cell phone stuff

[EmperorNero]

background: we are subscribed to cincinnati bell wireless (member of at&t). the plan was 125 mins for $30 I believe...the cell phone was a motorola startac...a major piece of crap. after a year, the phone is starting to malfunction so my mom told me to look on this deal:

1) buy one nokia 5165, get one free. to get one free, both phones must be activated at the same time. and can both phone use the same service plan? or do we have to buy 2 service plans - one for each phone?

the service plan is 25,000 unlimited night and weekend minutes + 200 anytime minutes for $29 for per month - no contract. long distance and outof network roaming are not included (we don't travel much so I guess that's not a problem..but we do call long distance sometimes so that's a bummer). anytime minutes effective 6:01 am - 7:59pm monday through friday...what is "anytime"? so is this deal worth it?


2) nokia 5165 for $29 after $20 mail in rebate and $70 bonus airtime...original cost is $99. includes free headset. "choose from any great plans like 125 anytime ninutes plust unlimited nights and weekends..just $34.00/month"



3) buy a Nokia 5165 or Nokia 6160 and get $50 back. info available here.


since I know very little about cell phone stuff, please explain some of these things to me. and we need a new phone badly but we already have an existing account with cincy bell wireless - would that be a problem? so which deals should we take?

 

[EmperorNero]

^

need assistance quick...all of the deals end the 31st.

 

[kranky]

If you already have a contract that isn't up, don't try to cancel it. You'll probably pay as much to cancel as you would to let the contract run its course. If your contract is still active, see if they will switch you to the new plan without counting it as a cancellation. If your old phone is analog, they probably will switch you without a problem, since the wireless companies want to get rid of the analog customers because they can handle many more digital customers with the same towers.

I couldn't find anything on the cbwireless.com site about buy one/get one free. Don't know if you need two service plans, but you could ask them.

200 "Anytime" minutes usually means the first 200 minutes you use in a month, whether they are peak or off-peak (night/weekend). So once you use 200 minutes in a month, the rest of the minutes have to be night/weekend or you pay 25 cents/minute for going over your allowance of 200.

I wouldn't pay one cent for a cell phone if I could get one free. I think most people pay for more phone and more service than they really need. My plan includes 60 minutes a month for $12.99 and that's enough for me, and I got a free phone too. But that's a plan I can get through our company and isn't available to the public.