opinions on pre-paid cell phones.....

[mayberry]

my contract ran out.....and i didnt have cash to renew. i was looking for opinions on like the boost mobile, or tracfones or whatever. let me hear experiences, likes, or dislikes....

[AccordWarrior]

Tracfone is excellent if you don't actually use it. I got one for my mom because her car's a heap and I didn't want her to break down somewhere. Its not good if you use the phone.

That's all I have experience with tho.

[Maple50175]

Yeah prepaid is BS i remmeber when i had one.... U should only use it for emergencys if not then dont get one.. its truley a waste of money

[JDMAlex]

if your using the phone as "emergancy" , 911 is free and you shouldnt need to have any plan or munits for it

[wed3k]

i thought i used my phone al lot so i went with metro PCS and now i use it maybe 50% less than when i first got it...i miss texting.

[tommi]

if your using the phone as "emergancy" , 911 is free and you shouldnt need to have any plan or munits for it

i jus got one about a month ago not a bad phone but there is a deadline that has to b met like u use it by what day b4 u lose all ur unused minutes.
even costs to text message o well
i still haven't bought a new card yet.

[bruno8747]

I got cingular with rollover....I comes in hand sometimes. There is no point to a prepaid except for an emergency.

[clarksterdotcom]

ive got tmobile.. i think they have a pay as you go thing going now too...but the plans not that bad. i have the sk2 so i get unlimited text/data/night/weekends/AIM and 1000 anytime for 65 a month

[LoS HimSelF]

i never had pre-paid! but some of my friends have and they all eventually switched to regular plans and etc! i dont see pre-paid as saving cash! and u always have to go and buy minutes! its sucks IMO!

[accordaffair]

Hey I work at walmart and we sell these prepaid cellphones ALL THE TIME. If you have any questions let me know. I'll start by saying that Tracfone is most popular, but usually most expensive. Virgin Mobile is probably the best deal. Simple Freedom is a disaster, don't bother with them. Boost mobile is becoming the most popular, it works with Nextel phones/customers. It's prices are in the middle. Honestly, if you are going to actually USE the phone, getting a contract (credit card) phone will be the best route.
Let's break it down shall we?

Tracfone's rate varies by the card you buy. The cards we carry (walmart) are: 40, 100, 200, 400 units (minutes)
I did the math once, and as I remember its about 48 cents a minute with the 40 min card, and about 19 cents a minute with the 400 min card. Long distance calls are 2 minutes for each 1 minute of talk time, so if you talk 15 minutes long distance you would lose 30 minutes of time. With tracfone you need to buy a card every 60 days to keep your service active. As long as you keep your service active, your minutes from the previous card will rollover with the new card. (example you have 30 min and you buy a 100 min card, now you have 130 min) If you don't keep your service active, your phone will become deactivated and you will lose your minutes.

Virgin Mobile is 25 cents a minute for the first 10 minutes of the day, and 10 cents a minute after that, so you pay $.25/min until minute 10, then $.10 after that until the next day rolls over of course. Virgin doesn't have extra long distance premiums, other words, you don't get charged extra for long distance. For virgin mobile you need to buy a card every 90 days to keep your service active. Virgin cards are sold by the dollar amount, we carry $20, $30, and $50.

Boost Mobile is $.25/min all day, every day. And it's $1.50/day for walkie use. Keep in mind it would be $1.50 whether you use it 1 minute, or the whole day. The rates for things like wireless web and all the other features I have no clue, because no one really cares about/uses those other things. You'll find out if you look into it. For boost you need to buy a card every 90 days. Boost mobile cards are sold by the dollar amount and we carry $20, $30, And $50. Boost has put more money into marketing on the TV "Where you at?" so they have become most popular with the young crowd. Tracfone advertises in like newspapers and magazines, so they're more popular with older folks.

Now if you want to use the phone for emergency use only, Tracfone is the way to go. They have a card which provides 1 year of service, with only 150 minutes, for about $99. So instead of having to buy a card every 60 days, you only need to buy a card every 365 days Keep in mind, this only gives you 150 minutes. If you have over 150 minutes in emergency calls a year, well damn, you must get in alot of car crashes or something...tracfone also offers a "double minute card" which is a one-year card with 300 minutes on it, for about $150 or so.

