Cheap Cell Phone + Minutes

Mister_Player

Mister_Player

CAG in Training
Hi!

I was looking for a new cell phone plan (but cheap). Some friends already recommended me Tracfone prepaid phones/minutes, but haven't decided any. Any ideas about Tracfone? Anyone using it?

What makes me interested about Tracfone is their triple minutes for life Tracfone smartphones (yet kinda cheap) + their new Tracfone promo codes (they are all over the net and you get bonus codes for free).

So, what type of cell phone plan do you recommend, rather cheap?
Thanks! :bouncy:
 
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i work in a electronics department in walmart. so i know a little, about how many minutes do you need a month? do you want unlimited data/text? i personally use virgin mobile, ($35 a month 300 mins unlimited text and data 2 gb data limit before slow down)

i dont know about your area but in my area the triple minute phones are very hard too find... we carry the double minute phones at my store, not sure about online though' pm me if you want too ask me something
 
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This was discussed recently here:

http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=335503

It really does depend upon how much you plan to use the phone. My area of expertise is in finding the absolutely lowest per-month cost for service, assuming that you don't actually use the phone very much.

If this is the case, I'd recommend either Tracfone, or T-Mobile prepaid.

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For Tracfone, you want a phone with triple-minutes-for-life. Just search Amazon for "tracfone triple". You have basically 6 choices:

LG 530G - basic Blackberry type phone that has pretty good reviews
Samsung S390G - basic Blackberry type phone with WiFi but with mixed reviews (butt dials 911)
Samsung S425G - well-reviewed QWERTY slider phone
Samsung T301G - basic slider phone (no QWERTY though)
LG 800G - Terrible touch screen phone (everyone hates this phone)
LG 840G - New replacement for the hated 800G with WiFi (reviews are mixed)

Note that NONE of these phones are smartphones. The LG 8?0G's may look like smartphones, but they are not. They have touchscreens, but that's about it. This makes the usefulness of WiFi negligible IMHO, so I went with the LG530G.

To get the cheapest per-month service with Tracfone, you want to buy 60 minute cards. These are $20 each at retail and come with 60 minutes of airtime (duh) and 90 days of service. With your triple minutes phone, the airtime is bumped up to 180, and I've NEVER failed to find a code for at least 20 bonus minutes, so that's 200 minutes per 60 minute card redeemed. If you do the math, that works out to ~$6.67/month with a monthly allotment of 67 minutes (texts cost .3min each in or out). Your minutes roll over indefinitely, as long as you keep your service active, so months when you don't talk very much can feed time when you talk a lot. If you need more minutes than that, you might be better off buying the larger sized cards, but I haven't done the math on that.

Get your Tracfone bonus codes here:

http://www.preprepaid.com/currenttracfonebonus.php

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For T-Mobile, what you want to do is get a T-Mobile prepaid SIM card. I just called T-Mobile and ordered one directly from them. They only charge a dollar or two for them. You can get either a regular or micro SIM, depending on what kind of phone you're getting.

You also need to get a phone to go along with this SIM card. I put mine in a Nokia C3-00 and it works just fine. I'd assume that most any unlocked GSM phone (smart or otherwise) would work, but you might want to check with T-Mobile (or Google) to verify compatibility before you shell out good money for something. Of course, T-Mobile will sell you a phone to go with your new SIM as well.

Now for T-Mobile service, what you want to do is redeem a $100 service card right off the bat. This gets you a year of service and "Gold Rewards Status." During your year of service, you are drawing off of your $100 airtime credit at ($.10/min for talk and $.10/text). Now HERE IS THE GOOD PART, when your year is almost up, all you have to do is redeem a $10 card online (reports are this is the only way it works) and you get $10 added to your airtime credit (of course), but your service and Gold Reward Status are extended FOR ANOTHER FULL YEAR (so you don't have to buy any more airtime if you still have some left over and if you need to buy more airtime, you keep your $.10/min rate). Over time, your monthly cost can get crazy low, assuming you don't talk very much.

Here are the pay as you go rates from T-mobile:

http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/pay-as-you-go-plans

Here's the discussion about renewing your Gold Status as cheaply as possible:

http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/deal-discussion/937850/

The T-Mobile prepaid service has some other nice features as well....

First, you can switch up your prepaid plan willy-nilly on a day-to-day basis through their online account management feature, so you can go from the usual $.10/min to a pay-by-the-day plan where you pay $2 for the day and get unlimited talk/text/2Gweb.

Here are the pay-by-the-day plans:

http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/pay-by-the-day-cell-phone-plans

T-Mobile also seems to have robust international calling/roaming (but you pay through the nose for it, but nice to know it's there if you need it)

Hope that helps.
 
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most of my family uses straight talk, and it's pretty good. $45 for unlimited everything, but the phones aren't that great. I've heard about Boost Mobile having better phones, and no contracts, but I've no personal experience with them.
 
Tracfone family here. We don't TALK much, but text a bit--1 text = ~1/3 of 1 minute used, some of the other prepaid plans charge you minutes/time for everyday you use your phone for anything, but not Tracfone which is why we originally picked it up years ago. Trac also lets you transfer your current number for free, which was also a big motivator for us; maybe by now more prepaid companies do this, too, I don't know.

I tend to buy the 1-year service cards from their site when my service days start running low--at least once a year there's a promo to get an extra 200 minutes, and with my 2x mins phone, I end up with 1000mins for $100 and on the final page of the tracfone site they offer "impulse" purchases that include a good deal on minutes-alone (no service time added, just mins) for very cheap. All said, I end up spending maybe $200-250/year with my tracfone.

Most phones are only double minutes, and yeah, do your research on each phone. The gf thought she got a deal with dumb-smartphone (model escapes me) but it had a ridiculous feature where if 9-9-9 is pressed, even when locked, it dials 911. It was insane, there's even a review out there where she was fined for having called 911 so many times (and it happened often just sitting in her purse, I can imagine the same when tucked in a pants pocket.)

Definitely do your research before purchasing.
 
Tracphone or net10 at TRU has $5-$15 phones on clearance

I use net10 since BB certs pretty much cover my monthly bill. My sis does the same 300 minjtes for 2 minths for $30.
 
I use to have Tracphone back when they called their time "units". It was fine and all, but the reception on my phone was bad.

I got a Boost Mobile phone as a gift. Back then it use to have $1 a day for walkie talkie use and the reception is better. I don't use the phone often so I buy a $20 Reboost card every 3 months and let my minutes roll over (I learned recently CVS sells $10 cards as well).

Right now I have a Samsung Seek which is my first touchscreen phone. I can check email and for 10 cents a day I can use it for unlimited internet. Unfortunately, it does not play video and does not always load images properly. It also charges you the 10 cent internet fee even if you don't use the service so I disabled that (email still works on it though).

I know Boost also have a shrinkage plan that brings your bill down to $35 a month for unlimited talk, text, and web. I was thinking of doing that so I can have a phone with apps. But for calls, text, calculator, email, notepad, alarm, and other basic stuff, I'm happy with my Samsung phone.
 
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