Need barest, skeleton, almost non-existent cell plan.

Questions on how we spend our money and our time - consumer goods and services, home and vehicle, leisure and recreational activities
Post Reply
Topic Author
Teague
Posts: 2524
Joined: Wed Nov 04, 2015 5:15 pm

Need barest, skeleton, almost non-existent cell plan.

Post by Teague »

I don't like cell phones very much. When they ring usually someone wants me to do something for them, when I'd much rather continue happily doing whatever I'm doing. No one has ever called to tell me I've won the lottery or anything like that. My friends and family have reluctantly come to accept that I don't often carry a functioning, switched-on cell phone.

But, times being as they are, I suppose I should have access to one of the blasted things for stuff like car breakdowns, etc. Particularly as I drive a Boglehead-ish car with 200K miles on it :) I do have a smart phone that I reluctantly activate 1 month at a time (StraightTalk, $45/month) when absolutely necessary, like having relatives in the hospital, going on long trips out of town, and so on. But beyond that I can, and do, go months without using a cell phone.

What phone/plan should I get to fit my very minimalist needs?
Semper Augustus
centrifuge41
Posts: 1317
Joined: Mon May 17, 2010 9:04 am

Re: Need barest, skeleton, almost non-existent cell plan.

Post by centrifuge41 »

Ringplus Truly Free maybe? https://ringplus.net/

Anyway, Ringplus gives away free plans as large as 3750MB data, 3750 minutes, 3750 text. You just have to pay an initial load fee, and let them top you up if you hit 0 again. The difference with Truly Free is that you don't have to give them a credit card.
tman9940
Posts: 302
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2015 11:44 pm

Re: Need barest, skeleton, almost non-existent cell plan.

Post by tman9940 »

I have a prepaid Tracfone. I buy the minutes, get double what I buy, and it lasts for 6-8 months. I bought 80 dollars worth in November, 2015. I still have 300 minutes left. Good Luck.
MathWizard
Posts: 6542
Joined: Tue Jul 26, 2011 1:35 pm

Re: Need barest, skeleton, almost non-existent cell plan.

Post by MathWizard »

The same company s straight talk has tracfone.

$100/yr.

You can bring your own phone now.

I use a phone with triple minutes, and get 1200 min + 1200 texts + 1200MB of data for $100/yr.
mInutes/test/data roll over as long as you keep service. I'm up to over 3000 minutes, and mostly use wifi for data.
I use a CDMA/3g phone because I live where gsm coverage is not good.

The Google Fi project also looks interesting.
User avatar
ClevrChico
Posts: 3246
Joined: Tue Apr 03, 2012 8:24 pm

Re: Need barest, skeleton, almost non-existent cell plan.

Post by ClevrChico »

PagePlus $80/annual pay as you go plan. It uses the Verizon network, which has the best coverage for auto breakdowns. You'll need a Verzion branded flip phone or 3G smart phone. (4G not supported on this plan.)
jfave33
Posts: 3287
Joined: Thu Mar 19, 2015 6:18 pm

Re: Need barest, skeleton, almost non-existent cell plan.

Post by jfave33 »

Buy a truphone sim for a tmobile or unlocked phone. https://www.truphone.com/row/consumer/sim/
No minimum requirements. Prepaid. No monthly fee. Decent rates. Free incoming calls. Uses both the t-mobile and att network for better coverage.


T-mobile prepaid costs $3 a month for 30 minutes/texts.
rooms222
Posts: 824
Joined: Fri Feb 22, 2013 1:12 pm

Re: Need barest, skeleton, almost non-existent cell plan.

Post by rooms222 »

Lycamobile prepaid. 5 cents a minute. No expiration date, no monthly fees, must make a call every 90 days. Buy a SIM card on ebay or amazon for a dollar. Buy a $10 refill from callingmart.com. Activate SIM card and add the $10 refill if you are getting a new number. You can call them up and port your old number if you want to. If you do, you must initiate the port by calling them up first, before activating or adding money to the SIM.

