Pay-As-You-Go Cell Phone Plans

[RallyMaster]

We need 2-3 phones for the family so we can call each other. My parents don't use much so they don't need a monthly plan over 700 minutes or even 400 minutes. They use about 20 minutes each month so it's completely pointless to have a monthly plan. We want a REAL pay-as you-go service. We will pay for the phones and just pay what we use each month.

We've already used Virgin Mobile's prepaid service but it's not pay-as-you-go. We have a total of 200 dollars now on those two accounts and it's only going to get larger if I don't find another plan soon.

TIA!

 

[QED]

What's wrong with prepaid? It essentialy is pay-as-you go... just buy minutes in smaller increments.

 

[dguy6789]

The problem with prepaid is that they normally have all kinds of little things that are just annoying or troublesome. For example, with Virgin Mobile, you have to spend a minimum amount of money over a period of time or all the minutes on your phone get erased and you lose your phone number. So I, who uses my cellphone very rarely and can go for months at a time on a $25 phone card, am forced to buy minutes when I do not even need them.

 

[LookingGlass]

I use T-Mobile, pay as you go. I put $25.00 on it a few months ago, still have minutes left, works for me. I don't use it much.

 

[RallyMaster]

Does T-Mobile force you to pay after a while? Virgin makes us pay $20 after 90 days or the service gets cut.

 

[simms]

How much cheaper can you get? $20 in 3 months seems decent.

 

[crypticlogin]

Originally posted by: dguy6789
For example, with Virgin Mobile, you have to spend a minimum amount of money over a period of time or all the minutes on your phone get erased and you lose your phone number.

This is the same with all of the major carrier's paygo/prepaid plans. Keeping a line operating for someone who never makes calls wouldn't make financial sense for the companies to do.

Cingular's pay as you go is the major carrier I think is worth it -- no daily access fee (unlike Verizon), every $100 deposit will get you 1 year or 400 minutes of voice service, and the available phones run the gamut. Coverage is nowhere near Verizon's though.

 

[JS80]

Sprint fair and flexible is as pay as you go as you can get.

 

[RallyMaster]

Thanks guys! I'll take a look at these different ones.

 

[Compton]

I was looking at T-Mobile To Go a few weeks ago. I believe that if you buy $100 worth of minutes that they will last for a whole year. I was thinking about dropping my cingular monthly service for this.