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Lightweight Cell User? Save money with Prepaid cellular

Discussion in 'Fred's House of Pancakes' started by naterprius, Mar 1, 2007.

  1. naterprius

    naterprius Senior Member

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    As many of you know, I'm super frugal when it comes to parting with money. The impetus for my switch to prepaid was receiving a bill from sprint for my wife's phone only to discover the call detail records were missing. I contacted Sprint, who explained that my wife had not used her phone that month.

    Wow! $40, with the tax, for a phone she didn't use! She was careful not to use her cell too much so she wouldn't go over on minutes, but she didn't want to switch to prepaid because the handset selection sucked, the coverage for prepaid sucked, the price per minute was too high, and the minutes expired way too soon.

    About that time, I noticed, though, that Tmobile had just introduced a small tweak to their prepaid service: Once you spend $100 on service, all the minutes get bumped up to a one-year expiration. Also, they had dropped the price down to about 10 cents per minute if you buy $100 worth. (Cingular recently upped their expiration to 1 year to compete, but their price per minute is 25 cents).

    Suddenly, prepaid looked feasible, and a huge potential cost savings.

    One more problem to solve; she wanted a fancy phone, but the prepaid phones were all kind of plain. Then I realized that since Tmobile is GSM, the phone "identity" is actually on a SIM card that can be transferred to another phone!

    I did some shopping here:

    http://www.store.motorola.com/mot/en/US/ad...p;catKey=600682

    and here:

    http://www.palm.com/us/products/smartphones/treo680/

    and realized that all I needed was the SIM card and an "Unlocked GSM" phone.

    So, I went to Target, picked up the basic $40 phone, pulled the SIM card out of the package, put it in a new Treo 650, and added a $100 card.

    Over the next year, my wife used 460 minutes, leaving 540 minutes about to expire. Now comes the magic; for year two, I bought just a $50 card, which said it was worth 460 minutes, but strangely gave her 500 more, and bumped the expiration out another YEAR (you have to do this before your first year expires, though!)

    So, net cost went from $40 per month, about $480 a year, to about $50 a year, after an initial investment of $140 startup + $400 for the fancy phone. So, it took 14 months to break even, but now, it's free sailing from here.

    The icing on the cake is that Tmobile has expanded their prepaid coverage so much so, that now it is almost as good as their main coverage.

    I suggest everyone divide their total monthly minutes used into their dollars spent to see what they spend per minute. For my wife, it was $1.52. If you are a lightweight user, consider switching to prepaid.

    So, the formula is:

    1 prepaid SIM card (available on ebay for cheap from people who bought the phone but don't need the card!) or available with a few select phones
    PLUS
    1 $100 Tmobile card (critical to get the one year expiration)
    OR 1 $100 Cingular card (also has 1 year expiration, but is 25 cents per minute!)
    PLUS
    1 GSM phone that will work with your SIM card (UNLOCKED GSM works with any SIM card)

    If you like the $40 (or even their $90) phone from Target just fine, then you don't even need the "Unlocked GSM" phone. However, none of them have bluetooth; this is intentional; they want to steer you to their monthly contract.

    Again, if you are a heavy user, this won't work for you. Also, if GSM coverage in your area sucks, then you ought to go with one of the CDMA carriers like Sprint or Verizon or Alltell.

    Keep in mind that if you get prepaid from some other company that is not GSM, there is no card, so you are stuck with the phone they give you (usually lacks bluetooth).

    Again, I have analyzed all of them, and Tmobile ToGo seems like the best value, it certainly has been great for us.

    Anybody see any better deals on prepaid service? I particularly like the GSM option so I can move the SIM card to any new phone my wife likes, and was able to get a Bluetooth phone for use in the Prius.

    Nate
     
  2. EricGo

    EricGo New Member

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    Exactly !

    I just upgraded my wife's phone from a Nokia 6010 that she did not like the buttons on, to a Nokia 6030 to use on her ToGo plan.

    Bought at Target for $88 + tax, which included a $100 card and a $10 card. The $10 card was sold with the Nokia 6010 on Ebay, and I received $23 for it. So total deal: phone + 1000 minutes cost $72 (88 + 7 - 23). Because of the minimal cost of $10 annualy to extend the minutes if not used within a year, bought minutes effectively do not expire. Very nice.

    BTW, Tmobile does offer BT phones as package deals with ToGo. I bought a Moto for about $100 a year or so ago, and add minutes prn (or when deals like the above come along).
     
  3. maggieddd

    maggieddd Senior Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(naterprius @ Mar 1 2007, 05:33 PM) [snapback]398725[/snapback]</div>
    I've been using T-mobile prepaid for almost 2 years now. It's the best deal around for prepaid.
    Nate any reason why you went to Target to get a $40 phone with a SIM card and got rid of the phone? Why not just go to T-mobile and get a SIM card alone? It's $20.

    The great thing about GSM and unlocked phone is that you can use it in any country on the planet that use GSM network. Majority of the countries use GSM network. Just get a local SIM and you are all set. I've done it Indonesia and Tanzania and it worked like a charm.
     
