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Cell Phone Questions
crabby3:
Are there phones that can be used only when necessary? Like if my vehicle dies unexpectedly?
I have heard of pay-as-you-go but is this a specific phone, brand or service?
Does one get charged for incoming calls?
Are there bare-bones phones? No camera, no touchscreen, just a phone?
Having never had or used one I thought I would try to gain some knowledge before shopping around.
......................
FWIT: My ride has died unexpectedly twice so far but was fortunate, both times, to be very close to an auto-repair shop.
BTW: Still don't have any CDs, DVDs, players, etc. ;D
Curt:
BTW: Still don't have any CDs, DVDs, players, etc. ;D -crabby3 (February 14, 2015, 12:28 PM)
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^ "still"? :tellme: CDs are so last decade; totally outdated. :down:
Here in Denmark prepaid cards (for the cell / mobile phone) are too expensive; you can have a subscription for about $3½ per month (mine is $35 per month, everything included). Then you would have to also pay per minute for each call you make (never for the ones you receive). Of course you would also have to own a phone, but here the cheapest would cost in the area of $30. This is the cheapest solution I can remember around here; I don't know where you are situated.
mouser:
Are there phones that can be used only when necessary? Like if my vehicle dies unexpectedly?
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i'm in a similar situation as you, wanting a phone for car for emergencies.
in the usa, there is no good solution for this that i am aware of.
my understanding is this:
1. all cell phones have to be allowed to dial 911 even on bad sim card and no plan -- so for REAL PURE emergency 911 access, yes you can use almost any cell phone and not pay for a plan.
2. but if you hope to be able to call any other number besides 911 you are going to have to expect to pay some kind of yearly fee whether you use your phone or not.
3. there are plans targeted at people who rarely use their phones (like me), but the cheapest i found is something around $100 a year. tmobile has a pay-per-day-your-phone-is-on plan for $3/day, but they still force you to pay a minimum and it ends up being about $100 a year.
4wd:
3. there are plans targeted at people who rarely use their phones (like me), but the cheapest i found is something around $100 a year. tmobile has a pay-per-day-your-phone-is-on plan for $3/day, but they still force you to pay a minimum and it ends up being about $100 a year.-mouser (February 14, 2015, 06:22 PM)
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YOIKS! I pay $1/month on a post paid phone, (month to month) - no included calls/SMS/data but since the rates are only 0.10/min call, 0.10 SMS, & 0.0275/MB it isn't going to break the bank (especially since it's an emergency phone for the wife and is turned off 364 days of the year).
My main mobile phone is $5/month, nothing included but then it's used mainly for incoming calls.
For pre-paid the cheapest is $15 for 365 days.
You guys are really getting screwed over there.
BTW, wouldn't the phone/plan for crabby3 depend on what mobile operators cover the area or are they pretty uniform these days in the USA?
Just wondering if, (for emergency use), this would be suitable:
H2O Pay-as-you-go
$10 gets you 3 months of access with a calling rate of 0.05/min - so $40 covers you for the year. GSM network only but it's the most pervasive and when are they switching it off in the USA, (Telstra is switching off 2G in about a year here)?
mwb1100:
For pre-paid the cheapest is $15 for 365 days.
-4wd (February 14, 2015, 10:36 PM)
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I couldn't believe that I didn't know about that plan (since one of my 'hobbies' is trying to get the cheapest phone service possible), but then I saw it was for Australia - what a let down. :(
That said, here's my wall-of-text on cheap paygo in the US:
Many pay-as-you-go (paygo) plans are very inexpensive for low use, but they all have some expiration date on unused funds and/or require you to pay some amount very few months to keep the phone service active. All of the following information is for the US (and for US to US calls). I'll also not be discussing data - voice and text only.
I'd suggest getting an unlocked GSM phone since that makes it *very* easy to select or change plans. It's pretty easy to find an unlocked feature phone for less than $20. If you want an Android phone it'll be a little more difficult, but some very low-end ones can be found in the $30-40 range that are either unlocked or easy & cheap to get an unlocked on eBay or a third-party unlock site (this is completely legal). For voice & text, pretty much any GSM phone today will have the frequency support for any GSM provider, so all you have to worry about with a GSM phone (for voice/text) is that it is unlocked and you'll be able to use it.
There are two main GSM providers in the US (T-Mobile and AT&T); most of the 'off-brand' paygo providers are actually reselling service from one of these carriers. AT&T has better coverage than T-Mobile. Verizon has even better coverage than AT&T, but isn't a GSM carrier, so I won't consider them in the remainder of this post. Depending on where you live, the coverage might matter in your selection of a plan.
A couple of websites that have a lot of information on these phones and plans:
* http://www.prepaidphonenews.com/
* the forums on http://www.howardforums.com
Some plans that I'm aware of:
* T-Mobile paygo: 10 min/10 text - there is a minimum $3.00 per month charge
* H20 paygo: 5 min/5 text - must add at least $10 every 3 months
* PTel: 5 min/2 text - must add at least $10 every 2 months
* Truphone: 9 min/9 text - (Note: I have not used Truphone myself) Truphone used to offer non-expiring funds. Today I can't find any information about their fund expiration policies. If you check with their customer service and their policy is still to never expire funds and keep the phone active, then this might be a great plan to go with. I might have to look into this for myself again...
* LycaMobile: 2 min/ 4 text - Lyca used to allow you to carry your funds for an unlimited amount of time as long as you made at least one call or text in a 3 month period. They have changed things around several months ago and it's not clear to me if that policy is still in effect. Their website doesn't even mention paygo anymore, but reports are that it is still offered. Lyca was (and still might be) a great plan for low-use phones, but the web site is terrible and the customer service isn't really any better. I used Lyca for quite a while; when it worked it was a tremendous value, but then some things stopped working for me (Google voice integration being the main one), and I couldn't get any help. That plus the lack of clarity on new policies made me decide to move away. However, I'm considering moving back since it seems like people aren't having their funds expire in practice and I think a new SIM will possibly solve my GV problem.
I'd say that for the least hassle, get a T-Mobile paygo plan and drop $40 onto it - you'll get a year+ of service, but Truphone might be worth a look.
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