What Prepaid cellphone/carrier is the best?

paulbunyon

paulbunyon

#1
#1
I'm about to buy a pre-paid cell phone per the suggestions of some of the mongers on here. Just want to check which ones work best. I've done a little research and I'm leaning towards either a T-Mobile one (thanks to Waynezee in another thread) or a Verizon Wireless one.

My two main questions are:

1) Which phone has the most features for a decent price

2) Which carrier gives you the most minutes for the lowest prices

Thanks guys I'm curious to hear your opinions.
 
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Shoot2Thrill

#3
#3
I have three phones running NET10. Decent selection of moderate telephones. Cingular is the actual carrier. Reception is excellent. Tracfone is the same company as NET10 and uses Cingular. Net10 versus Tracfone depends on usage which one would make more sense.
 
R

RuffToy

#5
#5
paulbunyon said:
2) Which carrier gives you the most minutes for the lowest prices
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You have to also find out when the minutes expire. For example Cingular sells a $15. card that expires in 30 days. If you don't add more minutes by the expiration date, you forfeit all unused dollars. They charge 25cents a minute of air time. If you add more money before they expire, the amount is piggybacked on top of any unused dollars and your expiration date changes.

I believe a $25 card is good for 90 days. Maybe 60 not sure.
 
S

Shoot2Thrill

#6
#6
I buy the yearly cards. I could not be bothered month to month. I think Verizon is not a honorable company. All these little fees and taxes and conditions. So happy to be Verizon free.
 
paulbunyon

paulbunyon

#8
#8
You guys are truly amazing! Thanks for all the responses in just the last few hours. I'm probably going to buy one tonight. I'll report back what I get.
 
A

aceofclubs26

#11
#11
I like my tracphone. I'm not looking for all the capabilites of a cell phone when shopping for my mongering phone. I just need something with a number. I've found that it's pretty easy to find places that sell the renewal cards for tracphones.
 
S

Shoot2Thrill

#12
#12
DaveNJ said:
I can only think of a couple of spots my phone cuts out in. For the most part I get service everywhere.
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I have not found any spots where the Cingular service did not work. I had a lot of Verizon dead spots. Call Verizon and the will give you some smart ass who says the solution is buy a new phone and a new plan. I don't use the phone for broad band or anything of that magnitude. Since this is a monger community can anyone beat tracfone with a phone and 450 minutes+ for a year for $99.
 
M

Monk

#13
#13
There's no easy answer. It depends a lot on where you use the phone. In New York City, Verizon has the most extensive coverage. However, in some suburban locations, it depends on which provider's tower(s) you're near. So if you live in a location that happens to be close to a Cingular tower, you'll swear that Cingular has the best coverage. Out West, in cities like San Francisco, Cingular has the most extensive coverage. But Verizon has invested a lot in the last few years to bring their network up to par.

If you plan to travel outside of the country and want a GPS-enabled phone, Verizon is a lousy choice, because their technology isn't directly compatible. They'll recommend you rent a GPS compatible phone from them to use in Europe, for example.

If you plan to buy the new iPhone, you'll have no choice. Cingular has signed an exclusive contract with Apple.
 
B

brucelee

#14
#14
I used virgin mobile prepaid for years. I never had any trouble. Basic rate is .18 / min.

As per Lou Grant, t-mobile is a good choice too. Fill phone with a $100.00 card and the rate is .10 / min. You can shop Target for $100 card and you get T-moblile prepaid phone included (limited time offer)
 
paulbunyon

paulbunyon

#15
#15
Well guys I really appreciate all the advice and I took everything you've posted under consideration which is why I was at Walmart last night for an hour trying to determine which phone and plan to get.

After a while my eyes started to glaze over and I finally decided to go with the Cingular Go Phone, Pay as you Go plan which came with a cool looking Sony Ericsson Z300a for $58. I looked at some of the other carriers and the thing that put Cingular (now AT&T) over the top for me was that I really like that phone. Has plenty of bells and whistles and it looks good for only $58. I could have actually gotten a few other phones cheaper but I didn't like the way they looked. I remembered JB's link to the cellphone guide and it was reviewed favorably there so I went for it.

