cheap cell phone plans

mathwhiz · Post by **mathwhiz** » Sat Jun 06, 2009 5:13 pm

Tracfone is out with a new one for moderate/heavy users of their cell phone. 1000 minutes for $30 a month. I don't know if the double minutes for life would work with this plan but if it did that's 2000 minutes for $30/month. The closest competition seems to be from Boost Mobile which has an unlimited plan at $49.99 but 1000 minutes a month should be enough for most people.

http://blogs.usatoday.com/technologyliv ... -plan.html

Looking for a hot wireless deal? Right now you can get 1,000 wireless minutes, 1,000 texts/MMS and 30 MB of data over Verizon’s network for just $30 a month.

The new pre-paid plan, called “Straight Talk,” is being offered by TracFone, a budget wireless operator. You’ll need a special handset – three are available, from $30-$100. There are other freebies, like free 411 calls, which normally cost $1.50 apiece or more.

In his “Fierce Wireless” e-bulletin, wireless analyst Mark Lowenstein says Straight Talk is a bargain, even by the cut-rate standards of the dirt-cheap pre-paid world.

“It is the best deal in the business,” he writes.

According to Lowenstein, one major advantage of Straight Talk is the Verizon network – considered tops in the industry. Then there’s the price -- $30. That’s significantly cheaper than other pre-paid plans, including Boost’s super-hot $50 offering. Boost’s service runs on Sprint’s Nextel network. (Boost is the pre-paid division of Sprint.)

preserve · Post by **preserve** » Sat Jun 06, 2009 8:14 pm

the deal maker is the included 1000 txt's and 30 megs of data.

bluto · Post by **bluto** » Sat Jun 06, 2009 8:51 pm

I purchased a Tracfone last year to use for a few weeks while I was in the USA. It was easy to get started, but some type of malfunction erased $78 of my $100 balance. Tracfone service was horrible and I was never able to recoup the lost balance, only part of it.

IMO, it is cheaper to pay a little more up front. I'll use Tmobile next time I visit.

Downeastah · Post by **Downeastah** » Sat Jun 06, 2009 11:43 pm

My wife has had a TracFone for a little over a year, and I recently dropped my provider to go with TracFone. We've utilized their customer service a couple of times and never had a problem with them.

Trev H · Post by **Trev H** » Sun Jun 07, 2009 5:02 am

Found the Strait Talk mentioned on walmart.com

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product. ... d=11069996

Did not see any options other than the 1000 minute for $30.00 card.

AND IT EXPIRES in 30 Days !

360.00 yearly

I don't use anywhere near that much cell phone time.

We recently changed to tracfone and have the Moto 376g phones (cost less than 30.00) and have been very pleased with the phone and service. No problems at all.

You can get the 600 minute talk/text (with promo code) on the tracfone website for 99.99 and if you have a double minute phone, you actually get 1200 minutes and that includes ((1 year)) of service.

1200 / 99.99 = .0833 per minute

I talked to a co-worker last week who has the ATT Family Talk Nation 700 minute deal with unlimited mobile to mobile.

She thought it was a good deal.

Her and her Hubby share the minutes in that plan.

Total monthly cost = 82.43

I had her check the total minutes (including moble to moble) they used the past 4 months (since they cut their land line) and went all mobile and they had averaged around 270 minutes monthly with 316 being the high.

82.43 / 270 = .3052 cents per minute

At the tracfone cost of .0833 per minute that would have been 22.49

They had just signed a 2 year contract.

===

ataloss · Post by **ataloss** » Sun Jun 07, 2009 5:15 am

Tracfone service was horrible and I was never able to recoup the lost balance, only part of it.

my tracfone worked while roaming but not near home. CSR couldn't fix it but wasted a lot of my time. Some sort of local problem they were having.

mathwhiz · Post by **mathwhiz** » Sun Jun 07, 2009 9:26 am

Trev, you should click on the image in the link you posted. The other options are listed in the ad. Tracfone also has a website for straighttalk with more information. It's obviously only a good deal if you are a heavy user of your cell phone.

http://www.straighttalk.com/

Tracfone service was horrible and I was never able to recoup the lost balance, only part of it.

I think you'll find similar stories from every single mobile phone carrier. Just ask some people about their experiences with Verizon or AT&T. In some ways, you get what you pay for. For the business model to work at these prices, they obviously got to cut costs to the bone. But if it ends up working for you and you never need customer service, you can save a lot of money. They've done something right. They've grown to the largest prepaid cell company in America and the 5th largest overall with over 11 million subscribers.

Bill Bernstein · Post by **Bill Bernstein** » Sun Jun 07, 2009 11:11 am

If you:

1) Use your phone less than 200 min/mo, and
2) Don't text,

Then I don't think you can beat T-Mobile prepaid. You'll pay $20-$60 up front for a phone, and if you buy 1000 minutes for $100, that's good for a year. If, after a year, you haven't used all your minutes, you can reset for another year by buying as little as $10 additional minutes. I recommend getting a simple phone for starters, then buying perhaps $25 of minutes to see if it works for you.

I only use about 100 min/mo, so it costs me only $10 mo; amortizing my phone purchase over the 2-year expected lifetime of the phone, that's about $11-$12/mo. All in all, a much better deal than Tracfone: the perfect Diehardphone. Call quality pretty good, and, of course, for this price, no free nights/weekends.

Plus, if you buy one of the Motorola quad-band phones (got mine for $30), when you re-up your minutes they'll give you an unlock code: voila, instant worldphone.

Bill

mathwhiz · Post by **mathwhiz** » Sun Jun 07, 2009 6:16 pm

If you make lots of international cell phone calls, also don't forget skype.

