pay as you go cell phone

[Only me]

I would like to find a prepaid cell phone for my 12 year old son. He would only use it for emergencies or for those times where I drop him off somewhere and would like for him to be able to get a hold of me. This doesn't happen often but It would still give me peace of mind for him to be able to get a hold of me. It wouldn't work out for him to use my phone or his sister's since we both need our phones.

 

We have used Tracfone in the past but weren't happy with it. Customer service was awful. I also hated the fact that you had to renew the days not just the minutes. My son would be using very few minutes but with Tracfone you still had to pay money even if you had a ton of minutes left.

 

Does anyone know of an inexpensive but quality prepaid cell phone that doesn't require you to pay a fee to keep it current other than the minutes?

[Starr]

We haven't found anything that works differently than the trac phone. I think we figured it out so it's about $10.00 minimum with double minutes. You have to renew the time with all the phones in this area.

[ondreeuh]

I had a horrible experience with Tracfone CS too!

 

DD and I use t-mobile prepaid (the pay as you go option). The cheapest phones are $20, and you can buy minutes in for as low as $10 (for 30 min). We just bite the bullet and buy the $100 refill card upfront which gives you 1,000 minutes and "gold reward status" so they don't expire for a year.

 

Last month I was at the end of my year and still had like 500 minutes left. I put another $10 on the phone and because I have gold reward status I got like 35 min. instead of 30. Then ALL of my minutes were extended for an additional year.

 

DD paid $50 of her $100 refill and she is responsible for paying for additional minutes. No surprise bills. She has told her friends not to text her b/c it isn't free. DD has the cheap phone and I have a Razr. We're very happy!

[MeanestMomInMidwest]

We had the same issue. We ended up just adding a line to our existing plan & got a free phone (we did it at the time our plan was up for renewal). So, we pay an extra $9.99/mo for the kids' phone. The minutes are shared between all the phones (we have 3 total). We never go over minutes and the kids only take the phone when they're on a bike ride by themselves around the corner, at practice, or at a friend's house. The kids phone stays in the house at other times.

[Amie]

We have been pleased with Virgin Mobile in the past (I think $10 a month to top off minutes), and the phone itself was only about $20. We are now using Straight Talk (I know, part of trac) and are very pleased--the reception has been better than Virgin Mobile's was. Oh, and even though it isn't advertised, our leftover minutes with Straight Talk so far have rolled over into the next month automatically. We just pick up a minutes card at Wal-Mart to refill--pretty easy.

[nevergiveup]

If you still have a landline, you might check with them. We got a cell phone through our phone company to take with us when we travel--it is $7.00 per month and comes with some local minutes.

[AngieW in Texas]

Dh and I have had cell phones for years. My dh finally agreed that our oldest could have a cell phone when she was 15yo. She had been biking to her art class for months using my cell phone to call me when she arrived. We'd already had issues when I wasn't home when she had to leave for her class and then I didn't know when she got there or when she left to come home. Those times drove me nuts. Adding another phone to our plan only cost $10/month and her phone was free.

 

Last summer we went to Disneyworld and I used that as an opportunity to convince my dh to get cell phones for the other two kids as well and to dump our landline. Adding two more cell phones to our plan, doubling our minutes, adding unlimited texting, and dumping our landline all ended up costing us $10 less per month than what we had been paying.

[milovany]

I'm a broken record in these threads ;) but I highly recommend Consumer Cellular!! They're not prepaid but they have a $10/mo. plan with NO CONTRACT required. You can get a free phone, AND their customer service rocks the line. Please check them out -- I used to sell cellular service and they really are one of the best out there.

[mktkcb]

The problem I see with consumer cellular is that yes it may be $10 per month, but that is just to keep the phone active, it doesn't include any minutes whatsoever. And the minutes are 25c each. It is waaaay cheaper to get a $100 prepaid from t-mobile, which keeps the phone active all year, and includes 1000 minutes. At consumer cellular this would cost $370 ($120 for 12 months, $250 for 1000 minutes). How is this a good deal??

[laurad1125]

We have an AT&T. We paid $10 for the phone and $10 for just shy of an hour's worth of minutes. The minutes expire in 90 days. So it would be $50 for the year. Hmmm, sounds like a lot when I type it like that.... I'll have to see what others say.

