Topic: Prepaid Phones (Read 154 times)

Raver758 · « **on:** June 07, 2004, 01:07:00 AM »

Hey there, The other night I was looking to buy a prepaid phone. Now I know how much the rip of is when I can just get a regular plan but im not looking for one. A few things I dont understand is looking over eBay I see that people still pay montly for a prepaid plan like wtf? I thought you pay one and use it until you run out and buy again. So why is it some auctions for example this Prepaid plan 1 make you pay a montly fee. Here is what im looking for. Im looking for a phone I can buy with say 300 min and use it whenever I wan't I don't know a few calls a day for a little while and when it runs out the phone should stop working as it won't send a signal. Is there such a prepaid service and if so can someone help me find one on ebay with a cool flip phone. I just dont understand how it works. Also you get a local number right people can call you back and it wont charge you for them to leave a voice message will it? Here is another plan I found prepaid plan 2 So anyways im starting to get confused and need someone to explain to me how it works and what happens when I run out of min and dont decide to buy any until 2 month's later. Does my number change how do you sign up your phone to it? Also any ebay auctions with the plans that you suggest.

Thanks

Dagoth · « **Reply #1 on:** June 07, 2004, 01:50:00 AM »

in the UK we have Pay as you go phones..

Basically you purchase a Phone & Sim from a dealer (or just the sim card if you already have the phone)

the you purchase a top up card (£10, £20 or £50) and register this on your sim account.

when you have used this all up you then purchase another card from a newsagent, supermarket etc.

the top up card credit on the phone has no expiry date, but you must use you phone at least once a year, to keep the credit active.

not sure how the system works in the US, but the pay as you go system has saved me a fortune, as I have a work phone & personal phone (my personal phone is on the above tarrif)

AnThRaX · « **Reply #2 on:** June 07, 2004, 11:58:00 AM »

Get an ATT go phone. All the other phones just blow. It comes with the 3595. Color screen, polyphoinic ringers, etc... And you don't have to pay for those minute cards. You can choose a normal plan from ATT, like 400 minutes Unlimited nights/weekends for 39.99. And stuff like that. By the way the phone is 89.99. If your looking to get a phone just because your credit sucks. I say go with Sprint. They have way better phones. If you have bad credit. It's a $125 deposit, which you get back after a year or so if you make all your payments. You get a nokia when signing up (don't get it) just upgrade Id say get the 8100 or 8200 it's going to be about 79.99 for the 8100 which is a flip, camera phone has nice recpetion. Or get the 8200 which it's camera has zoom, flash, and walkie-talkie (ready link).

AnThRaX · « **Reply #3 on:** June 07, 2004, 12:02:00 PM »

And with ATT your phone just stops working intil you call and recharge the plan. sprint has something similar, Ok not really. But, it's called the Free and Flexable plan, you know how alot of people go over there minutes and get those $500.00 dollar bills in the mail. Well now with sprint, if you go over, you have to pay a fee like $1.25 if you do, then they upgrade your plan. For example, My plan is 59.99 for 1000 minutes nights/weekends start at 7pm, video/picture messaging, vision (internet), and I pay for the TV on the phone which is about another 2-4 bucks. Anyways, say this month I went over and did 1500 minutes, instead of being charged .50 cents after each minute I will be charged the fee which is like $1.25 then be charged for the 1500 plan, and then the following month I will have 1000 minutes again....

Raver758 · « **Reply #4 on:** June 07, 2004, 12:56:00 PM »

actully bad credit isint the issue its because Im 17. I even offord to pay a year advance but they didn't take it. Im looking for something where if the min run out i cant use the phone anymore until I buy some more....

Any ebay auctions with phones like that can really help.

Hoppy · « **Reply #5 on:** June 07, 2004, 01:06:00 PM »

For the most part, no matter what way you cut it, prepaid are rip offs. I've got a $39.99 a month plan with cingular and couldn't be happier. They have excellent coverage where I live (upstate NY) and most of my friends have the same service, so I can talk to them for free.

yaazz · « **Reply #6 on:** June 07, 2004, 01:52:00 PM »

I always figured those prepaid phones must be quite easlily hackable, but I never looked into it

AnThRaX · « **Reply #7 on:** June 07, 2004, 01:54:00 PM »

ajohnamous · « **Reply #8 on:** June 10, 2004, 03:56:00 PM »

You should check out Tracfone. A tracfone phone + 150 minutes a year is only 100 bucks. The flipphone will cost extra. If you e-mail me I can give you a referral e-mail that will give you 100 bonus minutes. 250 minutes for 100 buck is a sweet deal, give me an e-mail at [email protected] if you want the 100 bonus minutes.

Chicken Scratch Boy · « **Reply #9 on:** June 10, 2004, 04:31:00 PM »

40 cents a min and you a maxed at 250 a year? thats sound like a damn good deal.... not.

PENiX · « **Reply #10 on:** June 10, 2004, 04:35:00 PM »

Hello.

Virgin mobile is a great prepaid service... The phones are cheap, cards come in 20, 30, and 50 dollars. The plan is 25 cents a minute, no matter where you call from. If you spend more than 10 minutes ($2.50) in one day, the price drops to 10 cents a minute. For example if u called your friend for 20 minutes it would cost only $3.50.

Boost mobile is another one, if you know a lot of people get this one because you can do walkie talkie feature, its $1.50 for all day worth of walkie talky (only worth it if u abuse it all day haha)

I have a virgin mobile phone, it broke in less than one year (the flipphone)

And i had a boost mobile phone but i couldnt get it activated because someone apparently hacked one of my numbers and was using it on their nextel service

It wasnt my fault, but those fuckers werent nice to me, luckily i was able to get the phone unlocked so my friend could use it on nextel, but i still lost about $50

Go with virgin mobile, just dont get a flip phone (the slider one looks decent)

Moral of my bad luck with cellphones:

Cell phones suck.

nfs911 · « **Reply #11 on:** June 10, 2004, 04:44:00 PM »

I got virgin mobile, phones are nice, but they could have better features, recepition is OK, no where near to waht it should be. I recommend going with pre-paid verzion, they have veyr clear networks

Hoppy · « **Reply #12 on:** June 11, 2004, 12:56:00 PM »

ajohnamous · « **Reply #13 on:** June 11, 2004, 03:32:00 PM »

lebriznon · « **Reply #14 on:** June 11, 2004, 03:57:00 PM »

I have a pay-as-you-go phone from Rogers AT&T. you just get one of the compatible phones, or use an existing one that you have (assuming its compatible), and you sign up by phone or in person. once they activate it, you have to put in a certain amount of $$ minimum, and thats how much you have to use with the rate per-minute. then if im out of that, i go to the cornerstore and "recharge" it with say, $10 if i dont use it a lot. there are expiry dates for the minutes though, so after a certain amount of time, you have to recharge whether or not you used all the minutes, or else your account closes, and you lose your minutes.

for this kinda thing..i dont suggest ebay..just go to a local cellphone place. you dont need a fancy phone.

edit: i get call display free, unlimited receiving txt messages, and you can always recharge online.

This post has been edited by lebriznon: Jun 11 2004, 10:58 PM

Author Topic: Prepaid Phones (Read 154 times)