Prepaid Cellphone Deals

[vfrjim]

bump so that this question does not get asked in another thread

 

[nam207]

I just bought STi LG1200 phone for $77 after tax, shipping, coupon at cheapphonecards.com. Now all I have to do is wait for $79 rebate.

Overall, I'm very impress in NY area. The coverage is excellent, my personal experience is in NY only, and the international call is unbelievable. I've read the who thread about other plans, and I assure you that STi is the cheapest you can get.

I was thinking about getting BeyondWireless too, since the fee to maintain is the same as STi, which is 1 minute a month or 10 cents/month. You have to pay $100 in advanced though to get 10 cents rate, compare to $5 with STi.

Calling internationally, STi is wonderful, the signal is good, the rate I'm calling to Vietnam is $0.18 (same to most of other coutries). The rate calling to Vietnam is AlWAYS range from at least $0.50-$1.20 on most major phone company such as AT&T, MCI, and this one allows you to call on cell phone. The $0.18/minute to 240 countries is insanly low, no tax. Not to mention that if you buy prepaid phone card with about the same competitive rate, most likely you'll get connection fee that eat up all of your minutes.

 

[Cheapest]

OK, so which one is the best deal compare with ATT Free2Go prepaid? Any comparision chart?

 

[JJAANTEC]

http://cellphones.about.com/od/serviceplans/l/blusprepaidcell.htm

Link to comparison of some of the pre-paid cell phone costs

 

[vfrjim]

Up just because people do not search

 

[abaez]

I got a text message from t-mobile saying my next purchase will get me 20% more minutes yesterday.

 

[Kuhlman]

I have been a cell phone holdout and I finally just broke down and picked up a T-Mobile plan pre-paid Nokia 6800 for $50 after rebate. (I really like the phone - has a foldout full QWERTY keyboard, e-mail, voice recorder, FM radio, voice dialing, speakerphone and lots of other little features.) I had also bought the pre-paid STI LG-1200 for free after rebate but it is terrible in terms of features vs the Nokia phone and the minutes cost more.

I bought 1000 T-Mobile minutes for $88 (after discounts at cheapphonecards) - so I only pay 8.8 cents/minute (and with 3% rewards points price drops to 8.5 cents/minute). The STI plan is 10 and 12 cents/minute.

The T-Mobile minutes are good for a year and with T-Mobile if you buy 1000 minutes you become a Gold Rewards member. You can then buy a small amount of minutes before your 1 year is up and all the minutes you haven't used will roll over for another year from the date of the second purchase. So in essence the minutes will never expire until you use them as long as you make a purchase of any amount once a year. Great deal for a light user like me.

I figured out I will pay only $3.60 a month for cell phone service over 2 years with this setup! (And will have an average of 40 minutes a month to use included in that cost).

You can check your voice messages for free from a landline and receive e-mail and text messages for free. (10 cents to send them)

 

[Cheapest]

Isn't it the STi LG1200 is better deal for people call less? This is be cause you only paid $10 at a time and it's only $0.12/minutes (worst case) and no expiration date/time but need to call at least once every two months?

 

[Macro2]

RE:"Isn't it the STi LG1200 is better deal for people call less? This is be cause you only paid $10 at a time and it's only $0.12/minutes (worst case) and no expiration date/time but need to call at least once every two months? "

I think so.

 

[HBMaGneT]

Originally posted by: Kuhlman
I have been a cell phone holdout and I finally just broke down and picked up a T-Mobile plan pre-paid Nokia 6800 for $50 after rebate. (I really like the phone - has a foldout full QWERTY keyboard, e-mail, voice recorder, FM radio, voice dialing, speakerphone and lots of other little features.) I had also bought the pre-paid STI LG-1200 for free after rebate but it is terrible in terms of features vs the Nokia phone and the minutes cost more.

I bought 1000 T-Mobile minutes for $88 (after discounts at cheapphonecards) - so I only pay 8.8 cents/minute (and with 3% rewards points price drops to 8.5 cents/minute). The STI plan is 10 and 12 cents/minute.