Skype-to-go allows you to dial a local U.S. number to make international calls for the same cost as any other call according to your cell phone. Skype rates are as low as 2 cents a minute and they also have unlimited country plans for as low as $5.95 a month.

Sotol · Post by **Sotol** » Sun Jun 07, 2009 11:02 pm

If you are in a rural area as we are, T-Mobil doesn't offer the best service. In fact they simply don't work at all where we live. We have to go with All-tel although the cost is higher than we'd like, but there is no problem with service most of the time, although the phone cuts out here and there for a short while until we drive past the dead zone.

Sheepdog · Post by **Sheepdog** » Sun Jun 07, 2009 11:44 pm

My wife and I have used Tracfones for over 8 years. They are very inexpensive for us. The service, including customer service, has been excellent. We don't use our cell phones much. For most calls we use land phones. We do use the Tracfones for much of our long distance because there is no extra long distance charge. Like I said, we don't call much though. Once we built up several hundred minutes (I still have 900, she has 700 available), we don't add more minutes. We just pay about $6.00 a month for each one by adding their "Value Plan" to keep service going without adding more minutes.. If we ever need minutes, we can do that and extend time with them. We have never had any problem with reception except in Alaska and a few other wilderness and sparcely populated areas.
You can buy a VGA Camera flip Tracfone with 400 minutes and one year of service and with free double minutes for life for $99.99. You can also purchase a phone (not a camera model) with 800 minutes and one year of servce with double minutes for life for $139.99.
On a per month basis, they are cheap. See: http://www.tracfone-orders.com/bpdirect ... =true&AID=
Jim

Trev H · Post by **Trev H** » Mon Jun 08, 2009 6:09 am

mathwiz

I did click on the card image in my link and yours and still see nothing but the 1000/$30 offer.

I even tried entering my zip and then clicking the image, still see nothing else.

????

Ricola · Post by **Ricola** » Mon Jun 08, 2009 9:20 am

Trev H wrote: We recently changed to tracfone and have the Moto 376g phones (cost less than 30.00) and have been very pleased with the phone and service. No problems at all.
===

I got this same tracfone for my son. Recently it went through the washer (even extra cycles) and the dryer (until somebody got annoyed with the thumping noise). We left it outside for the rest of the afternoon. The next morning it fired up and is working 100%. So thumbs-up for tracfone and Moto.

preserve · Post by **preserve** » Mon Jun 08, 2009 10:12 am

wbern wrote:If you:

1) Use your phone less than 200 min/mo, and
2) Don't text,

Then I don't think you can beat T-Mobile prepaid.

Virgin Mobil. $60 a year.

I don't think it is fair to say that any plan can't be beat. It all depends on very specific user needs.

People should clearly shop trac-fone, t-mobil, virgin mobil, and this new plan mentioned in the thread.

richard · Post by **richard** » Mon Jun 08, 2009 10:53 am

preserve wrote:
wbern wrote:If you:

1) Use your phone less than 200 min/mo, and
2) Don't text,

Then I don't think you can beat T-Mobile prepaid.
Virgin Mobil. $60 a year.

I don't think it is fair to say that any plan can't be beat. It all depends on very specific user needs.

People should clearly shop trac-fone, t-mobil, virgin mobil, and this new plan mentioned in the thread.

Depends on your usage pattern.

As I understand t-mobile:
year 1: 1,000 minutes for $100. total = 1,000 minutes, $100, $100/year
year 2: 30 minutes for $10. total = 1,030, $110, $55/year
year 3: 30 minutes for $10. total = 1,060, $120, $40/year
year 4: 30 minutes for $10. total = 1,090, $130, $32.50/year

Discounted minutes available from: http://www.callingmart.com/products/wir ... aspx?ID=35

KarlJ · Post by **KarlJ** » Mon Jun 08, 2009 3:56 pm

I have not read much about the AT&T Go-Phone on discussion boards, but I have been satisfied with this pay-as-you-go plan for several years. Depositing $100 each year rolls over the unused amount up to $500 maximum accumulation. Calls are $1 a day for every day the phone is used plus $.10 a minute. There is no charge for days the phone is not used so this works well for those who call only occasionally. In my area AT&T has a strong signal so calls inside the house are feasible. I opted for a no-frills Moto that cost about $30.

Frankbrown13 · Post by **Frankbrown13** » Sun Jun 21, 2009 10:52 pm

richard wrote: Discounted minutes available from: http://www.callingmart.com/products/wir ... aspx?ID=35

They have been running 15% sales on Fridays. There are details at howards forum about it:
http://www.howardforums.com/showthread. ... st12722170

Two Hair · Post by **Two Hair** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 9:25 am

Have been using trac phone for about 9 months. Service is very good and customer service has been good. Bought the double minutes option.
Very satisfied.

ky3099 · Post by **ky3099** » Fri Aug 21, 2009 5:42 pm

I have an ATT unlocked phone. Does anyone know if I can use it on T-Mobile or Trac network.

I like the cheap rate plans, but I don't like their phones.

tfb · Post by **tfb** » Fri Aug 21, 2009 6:04 pm

ky3099 wrote:I have an ATT unlocked phone. Does anyone know if I can use it on T-Mobile or Trac network.

I like the cheap rate plans, but I don't like their phones.

T-Mobile yes, Trackfone no.

craigtheskier · Post by **craigtheskier** » Sun Aug 23, 2009 10:45 am

I am going to Greece for 3 weeks and am looking for a good international cell phone plan. So far I have looked at Range Roamer and Telestial. Does anyone know anything about these or other providers?

Thanks.

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