Cellular/Mobile phones

gailc

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My husband is contemplating getting one for us.
The only reason is that when we are at the farm. We go up there about every other saturday it seems. We are about 4 miles from one of his sisters farm. The are about 3-4 houses perhaps within a 1/4 mile for the closest. But say for instance we gets stuck in the woods or heaven forbid some type of accident we are isolated. We really do not have a need to use it other than that. So should we buy for instance a virgin mobile or t-mobile pre paid type???
Or a plan that provides the least amount of minutes???
We do not need a fancy one??? know we should make sure the plan we buy covers that area where the farm is.

So any opinions would be appreciated.
 

annabelle33

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I would go prepaid but not one that charges by the day or whatever, one that is actually prepaid. I would research the options in your area. If you have any friends that have wireless service I would ask to borrow their phone and check the reception in your area. I know mine cuts out through most of my drive home but works at my house and at my work. It used to not work at my house at all despite the fact that it claimed to. You can't believe what they say all the time..
 

rosehawke

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I would suspect the land of cheese and beer is Wisconsin


What we did, and have been happy with, is to buy a couple of Tracfones. We just didn't see the sense in paying monthly fees, I don't care HOW many minutes they come with. I'm not one of these folks that seems to have a 'phone glued to their ears ...

We've had the 'phones over two years now, and I only just had to put more minutes on hubby's 'phone, he was still working on the original 200 I got for him when I bought them! I've added minutes to mine a couple of times, but I'm using it much less now that my mom has moved closer to my brother and I no longer have the responsibility of getting her groceries for her ("What kind of Clorox? Do you know there are 6 different kinds of Clorox???")

I think originally I paid about $100 apiece for the 'phones, a years "activation fee" and 120 minutes or some such. The 'phones are usually not cutting edge, but I can really think of no reason I would NEED 120 different ringtones!
 

catherine

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If I'm not mistaken, some of the companies that offer pre-paid phones have an expiration date on their minutes. I'm not sure on this, but it seems to me that I remember an associate of mine who had this problem. So just be careful and make sure you fully check into the company first.

We use Cingular. My husband and I both have a phone and I believe that we get 2000 minutes each month, free long-distance, no roaming fees and free night/weekends. We pay about $95.00/month. The reason we did this is because all of our family lives out-of-town so it was cheaper for us to have a phone for emergancies with free long distance. (We've only kept our house phone b/c we have little ones who stay with babysitters - need it in case of emergency - 911) Also, my husband is on the raod ALL day for work so he uses quite a bit of minutes. At Cingular, whatever minutes that you do not use are carried over to the next month - that's a nice feature there!


Whatever you decide to do, make sure that you receive coverage in the areas that you visit, there is not roaming fees and that the min. do not expire. And read their contract very closely!
 

annabelle33

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I pay $75 a month for 400 shared daytime minutes and unlimited night minutes for 2 phones (me and bf). But the thing is we use like 15min a month so it's stupid to be paying that much. I'm stuck in a contract though for another year so that's also a talking point, the contract requirements and the early termination fees.
 

rosehawke

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From the TracFone site:
Unlike most plans, you keep your minutes and they do not expire, with active service.
Not trying to sell them (I do not work for TracFone, nor am I affiliated with them in any way
) just been happy with it for what we have it for. In the end of course you'll have to compare plans and options and make up your own mind what's right for you.

You might also look into some consumer reviews of various cellular providers. Reading complaints can be a VERY eye opening experience
!

