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

[ratphooey.livejournal.com]

AAA used to offer an inexpensive phone for emergency use.

Looks like TMobile's pay as you go plan starts at $10 a month.
http://www.tmobile.com/prepaid/rates.asp

[thomascolthurst.livejournal.com]

When I was looking into this a while back, the cheapest deal I found was from tracfone, which will give you a year of service (but only 150 minutes) for $95, which works to just under $8/month.

If you want, I've got a tracfone phone that you can have. (I got it as a present several years ago from my parents, who did not quite comprehend the depths of my cell phone hatred. I tried it for about a month, and haven't used it since.)

[fengshui.livejournal.com]

True emergency use doesn't require a phone plan at all. Legally, all working cell phones must be able to call 911 without any service plan. However, if you want something that allows calls to people other than 911, your best bet is either to do tracfone or to get a family member or friend to add her phone to their plan as a second line for $10/month. Then you can just pay them for any non-night/weekend minutes you do use and the $10/month surcharge.

[dancingwolfgrrl.livejournal.com]

Verizon has a deal where for $20/month, you can put an additional phone on your plan and it can share your minutes. That's cheaper than the pre-paid, at least?

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.

[annaoj.livejournal.com]

I still have Verizon prepaid, but that's because I'm grandfathered in to the old plan, which does not charge me .99/day. I think Virgin Mobile prepaid might be your best bet nowadays...

[queenmomcat.livejournal.com]

Verizon's web site seems to think they've got various family plans available in your area

www.verizonwireless.com

[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.

[roozle.livejournal.com]

For all the bad rap that Sprint gets, we have two extra phones added onto our plan for $10/month each.

prepaid

[(Anonymous)]

Both my husband and I use Tracpone. We have had no real problem with them like there plans quite well. You by the phone and add minutes.The best buy they have is buying the double minutes year card. You get a year activation and double minutes lets say you buy a 400 minute card you will get 800 minutes. For me 800 minutes has lasted me almost the half year already.
We have been looking into other plans but not found any that we like or that is comparable to Tracfone.
Rhonda