In either case, by adding just the $10 card, it will default to the prepaid minute plan, which is no longer mentioned on their website, but still available. This plan has text messaging at a similar price to calls, but I believe incoming texts are free. This plan has no data, which means that the phone cannot inadvertently use up you data, as many smartphones are wont to do with low cost prepaid minute plans.

For navigation purposes, use the here.com app and pre-download the maps of where you are travelling to your phone. The GPS will still work. Google maps is testing the pre-download feature for its app.

Find out more about lycamobile at howardforums.com (in the other prepaid US carrier section). Howardforums is the best source for cellphone information. Lycamobile runs on the T-mobile network.


If you instead use the Page Plus $80 plan for the first year (it uses old Verizon phones), be sure to mark the expiration date in your calendar and renew before expiration. If you have minutes left, buy a $10, 120 day refill, and your minutes will rollover and you get 100 extra minutes for the $10. I have a family member on this plan. After the first $80 year, they can do about 6 or 7 years for 3 $10 refills a year before they will need an $80 refill again. The biggest risks with this plan are forgetting to refill before expiration and losing your minutes or your smartphone using up the money through phantom data usage.
Topic Author
Teague
Posts: 2524
Joined: Wed Nov 04, 2015 5:15 pm

Re: Need barest, skeleton, almost non-existent cell plan.

Post by Teague »

Thanks to all for the extremely helpful information - yet another example of what a fantastic resource this forum can be. :D
Semper Augustus
UncleBen
Posts: 325
Joined: Wed Feb 19, 2014 7:43 pm

Re: Need barest, skeleton, almost non-existent cell plan.

Post by UncleBen »

For your usage this Tracfone will work. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Alcatel-Big-Eas ... Swl8NVbL1b

$29.99 for the entire year. When your year is up just buy a new phone and have the unused minutes transferred from your old phone to the new phone. So $2.50/month.
johnubc
Posts: 870
Joined: Wed Jan 06, 2010 5:54 am

Re: Need barest, skeleton, almost non-existent cell plan.

Post by johnubc »

and do not forget about Ting -
afatcat
Posts: 68
Joined: Sat Mar 28, 2015 9:17 am

Re: Need barest, skeleton, almost non-existent cell plan.

Post by afatcat »

Also take a look at Republic Wireless.
LifeIsGood
Posts: 1239
Joined: Mon Feb 11, 2008 7:43 pm
Location: Atlanta, GA

Re: Need barest, skeleton, almost non-existent cell plan.

Post by LifeIsGood »

Put $10 in a Pageplus account. Calls are billed @ $.10/min and you only have to top up your balance every 4 months. If you talk less than 25 min/month, your effective cost is $2.50/month ! The other big benefit is that you get the coverage of Verizon's network.
User avatar
coachz
Posts: 1048
Joined: Wed Apr 04, 2007 7:10 am
Location: Charleston, SC

Re: Need barest, skeleton, almost non-existent cell plan.

Post by coachz »

What's the cheapest one for unlimited internet, no need for phone calls. Thanks
gd
Posts: 1638
Joined: Sun Nov 15, 2009 7:35 am
Location: MA, USA

Re: Need barest, skeleton, almost non-existent cell plan.

Post by gd »

OP, you need to clarify to yourself your minimalist needs. You've got a smart phone-- do you use it as a smart phone, or voice only? If voice only, you have a completely different goal and should ignore all the data quantity info. I maintain 2 republic wireless phones for about $25/mo total, used regularly but minimally for cellular internet. But my T-mobile dumb phone used for only voice apparently has no minimum charge after the first purchase of $100 a few years ago, and I think I put maybe $20/year into it. Don't know if that's available any more to new subscribers (or even how long I'll get it for), you need to look specifically at the current low-end offerings and look for ideally no mandatory monthly or quarterly minimum charge, completely ignore data.
pochax
Posts: 1380
Joined: Tue Oct 21, 2008 11:40 am

Re: Need barest, skeleton, almost non-existent cell plan.