[s.z.ichigo]

Virgin Mobile is the cheapest pre-paid service, I think. It's $20 every 3 months, rather than $10 every month, which seems to be the norm. Phones start at $15-$20. http://www.virginmobileusa.com/

[Jamee]

I too use AT&T when we're back in the states. Since that's what my family uses there, calls to and from them didn't go against my minutes. I only need it for a couple months so it worked well the last time we were there. I'm hoping I don't have any trouble re-activating it this summer when we return and getting a second for DH.

[ConnieB]

I'm a broken record in these threads ;) but I highly recommend Consumer Cellular!! They're not prepaid but they have a $10/mo. plan with NO CONTRACT required. You can get a free phone, AND their customer service rocks the line. Please check them out -- I used to sell cellular service and they really are one of the best out there.

 

Just be sure to check coverage for your area....we tried this company but weren't pleased with the coverage. It showed "good" or "best" for our entire region, but the reality was that "good" wasn't. Moving from room to room in my own house we'd have dropped calls. I'd never want this to be a phone my child had for emergencies...what if the street they were on was only "good" coverage and they couldn't get through to me. We cancelled because they have no plans to upgrade in our area (a major city) in the immediate future, they are concentrating on getting at least "good" coverage in all of the US before they upgrade to "best". Midwest and east coast have the best coverage, but west coast/southwest is spotty at best.

 

We now have the phone and plan from Walmart (straighttalk.com). No dropped calls, and it was cheaper than the landline we replaced. They have two plans, $30 for 1000 minutes/texts and some internet...$45 for unlimited. The $30 plan is more than enough for us.

[skaterbabs]

We've had Virgin Mobile for years and been really pleased with the quality of the service. They use the Sprint towers, so reception is great. You can get a phone for as little as $10, and spend as little as $10 every 90 days to keep it current. Minutes DO roll over from one month to the next if you have a minute-to-minute plan. This is what we have for Yacko. I think we put $15 or so every other month on his phone.

 

My phone has a monthly plan because I use it a LOT more. I pay $35 a month for 300 daytime & 1000 night/weekend minutes and 1000 texts. We upgraded my phone to the monthly plan a couple of years ago when we realized that we were spending nearly $50 a month by paying per minute. The $30 plan was cheaper AND had more airtime.

[Corraleno]

Virgin Mobile is the cheapest pre-paid service, I think. It's $20 every 3 months, rather than $10 every month, which seems to be the norm. Phones start at $15-$20. http://www.virginmobileusa.com/

:iagree:

DH and I have both had Virgin Mobile for 4 years and we love it. The customer service is terrific, and it was the cheapest plan we could find. When we first signed up they even had a special deal that was $60 for an entire year, so $5/month. Now we pay $20 every 90 days, so it works out to around $7/month, and all the minutes roll over as long as you keep the account open. We also have a 3rd Virgin phone for the kids or visiting relatives to use.

 

Jackie

[NoPlaceLikeHome]

T Mobile is the cheapest from what I can tell at 10 cents per minute if you buy a year's worth for $100.00. Just renew your minutes before the end of the year and the minutes rollover. Just check the coverage in your area.

 

I have had it for over a year and it is great:)

[iteachmine]

Another plug for Virgin Mobile! My DD16 has had one for 2 yrs and she is very pleased. She even upgraded her phone last Christmas when she had a little extra money.:D

[milovany]

The problem I see with consumer cellular is that yes it may be $10 per month, but that is just to keep the phone active, it doesn't include any minutes whatsoever. And the minutes are 25c each. It is waaaay cheaper to get a $100 prepaid from t-mobile, which keeps the phone active all year, and includes 1000 minutes. At consumer cellular this would cost $370 ($120 for 12 months, $250 for 1000 minutes). How is this a good deal??

 

True that! I did name the cheapest plan, but the better idea would be to get all a family's cell service with them and then share minutes. Then it doesn't cost anything extra as long as you don't go over your minute allotment -- and if you're close to doing so you can call and upgrade for that month (down grading again the next month as desired).