Oh, yeah, I just checked 'cause I'll have to renew in a couple of months: a years activation and 150 minutes is 90 bucks. Doesn't include the phone of course.
 

catherine

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Originally Posted by annabelle33

I pay $75 a month for 400 shared daytime minutes and unlimited night minutes for 2 phones (me and bf). But the thing is we use like 15min a month so it's stupid to be paying that much. I'm stuck in a contract though for another year so that's also a talking point, the contract requirements and the early termination fees.
The compnay I'm with allows us to change our plans as often as we'd like. If I signed the contract today and decided we weren't using all of those minutes, I could call and change my plan to a lower one next month. You should at least call them. Most of the time, as long as you don't want to disconnect "service" you can change to a lower or higher plan. All they can do is tell you no.
 

annabelle33

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Originally Posted by catherine

The compnay I'm with allows us to change our plans as often as we'd like. If I signed the contract today and decided we weren't using all of those minutes, I could call and change my plan to a lower one next month. You should at least call them. Most of the time, as long as you don't want to disconnect "service" you can change to a lower or higher plan. All they can do is tell you no.
Oh don't worry, me and my wireless service have had quite a few words in the past year. They actually have a file on me and notes in the system that I am difficult to deal with, but you have to fight fire with fire, you know? But they won't change my plan, and they won't waive the cancel fee.
 

beckiboo

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I love my cell! All my family lives out of state, and I have enough minutes that I don't ever call them on the home phone. We only keep it for the computer access!

DH works at Motorola, so of course they are Motorola phones! THey are camera phones, which are a fun toy, but they don't really take good enough pics to use too much.

If you won't use it much, a pre-pay is a good idea. Once you get it, you will wonder how you did without!
 

eva-loves-cats

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Hello,

I don't know what country you are in but why not try out some web sites to give you some idea. There are many monthly contracts which are good that come with a choice of phone and so many minutes a month. And again you can go with whatever suits so if you only want a few minutes a month there will be a plan for you.

If anything I would go with a monthly contract and not pay as you go, as if for some reason you didn't have any money on it and you needed to contact someone (e.g not 911) then your stuck. And at least with a contract you know you have so many minutes and if you go over that you just pay for the minutes you use, so you'll never have the same problem. Also normally with pay as you go you have to buy the ohone seperately which can be expensive and at least with monthly contract you get a phone with it and normally a good one.

I hope that helps, here is a site i got mine from because the offers were so good and I even get a lot of my money back which is great. www.dialaphone.co.uk

If you do get a phone with them, the dialaphone company i am also with them and it asks if anyone recommended you. so if you go with them you could mention me, just Pm me for my details...and i think you even get something etc for that also.

Good luck

Eva x
 

fwan

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EVA is sort of right well the majority.

Here in germany you get a prepaid contract and if you dont top up your card every 2 years it gets expired.
You also get a phone, but they are the... $hitty kind

I have a contract with a lovely phone that i only have to pay 5 euros a month.
But mine is O2, bf just got a T-mobile contract because he works there and it has more coverage for UMTS
 

jcat

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If you want a cell phone primarily for emergencies, I'd go with a prepaid, because in the long run it'll be cheaper. I got one (T-mobile) six years ago, so that I could be reached immediately in transit or at work by family, other teachers, or my boss. I rarely make calls on it myself, the exception being when I'm traveling (I have a tri-band GPRS now) and want to check and see how Jamie is doing. The prepaid cell phone only cost about $45 at the time, with about $8 worth of minutes, and was quite a simple one. I waited until the SIM lock was removed after one year, and upgraded the phone (look for recently discontinued models, which you can get for a fraction of the original price; most models don't even have a shelf life of six months nowadays). What you have to be careful of, as some have already mentioned, is how often you have to "top off" your credit. I have to top off every 7 months if I pay €15, every 12 months if I pay €30 (about $39), or lose whatever amount is credited to my account. I generally have annual cell phone costs of €30 to €40, most of them long-distance calls, text messages, faxes or emails from Austria, Hungary, or the U.S. to Germany, so the plan is perfect for me.
 
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gailc

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I'm in WI. I went on the tracfone website and virgin mobile's web site.
Virgin mobile uses sprint's towers and the map of coverage is really segmented. I'm not sure if that are is covered. I'll have to ask my SIL what provider they use.
Thanks for all the info so far though!!
 

beckiboo

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And maybe ask if they have any extra phones. Sometimes the prepaid phones are so cheap people use them almost like a throw away, and you can give it a trial run by getting a card for a used phone. Make sure you get batteries and a cord to recharge it though!
 
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