The T-Mobile minutes are good for a year and with T-Mobile if you buy 1000 minutes you become a Gold Rewards member. You can then buy a small amount of minutes before your 1 year is up and all the minutes you haven't used will roll over for another year from the date of the second purchase. So in essence the minutes will never expire until you use them as long as you make a purchase of any amount once a year. Great deal for a light user like me.

I figured out I will pay only $3.60 a month for cell phone service over 2 years with this setup! (And will have an average of 40 minutes a month to use included in that cost).

You can check your voice messages for free from a landline and receive e-mail and text messages for free. (10 cents to send them)

Actually it won't roll over another full year, if I am reading it correct. But I haven't called a CSR for varification. The site says this:

"All minutes include nationwide long distance and roaming on the T-Mobile To Go prepaid network. If you refill before your prepaid account expires, all your minutes will extend to the new expiration date."

So if you pay $10 you get 30 more days to use it all up.

 

[Gilby]

Originally posted by: HBMaGneT

"All minutes include nationwide long distance and roaming on the T-Mobile To Go prepaid network. If you refill before your prepaid account expires, all your minutes will extend to the new expiration date."

So if you pay $10 you get 30 more days to use it all up.

Nope. One of the Gold Rewards benefits is that any time you add minutes your existing minutes plus the new ones have an expiration date one year from the add-in.

 

[kjacobs]

I went with Virgin Mobile. They want $15 every 90 days to keep the account open and keep existing minutes. I bought a K9 phone for about $$40 at Walmart altho Target has them on clearance for $24.99 right now. They give you $10 worth of minutes to activate and a $5 credit if you use a credit card for billing. I like the fact that you can automatically use the credit card to "top off" the account evrey 90 days (or if you get below a certain balance) so I don't have to remember. They use the Sprint network which is fine here in SW Va. Definitely marketed toward the younger generation but I don;t mind!

Athena mentioned getting regular cell phones for $15-20 a month but at least here the best i could do was $29.99 a month which is why I did prepaid.

Ken

 

[LenDeighton]

Please DELETE this MSG.

 

[LenDeighton]

Originally posted by: Kuhlman
I have been a cell phone holdout and I finally just broke down and picked up a T-Mobile plan pre-paid Nokia 6800 for $50 after rebate. (I really like the phone - has a foldout full QWERTY keyboard, e-mail, voice recorder, FM radio, voice dialing, speakerphone and lots of other little features.)

When and where did you get this deal for the Nokia 6800. Is it still available?

 

[MOCKBA1]

Entire my family has virgin mobile phones. It seems to be the best choice for west cost, when you want to keep lowest cost.

 

[mscdex0]

Originally posted by: MOCKBA1
Entire my family has virgin mobile phones. It seems to be the best choice for west cost, when you want to keep lowest cost.

Uh, you've got to be kidding.

 

[Randolphjo]

Originally posted by: mscdex0

Originally posted by: MOCKBA1
Entire my family has virgin mobile phones. It seems to be the best choice for west cost, when you want to keep lowest cost.

Uh, you've got to be kidding.

Why is that? Our West Coast household switched to Virgin Mobile a couple of years ago (after using AT&T and other majors), and our cell phone costs have been considerably lower.

You still have to take in account how much you actually use your cell phone in order to figure out what plan is the most economical for your usage. For us, Virgin Mobile has more than met our needs. We mostly use our phones for "hey, I'm at the store, what do you need?" or to inform one another of schedule changes etc. Because of that, we don't use many minutes every month - so the Virgin Mobile plan is the most economical for our use.

Figure out how many minutes per month you think you will use the phone then do the math. What's cheapest for me might not be for you. I enjoy not being tied to a contract (usually two years) and paying for my calls as I go. I paid $60 to Virgin Mobile for airtime and I'm not obligated to purchase any more minutes for a year. I don't have to pay a monthly usage charge and if I decide to change phones or service, I don't have to worry about $100+ cancellation charges either. I like the freedom AND the cost savings.

