Prepaid Wireless Phones: A Good Deal?

We had T-Mobile pay as you go when we still had a landline. For $200 per year, we each had 1000 minutes. Didn't need data. Pre-paid for a year earned us gold status with extra minutes and rollover. Every so often the hubby would need extra minutes so a year might cost us $250 for 2 phones and 2 lines. I acually still had unused minutes on my phone when we cut our landline and went totally mobile/smartphones. Unfortuantely, I lost those minutes in the switch, but the pay as you go service served us well for over 7 years. BTW, still will T-Mo.

I have two TracFones, one a smartphone and the other a dumbphone. I buy a $20 card for each once every three months. That's 60 minutes and 90 days for $20. However, the smartphone is a triple minutes for life phone, so I get 180 min./3 months. The dumbphone is a double minutes for life, plus there are bonus codes you can find online. I also end up with 180 min./3 months there. Since the minutes roll over, I currently (after a few years use) have about a day and a half of use stored on the smartphone and two and a half days stored on the dumbphone. (But will I ever use that time?)

If you don't need internet service on your 'phone, take a look at OneSimCard.com I've used them for years. You pre-pay, but that never expires. Also (the main reason for using this service and hence the lack of internet or picture sharing) they have the cheapest ever overseas rates and have never applied roaming charges. I always have a tablet to hand for internet use, so this mobile service has served me very well and I highly recommend it.

Need just a phone for emergencies? Page Plus Cellular. $10 for 120 days or 100 minutes. That's $30 a YEAR! Uses Verizon's network.

Total Wireless, a TracFone branch, uses Verizon. #35 unlimited Talk and Text and 5 Gb of data. I love it.

Bob, you might want to check your info on Tracfone.

For non smart phone and light use they seem to be the best. There annual plan is 100.00 for 400 minutes. Any minutes left at year end will carry over if you by another 400 minutes for 100.00.

That amounts to 8.34 per month to have a mobile phone which is as cheap as it gets. Also they supplied my flip phone for free. I don't think they are still giving away free phones; but they have phones for sale that are less then 25.00.

CharlesH "The money you save will be your own." :)

I used Tracfone on a Samsung phone for years in SoCal, five years ago, never a dropped call and I found yearly service prepay reduces time/stress keeping "trac" of uninterrupted service with a time limit to resume same number after time expires before next purchase. Double/Triple plans good since minutes don't expire; and online promos are user-friendly too via website, email reminders, and good live customer service if need.

Thanks Bob and all for so many alternatives to explore if I upgrade to more than talk/text on my Verizon (great American C/S!)unlimited $33/mo.

I use Cellular Page Plus. It is the cheapest for me. I turned off text. I use an old flip phone for calls only and it receives voice mail. Costs me $10 every 3 months for which I get 100 minutes. Currently have some 600 minutes. If you pay the day before the plan ends...any minutes roll over to the next few months. I use it for emergencies or phone calls when I can't use my landline. I have a computer...don't need one on my phone.

I replaced a broken $700 Galaxy S5 and expensive TMobil contact with a purchased LGL84VL costing under $200 and Walmart Straight Talk prepaid card costing about $45./mo with discount for 6 month card and which uses Sprint, Verizon, TMobil and ATT networks usually 4G and works great; phone is a bit larger than old S5 and has latest Android operating system..haven't had any problems with data caps but I don't watch many videos or listen to much music with the phone,,, no contract, low cost = good deal.

My cell phone is a dumb as rocks phone that I paid a whopping $12 for and I use for emergencies only or when I'm on the road. I did just fine for most of my life just fine without a smart phone and continue to do so. Having one would be nice and I don't even mind the initial payment for them but, being retired on a so called "fixed" income (inflation dispels the myth of the income being fixed), I cannot justify the cost of the plans for smart phones.

I'm on a Verizon prepaid plan that costs me $1.99 for the first phone call of the day with all calls for the rest of the day being free. I have it set up to deduct $5/month (plus 45¢ in taxes and fees) and to deduct an addition $5 from one of my credit union accounts whenever the balance drops below $5. Unused balances carry over indefinitely. To avoid racking up a bill from phone spam (telemarketers, wrong numbers, politicians, etc.), I have voice mail and texting disabled (I hate texting anyway; if someone wants to talk to me, they can TALK to me).

My land line type home phones are cordless phones connected to the Verizon network using a Straight Talk Home Connect modem (available through Wal-mart). I get unlimited local and long distance talk within the continental SSA (Squabbling States of America) for $15/month (plus $1.60 taxes and fees, including E911; international coverage is available for $30 plus taxes and fees). If I'm going to be away from home for an extended time, I can take the modem and an el cheapo land line phone with me and still use it any where in the SSA where there is Verizon coverage (overall, Verizon still has the best coverage).

