Are Prepaid Wireless Phones a Good Deal? - Comments Page 3

And there is Platinumtel. $100.00 first year, free phone and now I pay them $10 for 90 days. Calls, & texts deduct 2 minutes from your balance. After 1 1/2 yr I have more than 70 minutes left. .

As a grandparent that needed to get a cell phone, because there was no "land line" at grandbabby's house when sitting ... I found Tracfone to be the best fit for us. After chosing a phone ( ours is a Motorola flip with camera @ $20 reconditioned) the least expensive plan .. 60 minutes (doubles on purchase) and roll over .. our monthly cost is about $7.00. If you just need one for emergency and occasional use .. Tracfone is the best value.

I guess this is the best kept secret in the industry. You did mention T-Mobile in passing, but none of the details like the rest.

I have used them for at least 5 years and all I buy are the 1000 min/1 year cards. Minutes rollover and you can use this plan on ANY of their phones.

The catch is, no data plan. I have a higher end smart phone and use wi-fi to surf and get apps. A bit of a pain sometimes but a lot cheaper in the long run with plenty of minutes for my mild usage.

This is an excellent article, and you are certainly correct about the difficulty of finding accurate information on these prepaid wireless plans.

I took a look at the Verizon prepaid wireless site page, specifically the two Daily Access options. While the information you've provided here does correspond to what that site page states, I could find no direct reference there at all about mobile to landline calls. They only list the category of mobile to mobile (talk about "intentionally confusing," as you said)!

How did you determine that the $2/day plan included unlimited mobile to landline calls (at any hour of that day) and that the $1/day plan charged the additional 10 cents/minute for mobile to landline calls for that day?

Telus in Canada offers a base pay as you go account. $10 per month and the credits roll over as long as the account is kept topped up.

Our next door neighbor has dropped monthly plan and switched to BOOST. Claims is is better than all others.

Here is something I found
Straight Talk offers 1,000 minutes, 1,000 text or multimedia messages, 30 MB of data, and unlimited calls to 411 for 30 dollars/month
They also offer unlimited voice, unlimited messaging, unlimited data, and unlimited 411 for 45 dollars/month.
And an unlimited international plan that includes unlimited minutes to certain locations for 60 dollars/month.

you forgot to mention "straight talk" sold thru wal-mart. buy phone, $30/mo. gets 1000 min./1000 texts, free 411 and other extras. for 45/mo unlimited calls/texts and unlimited web!!! also have smart phones, using only $45/mo. rate.

i don't use a phone a whole lot and I hGaryave had a $9.95, double minutes for life Tracfone for years and it truly is the lowest cost prepaid at just under $7.00 per month. $19.95 for 120 minutes and 90 days! All unused minutes carryover. The coverage is the best of ANY carrier because they use multiple different networks and you can get GSM or CDMA phones depending if you're urban or rural. I haven't found a place in the country yet where the phone didn't work...........Luv it.

Bob, We have the Consumer Cellular plan. The basic is only 19.99 and We get 250 minutes per month, which is actually more than I need anyhow.I've had no real trouble with signals and have no complaints with them.
Just happened to notice they weren't listed in Your article.
Cheers
Robert

You didn't mention Boost Mobile. I have used them for years and I have talked to almost every other cell phone provider, pay as you go and contract, and they all admit they can't beat Boost's deal. It starts at 50 bucks and with their shrinkage plan, which is they knock off 5 bucks for every six on time payments, my bill is 35 dollars a month for unlimited talk, text and web. That's as low as it goes but I think it's a great deal. I took a cruise a couple of years ago, was out in the Gulf of Mexico out of sight of land and my phone still worked which I think is phenomenal. The only draw back is you have to buy a phone, but they have them in all price ranges from 60-70 up to 200 and 300 dollar smart phones. If someone knows of a better deal, please tell me.....

Switching from a Verizon contract to Virgin Mobile prepaid five years agp was really a cost saver for me. I am a very light user, and I get more than all the time I need for $80 (plus sales tax) a year.

The unused minutes roll over, customer service is always good, and signal (Sprint) coverage is excellent wherever I have been. Also, phone cost is low - I have never paid more than $10 or $20 for a phone.

Bob, i will add one more to the mix. It appears to me to be a fairly decent plan. No contract, no cancellation fee, etc. I may have to get a prepaid card in the near future if my granddaughter can't keep within the minutes of the plan i bought her. But, it is called the Mobal Freedom Plan. (yes, Mobal). I won't go into the particulars,l but briefly: 100 min @ $10; 250 min @ 20; 400 min @ $30, etc. Internet is $.51 per MB. U do not have to buy a phone from them, but if u have your own phone, u have to get a SIM card. Not expensive. I don't know if Bob permits web addresses, so if u r interested just google "mobal freedom plan" Basic is $.25 per min; $.10 per text.

