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Cell Phone Questions
crabby3:
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 :tellme: CDs are so last decade; totally outdated.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:
-Curt (February 14, 2015, 05:21 PM)
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The gist of my sentence was meant to convey my non-techno lifestyle.
Many other technologies have come and gone, without my investment, as well. :)
I am situated in South Florida or around 249 mi (401 km) NE of Havana Cuba.
What has replaced CDs in Denmark? I think people still buy and use em over here.
crabby3:
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.
-mouser (February 14, 2015, 06:22 PM)
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Seems we are both sol... so far. No contract does not mean no plan. JitterBug5 caught my eye but the bad reviews out weigh the good by about 10 to 1.
Still reading / digesting everyones replies. :)
mwb1100:
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...
-mwb1100 (February 15, 2015, 12:09 PM)
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According to this support posting, Truphone funds will not expire as long as you make at least one phone call in a 6 month period: https://getsatisfaction.com/truphone/topics/how-often-should-i-top-up-my-truphone-sim-account
So I'd say that Truphone looks like a good option for a glovebox phone. Buy a SIM for $30 and you get $15 airtime on your account. There is more than 50 years worth of keep-the-phone-active funds in that $30 SIM purchase. Making two (or three to ensure you don't cut it too close) calls a year probably isn't too much hassle.
Add more funds if/when you actually use the phone. The smallest top-up is $5 which gets you nearly an hour of talk time.
Update: some more info on Truphone:
* Truphone uses both the T-Mobile and AT&T networks, so coverage shouldn't be an issue
* incoming calls and SMS are *free* (US calls/texts - I'm not sure about international ones)
* one drawback is that MMS (multimedia messages) is not supported, only SMS (text only)
crabby3:
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...
-mwb1100 (February 15, 2015, 12:09 PM)
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According to this support posting, Truphone funds will not expire as long as you make at least one phone call in a 6 month period: https://getsatisfaction.com/truphone/topics/how-often-should-i-top-up-my-truphone-sim-account
So I'd say that Truphone looks like a good option for a glovebox phone. Buy a SIM for $30 and you get $15 airtime on your account. There is more than 50 years worth of keep-the-phone-active funds in that $30 SIM purchase. Making two (or three to ensure you don't cut it too close) calls a year probably isn't too much hassle.
Add more funds if/when you actually use the phone. The smallest top-up is $5 which gets you nearly an hour of talk time.
Update: some more info on Truphone:
* Truphone uses both the T-Mobile and AT&T networks, so coverage shouldn't be an issue
* incoming calls and SMS are *free* (US calls/texts - I'm not sure about international ones)
* one drawback is that MMS (multimedia messages) is not supported, only SMS (text only)-mwb1100 (February 15, 2015, 01:38 PM)
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Thank you mwb1100, for your considerable time and trouble. However this highlighted part would be a concern.
I tend to be an out-of-sight-out-of-mind guy and may not use or need the phone for more than 6 mo.
If it couldn't be used, without a tech-call first, it wouldn't be worth much to me. :( ...sorry
mwb1100:
That "give us a shout" is for fixing the problem if an account was deactivated after 6 months of non-use. The best way to prevent that is to make an outgoing call for 9 cents every few months.
The closest thing I'm aware of for a cheap phone account that won't expire due to non-use would be a T-Mobile paygo plan that has enough funds to cover the $3 per month minimum for as long as you want the account to not expire.
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