Home › Forums › WSB Reader Recommendations › Pay as you go cell phones
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December 24, 2008 at 1:34 am #589193
GarybertMemberWould just like coverage for greater Seattle with no hassles for maybe 30 to 60 min a month on the cheap. Any ideas, experience??
December 24, 2008 at 1:37 am #651939
WSBKeymasterFor the first several months we were a business, we used a Virgin Mobile bottom-of-the-line phone. (Later transferred the number to our Verizon account when we started using it too much for pay as you go to make sense.)
http://www.virginmobileusa.com
you can do the whole thing online OR I think they sell ’em at Target. Service was fine. I think they are, or were, a Sprint reseller.
December 24, 2008 at 1:39 am #651940
ToddinWestwoodMemberI have one. I never wanted a cell phone, but wife got sick of calling my friends while I was out on motorcycle trips to see if I was alright.
I held out till last year. Then she bought me one.
From what I hear, and I have, the ATT GoPhone setup is the best for around here. I have had no problems with coverage.
They are available at Target or Rite-Aid. I suppose Bartells and Wallgreens too.
December 24, 2008 at 2:33 am #651941
scooby-snaxMemberatt go phone @bartells.
December 24, 2008 at 2:59 am #651942
clark5080ParticipantT-Mobile prepaid for me
December 24, 2008 at 3:16 am #651943
transplantellaParticipantWe have such a pay-as-you-go phone.
I think it’s called a Trac Phone. $40 at Target. You just load up the minutes off a Trac Phone pre paid card, the phone cards be bought almost everywhere including supermarkets, drug stores, Target, etc. Easy as pie.
The down side is that you get charged for both incoming and outgoing calls, 800 numbers, everything. You use the phone–it ticks off the minutes, period.
But altogether I think it’s cheaper than the ripoff contracts and phone plans required by the various cell phone providers. We don’t use the cell a lot.
Outside of America, cell phone service is so much better and cheaper, it’s a joke here.
December 24, 2008 at 3:21 am #651944
BonnieParticipantI have an AT&T Go Phone and like it. I don’t make a lot of phone calls so I just put $100 on it a year and it lasts for me.
December 24, 2008 at 3:39 am #651945
ToddinWestwoodMemberThe other advantage of the ATT Go Phone is that you can go online and refill minutes with your debit/credit card.
December 24, 2008 at 4:11 am #651946
cjboffoliParticipantGarybert: I just bought my 85 year-old grandmother a Jitterbug phone. She had been paying heaps for a multi-feature cell phone that she barely used. The Jitterbug is the height of simplicity. The plan is $10 per month and then .35 per minute. You deal only with Jitterbug. They select the carrier behind the scenes. http://www.jitterbug.com/
December 24, 2008 at 9:47 am #651947
KevinParticipantGo Phone is a GREAT deal if you do not make or receive a lot of calls. We use the .10 per minute / $1.00 a day plan. I think the optional plan is .25 per minute with no $1.00 a day access charge.
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Also, aside from the 1.00 daily access charge, ATT to ATT calls are free. NO charge on the days you do not use the phone, and only ONE access charge per day.
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For my needs, I typically use $15 to $20 worth of service per month. Still much cheaper than a traditional plan phone.
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Want a better phone? Simply find an ATT or unlocked phone on Craig’s List and then put the ATT sim card in the new phone. Easy as that.
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ATT has very good coverage throughout the Seattle area including West Seattle.
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December 24, 2008 at 3:21 pm #651948
ejonesMemberI used to have t-mobile and i was happy with that. Some phones are cheeper than others, but check how much minutes are going to cost. I know the t-mobile phones cost more, but (at least when i had one) they have the cheepest minutes which can matter a lot depending on how long you keep the phone for.
December 24, 2008 at 10:02 pm #651949
GarybertMemberThankyou all very much for helpful info.
We went with the GoPhone from Bartells and got it at half price.
Happy Holidays!
June 3, 2009 at 10:49 pm #651950
howiecohenMemberDisclosure: I’m the cell phone buyer at Bartells. AT&T has good coverage in most of the Seattle area and the handsets are good & inexpensive. Rate plans have lots of options for how people use the phones, 25¢/minute all the time, or pay $1/day (only charged on days voice calls are made) and get unlimited calls to other AT&T or pay 10¢/minute on all other calls. They just started a new plan for $3/day (only on days voice calls are made) and you get unlimited voice calls to anyone in the US anytime. That works out to $93/month for unlimited calling. For heavy cell phone users that is probably cheaper than a contract phone. We’ve also got Verizon prepaid phones in our stores. You can pick up the refill airtime cards at any of the stores too. Clerks can answer many questions in the stores on the phones/plans. You can also recycle your old cell phones at our stores for free-please don’t throw them in the trash-they contain heavy metals in the electronics that can be recycled or working phones can be repurposed for emergency phones through our recycling program http://www.rbrc.org
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