My Page Plus service announces the remaining minutes at every time you dial a number. Just loaded $25 on my phone tonight. 200 minutes. With the service fee (credit card over the phone) it came out to $26.69.
Prepaid Cell Phones
- Thread starter TheLoneRanger
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As long as you have a working e-mail address, which you could get through Hotmail or Yahoo to maintain anonymity, this would work.
I just activated my Virgin Mobile phone last night, requesting an area code from my parent's state rather than mine....this way, it's not a long-distance call for them, and for me it doesn't matter when making calls out.
My wife and I have pre-paid service from Locus that we get through Ecallplus.
We pay $10/month for each service. That gives us a bit over an hours talk time per month,
Her's uses Cingular's network and mine uses Verizon's network. Between the two we have good cell coverage when we are traveling. Both include no extra charge calls to 50 countries. Rates run between 9 cents and 15 cents per minute, usually 15 cents. Unused minutes roll over.
The Cingular based phone displays $ remaining when you finish a call. The Verizon one announces the $ remaining when you start a call.
I bought both phones new on Ebay. You can use any unlocked phone that will work on the network you are using. You might even be able to convert your existing phone to pre=paid through Locus or one of the others. We did with an earlier phone.
We pay $10/month for each service. That gives us a bit over an hours talk time per month,
Her's uses Cingular's network and mine uses Verizon's network. Between the two we have good cell coverage when we are traveling. Both include no extra charge calls to 50 countries. Rates run between 9 cents and 15 cents per minute, usually 15 cents. Unused minutes roll over.
The Cingular based phone displays $ remaining when you finish a call. The Verizon one announces the $ remaining when you start a call.
I bought both phones new on Ebay. You can use any unlocked phone that will work on the network you are using. You might even be able to convert your existing phone to pre=paid through Locus or one of the others. We did with an earlier phone.
I like the 20 bucks per month also. I just wish the gas company would have rates like that.
FWIW, my landline long distance runs about 2.8 cents per minute including all taxes and fees.quote:
Originally posted by Vuser:
I like the 20 bucks per month also. I just wish the gas company would have rates like that.
www.pioneertelephone.com Excellent service, I called them 3 times before I signed up to see how hard it was to get a live person on the phone. Under 10 secends each time. This is regular billed to my credit card landline long distance service, no dial around or other extra work required.
Cogito, with Tracphone, I register my personal info online to activation and buy minutes using my credit card. I ported my old Verizon number too. If my minutes expire, I run the risk of losing that number forever. So for me, yes, I'm linked to my number.
I don't see why you couldn't buy a phone retail along with a pre-paid minutes card and register anonymously with the carrier. That way, you don't need to pass along any credit card info either.
I don't see why you couldn't buy a phone retail along with a pre-paid minutes card and register anonymously with the carrier. That way, you don't need to pass along any credit card info either.
Thanks in great part to the posts here, I bought a Nokia 6103 today and signed up for a prepaid year with T- Mobile.
I wasn't looking for the absolute cheapest phone, or the cheapest service. I wanted good quality.
So for $200.00, I have about 1200 minutes to play with for a year, own the phone, and additional time is pretty cheap.
I wasn't looking for the absolute cheapest phone, or the cheapest service. I wanted good quality.
So for $200.00, I have about 1200 minutes to play with for a year, own the phone, and additional time is pretty cheap.
For long distance calls I have VOIP which is about 2 cents per minute (no taxes, no monthly fees). That includes in-state long distance too. I had IDT and in-state was still 15 cents a minute.
I did have to buy the Linksys VOIP adapter for about $60, but it's unlocked (the ones sold for Vonage are locked) so I can use it with any VOIP provider. I can also use it with the Asterisk PBX software for Linux.
I could have used one of the softphones, which are free, but I wanted a VOIP adapter since I didn't want to have to boot the computer up everytime I wanted to make a call.
Since I was spending about $15 a month on in-state long distance, and now I spend about $2 a month, this service paid for itself in about 5 months.
I still keep my landline..the VOIP is only for long-distance calls. I don't have a DID number associated with the VOIP line so it's only for outgoing calls. (A DID number costs extra and would be pointless since I kept my landline).
I have both the landline and the VOIP line connected to a Pansonic PBX I already had (for testing modems). Dialing 9+number puts it on the landline. Dialing 82+number puts it on the VOIP line. So all I have to do is remember to dial 82 before a long distance call.
By the way, Pioneer Telephone says they can't service former GTE areas.
I did have to buy the Linksys VOIP adapter for about $60, but it's unlocked (the ones sold for Vonage are locked) so I can use it with any VOIP provider. I can also use it with the Asterisk PBX software for Linux.
I could have used one of the softphones, which are free, but I wanted a VOIP adapter since I didn't want to have to boot the computer up everytime I wanted to make a call.
Since I was spending about $15 a month on in-state long distance, and now I spend about $2 a month, this service paid for itself in about 5 months.
I still keep my landline..the VOIP is only for long-distance calls. I don't have a DID number associated with the VOIP line so it's only for outgoing calls. (A DID number costs extra and would be pointless since I kept my landline).
I have both the landline and the VOIP line connected to a Pansonic PBX I already had (for testing modems). Dialing 9+number puts it on the landline. Dialing 82+number puts it on the VOIP line. So all I have to do is remember to dial 82 before a long distance call.
By the way, Pioneer Telephone says they can't service former GTE areas.
Virgin Mobile was a good choice (I work for Sprint). I bought my wife a VM phone. She's a "stay-at-home Mom". It's perfect for her to use when she's out running errands. $20 every 3 months is a lot better then $35/month contract plan. It's perfect for her. She has the Nokia Shorty ($20). Sound is excellent. I was leary buying Nokia, because they do not have a good track record with CDMA. It seems fine now. If you watch Sprint's phone line-up, they rarely have a Nokia offering.
I have a contract, but I get a deal through my union for 15% off. It costs me $32 a month but then again I use most of my 500 anytime minutes each month so it's worth it to me. I have Cingular so I also roll over unused minutes for up to 1 year.
My phone was free with the contract, it's a flip phone with a 1.3 MP digital cam and 65K colors, can do mobile data and I have downloaded some games into it including a pretty cool Texas Hold'em which I play quite a bit.
Just to give a contrasting view...
My phone was free with the contract, it's a flip phone with a 1.3 MP digital cam and 65K colors, can do mobile data and I have downloaded some games into it including a pretty cool Texas Hold'em which I play quite a bit.
Just to give a contrasting view...
If you have a cable or DSL internet connection, Skype has a good deal available now. FREE phone service anywhere in the US & Canada until the end of the year! Overseas LD is available for about 2.1 cents/minute. You can download it here:
http://www.skype.com/products/skypeout/
http://www.skype.com/products/skypeout/
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