I use TracFone only because I was able to buy the base phone for a tad less than $3 (on sale) with 120 minutes on it as a 'thank you'. BUT TRACFHONE HAS **THE** WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE I HAVE EVER USED! -- After the first few encounters I started to keep a log of phone calls. FIRST 'fone' I got on sale with the 'bonus minutes' lasted 29 days before it quit working but took me 78 hours 32 minutes to resolve -- call that 3.25 DAYS on the phone to get a replacement sent to me. SECOND 'fone' lasted me 9 days and was an 'upgrade' from the first 'fone' I got. I had to argue to transfer the minutes. It took me 47 hours 21 minutes to get it sorted out - call it 1.9 DAYS actively on the phone. THIRD TIME WAS THE CHARM: 2d phone lasted 22 days. So far it's been since Sept of 2010 and I've only spent 87 hours 21 minutes dealing with problems about billing - another 3.6 DAYS of actively sitting on the phone talking (OK, sometimes I was arguing) with them. So, in a little less than 2 years, I've spent 1 WEEK, 1 DAY and about 18 HOURS actively ON THE PHONE trying to resolve problems. Only I'm retired and can afford to spend time on the phone with them. My advice to people: KEEP A LOG, GET NAMES -- because when you go back to Kick Arse, you can actually name names as you take even more names! But hey! The phone was less than $3 with 120 pre-loaded minutes as a thank you! - What a Company! Whoda thunk they'd thrive and GROW with that kind of service!!!! But, on the bright side the $3 phone gives me minute which don't seem to disappear at the end of the 90 days until I have to renew. Once I had over 3000 minutes on my phone!!!!! But minutes are like military ribbons - I fought for every-single one I ever got! So figure about one hour on the phone trying to get your bonus minutes for every minute you buy! And ONCE last year I got resolution in --honest -- 5 minutes and 3 seconds! I told the operator I was speechless, and she said 'good' because she had other customers. Again proving that the proofs of God are Subtle, VERY Subtle.

Hi, Bob,

A note on Net 10: My husband has had a Net 10 phone for several years. For his plan, he pays $30 for a 2-month service that includes 300 new minutes.

Although we do have to renew the service every two months, the unused minutes do not ever expire. They simply rollover and are added to the next 300 minutes you buy every other month.

For an average user, the minutes add up quickly and they never expire. The plan is simple, and as long as you renew the service every 2 months, you're basically paying only $15 per month with lots of minutes that do not expire, and will rollover indefinitely.

These minutes can be applied to text messages too, and for international calls. We've never had a reception or usage problem. There are many other plans also available on Net 10 for all types of customers.

The catch is that if you fail to renew the service every other month (or whenever your plan is set to renew), you lose your phone number, and have to call customer service to start again. We had to do this only once (that was enough!), and after a long call, our original number and service were finally restored.

BTW, we're not associated with Net 10, just satisfied customers -- so far.

Thanks for all your informative articles. We find them most helpful.

I am a heavy cell user, and Straight Talk has been fantastic. $45 per month, all in all done, for all my voice and iPhone needs. My sim uses ATT towers, but far, far cheaper. For iPhones, etc. you can get a sim to use their service for $14.99 and then $45/mo afterwards.
You can buy service cards in advance and put them in "reserve" to be applied as you need them.

Thanks for doing this article. All I wanted was an emergency phone for the car. I tried ATT and lost money as the months went by and the use expired - I didn't get that at first. I was hospitalized and didn't want to be out of touch so put $100 on the phone. When I got to the hospital I tested the phone and there was $6.xx left on it! They were charging me for stuff sent to my phone. You didn't cover the mistakes they make (a lot). I complained and got maybe 2/3 back. Still want that emergency phone.

Thanks for the good article, Bob. Some plans here I've never heard of. Straight Talk from Walmart (mentioned many times in the comments) is great for unlimited everything if you have reception where you want to use it. The cheapest for real light use is Tmobile. (again if you have reception) After you add $100 of minutes that expire after 90 days, you can add $25 at a time and minutes last for a year. So you can stash a phone for an emergency or back-up for essentially $25/year. It doesn't get any better than that!

Please help, I am so confused.. Need to get a plan for my son who lives in Canada for 8 months and USA for the rest.. Need unlimited everything plan for Ontario region that has a good connection and he can call and text to the USA..Any advice would be greatly appreciated..

I have had Tracfone for about 8 years now. In that time I have only had 2 phones. The second one I had to get because they were upgrading their service and the old one was not compatible. I have never had a problem. I got it basically just for emergency use since I am on the road at night a lot. I have never had a problem with my service, which costs me just about $100 a year! I am very happy with it.