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Prepaid plans that aren't monthly


duckabell
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We need to purchase a simple prepaid phone for our oldest for emergencies. It only needs text and minutes. We don't want to add it as a family plan because it'd be too expensive.

 

Are there any good prepaid plans that you can spend $10-$20 and the minutes/texts last you for 3+ months? Plus, any cheap phones you'd recommend?

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Yes!

For our "kid's phone" we use H2O wireless.  We pay $10 for 3 months airtime (text, talk and data--as you use them your balance goes down. I think it's 5 cents a minute or text).  You can even get automatic refill every 90 days.  You can add minutes if you need (pay more earlier) and minutes roll over if you renew before the 90 days is up.

 

The best thing--there are free phones that you can get--really old fashioned ones, but free if you need them.

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Another option you might consider is USMOBILE.   https://www.usmobile.com/plans  Cafeteria style and you can change what you use, from month to month if your needs change. I will buy SIMs for them the next trip we make to the USA.  $7 a month would give 100 minutes and 100 text messages, for example.  When you have a handle on the actual usage, then you can consider changing around.  I believe they run on the T-Mobile network in the USA.

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I went with Lanny's suggestion.  It's super dirt cheap and it's good for us because some months we need minutes and other months we don't. 

 

We also use Tracfone for some of our phones.  If you want data and all that though, it works out to be more money per month than it seems you want to spend.  I believe with some plans minutes carry over, but you have to keep adding to it (I'm not entirely sure of the exact details though). 

 

 

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Whatever carrier you choose, I would recommend looking at buying whatever level of minutes are good for an entire year.    We used to have a prepaid dumb phone through Verizon, and I would buy $100 worth of minutes that lasted for an entire year.   That works out to be a little over $8 per month, and however many minutes we purchased never ran out, until my DD got to middle school and her calls & texts went WAY up.  But because of that initial outlay of minutes that didn't expire for a year, the additional minutes I needed to buy didn't expire for the remainder of the year.

 

The prepaid phone no longer worked for us after a certain point, so now DD uses a dumb phone that is on our family plan, so we pay the $20 line fee per month for her phone.  When she graduates to a smart phone, she'll share data on our family plan.

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The flexibility of a "Cafeteria" plan, like USMOBILE offers, is very nice. Especially for a new user. If the needs are higher than anticipated, one can change, immediately, or at the most 30 days later.

 

We love Virgin Mobile Colombia (an MVNO that runs on the Movistar network), but I wish they would carry over Unused Data, because we rarely use much of our Data allowance.  They do not have a "Cafeteria" plan, so our "AntiPlan" (Non Plan) includes Voice, Text and Data, for approximately USD $7.50 per month.   Normally, we don't use all of our allowed resources.  

 

We are using WhatsApp a lot now, for both Messaging and Voice calls, but that requires either being on WiFi or using Data. WhatsApp is free and widely used around the world.   

 

Edited by Lanny
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How much texting does your child need?  It is hard to suggest things without knowing what your needs are.

I would guess 10-20 texts a month. It's mostly for contacting us (his parents) if we're out or if he's at some extracurricular activity and needs to get a hold of us. 

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We have tracfones and they work great.  You can get a plan for the basic phone for $19.99 for 90 days (180 min) or 99.99 for 365 days (1200 min)  either of which seem to be fine for your needs.  

 

We have upgraded to their smart phones and do $125 for 1500 min, 1500 text and 1.5 gig of data for a year.  The nice thing is that the unused portion will roll over if you keep the account active by adding money before the end date.  We also have gotten our phones from QVC.  They have the best cost for the phones and they come with a year of service.

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