I was looking for a prepaid phone and my biggest priority was on long service life (# days until the minutes expire) and the actual number of minutes was a lower priority, because I plan to use the phone on a very limited basis.
So for anyone in the same boat, here's what I found:
From browsing a store, amongst Tracfone, Net10, Verizon, TMobile Virgin, and AT&T, the best deals appear to be Tracfone and TMobile, both of which offer 90 day service periods. The others were either 30 days or 60 days.
Tracfone:
They had phones at the $10, $15, $20 and higher price points. All of these phones come with double minutes (indicated on package). Do not buy a Tracfone without double minutes for life, as the double minutes for life cards are a ripoff.
The cheapest refill card is $20 for 60 min/90 days. Since the phone is double minutes, that means your $20 refill gets you 120 min/90 days.
TMobile:
The least expensive phone I saw was $20. The cheapest refill card was $10 for 30 min/90 days.
So for the extreme minimalist user, a $20 Tmobile phone and 4 refill cards at $40 gets you 120 min/1yr for a total of $60. But if you go over 30 min in 90 days even by a little bit, you'll have to fork over another $10, as the $10 refill cards are the minimum denomination.
A $10 Tracfone with DMFL and 4 refill cards at $20 gets you 480 min/1 yr for $90. If you go for the slightly better $20 phone, the total for 1yr is $10 more, or $100.
You can find even better deals online, but that defeats the purpose.
Hope this helps someone looking for a minimal use prepaid.
So for anyone in the same boat, here's what I found:
From browsing a store, amongst Tracfone, Net10, Verizon, TMobile Virgin, and AT&T, the best deals appear to be Tracfone and TMobile, both of which offer 90 day service periods. The others were either 30 days or 60 days.
Tracfone:
They had phones at the $10, $15, $20 and higher price points. All of these phones come with double minutes (indicated on package). Do not buy a Tracfone without double minutes for life, as the double minutes for life cards are a ripoff.
The cheapest refill card is $20 for 60 min/90 days. Since the phone is double minutes, that means your $20 refill gets you 120 min/90 days.
TMobile:
The least expensive phone I saw was $20. The cheapest refill card was $10 for 30 min/90 days.
So for the extreme minimalist user, a $20 Tmobile phone and 4 refill cards at $40 gets you 120 min/1yr for a total of $60. But if you go over 30 min in 90 days even by a little bit, you'll have to fork over another $10, as the $10 refill cards are the minimum denomination.
A $10 Tracfone with DMFL and 4 refill cards at $20 gets you 480 min/1 yr for $90. If you go for the slightly better $20 phone, the total for 1yr is $10 more, or $100.
You can find even better deals online, but that defeats the purpose.
Hope this helps someone looking for a minimal use prepaid.