It seemed to me in checking out the phone cards for the different carrier's plans is that they are all pretty similar in price so the phone was what did it for me. I got the $100 card for .10 per minute which is what some of the other companies offer as well.

Total cost: $162 and change.
Thanks again guys and justbill that guide you linked too was particularly helpful. UG comes through again!
 
paulbunyon

paulbunyon

#16
#16
I should also note that during the online activation process it was easy enough but remeber to choose the "Pay as you go" option instead of setting up automatic payments via credit or debit cards. That kind of defeats the purpose, especially with prying eyes on your CC statements.
I will simply recharge the minutes when necessary with a prepaid card.
 
Thorn

Thorn

#17
#17
aceofclubs26 said:
I like my tracphone. I'm not looking for all the capabilites of a cell phone when shopping for my mongering phone. I just need something with a number. I've found that it's pretty easy to find places that sell the renewal cards for tracphones.
Click to expand...
You want TWO things when looking for a phone to use for mongering.

1) A usuable telephone number that can be reached from most places and has voice mail so you can turn off the phone but find out who called you, if they left a message, while the phone was turned off. This because you want to turn it off when there isn't a specific need for it to be turned on.

2) A way to get the phone and charge it with usable minutes [usually by card] that is untraceable to you. If those folks who had used Ms. Palfrey's service had been smart enough to have such a phone, and use it, it wouldn't matter what phone numbers were on her LUD's as far as they were concerned. If Randall Tobias had and used such a phone he'd still have his job today.

The average mongers concern is not being embarrassed out of employment by an ABC show covering the exploits of a DC madame. It is protecting yourself from unscrupulous people in this business who might use your info to blackmail or harm you in other ways. Than there are the divorce lawyers who might want to use the LUD's from a cellphone in your name to prove that you were a rotten husband who deserves to lose his home and a goodly portion of everything he will make for as long as he lives to his poor, long suffering, spouse who was subjected to the abuse of having a philandering husband.

I believe there are still places you can pick up a TRACphone giving any name you choose and not having to provide ID. T-mobile use to as well, but I believe they have since stopped the practice.

Due to homeland security considerations it is harder and harder to get such phones.
 
Thorn

Thorn

#18
#18
paulbunyon said:
After a while my eyes started to glaze over and I finally decided to go with the Cingular Go Phone, Pay as you Go plan which came with a cool looking Sony Ericsson Z300a for $58.
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Only problem.

To get the phone number assigned to you by Cingular you had to fill out a card and show ID that forever connects that phone number to your real identity.

One of the reasons for getting such a phone is NOT to have the number showing up in all those providers phone logs to be connected to YOU in real life.

Than you can call all those ads that say *82 in them with out a care.
 
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L

Lou Grant

#19
#19
Thorn said:
I believe there are still places you can pick up a TRACphone giving any name you choose and not having to provide ID. T-mobile use to as well, but I believe they have since stopped the practice.

Due to homeland security considerations it is harder and harder to get such phones.
Click to expand...
I think that if you are keeping your purchase to one phone only, it really doesn't raise the suspicions of the vendor. When I got my T-Mobile pp, it was in a TM store, but I gave them bogus info. No biggie. I now see, as brucelee says, you can buy a phone and initial minutes from Target, at a discount from what TM charges (other carriers, too). You're right, you have to be a little careful, but it is not necessary to try and get 20 phones at once - that will probably get you more scrutiny than any mongering would bring.
 
paulbunyon

paulbunyon

#20
#20
Thorn said:
Only problem.

To get the phone number assigned to you by Cingular you had to fill out a card and show ID that forever connects that phone number to your real identity.

One of the reasons for getting such a phone is NOT to have the number showing up in all those providers phone logs to be connected to YOU in real life.

Than you can call all those ads that say *82 in them with out a care.
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You are 100% correct as usual Thorn. I had to fill out that info during the online activation process not in store though. But for me its OK because the SO will never see any statement because they don't exist--I paid in cash for the phone and the prepaid minutes card. (And I chose the "Pay As You Go" option NOT I REPEAT NOT the automatic payment through the credit card option--that is vital).....And I received the ***** confirmation regarding activation and set up an online account which she will never see.
Also, and this cannot be overlooked, I will keep the ringer off at all times---that what voic***** is for!
 
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