Foo - Prepaid?

I’m looking into buying a prepaid cell phone.

From the little that I researched, I found that “STI Mobile” sounded the best; 10 cents a minute, and 10 cents a day. All the other companies have exp. Dates on the cards.

Does anyone here have any experience with STI Mobile?

What about any other prepaid company?

(STI uses the sprint network)

Where will you be making calls from? Some areas have better coverage then others.

I'm not familiar with STI, but I've been surprisingly happy with T-mobile To-Go for the last year or so...which strikes me as a good sign, since almost everybody I know is always complaining about their phone service.

I use mine about 100 minutes a month, so it ends up costing about 1/3 as much as signing up for a contract, and I don't run up against the one year expiration. 1000 minute refills are $100 ($0.10/minute).

However, air hit on a very important point. Talk to a few people and make sure coverage for the provider you're considering is good in the area you plan on using it most. Don't expect perfection, but try to make sure there's a good signal at your house, and probably your work, too.

i'm also thinking of going pre-paid. i use my phone only about 30-45 mintues a month at the most. i got the "cheapest" cell phone plan two years ago and somehow it ended up being $53 a month once you add all the taxes and everything.

i'm just wasting my money with this current contract.

To iamlucky13: is there alot of taxes and other surcharges (i.e. connection fees etc.)?
what kind of phone did you get? do they have ones for free? i'm looking for the cheapest phone. all i'm concerned about is the airtime, not a gadget.

Look into Virgin Mobile I was paying .$05 a minute and $.30 a day when I had it. If you are going to use it all the time you may find that not going prepaid is cheaper.

Do you get charged if someone calls you?

i'm planning to use maybe an hour a week of airtime.

Do you get charged if someone calls you?

yes

cell charges are for use, not per direction....you use it, you are getting charged.

That said I have a regular plan, since I eat up around 300-400mins a month and can go as high as 500+ if things get crazy one month (my plan is 600mins).

been using virgin mobile for going on 4 years, been very very good so far, they use sprints network

I like it, its like having a contract without the strings, I can dump it at any time no questions asked.

Try this site out to compare prepaid phones and fees by putting in your zip code

http://www.myrateplan.com/wireless_prepaid/

To iamlucky13: is there alot of taxes and other surcharges (i.e. connection fees etc.)?
what kind of phone did you get? do they have ones for free? i'm looking for the cheapest phone. all i'm concerned about is the airtime, not a gadget.

I was pleasantly surprised to find there's no extra fees or taxes. It was the cost of the phone, plus the cost of the minutes, plus the normal sales tax. Connecting was a matter of a 10 minute call to their automated system, which activates the phone and assigns you a local number. In fact, I don't even remember them collecting any personal information.

I paid $40 for a Nokia 6010, which came with 60 minutes, and I immediately bought an extra 1000 minutes, which worked out just right. The phone I got is a little large for my taste (I like my pockets light), but doesn't bother with extraneous features I never use. The battery life and reception for this model are very good. It's not offered anymore, but I noticed the Nokia 6030 seems to be similar except for it's a little smaller and has a clearer screen.

Here's the T-Mobile page on their prepaid options (http://t-mobile.com/shop/Phones/Prepaid.aspx). The prices usually seem to be a little lower from retailers like Target than through T-mobile directly.

The only disappointment I've found so far is they're pretty careful to make sure they don't miss billing you for minutes. Sending or receiving a text message (which I do rarely anyways) costs one minute. Calling voicemail costs minutes, too, but I'd have to be using 3 times as many minutes per month just to cost-justify switching to a monthly plan, and that doesn't take into account the value of not being tied into a contract.


Timmhaan, it sounds like you're a good candidate for a prepaid, too. I should warn you though, that I don't think any of the prepaid providers will let you keep your old number, but if you can live a new number, you can easily save a couple hundred $ per year.

got T-mobile (nokia 6030). i think it's a pretty good deal if you contiuasly refill your min. the reception where i live (new york city) is not that great. another thing that i don't like: if you go 2 monthes without refilling min. your SIM card expires and you have to buy a new one for $50.

about SIM cards; if i put a SIM card from another company in my phone will it work? can i buy phone cards from other company's and use it on my phone?

