Cell Phone- Monthy Bill or PrePaid?

**handmerounds** · 08-03-2005, 12:56 PM

QVC is offering a Today's Special Value on a TMobile "Pre Paid" Cell Phone $66 (one time price for the phone etc.) or something like that.. You get a lot of accessories and a $15 worth of airtime.  Then all you have to purchase in the future is prepaid minutes.  Right now we pay about $45 per month for our cell phone.  My husband carries it with him to work, he has a long commute.  That's basically the only time we use.  I am thinking we would be better off with the PrePaid minutes.  I am really tired of this cell phone bill every month when we don't use it that much. 

What do you all think??   

**duckduckgoose007** · 08-03-2005, 01:10 PM

We have a Pre-paid one through Track-Phone.

It is ok, but you have to watch carrefully & be sure to buy more minutes before your time is up....I know "Clear as mud" right???? LOL

We missed by one day & they made us get a new number...what a pain...Hey we are old...we just learned the first number

So make sure you ask questions.

Our Daughter works for T-Mobile.

Hope this helps you...Liz

**Mom23boys** · 08-03-2005, 02:34 PM

We have a monthly bill. I know it gets old, but I like knowing I can pick it up and call to see where my son is and make sure he is ok. Or when one is done with practice early, they call and let us know. It is so convenient. I have taught them that when they call they should call our cell phones because it is free to talk cell phone to cell phone. We have 3 different phones and carry the lowest plan and have never in 3 years went over our minutes due to following the "frugal rules". Call anyone after 9 pm on week nights and anyone during the weekend anytime. I use it to actually call my family that is long distance during the free hours and we it saves us because we don't pay long distance on our home phone.

Here I am rambling on.

I don't know anything about month to month, so hopefully someone can help you out. I think it would be ok as long as you don't let your minutes run out like Liz was saying or you would be changing your # all the time. I would ask about that first before getting one. In that case, it seems like you would still basically be paying monthly to keep the minutes up unless you can make them last for quite a long time.

**handmerounds** · 08-03-2005, 03:02 PM

One thing about our cell phone is that we don't have signal at our home. We live in the hills and can't pick up signal, so we can't really use it for our long distance calls unless we are in town. So basically all we use ours for is hubby calling from work or on his way home, etc. So I don't think we would use that many minutes, especially if knew we had a certain amount.

If I do decide to, I will definitely check about the running out of minutes deal. That would be a negative. Also, I did check on their website and you have to buy minutes every month.

Liz, is the track phone like that?? Do your minutes expire at the end of each month?

Michelle, sounds like you phones are great for your family. When my kids get a little older, we'll probably do that too.

**Mom23boys** · 08-03-2005, 03:17 PM

I was reading that you can get 200 minutes if you refer a friend.

Here is the wording:

Here's your chance to tell your Friends and family how easy and convenient it is to receive prepaid wireless from TracFone. Just enter their e-mail addresses below, and we'll invite them to try TracFone. When any of your Friends buy and activate a new or reconditioned TracFone, you and your Friends each receive 100 FREE airtime minutes with our thanks.

Please inform your friends not to delete the e-mail they receive from you through the TracFone Refer-A-Friend program. They will need it to register for the free minutes.

They have other specials on their site, http://www.tracfone.com/home_page.jsp?b=n&flash=YES&p=W

A free phone with a 40 minute card only 19.99.

**Mom23boys** · 08-03-2005, 03:20 PM

How the tracfone service works:

Buy more TracFone Prepaid Wireless Airtime cards as you need them. If you run low on minutes, purchase and add more cards. To keep your TracFone service active, you must purchase and add a TracFone Prepaid Wireless Airtime every 60 or 365 days depending on the card denomination. Add airtime before your due date and your remaining minutes and service days will carryover and be added to your phone, to a maximum of 120 days with any combination of regular airtime cards or 730 days with any combination of annual plan cards. TracFone Prepaid Wireless Airtime cards are available online or at over 60,000 retailers nationwide.