The cost of the phones is as follows (for walmart, and keep in mind these prices tend to go up and down, and also prices may vary from store to store, but generally are the same, dont whine if your's are different or I'll trout slap you)
Tracfone Nokia (cheapie) $35
Tracfone Motorola (one step up) $40

Virgin Mobile Cheapie $45
Virgin Mobile Flipfone $97

Boost Mobile Cheapie $78

Any questions? (note, This is like the 325729485924759832759 time I've given this speech b/c I have to tell customers all day every day, if you're wondering why it sounds like I'm used to explaining it.)

[DRAGGEN]

can you repeat that...lol

[accordaffair]

Hey I work at walmart and we sell these prepaid cellphones ALL THE TIME. If you have any questions let me know. I'll start by saying that Tracfone is most popular, but usually most expensive. Virgin Mobile is probably the best deal. Simple Freedom is a disaster, don't bother with them. Boost mobile is becoming the most popular, it works with Nextel phones/customers. It's prices are in the middle. Honestly, if you are going to actually USE the phone, getting a contract (credit card) phone will be the best route.
Let's break it down shall we?

Tracfone's rate varies by the card you buy. The cards we carry (walmart) are: 40, 100, 200, 400 units (minutes)
I did the math once, and as I remember its about 48 cents a minute with the 40 min card, and about 19 cents a minute with the 400 min card. Long distance calls are 2 minutes for each 1 minute of talk time, so if you talk 15 minutes long distance you would lose 30 minutes of time. With tracfone you need to buy a card every 60 days to keep your service active. As long as you keep your service active, your minutes from the previous card will rollover with the new card. (example you have 30 min and you buy a 100 min card, now you have 130 min) If you don't keep your service active, your phone will become deactivated and you will lose your minutes.

Virgin Mobile is 25 cents a minute for the first 10 minutes of the day, and 10 cents a minute after that, so you pay $.25/min until minute 10, then $.10 after that until the next day rolls over of course. Virgin doesn't have extra long distance premiums, other words, you don't get charged extra for long distance. For virgin mobile you need to buy a card every 90 days to keep your service active. Virgin cards are sold by the dollar amount, we carry $20, $30, and $50.

Boost Mobile is $.25/min all day, every day. And it's $1.50/day for walkie use. Keep in mind it would be $1.50 whether you use it 1 minute, or the whole day. The rates for things like wireless web and all the other features I have no clue, because no one really cares about/uses those other things. You'll find out if you look into it. For boost you need to buy a card every 90 days. Boost mobile cards are sold by the dollar amount and we carry $20, $30, And $50. Boost has put more money into marketing on the TV "Where you at?" so they have become most popular with the young crowd. Tracfone advertises in like newspapers and magazines, so they're more popular with older folks.

Now if you want to use the phone for emergency use only, Tracfone is the way to go. They have a card which provides 1 year of service, with only 150 minutes, for about $99. So instead of having to buy a card every 60 days, you only need to buy a card every 365 days Keep in mind, this only gives you 150 minutes. If you have over 150 minutes in emergency calls a year, well damn, you must get in alot of car crashes or something...tracfone also offers a "double minute card" which is a one-year card with 300 minutes on it, for about $150 or so.

The cost of the phones is as follows (for walmart, and keep in mind these prices tend to go up and down, and also prices may vary from store to store, but generally are the same, dont whine if your's are different or I'll trout slap you)
Tracfone Nokia (cheapie) $35
Tracfone Motorola (one step up) $40

Virgin Mobile Cheapie $45
Virgin Mobile Flipfone $97

Boost Mobile Cheapie $78

Any questions? (note, This is like the 325729485924759832759 time I've given this speech b/c I have to tell customers all day every day, if you're wondering why it sounds like I'm used to explaining it.)

