Latest cheap emergency cell phone deal

[d]

Quote:

Whatcha paying?

as stated: I got a phone and 450 minutes, 15 months service, for about $120.* They run "deals" periodically, but their current prices for 1yr service is $99 (250 minutes) or $130 (400 minutes).* My usage is quite limited (have likely never exceeded 10 minutes per month, usually <5), and the area coverage suits my needs.* Granted, if you use more time, this might not be the way to go.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Whoops, you did say and I missed it. Fooey.

Seems like a good deal for lower usage. Although I dont use all of my t-mobile minutes, so far i've been able to roll them forward.

We do have sporadic periods of high use. Like when my wife was going to deliver a baby anyminitnow and I was over at her old house trying to finish the remodel before it happened. Its nice to have the extra time when stuff like that happens.

[justin]

I'll second the tracfone recommendation for low cost. We get ~450/minutes with the 1 year card for $100.

Or buy a new phone every 4 months for ~$25. It'll come with 2 months free service and 20 minutes of time, plus a 2 month add on card with 60-80 minutes of time.

Tracfone constantly has special deals and promotions on their website and you can google "tracfone coupons" for more discounts.

I prefer the easier $90/yr and you get to keep your phone number. Call quality, roaming and coverage area is great.

Customer service sucks pretty bad for tracfone. Their "bilingual" customer service reps frequently have trouble with English. And anything out of the ordinary is usually met with a lie like "that is an unsupported feature that Tracfone can't help you with" which really means "I don't know what I'm talking about and can't call up the local cellular company that we rebrand your service from".

You can also get a free 120 minutes (and 2 months of service) when you are referred to tracfone through their "refer a friend" offer. The referrer also gets the 120 minutes and 2 months of service, so you can use this to get free airtime and minutes if you and your spouse/kid both use tracfone. Just keep getting new phones every few months and take advantage of the referral bonuses.

[MasterBlaster]

I'd have to disagree with the tracfone recommendation.

If you go with STImobile they'll charge you 10 cents a day (or $36.50/year). 450 minutes purchased at cheapphonecards.com would cost between (under plan I - $45 and $54 depending on what time of day you make calls). Therefore the total would be less than $90.50 per year. Any minutes that you didn't use would roll over to the next year. Extra minutes beyond 450/year cost a fourth of what they do under Trackfone's plan.

If you are like me and only use maybe 10 minutes per month then your cost would drop to only $50.90 per year.

I got a free phone with rebate from STImobile. And their flip-phone is quite a bit better than the disposable phone that Tracfone gives you.

Stimobile also allows very cheap international rates. Stimobile uses the Sprint network so call clarity and access are great.

[justin]

I like the convenience of adding a 1 yr card once per year w/ my tracfone (my wife actually uses it).

How does the stimobile $0.10 charge per day get paid? Does it come out of your prepaid balance? In other words, does a $100 card buy you 1000 days of service (assuming you never make a call)? I might be tempted into switching to STImobile if that is the case. Only adding a prepaid card every 2-3 years sounds pretty good!

Looks like STImobile charges an extra $0.10 per minute for voicemail retrieval and a $5 setup/activation fee as well.

[MasterBlaster]

yes the Stimobile daily charge (10 cents) comes out of your prepaid balance.

Your comments are indeed true about voicemail and the activation fee.

However when I received my phone I got a free $10 card that allowed activation and a few very short calls. I don't know what they do nowadays.

One other little zinger. You need to make at least one 1-minute call every 60 days or your account goes inactive and you'll need to pay the activation fee again.

[d]

it does sound good (vs tracfone) but the tracfone area/coverage better suit my needs

[Texas Proud]

The cheapest right now is Virgin... but only for a short time.. buy a $50 phone and get $40 talk time or about 160 minutes...

if you do auto reload, then only $15 every three months

[Papi]

I finally bought the emergency cell phone this weekend.* I decided upon the Virgin deal : $60/year ($15 auto-reload every 3 months) and a cheap $29 phone.* Because we rarely plan on using it, I could really care less about minutes or surfing the web, etc.* *And it works where I need it to work.

And we are the last folks on our street to get a cell phone*