Question about pay as you go cell phones

**quiltingmommy** · 10-07-2008, 09:59 AM

Hello everyone! Since you helped me out so much with my "would you eat this" question, I thought I'd ask another.

We live in Mass. We currently have 2 cell phones, DH (which is reimbursed through work) and mine which is added on as a family plan (9.99+tax). DH is switching his cell over to an extra cell they have at work and cancelling his. I have been trying to figure out which pay as you go cell to pick up for me. I only use my phone 60-100 mins a month...sometimes less. I can't decide if I want the Virgin Mobile, GoPhone or Trac Phone. Does anyone have experience with any of these? What do you think? I am trying to keep my cell bill below 20 a month without having to have a contract. (I will be using it less since it'll be P-A-Y-G.
Thanks!!!!!!

**Michelle** · 10-07-2008, 11:21 AM

I just switched to a Trac phone last month because I only use mine about 10 min/month. So far so good

**rudypoo98** · 10-07-2008, 12:09 PM

If you switch to a Net 10 prepaid phone.They cost $30 at Dollar General and come with 300 minutes.The 300 min. cards cost $30.If you text it only costs half a unit so it's costs .05 instead of $.10 a minute.You can text up to 380 letters in one message for $.05.

**BlessedMomof2** · 10-07-2008, 12:14 PM

Dh and I both have Virgin Mobile prepaid cell phones. We have to buy a minimum of $20 worth of minutes every 90 days. I typically have minutes left on mine when it comes time to buy more minutes. Dh on the other hand has been going through a $20 card about every 6 weeks, depending on how often he uses it. We have had Virgin Mobile for just about 3 yeras now and have not had a single problem with them. The coverage was the best for our area and the areas we travel to. We live in Michigan and my husband has used his anywhere from Traverse City to Detroit with out losing signal.

Good Luck with the decision you make.

**Telephus44** · 10-07-2008, 12:35 PM

I'm in MA too, I went to a prepaid AT&T deal. I can't remember what I paid for the phone, but we put $100 on it, got a $25 bonus. I use maybe 10 minutes a month, and so far I have $106 left on it. Because we put so much money on it to begin with ($100) it doesn't "expire" for a year. Reception and service has been great.

**nvmommyx6** · 10-07-2008, 12:48 PM

Originally Posted by quiltingmommy

Hello everyone! Since you helped me out so much with my "would you eat this" question, I thought I'd ask another.

We live in Mass. We currently have 2 cell phones, DH (which is reimbursed through work) and mine which is added on as a family plan (9.99+tax). DH is switching his cell over to an extra cell they have at work and cancelling his. I have been trying to figure out which pay as you go cell to pick up for me. I only use my phone 60-100 mins a month...sometimes less. I can't decide if I want the Virgin Mobile, GoPhone or Trac Phone. Does anyone have experience with any of these? What do you think? I am trying to keep my cell bill below 20 a month without having to have a contract. (I will be using it less since it'll be P-A-Y-G.
Thanks!!!!!!

My friend has the GO phone and hates it, the only thing that is good is it does not use minutes when you talk to others on any at&t plan phone! We had the trcfones for a few years and loved them, so much that when we got our new ones we passed the tracfones down to the kids, they pay for their own minutes by working it off around here and we are always able to keep them on the line!!
I was considering going with the go phones for them but since we canned at&t all together and my friend hates hers we stuck with the tracfones!! And tracfone is owned by T-Mobile, so they dont use minutes to call our new phones!!

**Missy** · 10-07-2008, 12:50 PM

I use Boost mobile pay as you go. I had a trac fon and it seemed every tom dick and harry was calling me.

**katholc** · 10-07-2008, 01:08 PM

I've had both a net10 and a boost mobile phone. I checked out all the prepaid services before getting both phones and found out the AT&T charges a dollar per day to use the phone. If you don't use it you don't pay the dollar. Verizon charges a dollar per day plus the minutes for the phone regardless if you use it or not. Net10 charges .10 a minute with no sur charge. Boost has a cards from $10 to $50 with no sur charge. Service is the most limited on Boost. I had better coverage on Net10 than on T-Mobile. T-mobile has their own prepaid service that I haven't used and haven't researched but I know the contract service doesn't have very good coverage down here.

**TexasPeanut** · 10-07-2008, 01:28 PM

We purchased a Trac phone for our son last year. It seems to be working great for the small amount of time he needs to use it. They always have great sales on Trac phones and I got his for $15 plus double minutes and double airtime for life. Because of the double minutes and airtime, we only have to purchase more minutes it seems about every 3 months and usually just get a 60min./90days of airtime card that gives him 120 minutes and 180 days of airtime. So we spend maybe $20 every 5 months or so. If you do go with a Trac phone and you don't get double minutes and airtime as part of the sale or package with your phone, you can buy the "double minutes and double airtime for life" card and punch the code into your phone and everytime you buy new minutes, it's doubled.

**Pemberleyan** · 10-07-2008, 01:42 PM

I've had a Trac phone for over a year and the only thing I would change is the actually model of phone. I chose a Motorola for about $15.00 and I kind of wish I had bought a better model that could use a ring tone, was a flip model, etc.

**chevy_chick95** · 10-07-2008, 02:05 PM

I just switched from Sprint to Net 10 and love it!

I priced everything for the last 6 months and Net 10 was the best buy. and then I found the phone I wanted at Walmart instead of having to buy it online. I paid $32.00 including tax and go the LG phone, 300 minutes 60 days of service a phone case, a car charger and a headset.

The best value for the minutes is the 450 Minutes &
90 days of Service for only $45. That is $15 and 150 minutes a month. or 100 minutes a month and 100 texts! as long as you keep the phone with service your minutes keeping rolling over.

I really wanted to go with virgin or verizon pay as you go.. but i just couldn't stomach having a monthly bill for a cell phone again..

it has awesome service and i live in a little town in idaho of less than 3000 people in the middle of no where!

**eofelis** · 10-07-2008, 02:08 PM

I've had a Tracfone Motorola V170 model for about a year now. I got it from Tracfone with 120 minutes for $30. I've been happy with it for the occasional brief calls I've needed to make.

I subscribe to a yahoogroup Tracfone_users (or something like that). They have lots of good posts on how to use bonus codes to get free minutes when you add minutes. For example: I've added 60 minute cards and used a bonus code to add 60 free minutes at the same time.

I don't keep too many minutes on my phone at a time, in case I lose it or something. Then I haven't lost a big investment. I haven't done the "double minutes for life" deal on it for this reason.

When I'm at work my SO can call me on the cell and I see it's him (but I don't answer the phone, just use it for caller ID) and then I call him back on the landline.

On my phone I can get texts for free and send one for .3 minutes time use. A friend of mine texts me sometimes and it's a cheap way to send a short message.

I have free voicemail on the phone but it costs minutes to call in to hear it. So I called in to get voicemail and hung up, then looked to see what number it called. Then I call it on my landline and hear my voicemails.

If I get a call of a number I don't recognize I usually don't answer, or I call it on the landline.

Sorry to ramble...

**quiltingmommy** · 10-07-2008, 02:36 PM

thanks for all your great responses. I'll have to look and see who has the best deal going now for payg phone and free minutes.

**Texasgirl** · 10-07-2008, 02:52 PM

Net10 user here. I love the fact if you don't use all your minutes if you renew before they expire they roll over.
10¢ a minute sure beats what I was paying at Verizon.