[Fantasysci5]

Hey all. I'd really like your opinions on the best cell phone company.

I have t-mobile right now, and I really want to change it. I hardly get any bars at my house, and it's really annoying.

I'm looking for a very cheap plan, since I really only use it to call Louie after 9pm in Kansas City; I'm in St. Louis. I don't really want a lot of minutes, just free nights and weekends would be good. I want it pretty cheap; right now I'm paying about $37 a month, and I feel that's too much for how little I use it.

AT&T won't even let me look at plans, and I can't find what I need. It can either be prepaid or individual, since no one else has a cell phone plan that I can be added to. Any ideas? I'd really appreciate any ideas of the best company, good coverage in Missouri, and cheap. Thanks!

[booB]

I don't use my cell phone a ton either -- I was spending $50 every month, and only getting $5-10 worth of use out of it! -- so I abandoned my monthly plan with Verizon in favor of a prepaid phone. Mine is through Page Plus Cellular.

The company is local to here (Ohio), but you can shop online with them for a phone, as well as for recharge minutes, and it uses Verizon's network and voice mail services so you can pretty much use them anywhere in the US. They're the cheapest company I've discovered; you have to recharge your minutes at least once every four months with a minimum $10 prepaid phone card, and as long as you do this, your minutes never expire. (Most prepaid companies make you recharge at least once a month.) Their prices range from $10 for 100 minutes, to $25 for 400 minutes, to $50 for 1000 minutes, and they also sell some "unlimited" cards that are good for 30 days at a time.

I've heard they don't have great customer service, but I have not had any problems with them, for the six months I have been using them. They also don't have the latest and greatest fully-featured phones; their stock is mostly refurbished, basic phones. If you want to be able to surf the web or transfer data at all, you HAVE to buy one of their phones, but I believe any Verizon phone can be activated through them, for basic voice and text only.

Instead of spending the aforementioned $50 a month, I am now buying a $10 or $25 phone card every month or two. The per-minute rate is obviously higher with a prepaid phone, but since I never came anywhere close to my allowed minutes on my monthly plan, I'm saving a crapload of money. I use this as my main phone. Well... my *only* phone... I don't even use a land line anymore.

There are also TracFone, Net 10, and tons of other prepaid phones out there, some of which you can get at your local Wal-Mart or Target or Best Buy. Make sure to take a look at their coverage maps, especially if you live far from any major cities. If you end up going with a prepaid phone -- especially if you end up making this your "main" phone -- just make sure you know their policies, expiration dates, etc. If you wait too long to recharge your minutes, you might find out that you no longer have a phone number.

[Fantasysci5]

Thanks for the reply, booB. I'm a little hesitant to get a phone company I've never heard of before, but I'll definetely look into it. Does it have free nights and weekends, or do you have to pay for those like regular minutes?

[Giligan]

Tracfone is kinda meh, but if you're looking for cheap I'd suggest them. I had a Tracfone before I switched to T-Mobile.

[booB]

Originally Posted by Fantasysci5

Thanks for the reply, booB. I'm a little hesitant to get a phone company I've never heard of before, but I'll definetely look into it. Does it have free nights and weekends, or do you have to pay for those like regular minutes?

All your minutes are the same price, as long as they're within the US. This is generally true of any prepaid plan. What it boils down to is this: If you're not using more than $37 (or whatever your monthly plan is) worth of minutes each month, then you're going to save money by going prepaid. (Your monthly phone bill should tell you how many night/weekend minutes you're using, even if you're not paying for them.)

Otherwise, you might as well look for a cheap monthly plan on another network (since you seem to be having trouble with T-Mobile) with unlimited nights and weekends. Last time I shopped around for monthly plans, I was unable to find anything for less than $40 from a reputable company.

As far as not having heard of Page Plus before... most prepaid companies are rather obscure, because they are not as mainstream as the big companies. However, most of them use one of the big companies' networks, so you should have coverage in most parts of the country (but always check their coverage map beforehand, to be sure).

[rlpw]

Goodness I would kill for a 40$ phone bill. I spend on average 245 a month. Of course I have 4 phones with talk, text, web, navigator.

[Fantasysci5]

I've given up. Everything I look into has about the same services for about the same price, and a pay-as-you-go phone wouldn't help me, since I would use it everyday to call Louie, so I'd have to pay for it anyway.

[Trumgottist]

Here in Sweden, it's not uncommon for phone companies to offer free calls within their network which is very useful for couples if they select the same operator. If any US companies offer that, it'd seem to be a good deal for you. But from what I understand, phone calls are a lot more expensive over there so I wouldn't be surprised to learn that such deals don't exist.