no contract cellular service?

[jonathan_matos5]

ive been thinking about getting re-connected to the cell phone world. but i only use about 50 minutes a month on a busy month. so i was thinking a pay per minute type deal might be best for me. which company has the best service for the no contract people?

[tplyons]

I have a few friends who swear by tracphone. They've had no complaints.

[fdeck]

I have an old pay-as-you-go plan from Verizon that is unfortunately no longer available for new customers, but it is $15 minimum per month and has good coverage. My spouse has VirginMobile, which works out to just over $7 minimum per month. I think they recently improved their coverage. We have never used more than the minimum.

In both cases, we have never had any service issues, and have been able to do everything online. You can buy VirginMobile phones at Target, or simply order everything you need online.

I don't do enough driving to use up all of the "free" minutes on a conventional plan.

[jonathan_matos5]

Originally Posted by fdeck

I have an old pay-as-you-go plan from Verizon that is unfortunately no longer available for new customers, but it is $15 minimum per month and has good coverage. My spouse has VirginMobile, which works out to just over $7 minimum per month. I think they recently improved their coverage. We have never used more than the minimum.

In both cases, we have never had any service issues, and have been able to do everything online. You can buy VirginMobile phones at Target, or simply order everything you need online.

I don't do enough driving to use up all of the "free" minutes on a conventional plan.

i tend to do all my talking during free time on regular plans but still used under 100 minutes total so i never used what i was paying for. im guessing there are no free minutes with the pay-as-you-go service phones.

[Captain Chaos]

Originally Posted by tplyons

I have a few friends who swear by tracphone. They've had no complaints.

Tracphone blows.

[jonathan_matos5]

Originally Posted by Captain Chaos

Tracphone blows.

can you be more specific?

[CamMcIntyre]

I used Virgin Mobile from summer 2002 to fall of 2005. The only reason why i switched was because my Dad added me to his Verizon Family Plan.

I liked it. Pay as you go and a reliable [albeit cheap] phone. I used it sparingly [car troubles, gigs, lessons, etc]. Needed to put $20-30 on it every 90 days for their minimum.

Check out their site for more info on it.

[fdeck]

Originally Posted by jonathan_matos5

i tend to do all my talking during free time on regular plans but still used under 100 minutes total so i never used what i was paying for. im guessing there are no free minutes with the pay-as-you-go service phones.

True. There are no free minutes. You do get a certain number of minutes for making the minimum payment per month, so you could think of that as your free time. It's not a huge amount.

My advice is to look at the details of how the Virgin Mobile plans work, and simply work out what is the cheapest way to talk for 100 minutes per month. I suspect it will still be cheaper than a conventional plan.

[gold_member_321]

If you live in a city or the suburbs, than a Tracphone would work just fine. If you live in an area away from everything, than try a Go-Phone.

[playinpearls]

i have 4000 roll-over minutes...wish i could sell them, lol.

my little brother had a virgin mobile phone. they actually run on the sprint network....he never used it though, and it was done within 2 months...

[casualmadness]

I use a net10 phone and it works great. I've had contracts with Sprint, Verizon, Cingular, and a few other lesser known ones. I'll never have another cell contract again. Too much hassle, too many morons manning the helm in those palces. I sued virgin mobile for a while but madethe switch over to net10. I'm perfectly happy with net10.

[Vandelay]

I've been happy with T-Mobile prepaid. My wife and I have used them for about 3 years now.

The main catch I see with prepaid phones is how quickly do the minutes expire if you don't use them. If you're having to refill every 60-90 days because they expire, it becomes wasteful. What I like about T-Mobile is that, if you buy 1000 minutes (for $100), they don't expire for a year. So I pay $100 about once a year (or about twice a year in my wife's case), and then I don't have to think about it again. I think other companies offer similar pricing now, but 3 years ago when I was looking into this, T-Mobile was the only one doing it.

Coverage and service have been good too.

[jonathan_matos5]

im leaning toward either virgin mobile or boost mobile.