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

Virgin Mobile

[happyfunpaul.livejournal.com]

I used to have Virgin Mobile, and I liked it.

Every 90 days I'd have to put in $20 to keep it active, which meant that I had a cellphone good for about 30 minutes per month at a cost of $7/month. Actual cost of calls = 25 cents per minute for the first 10 minutes each day, only 10 cents per minute after that, which was nice when using far more minutes than usual... such as while calling for road service.

I bequeathed my "emergency cell phone" to my mom when I got a "real" cell phone (to serve as my only phone), but I liked the Virgin Mobile lack-of-plan for the year-and-a-half I used it.

Re: Virgin Mobile

[mattlistener.livejournal.com]

I still use the Virgin Mobile prepay for my massage business phone, and I really enjoy not paying a monthly rate or hidden fees. Paul's numbers are all correct.