Best Inexpensive Cellphone Plans

[Dawg52]

If the usage is broken down approximately even per the two phones, PagePlus has $12 a month plans with 250 min/250 texts. I use their prepaid refills - 2000 minutes that last a year for $80 (as low as $76 from CallingMart).

https://www.pagepluscellular.com/plans/

I have used this too for the last 2 months. Page Plus had a special when I signed up and got the 2000 minutes for $77. One thing I like about their deal is you get a reminder of how many $$$ you have remaining every time you place a call.

 

[Birdie Num Nums]

I was a late arrival getting a cellphone, in Oct 2008, when I got a Verizon flip-phone (i.e., it didn't text or surf). I was not interested in sending texts or using the phone to connect to the Net. I just wanted a mobile phone to make and receive phone calls, nothing more. That remains true to this day. And, after I ERd and did not need to be on call or make j*b-related calls, my # of calls diminished considerably. Today, I suppose I use well under 100 minutes per month. That's just me, YMMV.

About a year ago I decided that my low minute usage did not justify the $55/month I was paying Verizon. So, since then, I researched alternatives. I decided on a Tracfone phone, the LG840 from Amazon, plus bought 600 minutes, with triple minutes for life, 6 months service, along with charging accessories, for some $75.00. No contract involved; just buy more minutes/months. I even got to keep my old Verizon phone number. When my time is about to expire this July, I will consider buying Tracfone's $100/one year/400 minutes (1,200 minutes with my "triple minutes for life" option). That should cost me under $10 per month. Suits my purposes.

This LG840 mobile from Tracfone is a hybrid between my old Verizon flip-phone and a true smartphone. It's what I think they label a "feature phone." (BTW: I got a Samsung tablet to surf the net when I am on the road. So, again, I am not interested in having a phone that can do what the tablet can do.)

So far I am happy with my decision to switch from my old Verizon flip-phone to my new Tracfone feature phone. It is costing me a lot less $ per month. The Tracfone always shows on the front window of the phone itself (and my online Tracfone account too) how many minutes and days I have left remaining--to alert me when I should buy more minutes/months.

The only disadvantage I have uncovered so far is that my new phone does not allow callers to leave me a voice mail if I do not pick up--unlike my former Verizon phone. Instead, I have to go thru my phone options to see if there were any calls that I did not answer, then call back if I choose. I have since learned this is because I did not get a particular Tracfone that provides this feature.

 

[Birdie Num Nums]

The only disadvantage I have uncovered so far is that my new phone does not allow callers to leave me a voice mail if I do not pick up--unlike my former Verizon phone. Instead, I have to go thru my phone options to see if there were any calls that I did not answer, then call back if I choose. I have since learned this is because I did not get a particular Tracfone that provides this feature.

Well, the manual wasn't too helpful so I found online how to set up voice mail for this phone. So all is good after all!

 

[ER Eddie]

I hardly ever use my cellphone, but I want one handy in case of emergencies. I use a Tracfone with double and carryover minutes. I end up accumulating a lot of unused minutes. I get a year's service (actually a year and three months) for $70 by buying a $20 card then taking the $49 option of adding 365 service days. Suits me pretty well. Works out to about $4.70 a month.

 

[RE2Boys]

Thanks, we have considered consumer cellular. Also, they provide a small AARP discount. Out of curiosity, what model phone do you have?

Thanks,

Golfnut

Sorry for the delayed response, just noted your question. We're up to four phones now, $55 per month for 300 shared minutes, 500 shared text (before extra taxes).
one is a very basic Nokia 1600 candybar shaped phone
Two are Motorola basic flip phones (with camera, limited internet functionality)
One is a Nokia C3 with full keyboard.

None would be considered a smartphone.

Paid $15 each for the Motorola as we had a phone die (after 5years) and added one for youngest boy.

 

[imoldernu]

New Concept...Just starting out
Buy Phone, join plan $4.99 add as many phones as you like... Pay only for usage... As of now, just a few phone available starting at $199.


ZACT
Go to Zact Site for calculator Roll your own plan ie. 500 min $9.43... 1Gig Data $24.63, 500 Texts $4.43... Rollover ok.
Sprint Network 4G/LTE network.

Zact: Build Your Own Wireless Plan, Down to the Last Detail | TIME.com

In the news today. Google for more details.

