Best Prepaid Cell Plan $0.10 per mi.

OG1 · Joined: 09 Jun 2006 Posts: 1143

Best Prepaid Cell Plan $0.10 per mi.

www.totalcallmobile.com

they use the Sprint network

$10 for 100 minutes MUST buy at least $10 every 90 days to remain active.

No additional fees or "catches"

Buy phone includes 200 minutes.

Boz · Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 10:02 am Post subject:

The Total Call Mobile service is not the best prepaid cell phone plan.

The best prepaid cell phone plan depends on individual usage needs.

The best plan for me and many people that I know is still Page Plus Cellular which costs a minimum $30 per year.

The Page Plus Cellular service can be used with any former Verizon and many other CDMA cell phones, which can be had for free by anyone with friends or acquaintances who get new cell phones every two years.

The Total Call Mobile service costs a minimum of $40 per year.

Can former Sprint cell phones be used with Total Call Mobile?

The Total Call Mobile service might be better for some people that make more phone calls, or have a need to make International Calls. It would be worth checking into if anybody is looking for a prepaid mobile phone service.
_________________

......

........

OG1 · Joined: 09 Jun 2006 Posts: 1143

I just checked Page Plus. Their official rate is $0.12 per min. However the $25 card is worth $36 credit at $0.12/min. Also, they charge $0.50 per month maintenace fee. They use the Verizon network which better than Sprint. Minimum purchase of mins. every 4 months necessary to be active.

Bottomline - $36 per yr at $0.12 vs. $40 per yr at $0.10 for TotalCall Mobile.

plodr · Administrator Joined: 12 Apr 2001 Posts: 6778

How much must you purchase every 4 months?
I have a cell phone for emergencies so I really don't care how much the per minute fee is. I want dependable service in the areas I travel and an easy way to keep the phone active.
I've been using Virgin mobile because the service has good coverage in my area. My crdit card is auto charged every three months , $15 to stay active.
Since Verizon also has good coverage in my area, that might be a possibility. Sprint is the pits here.

OG1 · Joined: 09 Jun 2006 Posts: 1143

Apparently, you must add $10 (83 mins) every four months to remain active plus there is a $0.50 monthly maintenance fee charged against your balance. - Total mininum annual cost is $36 for 249 minutes.

Also, a refurb LG Verizon phone is $29.95 which includes 100 minutes of call credit.

Boz · Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 21:23 pm Post subject:

Check your math and read carefully what YOU wrote!!!!! It is NOT PLUS $0.50 per month. $10x3=$30 for 199.2 minutes, NOT $36 for 249!!!!!!!! Gee whiz! Do NOT twist the facts just to make it sound like you were almost right! It is $10 every 4 months, $30 per year, just like I said!
_________________

......

........

OG1 · Joined: 09 Jun 2006 Posts: 1143

Boz wrote:

[..]

Check your math! $10x3=$30 NOT $36!!!!!!!! Gee whiz!

You forgot the $6 ($0.50 monthly maintenance fee) which is charged to ALL accounts!!!

Boz · Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 21:42 pm Post subject:

OG1 wrote:

[..]
You forgot the $6 ($0.50 monthly maintenance fee) which is charged to ALL accounts!!!

COME ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YOU WROTE IT YOURSELF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OG1 wrote:

Apparently, you must add $10 (83 mins) every four months to remain active plus there is a $0.50 monthly maintenance fee charged against your balance.

How can you TWIST that into an extra PAYMENT of $6?

WHY ARE YOU ARGUING THIS?
_________________

......

........

OG1 · Joined: 09 Jun 2006 Posts: 1143

Boz wrote:

[..]

Check your math and read carefully what YOU wrote!!!!! It is NOT PLUS $0.50 per month. $10x3=$30 for 236.55 minutes, NOT $36 for 249!!!!!!!! Gee whiz! Do NOT twist the facts just to make it sound like you were almost right! It is $10 every 4 months, $30 per year, just like I said!

Of course the $6 is charged against the $30 so in theory your minimum payment is $30/yr. but you lose $6 of call credit.

OG1 · Joined: 09 Jun 2006 Posts: 1143

At that rate, you could lose a $10 balance every 20 months

Boz · Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 22:24 pm Post subject:

plodr wrote:

How much must you purchase every 4 months?

It is a minimum purchase of $10 every 120 days. The balance rolls over and keeps accumulating if you recharge every 120 days. I have paid a total of $30 per year for about 6 years. Back at the beginning, it was $10 for only 40 minutes! I don't remember if there were any other steps along the way, but it was eventually increased to $10 for 71 minutes, where it remained for quite a while. Several months ago, PagePlus started deducting the $0.50 (4.15 minutes) per month from the account balance, but then they upped the minutes to 83 for $10, for a net loss of only 14 minutes per year, so the new fee isn't too bad. For the last couple of recharges, I have recharged at http://callingmart.com/products/wireless/ProductDetail.aspx?ID=30 for $9.50 for the 83 minutes, but I don't know how long that price might last. So, at the regular price, PagePlus costs a minimum $30 per year for a net of 199.2 minutes to use.

83 minutes per $10 recharge
x3 recharges per year
----
249 minutes
-49.8 (4.15 minutes x 12 months) $0.50 per month account deduction
------
199.2 minutes for 3 recharges per year
_________________

......

