What's a good cell phone/plan for someone who rarely uses a cell phone? for Questionland Seattle

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What's a good cell phone/plan for someone who rarely uses a cell phone?

So, as previously established, I live in the wilderness. I have no phones here, nor cell towers. But when I fly out to the frontcountry every few months or so, we pack a lot into that time. Those visits usually involve visiting friends and families, making appointments, and ordering things. We could really, really benefit from having a phone during those visits (plus, I wouldn't be mooching off other people).

The problem is that I don't want to pay for a phone that we only use a few weeks out of the year. And I don't want to get a monthly plan and put it on vacation, because there's often reactivation fees associated with that. I don't want to have a cell in the long term (yeah, yeah, march of progress, I know), and the last time I had a cell phone that got put on vacation, it restarted my stupid 2 year contract. I had to eventually pay a $150 early termination fee to get rid of the thing.

I like the iPhones and think they'd be fun to have. I don't know how that works with cell plan.

What would you do? Or not do?

Sacrelicious asked in Tech Products 9 months ago | Report

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asteria

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First I would get a google voice number in the area code you would be using the most when you do use a phone - that way you have a permanent number to accept voice mails and/or text messages when you're not in call range, and you can access your messages from the web.

Then I would get a prepaid phone with a per-minute plan - you don't need a monthly package. Just put enough money on your prepaid account so you can make calls when you're in cell range, then reactivate next time. I'm pretty sure most prepaid carriers let you do this and keep the same number - you will lose any unused minutes, but it's still way cheaper than any monthly plan. You should ask just to make sure. Also a lot of drug and grocery stores cell prepaid phones & cards, so you don't need to give the cell company your credit card and worry about them charging you. Bartell's usually has good basic prepaid phones on sale.

The best per minute plan I've seen is T-mobile's - if you put $100 on your account you get 1000 minutes and 1 year to use them. But I don't know what's going to happen when the AT&T buyout goes through, or when that will happen.

asteria answered in Tech Products 9 months ago | Report

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Cool. I will check at Bartell's next time I'm in town. Thank you!

Do prepaid phones have contracts or early termination fees? Or are they basically disposable phones with minutes on them?

Sacrelicious commented 9 months ago | Report

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They're basically disposable - you pay for the phone; sometimes they include a card for airtime. There are no contracts or termination fees, and I'm pretty sure no reactivation fees if you let the account go idle for awhile and then add more time when you need it.

Right now Bartell's has an AT&T phone for $15, and you'd have to buy $25 of airtime to use it. That should get you 250 minutes with their 10-cent a minute prepaid plan.

All the carriers have different rules though, and they change all the time. So you could get a phone for a month for something like $40 or $50, then drop it off at Bartell's when you are done and they will recycle it. Or save the phone and add more time when you need it again. My friend's parents lived out of the country and would do that when they came to the U.S.

The main problem is finding someone who knows about the fees and can help you pick the best carrier - someplace like Target or Walmart might actually be better for that. But Bartell's carries a couple of phones from all the main prepaid companies and could give you all the info you need.

AT&T has either a 10-cent a minute plan or $2 a day plan that sound like good options for you. And you don't have to give them a credit card number, so they can't charge you for anything more than the $25 or $50 you put on your account if you use the cards.

asteria commented 9 months ago | Report

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Tracfone is the best price I found when looking for prepaid cell service. It can be as low as $0.06/minute, depending on how much you buy up front.
-check out the double minute for life phones
-I think they have triple minutes for life now
-the minutes have a longer 'shelf life' then the other ones I looked at.
*There is a text 'hack' with one of their flip-phone models: LG420. You can preview incoming text messages on the external screen and it won't deduct minutes. You can view this message in your phone too w/o using minutes, viewing it on the external screen somehow circumvents the signal to Tracfone to charge you for accepting an incoming text.

If you use more than 100 minutes a month Net10 is the better pricepoint.

internet_jen answered in Tech Products 9 months ago | Report

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The "basic rate" plan from Virgin Mobile (on Sprint's network) lets you pay $20 every three months for the privilege of à la carte minutes ($0.20/min) and texts ($0.15/text):

http://www.virginmobileusa.com/cell-phone-plans/paylo-plans.jsp

capicola answered in Tech Products 9 months ago | Report

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Before I gave in and got an iPhone, I had a pay-as-you-go phone from AT&T. I'd buy $25 worth of minutes every three months. If I remembered to refill my phone before the end of the three months, the unused minutes would roll over. I'm pretty sure there were no additional fees if I'd let my minutes lapse for some amount of time.

To check it out, go to http://www.wireless.att.com and enter your zip code. (Since you're in the hinterlands, you might want to use a Seattle-area zip code.) Click on Shop Pre-Paid Packages, and it'll show you a bunch of pre-paid phone deals. Some of the refurbished phones are crazy cheap; if you don't care about extras, you can pay as little as $10. If you find a phone you like, click on Customize Package. For your individual plan, choose the 10 cents/minute plan, then go to the bottom and pick a Go Phone refill card.

Now that I'm looking at this, I'm realizing that AT&T has gotten cheaper about their Go Phone deals and would ask you to refill every month instead of once every 90 days. Bastards.

But, another option is the $2/day plan, which would only charge you on days you use your phone. I'd definitely read the fine print and make sure there are no additional fees if you don't use your phone for __ number of days.

If you want anything fancier than a regular cellphone, you can also get a pay-as-you-go data plan, but an iPhone wouldn't be an option.

keshmeshi answered in Tech Products 9 months ago | Report

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Cool. I checked out the site and I like all the refurb phones, and at least two of the plans look okay to me. There's a plan that only charges $2/day on the days that I use it, or a plan that just charges $0.10/minute, period. The only nervous-making thing is I read the fine print and there's something like a $350 early termination fee. But for a phone that only charges by use, I don't know how that would even work. After all, if I just sit and let the time run out, they can't charge me for not using it on those plans, right?

Thanks for the help!

Sacrelicious commented 9 months ago | Report

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