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

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Actually, the TMobile plan can be had for $8.33/month if you go with the $25/90 day card or the $100/1 year plan.

Still, though, I didn't know all that either, Tim. I always assumed the pay-as-you-go meant something closer to, well, just that. I had a similar annoyance with the calling cards I was buying for Japan -- just about all of them have, in addition to the per-minute cost, a weekly "maintenance fee" which meant you'd run it down even if you never made a call. Hrmph.

[ratphooey.livejournal.com]

They just want your money. Bastids!

[chorus.livejournal.com]

TMobile's plan will update the expire date of the minutes when you add more minutes, so it doesn't necessarily cost anything per month, if you're actually using the phone on any kind of regular basis. For instance, I had 45 minutes due to expire early next month but when I added more because I was getting low, the expire date became July for my total minute pool. Their minimum is $10 for 30 minutes that lasts 30 days; I prefer $25 for 130 minutes that lasts 90 days, plus pretty soon I roll over to gold status, which ups that to 150 minutes that last a year, allegedly, though that I can't confirm through usage the way I can the rest.