prepaid cell phone plans

[topaz]

For some time, keyne and I have wanted to find her an inexpensive cell phone plan so that she could carry around a cell for emergencies. A prepaid by-the-minute plan seemed like the best way -- she'd only pay for the minutes she uses and wouldn't pay a lot of overhead for minutes she doesn't need. So I bought a $30 Verizon FreeUP card for her and activated it on our phone last week.

It wasn't until I got the receipt that I learned this plan gives her "unlimited nighttime and weekend minutes, and unlimited calls to other Verizon Wireless customers" and costs $0.99 a day just to stay on it. So even if she doesn't make any calls she's still spending $30/mo just for the privilege to do so.

This is not what we were looking for. Do all the prepaid plans work this way? Can anyone suggest a plan that does sound like what we were looking for? Or some other clever way to a cheap cell phone plan (preferably on Verizon)?

Comments

[alanj]

I use Virgin Mobile - minimum of $20/3mo to keep it active, and minutes cheap enough that I've never paid more than that. Their phones use one of the major networks, either Verizon or AT&T, I can't remember which. The cheap little Kyocera phone I bought has good voice quality, cost like $60, and the battery lasts almost a week without charging. My only customer service experiences, both human and automated, have been positive.

[ckd]

I'm pretty sure Virgin Mobile in the US uses the Sprint network, especially since the Sprint Store sells Virgin phones....