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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
For those who got in on that crazy at&t free2go "emergency phone" deal that I tossed out last year about this time... (if you missed it, we got a phone, some airtime, and for a net cost of $25 at&t was giving out ~100 minutes plus an extra 20 free minutes a month and keeping those minutes from expiring for a year...so ~340 minutes for a year for $25.
Since Cingular bought AT&T, they also brought back the old at&t/cingular prepaid rate plans. No cheap cards, and the minutes expire in 45 or 90 days instead of 90 and 365. In other words, they're worthless.
I looked at a bunch of plans, figured I'd save everybody some time by sharing what I learned.
If you want a cheap deal and are going to talk a little, dont want a lot of fooling around with stuff, t-mobile's prepaid plan looks like a good deal. About $40 for a basic phone, you put a $100 card on it and you have 1000 minutes good for a year. If after 364 days you put another $100 on it, you've added 1000 more minutes and the first 1000 are good for another year...but it appears that minutes can only be rolled over for a total of two years (one additional). Thats about $12 a month for the first year, $8.33 a month for the second and subsequent years. T-Mobiles network is spotty though, they dont have as broad a coverage as some cell carriers, so check their web site 'coverage map' before you buy.
Tracfone has a cheap phone deal and their minutes dont expire with regular re-charges, they have a wide coverage area, but you only get something in the range of 100-150 minutes for your $100. Phone is in the $30-40 range. I'd go here if you're outside the t-mobile coverage area or you only want to dribble in $15 every couple of months instead of dropping $100 all at once.
7-11 (convenience store covering much of the country if you dont know what that is) also offers a 'speakout' plan that is apparently highly regarded by the very cheap. You can get a phone with minutes already charged on it at the store, basically open the box and start using it. Minutes last a year and can be recharged in small increments. I believe they use the cingular network so its pretty wide coverage. Gets expensive quick if you use lots of minutes though.
Beyond Wireless is an oddball company with a good reputation. They use the old at&t tdma network that the free2go phones use, and in fact can use the free2go phone you already use. Call them, activate, buy an airtime card and you're good to go. Minutes do not expire if you make or receive a call every 60 days. The one catch is they only offer phone numbers in a few states and california isnt one of them. The minutes DO include nationwide long distance, so this doesnt affect your outgoing calls much, but incoming callers may have to pay long distance charges to call you. Still...if you own an at&t free2go phone already from last years deal, dont want to spend much for a totally emergency type cell phone and will pretty much only be using it for an occasional outgoing call, AND you dont mind remembering to use it once every 2 months...beyond wireless is your low cost leader.
Please re-check any of this information; I've been reading these plans for about a week now and my head is spinning...I think I got it all straight now.
I havent decided between the beyond wireless deal and t-mobile yet. We're the only ones that call the cell phone and we have unlimited long distance from our home phone, so it'd be a cheap way to go. That 1000 minutes for $100 for a year from t-mobile is pretty attractive though.
Since Cingular bought AT&T, they also brought back the old at&t/cingular prepaid rate plans. No cheap cards, and the minutes expire in 45 or 90 days instead of 90 and 365. In other words, they're worthless.
I looked at a bunch of plans, figured I'd save everybody some time by sharing what I learned.
If you want a cheap deal and are going to talk a little, dont want a lot of fooling around with stuff, t-mobile's prepaid plan looks like a good deal. About $40 for a basic phone, you put a $100 card on it and you have 1000 minutes good for a year. If after 364 days you put another $100 on it, you've added 1000 more minutes and the first 1000 are good for another year...but it appears that minutes can only be rolled over for a total of two years (one additional). Thats about $12 a month for the first year, $8.33 a month for the second and subsequent years. T-Mobiles network is spotty though, they dont have as broad a coverage as some cell carriers, so check their web site 'coverage map' before you buy.
Tracfone has a cheap phone deal and their minutes dont expire with regular re-charges, they have a wide coverage area, but you only get something in the range of 100-150 minutes for your $100. Phone is in the $30-40 range. I'd go here if you're outside the t-mobile coverage area or you only want to dribble in $15 every couple of months instead of dropping $100 all at once.
7-11 (convenience store covering much of the country if you dont know what that is) also offers a 'speakout' plan that is apparently highly regarded by the very cheap. You can get a phone with minutes already charged on it at the store, basically open the box and start using it. Minutes last a year and can be recharged in small increments. I believe they use the cingular network so its pretty wide coverage. Gets expensive quick if you use lots of minutes though.
Beyond Wireless is an oddball company with a good reputation. They use the old at&t tdma network that the free2go phones use, and in fact can use the free2go phone you already use. Call them, activate, buy an airtime card and you're good to go. Minutes do not expire if you make or receive a call every 60 days. The one catch is they only offer phone numbers in a few states and california isnt one of them. The minutes DO include nationwide long distance, so this doesnt affect your outgoing calls much, but incoming callers may have to pay long distance charges to call you. Still...if you own an at&t free2go phone already from last years deal, dont want to spend much for a totally emergency type cell phone and will pretty much only be using it for an occasional outgoing call, AND you dont mind remembering to use it once every 2 months...beyond wireless is your low cost leader.
Please re-check any of this information; I've been reading these plans for about a week now and my head is spinning...I think I got it all straight now.
I havent decided between the beyond wireless deal and t-mobile yet. We're the only ones that call the cell phone and we have unlimited long distance from our home phone, so it'd be a cheap way to go. That 1000 minutes for $100 for a year from t-mobile is pretty attractive though.