I hope this helps!

**mom22grls** · 08-03-2005, 04:03 PM

DD has a tracfone & we have a monthly bill for DH & mine.

I'm happy with tracfone, but it always seems like we're finding better deals on minutes through the other companies. But, we've got generous lengths of time to purchase minutes so we don't lose the phone number.

DD pays with her own money, and our phones are company phones with 4 on a plan. I'm afraid she's be *too* spoiled if we paid for a phone for her.

She has quite alot of friends that are long distance, though. Perhaps we'll do something for her 16th birthday.

**CurvesChick** · 08-03-2005, 06:24 PM

We have a contract through cingular. Never had a problem. My 2 older sons have tracfone and half the time can't make a call - or there is something wrong with the network.......

**YankeeMom** · 08-03-2005, 07:04 PM

I would never pay for a cell phone when so many companies give you a free cell phone with a 1 or 2 yr contract. We pay around $65/mo for two cell phone lines (phones were free), that includes free nights & weekends, free mobile to mobile calling (anyone with our service provider), and 400 anytime minutes w/ rollover. We never use all 400 mins every month and have literally 1000s of minutes leftover every year. Alas, that is the smallest plan they offer.

Our company is Cingular as well.

**Ssindi** · 08-03-2005, 09:59 PM

I have had a trac fone for three years now.I live alone and only have it for emergency use.I went to the web site and bought a reconditioned phone.After some months(forgot how many) of activation,I had the choice of the phone cost refunded or 120 units of time.I took the time.I have forgotten to add time on occasion and had to get a new number.But then I never knew my number anyway.I may only use the phone once a year if that.I go to Walmart and get my cards as they are discounted there a few dollars.Since I don't use it often I only get the smallest amount of time.I did use it when I was in WY about 3yrs ago.Called back to NJ with no problems.For all that I use a cell phone I find it perfect for my needs.

**Missy** · 08-03-2005, 10:57 PM

I am going to get a pay as you go phone at walmart this month. I will be able to buy the amount of minutes i need and adjust my habits according to what i figur i hhave available. I will only buy myself more minutes once a month so i will have to be careful with it.

**SHOPGIRL** · 08-04-2005, 01:04 AM

I've used both, prepaid and a monthly bill. So far, I've had the best luck with Verizon Wireless. I'm on the family share plan, so between my sister and her husband, me, and my dad; we all share 1000 peak minutes a month. Yes, I'd rather not pay $45 a month, but it seemed to be a better deal than the prepaid cards. I found that I wouldn't always use up all the minutes, then I'd lose them. Plus, I'd have to go to the store to buy more.

I really like the off-peak program, free weekends, and free calling to other Verizon customers.

**Mojjo** · 08-04-2005, 07:45 AM

We have Verizon Wireless and the family plan rocks. We also only have cells..no land line, so it really works for us. But I am big on the security and comfort of always being able to get in touch with the boys and the buying minutes thing would be a hassle to me.

**Mom23boys** · 08-04-2005, 10:53 AM

We have Verizon family share plan as well. We love it. We also get free in-network calling, which means we can call anyone who has verizon service and it doesn't cost us anything. Most of my family has verizon, so it helps because they are all long distance. We just use our cell phones to talk to each other instead of our land line phones.

**immy4950** · 08-07-2005, 01:05 AM

I have a Virgin Mobile Pre-paid phone.

I don't tend to use my phone a lot, so "topping up" once every three months is better for me than paying a monthly bill.

In general, if u tend to make a lot of call and/or talk alot, prepaid isn't for you. I once spend about $9 of my prepaid time on the phone with a friend and when i did the math i realized how expensive those "long chats" can be. (at .25 for the each of the first ten mins, then .10 for every min after that)

For now, i'm sticking with my prepaid phone, (but never talking for a long time) because i don't want to be locked into a 1-2 contract, when the cheapiest plan i could find would total more that 40 dollars a month.