Julie in CA Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 My dd15 will be going on a trip with friends, and I'd like her to have a cell phone. We usually add our teens to our plan when they turn 16, and we're not ready to do it for her yet. Is there an option for a cheap phone that will only be needed for a few weeks? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starr Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 We use a trac phone. Our shopping is limited and we find them at walmart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-rap Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 Well the cheapest pay-as-you-go TracFone is $9.99 I believe. You can get it at most Walmarts, Targets, etc. Then you add on the minutes. If you go online, I think the cheapest amount you can add is $9.99 (for a certain number of minutes -- I can't remember how many). So, that's still $20 you're paying altogether, but you'd get to keep the phone, so if you ever need an extra cell phone from then on, you have it. There may be cheaper options, but a few years ago when I needed a phone for the same reason, this is what we went with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Buckin' Longhorn Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 Perhaps a Net 10. They're pretty inexpensive pre-paid phones. You can pick them up at Wal Mart. I've also heard of people adding a line temporarily. You can usually get a refund minus the actual minutes used if you disconnect it within 30 days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Newcastle Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 You can get a disposable cell phone at Rite Aid (pharmacy) or Walmart. It is a prepaid cell phone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeenagerMom Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 We have an AT&T GoPhone that we use for DD when she's going to be away from us. They run about $20 at Walmart & usually come with $10 in minutes that you can add after activation. It's a $2/day plan that comes on them, but it's unlimited after you've made your first call/text. You can also call AT&T after you activate the phone & they can put it on a $.10 per minute plan (which is the better option for us). We like doing the GoPhone thing because we use AT&T for our plans and if something happens to one of our phones, we can pop our SIM card into DD's phone until we can get a replacement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tammyla Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 :iagree: Go to almost any store and pick up a pre-paid phone. Just look for the best deal of minutes and overall price. There are so many options and they vary depending on your location. We've used Tracfones and AT&T in the past; none were more than $30 and they included 30 - 60 minutes of text/calling. (The last one we picked up at Walmart for our youngest to use and it was $14.99 and had 30 minutes; the features were phone/text/camera.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creativish Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 I have done a lot of research for pay-as-you go phones. I have both Tracfone and PagePlus and have been happy with both. I wouldn't recommend Net 10 as I believe the minutes still expire in 30 days, TracFone has $20 90 day cards and PagePlus has $10 120 day cards. We only have our phones for emergencies or short quick calls so this works out the cheapest for us. We live in rural America so our phones are cdma that work on Verizon. GSM (At&T, T-Mobile, Sprint) just isn't built out enough around here so I have never considered them for our needs. Sprint-based carriers, like Virgin and Boost also have good priced phones/minutes plans-- but I don't know much about them. Tracfone would be the easy method since you can buy them pretty much anywhere-- even on their website they often give out free phones with the purchase of a refill card. Pageplus has an $80 card that is good for a year, but they are mostly offered online but you can use your own verizon phone so that is nice ;) And if Sprint works where you live and where your daughter is traveling there are many places that sell Virgin phones and cards too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emzhengjiu Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 We have had Tracfones for several years. Since we use the phones only for emergencies and the occasional convenience call, they work well for us. You can buy phones that automatically double your minutes. There are always promotional codes to be found. If you add airtime from their website, you can try multiple promotional codes to see which one is valid. I just bought a 60 minutes card for my daughter's phone. Since with her phone the minutes are doubled, she received 120 minutes, plus I had found a promotional code for an additional 30 minutes. She uses more minutes than I do since I expect her to keep in touch with me when she's out. I don't like the companies that charge a rate for each day you use the phone plus the minutes. When I calculated the charges, those phones would have cost us much more. Ann Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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