Thanks levi, this got me to checking into pre-paid. We are paying Cingular about $710 a year for our two phones. I use all of 15 to 20 minutes a month and my wife does good to use 5. I have to have one just in case there's an emergency with one of my people and we keep hers just in case of emergency or we wouldn't have them at all. With pre-paid I can go pick up two $30 phones and two $100 pre-paid cards and she's set for the year, I might have to add a few minutes later. So we should save about $400 to $450 a year. Wow. And according to the coverage map of Cingulars the coverage where we are is good.

What about TracFone (http://www.tracfone.com/home_page.jsp)?

Bromax do you use tracfone? I find there web site ambigious. They say you never lose your credits but then also say that if you don't purchase a new card then you lose them :rolleyes:

Also they call them airtime units instead of minutes. Whats up with that? I remember that with prepaid calling cards when you would buy a 100 minute card but then some phones would charge you like 25 minutes just to place a call.

I had virgin mobile for a while. It was really good, but my phone was a piece of crap. Then I went to college and started using lots of minutes, so I smashed my virgin mobile phone with a hammer (literally) and got on my family's cell plan.

got T-mobile (nokia 6030). i think it's a pretty good deal if you contiuasly refill your min. the reception where i live (new york city) is not that great. another thing that i don't like: if you go 2 monthes without refilling min. your SIM card expires and you have to buy a new one for $50.

about SIM cards; if i put a SIM card from another company in my phone will it work? can i buy phone cards from other company's and use it on my phone?

Hmm...something I probably should've clarified. Sorry. T-mobile has a sliding expiration scale. If you buy the smallest increment of minutes, they expire after 30 days or something like that. If you buy intermediate amounts, they expire after 90 days. If you buy 1000 minutes, they expire after 1 year.

As long as the phone is compatible, swapping SIM cards shouldn't be a problem. However, you can't buy minutes for another provider and use it with your T-mobile SIM card.

Bromax do you use tracfone? I find there web site ambigious. They say you never lose your credits but then also say that if you don't purchase a new card then you lose them :rolleyes:

Also they call them airtime units instead of minutes. Whats up with that? I remember that with prepaid calling cards when you would buy a 100 minute card but then some phones would charge you like 25 minutes just to place a call.

No, I don't have TracFone. I don't think I have used a cell phone more than ten times in my life but it's becoming ever more necessary to have one because the number of public phones is dwindling. The bookstore lady has TracFone and she swears by it. (Literally....Every time she picks up the phone I hear her say OMG!) She seems pleased with it and recommends it.

On a typical plan, I'd be paying about $10 per call. A pay-as-you-go type service would suit me better.

I personally like T-Mobile to go. TracPhone and Virgin are good phones, but they are CDMA, so if you want to take your handset outside the US, you likely won't have coverage while T-Mobile phones will work happily. If really bored, you can buy an unlock code for most GSM phones so they work with any SIM card.

Disclaimer: I don't personally have T-Mobile to go, just a yearly contract and two phones on T-Mobile. So far, I've been extremely happy with their offerings and their coverage.

To me the Nokia 6030b (which i have) looks and feels real flimsy. the Nokia 3120 which i know alot of people have seems like a very sturdy phone which can take a good beating.

I picked up a deal on two V170 tracfones, $100 shipped, 380 minutes and a years service on each. Even the year cards aren't so bad ~$100 bucks for 500 minutes/1 year. The best part is free incoming text messages for as long as I own the phone, shame I lost one of 'em.

Consumer Reports rates cell phones in the January issue. It also rates contracts. I regret that it does not rate prepaid plans. It does list major providers of prepaid:

T-Mobile;
TracFone;
Verizon;
Virgin.

The magazine seems to like Verizon best and T-Mobil second. The other two aren't rated because they didn't rate prepaids.