Best prepaid cellphone?

[barefootbabies]

Our cell phone contract is up on the 19th of this month and we are planning to cancel. We never use them, so its not worth the $100/month. We want to get prepaid phones to keep in the car, in case of a breakdown, emergency, etc. I'm not familiar with any of the options, and I was hoping someone would be able to recommend one to me. Thanks!

[swissgirl]

I use the AT&T GoPhone plan. I pay $25 for 90 days worth of minutes which I never come close to using up. The minutes rollover as long as you pay the next $25 by the 90 day mark. It works out to $100 for cellphone service a year.

There are different dollar amount configurations available. As an infrequent and frugal cellphone user, I've been very pleased with the service and pricing.

[Purple*Lotus]

I have had trouble with both Net 10 and Tracfone. It seems both brand new phones were programmed wrong so that I was unable to get voicemails. And getting support for a prepaid phone is difficult, at best. I haven't tried any other services yet.

[CarrieMF]

We have a Rogers pay as you go phone. we put $10 on it & it lasts the month unless we're travelling & actually calling people. We've gone 6months without putting anything on it.

[tinuviel_k]

I use T-Mobile. It was the only pre-paid service I could find where I didn't have to deal with monthly payments.

I pay $100 for 1000 minutes and they last for an entire calender year. If I don't use up the minutes a year after I bought them I can add another $100 and keep the leftover minutes, too. I've been really pleased with the coverage and the simplicity of the plan.

[oneKnight]

I like Tracphone.

It has better coverage than Sprint, in my area. Receiving text messages are free for me, and only 1/3minute to send one. I don't talk much, but I can buy extra minutes for $20 if I happen to get a lot of calls one month, or I can buy nothing for until my months expire.

[avendesora]

Originally Posted by tinuviel_k

I use T-Mobile. It was the only pre-paid service I could find where I didn't have to deal with monthly payments.

I pay $100 for 1000 minutes and they last for an entire calender year. If I don't use up the minutes a year after I bought them I can add another $100 and keep the leftover minutes, too. I've been really pleased with the coverage and the simplicity of the plan.

Same here. Most prepaids do have monthly payments, or a $1/day fee, or very limited expiration dates for minutes. ($30 worth of minutes expire at the end of one month for example, or buy $60 worth of minutes and it will expire in two months. Still, you're then spending $30/mo to have the phone.)

T-mobile's minutes are 10c/minute, if you buy them in bulk, but then don't expire for a year. It costs me under $100/year to have the phone. I don't reserve it for emergencies only, but I don't chat either.

By the way, if you leave your phone in the car and it freezes, it might not work again.

Aven

[Sheal]

Koodo has phones for 40 bucks and plans that are as low as 20 a month with the minutes rolling over into the next month.

[CameronsMama]

We also have t-mobile and I have no complaints. We are saving about $50 per month, and I still use it somewhat regularly, not just for emergencies.

[cristeen]

Originally Posted by tinuviel_k

I pay $100 for 1000 minutes and they last for an entire calender year. If I don't use up the minutes a year after I bought them I can add another $100 and keep the leftover minutes, too. I've been really pleased with the coverage and the simplicity of the plan.

This is actually fairly standard for most of the prepaid programs I looked at. We have AT&T prepaid, and we pay $100/year per phone. They have 2 plans for the cost per phone calls - if you're making a lot of them, $1/day + 10 cents/min would be the way to go. But, since we don't use them hardly ever we pay 25 cents/minute flat. At this point my phone has something like $120 on it, and DH's phone has over $200 on it. They also have a "rewards" program, where when you spend X amount, you get Y extra $ on your phone. So pretty much every year I put $100 on my credit card, but my phone gets $110 or $120.

I researched all the prepaid cell phone providers about a year or so ago. ATT was making us buy new phones (digital vs analog), and we were considering switching at that time. But there wasn't any significant difference between any of the companies, so it wasn't worth giving up the rollover minutes.

Your best bet would probably be to look and see who has the best reception where you want it. Since there is very little difference between plans, that's going to make the biggest difference in usage.

[jnowacinski]

i use tracfone and have no complaints. it was $15 for the phone and $100/year instead of per month.

i just wanted to add that idk about your current carrier, but i thought i would just be done with cellone at the end of a two year contract, but found out that i had to give them 30 days notice if i wanted to cancel (even though the contract was up) and got sucked in to a whole extra month

[SquishyBuggles]

I have a Tracphone and have no complaints, for the most part. Service is patchy in certain areas, but I've had that trouble with every phone co.

[EFmom]

I've had a tracfone for a couple of years and its been great. I haven't had problems with service at all. There are no monthly fees. You pay for airtime and minutes. So long as you have airtime on the phone, the minutes are good. I don't use it much--maybe 30 minutes a month or so because I don't find talking on the phone recreational. You can always find codes online for extra minutes when you add them on. You can also buy phones that give you double minutes built right in.

I would say that I spend maybe $100/year, tops.

[*Jessica*]

Another vote for Tracfone.

[aisling]

we really like our tracfone and I personally prefer the monthly plan that they have now. I have $5 taken out of my account automatically each month if I am not in need of minutes and if I need minutes, I can easily switch to a $10 plan, get a month access and 50 minutes and then switch back to the $5/month. I've found it to be really easy and really cheap.

[jackaroosmom]

Can you keep an existing cell phone when you start up with Tracfone or Tmobile or do you have to get one of theirs?

[Adamsmama]

We use trackfone now -- we paid $19.99 for the phone and 10 minutes and all the minutes we buy are doubled for the life of the phone. We bought a year's worth of minutes this month for around $100 plus the cost of the phone. We had Sprint before and were paying $75/month for the same amount of minutes.

[Samm]

Another vote for Tracphone! We've also had pretty good service. And great reception.

[WC_hapamama]

I had a virgin mobile pre-paid for a while and hated it, since the company would call the phone with advertisements.

If I had to choose one now, I'd go with Verizon or AT&T, since both get decent signal quality in my area.

[PNCTink]

We love our Virgin Mobile phones, but the calls and text messages are annoying. We top-up every 90 days with $20. The phones seem to last long too. I once dropped my phone in our dirt driveway where it rained for the whole weekend and it still worked. We've had ours for 6 years now.