ErikW Posted April 11, 2005 Share Posted April 11, 2005 What's the hot ticket for me? I want to use a cell phone maybe 2-6 times a year, when I'm travelling. So it's going to involve long distance calls. Walkie-Talkie would be helpful. Calling while in Costa Rica or Ecuador is in the cards this year. From what I see, these services are really phony prepaid because minutes expire in 90 days or you have to recharge/rebuy minutes after a period of time. Do any of them have a really long expiration? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D.Hayden Posted April 11, 2005 Share Posted April 11, 2005 I have the Virgin phone. It's the longest expiration period I could find, 90 days, and it only needs $20 to top up. Effectvely, it's ~ $7 a month for me. I leave it in the car, or grab it occasionally, works ok for that. I use it so little, it's ok, the minutes just keep building up. I think I got the phone at Best Buy for $50, with $10 in minutes and a $15 rebate... something like that. about a year and 1/2 ago. After a year, you have the option to prepay $60, which won't expire for a year. Don't know about International, or Talkie-Walkie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidwiz Posted April 11, 2005 Share Posted April 11, 2005 It is a $#@! rip off. The minutes that you purchase on the "pay as you go" plan expire, usually after 30 days (Verizon), then you have to purchase more minutes. Of course, none of this is explained to you by the Verizon salesdrone at the store, and you find out only after your phone stops working and reading the teeny tiny fine print. Plus, you have to pay full boat retail for the phone, whereas if you signed up for a normal monthy plan, you get the phone either free or at a significant discount. -David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nemo Posted April 12, 2005 Share Posted April 12, 2005 Señor Warren, I tried the pay as you go option for my wife's cell phone because she's doesn't use it very much. Always ended up loosing the minutes and having to buy more. I would recommend you look at the regular plans and don't settle for anything less than GSM (the current tech). Walkie talkie coverage is still limited, but if what you like is not having the phone to your ear, get one with speakerphone. I did a search for you with Cingular using a Nevada zip code and found a monthly NATION plan for $29.99 with 200 anytime minutes and 1000 nights&weekends minutes, this is with no roaming and no long distance. For $10 more a month ($39.99) the Nation 450 you get 450 anytime mins, 5000 N&W, unlimited mobile-to-mobile and ROLLOVER minutes: anytime minutes you dont use roll to your next month. There are no World calling plans in the US, so Ecuador and Costa Rica will be charged as roaming, no matter your cell provider. You don't use the phone much, but for me these Cingular Nation plans work great. All my relatives in PR are with Cingular so we talk mobile to mobile with no long distance charges. For work I travel to PR and the USVI and have no roaming and wherever I go within the 50 states I can use the phone with no roaming or long distance charges. Also, if you want to add another line to your service you can do it for an additional $10 and share the minute package with mom, gf, kids... Maybe you can get similar offers from other companies as well. Good luck. Resistance is futile... You will be assimilated... Here ended sales speech. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ErikW Posted April 12, 2005 Author Share Posted April 12, 2005 $30 a month is $360 a year. Refilling prepaid $20 every 90 days is only $80 a year. Even buying the phone, it's a better deal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nemo Posted April 12, 2005 Share Posted April 12, 2005 It's all in the use you give it. I pay $100 a month in cell phone for 3 lines and a bunch of minutes. But we use it a lot and saves us $$$ in long distance. You need whatever works for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D.Hayden Posted April 12, 2005 Share Posted April 12, 2005 $30 a month is $360 a year. Refilling prepaid $20 every 90 days is only $80 a year. Even buying the phone, it's a better deal. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Erik, one thing about the PrePaids (at least Virgin), The Virgin phone will not roam, it must find a Sprit network, or it's a nogo. Mostly it's fine.. but through some places (I noticed this one I-15 north of Idaho Falls) you can't get a signal, whereas Verizon was fine. In town - 100%. No way am I paying $30 a month, for the 10 minutes I use a month. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nemo Posted April 12, 2005 Share Posted April 12, 2005 10 minutes a month! You guys could almost get by with a quarter and a pay phone... Now if I could only train my wife to use the cell like that... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ong45 Posted April 12, 2005 Share Posted April 12, 2005 Heh, show me where you can make a phone call for a quarter and i'll buy you a phone call Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidwiz Posted April 12, 2005 Share Posted April 12, 2005 Also, you're going to be paying (using minutes) for every call you make, + long distance charges + roaming charges (not to mention the $200+ cost of the phone). Whereas if you get a monthly plan, most carriers now allow you to call another cell phone on the carrier w/o using any minutes, plus no roaming or long distance charges. I'm on one of those "family" plans, so I get around 400 minutes a month for $10/month. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