There ya go

[619_Cb9]

hey i sell cell phones for a company called The Mobile Solution, we sell cingular(formerly att) and tmobile...theyre the biggest mall based cell phone retailer in the nation, chances are if you bought a cell phone at a lil kiosk in the mall it was probably through us...i wouldnt recomment prepaid...if youre gonna only BARELY use your phone (like less than 60mins/month) then prepaid is the solution, if not then you save a lot more money sticking with a post-paid plan...with prepaid you have to buy the phone (its usually crappy) and you pay a lot for very few minutes...plus you dont get the full coverage map as a regular plan...tracfone is basically a crappy verison of verizon and they give you those old aincient motorola v60's...virgin mobile is a leecher company because they dont own any network towers...they just leech off of sprint and verizon (or try)...do you not have any more money to pay for your monthly bill because it doesnt cost anything to renew...if your plan is too expensive for you just call in customer service and ask to downgrade your plan to a cheaper one, but make sure it doesnt renew your plan, that way if a better promotion with another carrier comes up you can make the switch without being stuck in a contract...if its money youre trying to save just get a free phone and dont waste your money on a camera phone, you're better off using the money you saved on a real digital camera that takes good pictures

if you dont make a lot of out of state calls id recomment tmobile, look for there $49.99 local plan, it gives you 3000 anytime minutes to waste, plus tmobile is giving away the nokia 6800 for free, it has FM radio and a full keyboard...they're pretty cool phones, i sell those like hotcakes...also all tmobile contracts are 1-year agreements and you're elligible for upgrade every 11 months...also tmobile is good if you live in a major city cuz they dont waste there money putting towers where no one lives...hence the slogan coverage where it counts...they're also the only company that offers an almost accurate reception check tool...let me know if you wanna check out the reception in your area

sprint is ok but there plans arent as competitive...that fair & flexible plan is bs, they just reworded it to make it sound like you're on a cheap plan...the only nice thing is that if you go over your minutes you wont pay that much

verizon is also a decent company but they run on older technology and they dont give you as much minutes for your money and also you can only upgrade every two years...plus if you loose "digital" reception your ass gets sent to analog mode which is worthless

cingular is pretty decent...lots of free mobile 2 mobile and rollover (only rolls over for 12 months though) and they will always have the latest handsets, and if you're in the military you'll get hooked up with a monthly discount, IF your cingular rep knows his shit...but there customer service is terrible and your bills are very unpredictable...tmobile was actually awarded best customer service by JD Power...if you do a lot of traveling around the world, cingular is the way to go (unless you unlock your phone)

oh and whatever you do dont sign-up for that crappy trend nextel/boost....unless you own a buisness or a family of 10...hey guys free walkie talkie doesnt mean shit, its called MOBILE 2 MOBILE...oh wow you have to hit more buttons so what...plus half the phones are huge bricks that can be used as lethal weapons...i didnt know it was cool to carry pacemakers on your hip...the only people are people who have them as company phones (and they usually have a 2nd phone with another service cuz nextel sucks) and the mexicans that cross the border here cuz its dirt cheap in mexico and it also works down there

oh and one last thing...beware of cingular and verizon's so called "free phones"...most of the time its free after mail-in rebate and those take ages to get back in the mail

one more very last thing...if you have at&t....ignore all the bs propaganda that cingular is sending you about migrating to cingular...att has the o.g. plans wit free 7pm nights and chances are cingular cant beat your plan (unless you want rollover)...if you live on the west coast the merge is in no way going to benefit you by giving you better reception, in fact cingular sold all their west coast towers to tmobile (which means less crowded towers=less dropped calls) and cingular is using at&t's network towers (more crowded towers=more dropped calls)...i believe they bought off some towers in new york and texas though...if you need a new at&t phone you're gonna have to really hunt for one

if you need any more advice or if you have a cingular, att, or tmobile account and have a question just pm me, ill be happy to be of help

[williamsvt]

ihave a tracfone and it works out great, because i dont use a cell that much, but its nice still, because friends can get a hold of you and also if your car breaks down or something....i pay like 30 bucks every 3 months for 100 minutes...and it works out for me...ill prolly switch to cingular or verizon for college tho...

[mayberry]

oh yea...i just recently turned 18...the plan before was through my mom....anyhow, i was wondeirng about even getting a plan through my own name, but i dont have any credit.......which is better then having bad credit, but still. idk, what do you guys think?