 

[Live And Learn]

Resurrecting this thread to thank those who introduced me to PagePlus. My Verizon contract ran out this month and I switched 4 low use phones to the $80 / 2000 minute (good for one year) plan. For $320 for the YEAR, I have Verizon quality cell phone service for 4 phones ! Amazing.

 

[Chuckanut]

Yes. It's amazing.

About a year and a half ago I bought an slightly obsolete unlocked smart phone.

I signed on with not the cheapest vendor but one that provided good service at a price about $40 a month under the big providers. As of today, I could literally through my smart phone in the trash can and I would still be well ahead of where I would be under a 2 year contract.

Of course, I am keeping my smart phone and pocketing the $40+ dollars a month.

 

[gauss]

New Concept...Just starting out
Buy Phone, join plan $4.99 add as many phones as you like... Pay only for usage... As of now, just a few phone available starting at $199.


ZACT
Go to Zact Site for calculator Roll your own plan ie. 500 min $9.43... 1Gig Data $24.63, 500 Texts $4.43... Rollover ok.
Sprint Network 4G/LTE network.

Zact: Build Your Own Wireless Plan, Down to the Last Detail | TIME.com

In the news today. Google for more details.

With the recent demise of Zact, I am reminded why I really dislike putting out several hundred dollars up front for a carrier's proprietary phone.

If they won't activate a generic unlocked phone, I tend to pass.

-gauss

 

[robnplunder]

Thanks to everybody for the responses. If there are add'l responses, I'm all ears.

I called T-Mobile iro their pay as go plans. They have a 1000 minute/text (each text is consider 1 minute) for one year. Cost is $100. Got a feeling the 1000 minutes would last me at least 1 year. My wife maybe 3 months.

This is what I use after a tip from one of the ER threads. I don't use cell phone a lot and will likely leave many minutes on the floor when my 1 year expires in 4 months. This amounts to less than $9/month for the "privilege" of having a cell phone around. I was glad to get rid of Verizon although I had to pay a contract cancellation fee.

 

[pb4uski]

AT&T comes in good at our house, Verizon not. We use airvoice wireless' $10/month plan and it has been sufficient for our needs. I have it set up on autopay and they charge $10 a month to my credit card and it adds $10 to the balance on my phone. Voice is 4 cents a minute, texts are 2 cents each and data is 6 cents per mb. Unless we are traveling, we never come close to using our $10 and any remaining balance carries over. I probably could find a slightly better deal but am quite happy to have good cell phone service for $120/year per phone.

You have to bring you own phone but good AT*T phones can be found for $20 on up. DW has a nice little Android smartphone we got at Walmart for $50. I wanted something nicer and found a Samsung Galaxy S2 on amazon for $200.

 

[tfudtuckerpucker]

This is what I use after a tip from one of the ER threads. I don't use cell phone a lot and will likely leave many minutes on the floor when my 1 year expires in 4 months. This amounts to less than $9/month for the "privilege" of having a cell phone around. I was glad to get rid of Verizon although I had to pay a contract cancellation fee.

+1.

Not many years ago we were paying $400/mo for my family's cell phones. Now the kids are on their own, I have a Lycamobile 2 cents per minute pay-as-you go plan. I use our voip phone at home (we're in the country, so cell phone reception is poor here), so I only use my cellphone when I'm away from home. For the past year it's cost me less than $1/mo. My wife uses PagePlus for $30/mo. I'm much happier now.

 

[Birdie Num Nums]

I'm still happy with my $100/year TracFone plan, renewed in July, with triple minutes--so some 1,800 minutes plus (with other incentives). With last year's balance carry-over, I still have some 2,500 minutes. I, too, don't use my cell phone much. Definitely not for web browsing. (But it also serves me as a watch, calculator, insignificant e-calendar and what-not.)

 

[photoguy]

Using ptel on their prepaid pay go plan. It's 5c/min for voice, 2c/text, and 10c/MB for data. You need to spend at least $5/month to keep your plan alive but unused money rolls over.

 

[davismills]

I'm a TracFone person too. I bought a smart phone and always get triple minutes, text and data. I spend about 250.00 per year for two phones. Can't beat it.

 

[calmloki]

We had 3 phones - 2 stupid Nokia candybars and an Iphone. AT&T was hitting us about $160+/month. AT&T must be feeling the low cost providers, because they now are offering shared voice/data/text for much cheaper: We now have 3 smartish phones with 1GB of shared data, adequate shared voice and texts for $105.64/month, including all fees and taxes.