One huge upside to the Home Connect system is I was able to use my old cell phone number that wasn't on any phone spammers' lists plus, being a "cell phone", robo calls are banned. I might get one phone spam call every other month (which promptly gets put on the call blocker in my cordless phones). I went through the entire election cycle last year without a single political call (instead of the half dozen or more a day I used to get).

TracFone is the best for folks like me who don't use it much.

I use Cricket's 4GB prepaid for $35/mo with autopay. My husband tred Consumer Cellular--great customer service and cheap but we found another MVNO called TPO, which costs us just under $12/month. (He rarely uses the phone or data, so this is a bargain.) TPO uses T-Mobile lines, better than most prepaid, which use Sprint. I considered Google's Project Fi, but discovered my Nexus 5x doesn't qualify.

Wow, Bob!
It sure sounds like you have some very wise shoppers who are also willing to share.
I just came across a T-Mobile deal yesterday which may be of interest to your readers:

55yr old+ get 2 lines with unlimited talk, text and LTE data [ad part deleted RandiO] for $60/mo. with AutoPay.

I just switched to Virgin Mobile's Inner Circle plan. They are offering a whole year of service for only $1 (plus taxes) for unlimited. The catch is you have to buy an iPhone and port your number over and use auto-pay. After the year is up it costs $50 a month. The offer is good until the end of August. After that I think they will still offer 6 months for $1. They are owned by Sprint to the service should be close to that.

I've found NET10 to be the BEST! $30/60 days.

I don't call or text msg alot so this plan is ideal! PLUS minutes carry over, so I have plenty of Time on my phone. Have NET10 phone as well.

This is a Canadian comment. About 10 years ago I bought a "President's Choice or PC MOBILE" (Loblaws Grocery Chain) Samsung flip-phone. The prepaid costs were $15/month, 25/3months,up to $100/year. The cost was 20c/min/local call, plus 25c/min/long distance within Canada. ROAMING was available at a significant premium. The unused balance was credited as per most other Suppliers, if the "contract" was renewed before the expiry date.

2 years ago we were under the BLUE WATER bridge across from Sarnia ON. and I could not use my phone--Turns out that PC MOBILE had changed their contract? with their providers (BELL.CA) and roaming was no longer available for us customers. This year in March I renewed my prepaid contract??? for another year.
During the summer I was informed that I could no longer use my SAMSuNG flip phone after December because it DOESN'T HAVE A SIM CARD. OK I bought an Acer smart phone and transferred it to my PC Mobile account--It worked for a week, sort of, but. So I tried to transfer my phone account number back to my SAMSUNG Flip, BUT COULDN'T because BELL/PC MOBILE had "decommissioned the TOWERS across Canada.

MY COMMENTS to others--Know who are the providers AND who are the carriers behind those providers, or you could be caught up in an expensive loop.

I used to use PagePlus' pay as you go plan for my business but every once in a while I would be caught with no minutes. Now I use their $29.95 plan on the Verizon network. This gives me unlimited talk/text and enough data to manage my email and cloud services each month.

Hi Bob,
I am someone who just never found the need to have a cell phone, usually relying on just my landline. When travelling, however, it became apparent that public pay phones are almost non-existent anymore... A friend had a Trac Fone that became too expensive for minutes as his usage increased, so he finally replaced it with a smart phone and monthly service plan. Because he had renewed his Trac Fone minutes so many times (with included extensions to his prescription months..) he had gotten bonus extensions to his future months of service credits. He gave me his old Trac Fone (a simple LG flip phone using Verizon that has incredibly good long talk range in rural areas!). It has service paid up till year 2029, and had 488 minutes of talk credit still on it. This is perfect for me: I wrapped it in cushioning and put it into a metal throat lozenge tin. It is always with me, but un-call-able (nor GPS track-able!) while in this metal tin. It has saved my bacon once or twice in emergencies, but costs me $0/month to keep. The LG battery holds its charge for months and I recharge it about twice a year, or whenever I've used it. It is perfectly practical for my needs.

I purchased my TRACFONE direct from Apple and paired it with their bring your own smartphone project.it came with triple minutes so when I add minutes it gives me a years service and with a 400 minute card it gives me 1200 talk minutes and 1200 texts and 1 gb of data. I do this once a year at a cost of $79.00. My wife has the same plan and when we are near wi-fi it switches over and does not use my minutes or data. I have never dropped a call on either phone and we travel all over the US and have never been in a location where we did not have service. And I NEVER get a monthly bill-ever.
I felt the need to include this because it was not mentioned in your description of Tracfone and is a really low cost and reliable service.

I would update your Tracfone. I pay $20 for smartphone with unlimited talk and text and 1 GB data per month. I think its $l0 more for each GB. I usually never go over the data limit since most places you use it have wifi available.