OT: Cell phone opinions needed.

Don't have one, don't want one but gonna break down & buy something if it's cheap enough. Local dept. store has'em for $15 & $20 - Verizon. Apparently have to buy a card to use'em. Do these things last or do you use'em a week & throw away? What's the deal?

Don't normally carry a cell phone myself, but my wife bought "me" a "trac fone" (which sounds like what you're talking about). On days when she really needs to get a hold of me, or wants me to be able to call her, she'll hand me this as I'm leaving the house. My understanding is it's a $20 phone, and you pay about 30 cents a minute to use it (pre-paid). The phone itself holds up OK, I abuse "mine" and it still works. We've probably had it for about 3 years, so it's a bigger, non-hinged model. I probably carry it about once a week or less, so it hasn't been used a whole lot, but it gets left in the car and bounced around and still works OK.

For as little as I use it, it's a good compromise for us compared to another monthly contract on her phone.

I only use a cell phone and that's it. I've got an iphone with apps and bs I don't really need but I love it.

As far as how long will they last, it's all about moisture. Get it wet and it's done. My last phone got wet from sweat while I was working in this heat and it started wigging out.

It is a lot cheaper to use if you buy the double minutes card up front. Then you can buy a 4 or 450 minute card and get 900 minutes which works out to about $.09 cents/minute. But, the double minutes card is only good on one phone. If you want to buy a new phone down the line, you need to buy another double minutes card. Learned that the hard way. And if you call "trac phone", listen very carefully unless you understand a lot of foreign languages.

We like the phones, but don't spend hours talking to somebody. Also, they seem to work most anywhere.

I run mine through the washing machine.let it dry out and it is still working. It is one from AT&T
gitrib

We have Verizon Family plan,two phones,500 minutes,we use about 120 minutes for around $70.00 a month,We are thinking of going with a Trac-fone and trade it off with each other depending on who is going to town next.Getting hard to stretch the monthly income any more. Next to get shaved is Dish NetWork.Just dumped MSN which we paid for,for Windows Internet Explorer which is provided by Qwest our DSL Provider free. I Heard that Qwest has been sold,whats the deal.

In addition to Gordys warnings, the double minute card has a clause that states if you let the original minutes card expire (even for a half day) your double minutes card is no good at all.

I had a couple track phones, and it was pretty expensive overall. The trac phones are great on promotions, and terrible at service.

I told them I did NOT want any promotions, nor did I want a answering service to eat up the minutes. Well it takes a attorney and a shot gun to make therm stop offering you special deals. If you do not want a mail box, it is a real pain, and your phone will continue to beep real loud REGARDLESS how many kids / nerds remove the message....it will continue to beep every three minutes.

When you answer your voice mail or special offerings, you are being charged a very high price per minute to do this, SALESMANSHIP AT IT"S BEST.

I finaly tossed mine, and went the real expensive way.no regreats so far. The folks at Wal-Mart said the trac phones are not very fair to the customer. They do not mention the little add ons that you are not aware of. The trac phones are something the better business agents need to crack down on.

The trac phones are a gentle, and inexpensive way to give your family and yourself peace of mind, and they have a good signal in our area, and good coverage.

I bought a cheap T-mobile to go cell phone and it never failed.

In order to keep service and a certain number you just need to keep adding minutes as called for.

I purchased a $100 card which gave 12 months of service or 1,000 minutes whichever came first.

The problem I had was the T-mobile to go changed who they sent their signal through and I wound up with declining service. My daughter went to a new plan so I got onto her family plan with a company that has good signal almost everywhere in KS.

I think when I checked several years ago Verizon was quite a bit higher per overall cost.

Qwest sold to Century Link. They're changing the name of the Seattle Seahawks football stadium from Qwest Field to Century Link Field. Just kind of rolllllls off the tongue, doesn't it?

The baseball stadium is Safeco Field, and everybody calls it "The Safe" for short. Local radio station ran a poll, asking what we should shorten the Century Link Field to. Overwhelming favorite was "The Clink".