I picked up this sub $50 smart phone replacement for my ooollld Nokia.

http://www.amazon.com/Nokia-Lumia-5...8&qid=1410208928&sr=8-1&keywords=nokia+go+520

Windows operating system on it has some odd quirks and doesn't have as many apps as Iphone or android, but it pretty much blows me away for $50!!! Camera is pretty darn good

 

[travelover]

PagePlus, $2.50 a month plan. As a light user, I'm totally happy and I can use a smartphone with it.

 

[mpeirce]

While the following doesn't save us any money, it saves my DM some money.

DW, DS, and I have iPhones on an ATT family plan (no great saving there, but we like having them). We get the minimum number of minutes offered since none of us use the phone for actually talking to anyone. The ATT plan rolls over unused minutes each month and we had accumulated a lot of minutes!

My DM actually uses her phone to talk a lot. So we added her to our family plan for a delta of $35 (including data). She gets to soak up all those otherwise unused minutes and she saved a bunch over having a single user ATT plan for her iPhone.

 

[walkinwood]

Check out republic wireless if you already have a wi-fi connection at home. A friend of ours is quite happy with it.

 

[Senator]

I use Walmart Family Mobile. $84 for two phones, all you can eat (TTV). I can even use the phone for a hot spot if I am traveling.

T-Mobile sort of sucks in Marco Island, FL though...

 

[retirementguy1]

I have had republic wireless for a month now. I am a young user that has wifi at home and at work. I make most of my calls over the home wifi network. I pay $11 per month after taxes for unlimited calls and texts.

 

[sengsational]

DW has republic wireless, and has had it for over a year. Likes it. DD just got republic (and both DW and DD got $20 credit). There are real people that speak English on customer service!

I have FreedomPop (200 min talk, 500 text, 500MB data for $3.49/mo). Technically it's "free", but to get voice messaging, it's $3.49/mo. Had to buy the (older reconditioned Android) phone outright for like $150. Zero customer service and fairly crappy voice quality (Sprint reseller). But I use the phone on wifi 90% of the time. When using a cell signal, Google navigation works great, and texting works great.

Clark Howard mentioned something called "scratch wireless", but I haven't checked into that.

 

[ERD50]

Along these lines, a few years ago I was mentioning a well reviewed low-end smart phone, the Samsung Exhibit II (T679), ~ $200 at Walmart. Bought one for DD (she needed a smart phone for some nursing apps for school), and one for DW (she wanted to text more and that's hard w/o a full keyboard, virtual or physical).

These have been OK, but DD is a bigger user and she wanted something better after getting by with this for two years. Of course, she wanted an iPhone like her friends, but those are big $$$ w/o a contract (and I don't like contracts, you'll end up paying more for the phone with more restrictions).

Anyhow, I was following the reports on the Moto G, and they just came out with the newer version with LTE and an sdcard slot. Very good reviews, and ~ $220 at amazon, unlocked. Had to go to t-mobile to have her sim card transferred to a newer micro-sim size (was only $10, decided not to risk cutting it down for that price). She is very happy with it, so I thought I'd pass that along.

Just $199 now!

http://smile.amazon.com/Motorola-Mo...go_smi?_encoding=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0



I'll also mention again, the t-mobile pre-pay 'Gold Status' plan - for low minute users, or occasional high minute/data users - $100 the first year (~ 1000 minutes for the year), and just $10 for following years, and the minutes roll over. Since I literally use ~ 5 minutes a month most months, I get by with the $10/year updates, so just 83 cents per month. Can you beat that?

DW texts enough now, I had to do a $100 refill. But I'll count my blessing at only ~ $9/month.

And here's a great option - if you know you will need high minutes/texts/data for a day or a few days, you can switch to/from an unlimited $3/day plan from your phone. Unlimited talk/text/data. Or $2/day w/o data. That's a bargain if your high usage is an occasional, somewhat predictable thing.

-ERD50

 

[ChrisTexas]

We love page plus and in a few months they are adding 4G at no extra cost. As everyone jumps on the Iphone 6 bandwagon, if you need a smart phone pick up a used Iphone 5 on craigslist for $200 or less later this year. These phones last forever and can be repaired at low cost. You can buy the page plus plans on other sites for even less than the page plus website. Two iPhones cost a total of $54 a month with plenty of minutes, text and data. We are saving about $800 a year, all towards early retirement.


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