Best Pre-Paid Cell Phone Service?

[swiftzx]

I'd also recommend Virgin Mobile; I've had it for 6 months before I lost my phone

[Weekend_Warrior]

Hey guys. Just wanted to say thanks for all your advice and help on this subject.

I decided to go with Tracfone and picked up a $20 LG420g phone and a $30 120 minute card last night.

Surprisingly, when I activated my phone and added my minutes... my phone somehow displayed that I had 280 minutes and 150 days of service instead of having the 160 minutes that I was supposed to get (20 startup min. + 120 card + 20 promo bonus), as well as the standard 90 days of service. Not sure if this is some sort of new customer deal or what, but I do know that my phone wasn't supposed to come with Double Minutes right out of the box (like the Samsung T301g), but I'm very glad that it did. This will save me A LOT of money.

Thanks again!

[scrotumwound]

damn i wish i read this after being dicked around
by walmarts straight talk service
i just went out and got a virgin mobile phone
but at least im not getting earfucked anymore

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

Anyone here wanna help me out by learning how exactly the whole cell phone world works?

I'm really after an old-school cell phone (Like a late 90's-early 00's green screen phone) but I've never had a sell before so the whole sim card and network locking stuff totally confounds me.

From the research I've done any GSM phone old or new should work on the current US network no prob, but it's the whole somehow getting it activated thing that's got me confused as how to go about doing it.

[gtmtnbiker]

Virgin Mobile gets iPhone for $549, $30 per month

Virgin Mobile gets iPhone for $549, $30 per month
By PETER SVENSSON, AP Technology Writer – 23 minutes ago
NEW YORK (AP) — Virgin Mobile USA, one of Sprint's brands for prepaid, no-contract phone service, said Thursday it will start selling the iPhone on June 29, charging $549 for a basic model.
The high price of the phone comes with an upside: service will start at $30 per month.
That means the phone, plus two years of service, will cost $1,269, excluding taxes. That's nearly $800 less than a subscriber would pay for the same phone, an iPhone 4 with 8 gigabytes of memory, if buying it under the Sprint Nextel Corp. brand. Sprint charges $100 for the phone and $80 per month for service, excluding taxes.
The iPhone has until recently been restricted to contract-based plans. Now, the floodgates appear open for the phone to enter the prepaid, no-contract market, which is aimed at people with low incomes and poor credit. However, the high initial cost of the phone is likely to be an obstacle. Virgin Mobile sells other smartphones for as little as $80.
Last week, Leap Wireless International Inc., the parent of the Cricket prepaid service, said it would start selling the phone on June 22, starting at $400 and $55 per month. Leap's CEO said the phone would likely account for about 10 percent of the phones it sells over the next few years.
For Apple Inc., the maker of the phone, expanding sales to the no-contract segment means a chance to reach buyers who don't have the credit for contract-based plans, or don't want to be tied down with contracts. The number of people on contract-based plans has plateaued, and actually contracted for the first time in the first quarter of this year. Meanwhile, the number of people on no-contract plans is still growing.
In addition to the iPhone 4, Virgin Mobile USA will sell the iPhone 4S, the model launched last year, for $649 with 16 gigabytes of memory.
Virgin Mobile's cheapest plan cost $35 per month, with a $5 discount possible for buyers who set up automatic monthly payment with a credit card, debit card or PayPal account. It provides 300 minutes of calling per month and unlimited texting. Data usage is also "unlimited," but is slowed drastically after the customer has used 2.5 gigabytes since the start of the billing cycle. IPhones with "Sprint" service have true unlimited data.
Virgin Mobile just introduced its first "4G" phone, the $300 HTC Evo V 4G, which can use Clearwire Corp.'s data network in addition to Sprint's. The iPhone, on the other hand, is limited to Sprint's "3G," or third-generation network, which is slower than those of the big iPhone sellers: AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless.
Sprint started selling the iPhone last fall, after its two bigger competitors. Sprint said the iPhones it buys from Apple for Virgin Mobile will count toward its commitment to buy $15.5 billion worth of phones over three years. That's a big and risky undertaking for Sprint, which is in a precarious financial position. The company also said it doesn't expect Virgin Mobile's iPhone sales to materially affect its 2012 operating income before depreciation and amortization.
Sprint shares rose 7 cents to $2.79 in early trading.
Sprint, which is based Overland Park, Kan., doesn't say how many subscribers Virgin Mobile has. Sprint over all has 15.3 million subscribers on no-contract plans, under the Virgin, Boost and Assurance Wireless brands. It has 32.8 million subscribers on Sprint and Nextel contract-based plans.

I'm going to renew my tracfone for another year but I'm definitely going to hop on this next year.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Tracfone was my first phone. I loved it, I'll probably go back to them eventually (I have Verizon now).

[gtmtnbiker]

Tracfone was my first phone. I loved it, I'll probably go back to them eventually (I have Verizon now).

How much are you paying for your phone? I pay $99 per year since I don't make a lot of calls.
When I had Cingular with 2 phones, I used to pay almost $800 per year. Crazy.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Tracfone was my first phone. I loved it, I'll probably go back to them eventually (I have Verizon now).

How much are you paying for your phone? I pay $99 per year since I don't make a lot of calls.
When I had Cingular with 2 phones, I used to pay almost $800 per year. Crazy.

I pay......nothing.

I got a Tracfone in college when I moved into an apartment with no landline. I was the first one in the Bone family to get a cell phone. The next year my father got us all a bunch of Verizons with a family plan... 8 years later, I'm still on the family plan! I've asked my father to take me off and tried to give him cash for my share of the bill but he just shrugs it off. Eventually, if he ever does take me off, I'll go back to Tracfone.

[cookie monster]

I got a boost phone i pay 50. plus tax a month for the first 6 months then it drops 5. every 6 months till it hits 35. i got unlimited everything. The great part is if i miss a payment it doesn't start over again at scratch. I have a samsung juno and so far it has better reception then foxhounds att phone.You can go to the store and grab a card or pay on line or get it automatically deducted from your account. They have a large selection of phones as well as another plan for blackberry which is 60 a month that only drops to 45. i think.

[gtmtnbiker]

I got a boost phone i pay 50. plus tax a month for the first 6 months then it drops 5. every 6 months till it hits 35. i got unlimited everything.

Does that include data? Have you actually looked at your data usage? Some of my colleagues have unlimited data and in actuality, they only use 200MB or so per month. They would save some money by going to a 2GB plan.