totally, and go all cell?

I did that seven years ago and have never regretted it.

I have read that lots of people are doing that. I don't do it for
two reasons. The first is that I get the land line for 22 bucks per
month, and I do need more talk mins at home.

When I switched the cost was over twice that. Add in any long distance and
*two* cell phones were obvious winners. I don't even use 10% of my minutes
since almost everyone I talk to is "free", one way or another. A side benefit
is fewer marketeer calls.

The second and most important reason is that I don't want to have to
tote my phone around at home. I have 6 wireless phones throughout the
house to use when it rings. I even have one in the bathroom. I
actually use the one in the bathroom to call out on the most. I leave
my mail in the bathroom and go through it there. It really is a good
place for procrastinators to keep up with business mail.

You can get an adapter for a cell phone to wired. My solution is to not
answer.

On Aug 15, 6:20*am, bob haller wrote:
assuming someone talks on a phone and only needs a cell phone for emergencies.....

why have a land line at all?

with unlimited phone and text 50 bucks a month for major carriers like verizon, and as low as 19 bucks a month for republic wireless, with lots of options in the middle f that price range.

why not ditch the land line totally, and go all cell?

For $20 a month, I keep the landline so we can use that number for
anything we think will "track us" or give out our number.

All of our robo-calls and other crap comes in over the land line.
Sometimes we go a week without checking the messages. When we do, it's
all junk.

We never answer it when we're home and when we look at the call log
99% of the calls are from 800 or long distance numbers from places
we've never heard off.

99% of the time, once the answering machine answers, the call hangs
up, so we know it wasn't important. That's the reason we left the
physical answering machine on the line. It's easy to check and we can
listen in on calls coming in when we're home.

We just don't want that junk transitioning over to our cell phones.

On 8/13/2012 2:11 PM, Frank wrote:
On 8/13/2012 2:39 PM, Metspitzer wrote:
I would like to get a phone for emergency and short important calls.
Any agreement on what the cheapest cost option is?


I use Tracfone:

http://www.tracfone.com/?lang=en

A year's service, maybe ~600 minutes, is $99. Not cheap minutes but any
remaining minutes with renewed purchase are rolled over and you don't
lose them. You can buy Tracfones all over and re-up minutes on line.

My wife had the phone, which I would sometimes borrow if I was out
hunting but gave it to me when a son put her on his family plan.

You have to buy the phone but can get a serviceable one for less than
$20. I had to do this this year as original phone about 10 years old
was getting long in the tooth.

They piggyback the other carriers so you will get service wherever there
is service.



I've been using Tracfone for years, my minutes don't expire until the
year 2020. ^_^

TDD

On 2012-08-13, Frank wrote:

I use Tracfone:

http://www.tracfone.com/?lang=en

A year's service, maybe ~600 minutes, is $99. Not cheap minutes but any

As I understand it, more expensive phones are automatically eligible
for double-time mins. So, when I upgraded from my cheapo LG flip
($12) to a better LG smart, I got double time mins and was able to buy
10 hrs (600 mins) for only $60. I think the phone I bought was only
$29 at Walmart, so the extra $10 for the phone saved me, based on yer
claimed cost, at least $30 on the prepaid time. YMMV

nb


--
Definition of objectivism:
"Eff you! I got mine."
http://www.nongmoproject.org/

On 8/15/2012 6:51 PM, notbob wrote:
On 2012-08-13, Frank wrote:

I use Tracfone:

http://www.tracfone.com/?lang=en

A year's service, maybe ~600 minutes, is $99. Not cheap minutes but any

As I understand it, more expensive phones are automatically eligible
for double-time mins. So, when I upgraded from my cheapo LG flip
($12) to a better LG smart, I got double time mins and was able to buy
10 hrs (600 mins) for only $60. I think the phone I bought was only
$29 at Walmart, so the extra $10 for the phone saved me, based on yer
claimed cost, at least $30 on the prepaid time. YMMV

nb



I've got 2300 minutes remaining for 4 months when I need to buy another
year so I don't pay much attention to getting extra minutes. Nothing
cheaper has popped up in this thread so if you want the security of
having a cell phone, I don't think Tracfone can be beat.

Metspitzer wrote:

The second and most important reason is that I don't want to have to
tote my phone around at home. I have 6 wireless phones throughout the
house to use when it rings. I even have one in the bathroom

There are wireless home phones with a cell dock that allows you to use handhelds
to make and receive calls through your cell.

On Wed, 15 Aug 2012 11:42:30 -0400, Metspitzer
wrote:

The second and most important reason [I keep a landline]
is that I don't want to have to tote my [cell] phone around at home.

They now have bluetooth enabled cordless phone sets that work with
both landline/cell and cell alone. Just throw your cell on the table
when you get home and you can answer/call from any of your cordless
phones. The only drawback is that they don't do text so if you're a
big texter you still have to carry the cell around.