9MX Posted April 13, 2005 Share Posted April 13, 2005 jeez, philippine subscribers should read this thread to better appreciate the cheaper pre-paid set up here. 90 day expiry for a little less than USD6, international roaming (with the operator's global GSM allies) is possible but using SMS only. International roaming for postpaid plans include voice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ted Murphy Posted April 16, 2005 Share Posted April 16, 2005 at&t used to have a pay as you go program where you bought a $100.00 card and it was good for 12 months. Perfect for the glove box cell phone. They may still have that program. Ted Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ErikW Posted June 8, 2005 Author Share Posted June 8, 2005 I was all set on T-mobile To Go, then I realized #1 it has spotty coverage and #2 it doesn't roam. In fact, few prepaid plans roam off-network. That torpedoes my "travelling phone" plan. Now I'm set on Beyond Wireless. They offer off-network roaming (at 4x the rate) and use the AT&T/Cingular TDMA network. The only drawback is they don't have many local numbers and I may end up with a number from Illinois, Florida, or Texas. Which really isn't a drawback for me and my intended use. Now I'm wondering if I can get any old TDMA phone. Even a refurbished phone that was previously activated? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flyin40 Posted June 8, 2005 Share Posted June 8, 2005 I use Tracfone and have no problems. I buy the prepaid 1yr service and it comes with 150 minutes. That probably last me 4 or 5 months. Then I might add another 200 minutes. For the yr it runs me $90 for the yr prepaid with 150 minutes and another $50 for the other 200 minutes. Total is $140 and it comes out to something like $11 a month. Its the way to go for me. Tracfone also has roaming. I'm in Ohio and made a hunting trip to North Dakota and it worked then entire time. Only thing is when your on roam 1 minute is billed as 2. If you use the a cell phone much don't go with prepaid. I have had my phone for 2 yrs and still barely use it. Flyin40 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ErikW Posted June 8, 2005 Author Share Posted June 8, 2005 I looked into TracFone some more and its coverage and roaming is pretty good. I had to compare it closely with Beyond Wireless, which still wins out as a cross-country prepaid phone service. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flyin40 Posted June 8, 2005 Share Posted June 8, 2005 I have never looked into beyone wireless. I have had mine for 2 yrs. When my phone dies I'll probably compare other plans. Flyin40 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tangram Posted June 9, 2005 Share Posted June 9, 2005 Worth noting that TracFone minutes do not expire. You do have to buy a new service card each year - but the minutes carry over Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shooter Grrl Posted June 9, 2005 Share Posted June 9, 2005 I was all set on T-mobile To Go, then I realized #1 it has spotty coverage and #2 it doesn't roam. In fact, few prepaid plans roam off-network. That torpedoes my "travelling phone" plan.Now I'm set on Beyond Wireless. They offer off-network roaming (at 4x the rate) and use the AT&T/Cingular TDMA network. The only drawback is they don't have many local numbers and I may end up with a number from Illinois, Florida, or Texas. Which really isn't a drawback for me and my intended use. Now I'm wondering if I can get any old TDMA phone. Even a refurbished phone that was previously activated? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> If you can use any old TDMA phone - lemme know! I've 3 of them in the closet and you can certainly HAVE one! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ErikW Posted June 9, 2005 Author Share Posted June 9, 2005 DOH! I'm waiting for an ebay Nokia in the mail. Beyond Wireless uses the AT&T/Cingular blue network with tri-mode phones. They say it needs to be an AT&T phone and others may not work. I was trying to sign up on their site and it's goofy as hell: they require your address but you only have a choice of several states. So I'm going to give a phony address for the phony state, no big deal. Hell, I might as well use a phony name. Then they require your wireless phone number. Argh! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishnfst Posted June 10, 2005 Share Posted June 10, 2005 We used to carry a satellite phone on the boat I work on... You purchase the phone and they charge you for the minutes that you use. If you never use it you will never get charged. Middle of the desert it works. I've even used it 1000 miles south of San Diego and 500 off the coast of baja and it worked great... I think it was like $3 a minute though..... You should just look at one of the small packages. I haven't looked at a cell phone contract in close to ten years so things may have changed. They use to offer an emergency use contract for like $12 or $14 a month but then would charge you like 50 cents a minute when you did want to use it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ErikW Posted June 14, 2005 Author Share Posted June 14, 2005 I got a used Nokia from ebay and called up Beyond Wireless to activate it. The rep was extremely helpful, and seemed to be a native English speaker in the U.S. I got a Texas area code. I bought some minutes from their web site but it was a pain in the ass because it wouldn't accept the bogus billing address I provided (after all, it's strictly an internet purchase, nothing changing hands) because it didn't match the credit card billing address. So I used my CC billing address but it wouldn't let me use my state, only one of their officially serviced states. So I just set it to Texas and the web order went through. I got the PIN, called the 877 number, and my phone was good to go with the minutes I bought and some bonus units from BW. One nice thing about this option is it can be anonymous if you purchase minutes from a BW retailer instead of online with a credit card. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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