........

Boz · Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 22:53 pm Post subject:

OG1 wrote:

Of course the $6 is charged against the $30 so in theory your minimum payment is $30/yr. but you lose $6 of call credit.

Wow! You really have a problem with admitting reality! You just got through arguing that the minimum cost was $36 per year, then you say that the cost is $30 per year "in theory". The $30 per year is not "in theory" as you stated. The $30 per year is fact. Your argument of the $36 minimum cost to keep the PagePlus service active was WRONG!
_________________

......

........

OG1 · Joined: 09 Jun 2006 Posts: 1143

OK. Minimum Annual cash outlay is only $30. However, you get much less.

plodr · Administrator Joined: 12 Apr 2001 Posts: 6778

Guys, play nice. I'm not interested in how many minutes...I don't use the minutes. I've probably talked about 4 minutes on my cell in the last 6 months. I have over $75 loaded on my phone and I think my husband has over $85 (I gave him my old phone). We will start to use the cell but we make very few long distance calls.
I asked about the bottom line in terms of $$$$.

Can I buy a phone any where as long as it works on the network I want? Again, I don't need minutes with it - I have tons of minutes I'll need to use up before I cancel the service I have on one of the phones.
Our current phones cost under $25 each.
I currently have 5 cell phones in the house, LOL. One is an old analog bag phone. I just found a place to recycle so once I'm sure there isn't anything on them, I can get rid of three of them.

OG1 · Joined: 09 Jun 2006 Posts: 1143

If you just need minimum outlay and Verizon - Page Plus is the way to go.

Best deal then TotalCallMobile at $40 offers best deal but on Sprint.

I think for more money many would opt for Verizon vs Sprint networks.

willys · Joined: 13 Oct 2007 Posts: 93 Location: Mojave Desert

I usually can bumb a cell phone from someone to make an occasional call. I had a cell phone once. But I'm a bit deaf and don't hear them very well. I just have a pager now, it has an 877 number - my company was happy to provide it. I had a pager with an 800 number with voice mail. I used to forward my phone to my pager. This way people could reach me anytime and only had to know one phone number. I could access the pager from any phone, even pay phones, for toll free to check my messages. That was nice. I like text pagers too, but dont have one of them.

curious john · Joined: 16 Jun 2003 Posts: 970

Ok, like Plodr, I have little use for cell phone other than emergency on hiway. However I ran across Boost Mobile which offers unlimited web service for equivalent of like $12 a month (no per minute charge for web connection, just flat daily fee). This is where you can use your phone as a modem to laptop. Unfortunately Boost Mobile (Nextel network) is very marginal in my area.

I havent seen any other prepaid service offer unlimited web service at least not at reasonable price or they want to charge by the minute for it. The nice thing is if I could find service like Boost offers, I would easily meet the minimum purchase requirement for minutes and be able to dump my land line and dialup isp. So a win-win-win where I have emergency hiway phone, I can make the couple dozen calls I make a year, plus unlimited internet (it would be about same speed as dialup for me) and all for $12 a month plus whatever minutes I use for phone calls.

The only prepaid that I know personally that works is the Trac phone that Wally World sells as neighbor had one and it works fine but it definitely doesnt do web connection. The other two I see on local ads are Cricket and Net10. Dont know how well they would work where I am but do work in the area apparently.

plodr · Administrator Joined: 12 Apr 2001 Posts: 6778

I have Virgin prepaid and I'm very happy with it. $5/month plus a 6% state tax. Every 3 months they deduct $15 + 6% state tax from my internet only credit card so my service remains active. The service is good in my area (rural and city) and for $5/month it is worth having peace of mind when I travel. I did compare it to several other prepaid plans before I settled on Virgin.
I have no need for a web connection because I rarely cart my notebook when I travel. Most foreign countries have internet cafes which I used when we were out of the country for 5 weeks.

Someone posted this at the Magicjack forum

Quote:

Cricket is, by far, the worst cell provider on the planet. Terrible coverage, amazing dropouts and dropped calls, and God awful customer service.

So at least one person is very dissatisfied with cricket.

digger · ๑۞๑ Joined: 29 Mar 2001 Posts: 2483

This page will tell you everything you need to know about prepaid cell plans:
http://www.cellguru.net/prepaid_compare.htm

I went with Tmobile for various reasons. I wouldn't consider any plan that requires me to take any action more than once a year to keep my phone active. So it is either a yearly refill cycle, or auto-payment.

curious john · Joined: 16 Jun 2003 Posts: 970

First that chart is great Digger. Lists several I never heard of and boils everything down to bottom line.

Hmm, Boost seems only carrier offering a good deal on data/web connection. The only other seemingly good deal is STI mobile and it has a caveat that if you use the data connection too much (no official limit) they ban you from using it permenently. (Sounds like some cheap isps.) So guess thats not a consideration. As an emergency phone seems NET10 is the one to avoid. Mininmum cost $15 per month, ouch! Other than that whatever works and isnt super hassle to keep active would do I guess.

I have to say it all seems way too unnecessarily complicated with all sorts of catches to nickel and dime people for that last little bit of pocket change. I really hate dealing with buisinesses that want to play such games, but evidently its par for the course if you want cell phone. And I cant deny that cell phone is a very good bit of insurance in case of automotive break down.