Reasonable Pre-Paid Cellphones in the US?

MBCook asks: "I've been with my current cell provider for a few years, and never been terribly happy with them. They lock and cripple their phones, but their coverage has been decent. However, in the last month I have experienced having my phone telling me it had voice mail when it didn't for about 2 weeks (little icon was there, but calling in said 'No messages'). Then today (Dec. 4th) it notified me of a very important call I missed — on November 19th. Since my contract expires next month, I've been looking at pre-paid cell phones and their plans. I'm not a big talker, and it would take me a while to use up 100 minutes. All the pre-paid plans seem to like to expire your minutes relatively fast (30 days) unless you buy a large number like 1000, then you get 90 days. Add to that the daily access fees some of them want to charge you ($1 per day you use your phone) and I may as well be paying $40 a month to one of the big boys. Is there any way to get cheap pre-paid cell service in the US? I don't care about ring tones, and while I'd like to be able to get games I can survive without 'em. I can't be the only one in this boat, what have others found?"

Comments

Virgin Mobile

[VokinLoksar]

Take a look at virgin mobile. I used to have Verizon and paid almost $50 each month. With virgin I have the $0.18 per minute plan and pay only $20 per 90 days. The idea is that you have to pay at least $20 every 90 days to keep the service, and since I talk very rarely I haven't ever needed to pay more. What I really like about them is that you don't need to worry about payments, you can set it up to automatically charge your credit care either every 90 days, or when you have less than $5 left.

On the down-side, the service is worse than Verizon (actual reception that is). In places with strong signal it's fine, but at my house it's a bit worse, for example. This depends on your location though, so just take a look at their coverage map. I've been with them for almost 3 months now and am overall very happy.

Re:Virgin Mobile

[aero2600-5]

I also highly recommend Virgin Mobile. I've never had a problem with them, and I've been with them for three years. At first, I rarely ever used my phone and had the $.25 a minute plan. It worked great and didn't cost that much. Later, I started to use my phone more often, and I switched to a plan that cost $.35 a day, and $.10 a minute. Not bad, considering this is all no contract. Now, I've started using my phone quite a bit, and I switched to one of their monthly plans. I get unlimited nights and weekends and 400 anytime minutes. I'm at work all day, so I hardly touch the anytime minutes. For $45, I get to talk all I want.

It is true that the signal is weak in some rural areas, but I rarely have a problem with it.

Another nice thing is that you can use a Virgin Mobile phone completely anonymously if you're a privacy nut/criminal. You can pay cash for the phone, register it online with any bogus name you want, and pay cash for the cards to add minutes, even if you have a monthly plan.

I'm looking to get a new phone here in the next month or so, but that's not because of the service. My dog chewed up the phone. Broke the camera lens, the external display, and the battery is covered in teeth marks.

Now that I think about it, I do remember that I had a problem last year. My phone was acting all sorts of crazy. Hanging up when I made calls as soon as the other end picked up and what not. I called their customer service to ask about it, and they asked me when the last time I had turned the phone off was. I honestly couldn't remember. It had been months, maybe a year. I turned the phone off, gave it a minute or two, and then turned it back on. It was fixed. The phones are quite reliable, and a six hour charge will usually last 4-5 days.

And yes, you can get cute ringtones and games on the phone.

Just my two cents..

Aero

T-Mobile vs. Cingular

[fossa]

When I shopped, I looked at Cingular and T-Mobile's prepaid plans. At least in my area, Cingular's two prepaid plans include a 10 cents per minute, 1 dollar per day plan (I agree, not very useful, though perhaps in some situations) and a 25 cent per minute plan without the daily fee. Minutes in $25-$75 chunks expire after 90 days, with $100 dollar chunks lasting a year.

T-Mobile's prepaid plan has a graduated pay scale as low as 10 cents per minute if you buy minutes in chunks of $100, and as high as 30 cents in chunks of $10. Expiration is 90 days at the $25-50 level. If you've bought enough minutes to be "gold" customer (1000 minutes I believe), then any chunk of minutes lasts a one year. The graduated pricing still applies but gets slightly cheaper with 10 cents still being the cheapest in $100 chunks ($50 buys at 11 cents per min; $25, 17 cents per).

I believe both Cingular and T-Mobile carry over unused minutes as long as you buy new minutes before the old ones expire. Note that number portability does not apply to prepaid accounts, at least T-Mobile told me I could not transfer my previous cell number.

I decided on T-Mobile, brought my unlocked GSM phone to a T-Mobile store, and had no troubles (though some kiosks did not carry prepaid plans; I had to go to my town's main store).

Re:Why use pre-paid?

[nxtw]

They exist. After you spend $100 on T-Mobile USA Prepaid, minutes expire after one year regardless of your refill price. So, the first year will cost $100 ($8.33/mo) and you'll get 1000 minutes total for the year. If you need more, they'll last for a year. For $20 you'll only get 35 minutes, but for $100 you'll get another 1000 minutes. But after that first year, if you hardly ever used your phone, you could get away with $1.67/mo.

Alltel's U Prepaid also has decent rates.

Re:Why use pre-paid?

[nigelo]

I've been using a pre-paid virginmobileusa.comm phone for years.

It costs $15 every three months, minimum (that is, you have to pay $15 every three months, regardless).

Needless to say, I seldom use it, but it's there when I need it, and the money never expires.

Can't beat $5 a month.

Hope it helps.