I've kept a Motorola Krzr in my pocket with the extra big battery on it for 5 years now 24/7, tough as nails, didn't mind getting soaked with sweat and rain or dropped, almost 2 weeks between charging and great signal. The wire inside the hinge to run the screen died the other day and boys its hard to find a good basic cell phone now. I just got a used samsung rugby from someone who just had to have a blackberry but its a big clunky affair and the battery is half the size. We'll see how it works out.

I was like you until I realized that my cell phone is the best way to stay connected for work, with friends, family, etc. My Verizon phone was $40, wife pays the phone bill for hers and mine. Mine has lasted for 3 years and it will need a new battery soon. The battery is $30 or something. I dont even use the house phone anymore.

I've used a Trac Fone for several years. I maybe use 60 minutes a month, so I've figured it costs me less than $10 per month.

I use Tracfone. Costs about $100 per year for a year card and it lasts that long for me. Makes it less than $10 a month. If I was to need more time I'd just add a time card.

Threw away my regular cell phone a few years ago. Cost me $25 a month and the most I ever used was 8 minutes one month. Have trac phone now with over 400 minutes accumulated on it as I buy 60 min cards for $20 good for 90 day. I use it when I need it. Always add new card online and no hassle so far.

Pre-paid is the way to go money wise. Hands down, unless you plan on talking on it all day.

Who has the better coverage is the next thing. T-Moble is going to be a big city highway coverage for the most part. Sprint isn't much better. Neither is AT&T. Verison likely is the better provider for rual areas. But it depends on where you are.

One last consideration would/might be the frequency it operates on. If you are frequenting ubran areas and indoors a lot, you might want to consider a carrier that uses A or B band. A and B band operate in the 800MHZ range and penerate buildings and such better than PCS (1.9 GHZ).

That said, ask around where you are. Talk to those who go where you go. I have 1 kid on sprint who does ok, like me. One on T-moble who looses coverage about 5 miles off the interstate and is useless around here. And one who was Alltel, until Verizon bought them, and has pretty solid coverage around here. Maybe just a tab better than Sprint.

My wife and I have Trac Phones. They cost us $35 a piece and we signed up for a family plan. She gets 100 minutes a month and I get 80 minutes a month for ~$17 per month total and we can quit any time.

Their customer service isn"t the greatest but I haven"t had to use it very much and the phone service is excellent especially since we"re in rural Montana

the type of phones just about don't matter, all imports!!!! it location-location-location of the repeaters towers, and the company that put them up. plans, minutes are a different subject, it's between phones and tower to get a good connection, again loc and company. every one who has one will swear theirs are the best. its a 50/50 call [haha]

If you don't have one and don't want one, you don't know what "goodies" you've missed out on and you are likely only to use it for emergencies. I'd find which service has the best connection possibilities and get the cheapest thing possible. Real easy over here. Pay as little as 15 bucks for a phone that comes with a card that already has 5 bucks on it. Calls aren't cheap but emergency calls (police, ambulance, and roadside service) and incoming calls are free and you don't need to have money on your card. I had that for years until the wife ran across a package that included a cell phone number/ card.
Whatever you get, a tip that I got off here and has me in a whole new world is industrial strength velcro. A patch of the soft stuff on the phone and the other stuff has a patch on the tractor, quad, steering column of the car, workshop and barn door, and on the keyhanger by the frt door.

Dave

The wife also mentioned that they have "special deals" once or twice a year (around Christmas for sure) where you get some extra stuff for your $20. For example, the recent deal included a car charger and the "double minutes". It's also a "flip phone", and after looking at that I told her to upgrade me next time it comes around. The phone is about half the size, but more importantly the ringer can be turned on and off w/ one button, whereas w/ my (non hinged) phone it's 2-3 keystrokes to unlock the keypad, then several more to mute or unmute.

It sounds like you can switch the number if you upgrade (but only the wife and kids really call on it anyway at this point, so a new number wouldn't be the end of the world).


As others have said, definitely not a good deal if you use the phone a lot. I really don't, but it works well for those times I "need" one.