Post by pochax »

i think freedompop starts at $0/month for their cheapest plan.
Chuck
Posts: 2505
Joined: Thu May 21, 2009 12:19 pm

Re: Need barest, skeleton, almost non-existent cell plan.

Post by Chuck »

coachz wrote:What's the cheapest one for unlimited internet, no need for phone calls. Thanks
Net10 (GSM) or Page Plus (CDMA) have unlimited internet for about $40/mo. (A few GB at LTE speed, then throttled to about 64kbps.) You get a lot of voice minutes or unlimited voice with those plans. (You don't have to use it.)

If you really want no phone calls, you could get a MiFi or some other mobile Wi-Fi access point, and use whatever device you want.
Cheyenne
Posts: 548
Joined: Sun Jun 14, 2015 6:46 am

Re: Need barest, skeleton, almost non-existent cell plan.

Post by Cheyenne »

Tracfone

Here's a usage calculator: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... li=1#gid=0
BigSaver
Posts: 139
Joined: Mon Apr 20, 2015 7:31 am

Re: Need barest, skeleton, almost non-existent cell plan.

Post by BigSaver »

T-Mobile prepaid. $3/month. Includes 30 minutes & texts per month. 10cents per min/text after. This was the cheapest I found.
Topic Author
Teague
Posts: 2524
Joined: Wed Nov 04, 2015 5:15 pm

Re: Need barest, skeleton, almost non-existent cell plan.

Post by Teague »

gd wrote:OP, you need to clarify to yourself your minimalist needs. You've got a smart phone-- do you use it as a smart phone, or voice only? If voice only, you have a completely different goal and should ignore all the data quantity info.
Excellent question. I would only occasionally have use for any "smart" features, maybe every few months. So maybe I should have a separate "dumb" phone on a very cheap plan, and only activate the smart phone for a month at a time, when needed?
Semper Augustus
tnjj
Posts: 33
Joined: Fri Apr 05, 2013 9:41 am

Re: Need barest, skeleton, almost non-existent cell plan.

Post by tnjj »

Consider ting.com

You only get charged for the service you use...minutes, text msg, or data. $6 per month for the phone.
likegarden
Posts: 3181
Joined: Mon Feb 26, 2007 4:33 pm

Re: Need barest, skeleton, almost non-existent cell plan.

Post by likegarden »

We have a tracfone in each of our 2 cars, always turned off, used for emergencies only. We have no need for Smartphones, have much better displays and memory on our PCs at home. Each costs us about $60 per year. It is so low because we do not use the phones, annually only buy 30 minutes/ 30 days and then at the checkout 360 days.
pshonore
Posts: 8205
Joined: Sun Jun 28, 2009 2:21 pm

Re: Need barest, skeleton, almost non-existent cell plan.

Post by pshonore »

Boost mobile $5 for 3 months.
ft2010
Posts: 94
Joined: Sun May 17, 2015 8:22 pm

Re: Need barest, skeleton, almost non-existent cell plan.

Post by ft2010 »

No, just get a basic smartphone and ensure mobile data is turned off. You can enjoy its smartphone features while on WiFi, occasionally and purpose fully turn on mobile data when needed.

I would second PagePlus pay-as-you-go plans, either put up $10 every 120 days or start off with $80 for 1-year. It uses Verizon network, dependable and you only pay for what you use.

Teague wrote:
gd wrote:OP, you need to clarify to yourself your minimalist needs. You've got a smart phone-- do you use it as a smart phone, or voice only? If voice only, you have a completely different goal and should ignore all the data quantity info.
Excellent question. I would only occasionally have use for any "smart" features, maybe every few months. So maybe I should have a separate "dumb" phone on a very cheap plan, and only activate the smart phone for a month at a time, when needed?
Post Reply