  4. burritos

    burritos Senior Member

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    I've been using tracfone. Solely for emergency use and $80 for standard motorola flip phone. 99 bucks gets be 250 minutes a year. Minutes, I don't use get carried over. So for the last 2 years, it's cost me about 11 bucks a month(with the phone included). I still have minutes. Before I was going with the cheapest plan possible with sprint and that was still 19.99 after I got a phone.
     
  5. naterprius

    naterprius Senior Member

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    tracfone costs about 40 cents per minute, plus, you have to get a $99 card every year, whereas Tmobile, you can get a $100 card the first year, and get a $5 card every year after that (if you are an "Emergency only" user).

    I went to every Tmobile location around, and called the 800 number; they told me the only way to get a SIM card for PrePaid was to buy the Prepaid phone. I ended up giving the phone to a friend who moved his SIM card into it; his was dying.

    Tmobile ToGo's coverage map just expanded last week, it now covers even more of the country. I noticed they added Vermont and Western Kansas.

    Nate
     
  6. maggieddd

    maggieddd Senior Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(naterprius @ Mar 2 2007, 04:59 PM) [snapback]399270[/snapback]</div>
    that's absolutely not true. I bought 5 SIM cards for my parents, for myself, my husband and my father in law.
    I just called T-mobile to make sure things hasn't changed since I got my SIM and was told that I can get a SIM card for $20, that's all. No need to get a prepaid phone.
    Sorry, but they lied to you. I never purchased any phone from T-mobile. I bought mine in Germany and when I came back I just bought a SIM card from T-mobile.
     
  7. Godiva

    Godiva AmeriKan Citizen

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    I don't use a cell phone. Don't own one.

    Nice to see how much I'm saving.
     
  8. galaxee

    galaxee mostly benevolent

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    that's a great idea, but yes, only if you don't use a lot of cell phone minutes.

    i haven't used a prepaid phone in ages, since i was a retail manager "on call" 24 hours a day and i had no real need for it other than that and in case of emergency. then, it was convenient and damn cheap. very nice.

    now we have cell phones only, no land line. we use a lot of minutes and rely on the free in-network calls a lot too.
     
  9. NoMoShocks

    NoMoShocks Electrical Engineer

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    This is a little 'tongue and cheek" but what are you doing calling this thread "Light Cell User" Every hybrid owner longs for the day when "light cells" will be available to power your car across the country with a single quick charge from your fuse box at home. Maybe we should add the word "phone" to the title.

    He He.
     
  10. naterprius

    naterprius Senior Member

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    The point is that Tmobile ToGo has gotten so cheap that even if you use 500 minutes a month it's still only 50 dollars for the month. The nice part is that if you use 300 minutes one month it's $30, then 800 minutes the next month, it's $80.

    It's cheap enough to replace a medium grade cellular contract, with the added benefit of no minimum charges. Most people buy a contract that encompasses their heaviest month of usage and then pay that price every month, or risk overage charges.

    Basically, if you are scarce, light, or light-medium cell user, now Tmobile togo has become cheap enough to beat a contract. I just wonder how long before some other company comes up with a prepaid plan that is cheap even for heavy users. At around 3-5 cents a minute, you would be there.

    Everyone should take a year's worth of bills and divide the dollars (including taxes, fees, overage charges) into the minutes to see if it would be cheaper to go prepaid.

    Nate
     
  11. DaveinOlyWA

    DaveinOlyWA 3rd Time was Solariffic!!

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    hmmm, interesting. verizon allows you to take any post paid phone and convert to prepay. so a poor selection of handsets is not an issue. only thing is, you either have to get a post paid phone on a two year contract to get a good price on it, run the contract out, then convert to prepay (by that time, you will undoubtedly need a new battery and will probably have other issues unless you took REALLY GOOD care of it) or convert early, pay a $175 early termination fee, or pay full retail... (for a Treo we are talking about $600).

    so no option sounds good to me. but i also have no landline. (huge waste of money) so i use my phone too much. for me, it was easier to get a bunch of family members and do a share plan. my cost for my phone after taxes and such along with a $5 text message plan is $30 a month.

    but i do with my sister, niece, son, and nephew. we share minutes so we get a lower rate per minute because we have a larger package. we have a nation wide plan, (which is good since we live in two different states)
     
  12. naterprius

    naterprius Senior Member

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    Just curious, Dave, what is your cost per minute, including all taxes and fees?

    Nate
     
  13. DaveinOlyWA

    DaveinOlyWA 3rd Time was Solariffic!!

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    2100 mins 5 people cost $100 for first line, 9.99 for the rest. total about 140 split 5 ways .

    last month, i used 3108 minutes but only deducted 151 mins from the 2100 mins shared. the rest (2411) was to other verizon wireless customers with an unlimited allowance and the night and weekends (unlimited allowance for nationwide calling) so cost per min varies depending on how many freebie mins i use
     
  14. morpheusx

    morpheusx Professor Chaos

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    I am thinking of letting our cell phones go when my contract is up in January. I have had Verizon for about 5 years and the service is great, but I use my phone probably average of twice per day, and rarely if never are those times for emergencies. It is a great convenience, but I lived to the age of 24 never having one and I think I can survive without them, my wife isn't going to like it though, but it just doesn't seem as important to have anymore. $59 mo/ plus $9.99 for a shared minute additional line, Even with my 22 % discount through work it is expensive, and still costs approx $65 mo. with the additon of taxes. Yeah they are gone.