I use about 15 minutes of airtime a month. Some months more some less. There is no charge for roaming and no charge for long distance calls within the US. If you can tell me of a cheaper plan (with reliable service) than I now have with Virgin Mobile, then let's hear it.

 

[Cheapest]

I saw this note on their plan (This is the exact note it appears in http://www.stimobile.com/Rates_DisclaimerPlan1.html ):

'...Calls are billed in full minute increments, and any fraction of a minute is rounded up and charged at the full minute rate. Calls are measured from the time the network begins to process the call (before the phone rings or the call is answered) through the termination of the call....'

Is this mean if someone call your cell phone it will get charged when they make the call even if you don't pickup your cell phone?

 

[mscdex0]

Originally posted by: Cheapest
I saw this note on their plan (This is the exact note it appears in http://www.stimobile.com/Rates_DisclaimerPlan1.html ):

'...Calls are billed in full minute increments, and any fraction of a minute is rounded up and charged at the full minute rate. Calls are measured from the time the network begins to process the call (before the phone rings or the call is answered) through the termination of the call....'

Is this mean if someone call your cell phone it will get charged when they make the call even if you don't pickup your cell phone?

I think they are referring to when YOU (with a stimobile-enabled cellphone) call someone else, and it rings and rings and whatnot, and even when their voicemail picks up. You are charged that whole entire time, even if the other person does not pick up. Basically as soon as you enter the phone number and as soon as you end the phone call.

 

[MOCKBA1]

Few more pluses to VirginMobile. They seem not charge for call less than 10 seconds, for example an answering machine picked call or you mistake number. They have a good online management of account. Customer service is also good, when you use e-mail, you can get answer in less than 10 minutes.

 

[catrats]

Originally posted by: mscdex0

...You are charged that whole entire time, even if the other person does not pick up...

Are you certain about this or did you mean "even if the other person's voice mail picks up" like you did in your first sentence?

 

[mscdex0]

Originally posted by: catrats

Originally posted by: mscdex0

...You are charged that whole entire time, even if the other person does not pick up...

Are you certain about this or did you mean "even if the other person's voice mail picks up" like you did in your first sentence?

Both. As soon as the line starts ringing on their end until you hang up on your end. That entire time you are charged

Hope that sounds a little clearer

 

[catrats]

Originally posted by: mscdex0

Originally posted by: catrats

Originally posted by: mscdex0

...You are charged that whole entire time, even if the other person does not pick up...

Are you certain about this or did you mean "even if the other person's voice mail picks up" like you did in your first sentence?

Both. As soon as the line starts ringing on their end until you hang up on your end. That entire time you are charged

Hope that sounds a little clearer

Doh! I guess I wasn't clear about my question. You seemed to say that "even if the other person does not pick up", you will get charged. Therefore, if I call someone that doesn't voice mail or an answering machine and it just rang, there's still a charge?

Hope my question is clearer.

 

[mscdex0]

Originally posted by: catrats

Originally posted by: mscdex0

Originally posted by: catrats

Originally posted by: mscdex0

...You are charged that whole entire time, even if the other person does not pick up...

Are you certain about this or did you mean "even if the other person's voice mail picks up" like you did in your first sentence?

Both. As soon as the line starts ringing on their end until you hang up on your end. That entire time you are charged

Hope that sounds a little clearer

Doh! I guess I wasn't clear about my question. You seemed to say that "even if the other person does not pick up", you will get charged. Therefore, if I call someone that doesn't voice mail or an answering machine and it just rang, there's still a charge?

Hope my question is clearer.

From the way I understand from that part of their disclaimer, yes, even if it just rang.

 

[Cheapest]

Fot StiMobile

What about the message on the phone that said 'I have $5.00 left...' ? Together with the message and the rings it take almost one minutes the time after press the phone number! $.12