Cell phone help

[Christine]

I am looking to get my eldest a pay-as-you-go cell phone.

 

Supposedly, hubby and I have such a thing. (We just don't use cell phones much.) I say supposedly for the following reasons:

 

In Europe we had pay-as-you-go cell phones, and you bought a card of time (which didn't expire) and input that into your phone, and when you were 5 minutes from using that entire time your phone would tell you so and you would go buy another card.

 

Here was have a pay-as-you-go cell phone through, the company, "Virgin", and we pay $15 every 90 days. Our minutes don't roll over, and we certainly don't use them all.

 

I want the European version! I want to change DH and my phone to that "plan".

 

Please, does anyone know of an honest "pay-as-you-go" cell phone company here in the states?

 

I know many companies advertise it, but they seem to have plans that you buy into just like Virgin. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong area on their websites?

[unsinkable]

We have AT&T.

 

You can buy as little as $15 (which expires in 30 days and you have to add money or lose it) or $25 (which expires in 90 days and you have have to add money or lose it). What you have left on the phone does roll over, though.

 

HTH

[Bambam]

Try tracfone. They sell cards with x number of minutes and a service time of x number of months. When the service time expires, you must purchase a new card, but the remaining minutes do roll over - provided you input the new card before your service time expires. Look online for the best deals.

[Starr]

I think trac phone is the closest. It costs us about $10.00 a month. The phone came with double minutes. I also read that they rate highest in consumer reports. We use this for our dd 15. We buy a cheaper card that is more money per minute but she doesn't need many minutes.

[Heather in AL]

I have had the T-Mobile pre-paid phone for about 5 years now, and I love it. I go the 'more expensive' route and pay $100 once a year for 1000 minutes. The minutes I do not use roll over as long as I stick more minutes on it before the yearly 'expiration date'. When I put my $100 on there in May, the poor young guy at the store about had a cow----he had called it in for me to load and the voice said "you now have 3500 minutes" (I don't remember the exact amount, but it was over 3500). He said 'w-o-w.... that's a lot of minutes!' and had really wide eyes. He had tried to talk me into a monthly plan, but I just said to him "I told you I don't use it much!"

 

I believe the minutes will roll over from year to year with *any* added money at the expiration date, but I prefer the 100 minutes (it's more minutes, so a better deal). I figure I'll use them eventually, and I also don't have to worry about running out.

 

I can't remember exactly, but something tells me that I had to do the $100/1000 minutes the first time to get the yearly expiration date.... ask at T-Mobile.... and ask more than one person. I checked with people at two stores and I also called on the phone to be sure the info I was given was correct.

 

As a side note, be sure to write down the number of minutes you have *before* refilling them.... once I didn't get my full number of minutes and had to REALLY complain to the cust service #.... having my previous minutes helped.... I had printed it off the website just by chance, so guess what I do each time now? :001_smile: