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joeyd50 MagicJack Newbie
Joined: 11 Jan 2009 Posts: 7
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Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 11:35 am Post subject: Pay as you go phone? |
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I thinking of getting red of my contracted cell phone and getting a pay as you go phone. Does anyone know witch one has the best plan?
Thanks
Joe |
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tony Dan Should Pay Me
Joined: 04 May 2008 Posts: 509 Location: Vancouver, BC
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Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 3:18 pm Post subject: Re: Pay as you go phone? |
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joeyd50 wrote: | I thinking of getting red of my contracted cell phone and getting a pay as you go phone. Does anyone know witch one has the best plan? Thanks Joe |
Wow, that's a pretty open ended question. Try this site for info http://www.howardforums.com, it covers both Canadian and US carriers, phones, and plans. |
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maine-iac Dan isn't smart enough to hire me
Joined: 25 Mar 2008 Posts: 347 Location: GA
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Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 3:53 pm Post subject: |
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Tracfone. Cheap; works great. |
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joeyd50 MagicJack Newbie
Joined: 11 Jan 2009 Posts: 7
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Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 4:22 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks for the input, I been looking on line and I was kina leaning towards the Tracfone.
Thanks Again
Joe |
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mberlant Dan Should Pay Me
Joined: 01 Feb 2009 Posts: 829 Location: Japan
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Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 7:11 pm Post subject: |
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I travel into the US several times a year, sometimes for months at a time. I find that Cingular's (now AT&T) $1.00 per day I use the service, 10c a minute works well for me. This plan includes mobile-to-mobile calling within the $1.00 daily fee. I add $100 once a year and they give me a $20 bonus. The balance lasts me the whole year.
I only use this service for telephone calls. No photos, no texting, no music transfer, no voice mail (they completely disabled it for me) -- none of the nonsense that jacks up a phone bill. |
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az2008 MagicJack Sensei
Joined: 20 Aug 2008 Posts: 1404 Location: Tempe, AZ
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Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 7:32 pm Post subject: Re: Pay as you go phone? |
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I like T-Mobile. $20 for their cheapest Nokia phone. 1000 minutes for $100. They last a year. There is a rumor that adding just a few minutes will cause the remaining minutes to last another year.
They have another pay-as-you-go plan. It costs $1 a day on the days you use it, plus 10 cents a minute. I guess it's less expensive initially. But, I liked paying for 1000 minutes and not facing $365 in a year (plus 10 cents a minute).
Mark |
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cdwaldron Dan isn't smart enough to hire me
Joined: 26 Jul 2008 Posts: 107 Location: Tucson, AZ
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Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 10:17 pm Post subject: |
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I converted from a family plan on T-Mobile to their pay as you go. It is 10 cents per minute. The $100 upfront gets you 1000 min. good for a year. Any additional minutes you add before the year ends, extends the time to one year beyond the date additional minutes were added for all remaining minutes. ? That was confusing.
Example: $100 - 1000 minutes bought 1/1/2009 so minutes are good until 1/1/2010
Add 440 minutes for $50 on 5/1/2009 and those minutes are good until 5/1/2010 along with any of the minutes from 1/1/2009.
As long as you don't let all of your minutes expire, any minutes you add are good for 1 year.
That said, T-mobile is just OK as a provider. It uses GSM so it won't work on CDMA networks.
[/u] |
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pagemen Dan isn't smart enough to hire me
Joined: 15 Dec 2008 Posts: 128
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Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 10:40 pm Post subject: |
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Also, don't forget to check the coverage map.
AT&T prepaid has very limited coverage, as it seldom roams to other carrier, while TMo prepaid, has almost the same coverage as their postpaid plan. Tracfone/Net10, from I've heard, will roam to any GSM carrier available, has the best coverage but you'll be bonded to their phones.
I'm using T-Mo ToGo for my emergency only cell phone, despite the high initial cost($100 for golden reward), the long time cost is much less----tracfone/net10 is cheaper per minute but you have to refill every few months. |
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mberlant Dan Should Pay Me
Joined: 01 Feb 2009 Posts: 829 Location: Japan
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Posted: Tue Feb 17, 2009 1:18 am Post subject: |
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pagemen reminds me that you also need to consider the price of the SIM card startup kit (for a GSM carrier) or startup charge (for a CDMA carrier).
When I went through this exercise 3 years ago, both Cingular and T-Mobile were charging $25 for a startup kit, and both included about $15 of call time with the kit. Through many calls with Cingular Customer Service, initially looking for a sales outlet inside LAX (no cellular company has representation inside LAX), I finally learned that Cingular would sell me the very same startup kit over the phone for $6.50 and would have it to my US address (my friend's doorstep) in plenty of time for my arrival.
Cingular also credited me with an extra bonus on all additional minutes I applied to the account within the first 24 hours of activation, so I went out to Wal-Mart and bought a $100 card (for 2% off; the best rate I have found on any recharge cards). At that time, $100 was the only value that gave a one-year expiration, but they might have changed that to match what cdwaldron reports about T-Mobile. |
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hsweiss Dan Should Pay Me
Joined: 28 Mar 2008 Posts: 563 Location: Maryland
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Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2009 4:23 pm Post subject: |
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I just came across an AT&T reseller called Consumer Cellular who have no-contract cellular service for as low as $10/month (w/no minutes) and $20/month (w/200 min), etc. They are endorsed by AARP because they don't have any early departure fees. www.consumercellular.com. I'm seriously thinking of switching over to them to get rid of Sprint - the only reason I had kept Sprint was it was $30 for 300 min and it was just too cheap to dump. At least in my neck of the woods, AT&T has *much* better service than Sprint. |
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az2008 MagicJack Sensei
Joined: 20 Aug 2008 Posts: 1404 Location: Tempe, AZ
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Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2009 4:34 pm Post subject: |
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hsweiss wrote: | I just came across an AT&T reseller called Consumer Cellular |
I clicked the link and received a warning that their secure cert. (certificate) was expired or didn't match their name. That's a little disconcerting for a business accepting credit cards.
If you've actually seen a reference to them on the AARP site, then they're probably legit.
Mark |
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mberlant Dan Should Pay Me
Joined: 01 Feb 2009 Posts: 829 Location: Japan
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Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2009 8:33 pm Post subject: |
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hsweiss wrote: | They are endorsed by AARP because they don't have any early departure fees. | Could this be because AARP members are more likely to make early departures [from this mortal coil] than the general population? |
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