PayGo Cell plan advice

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Hi.



My wife and I have two cell phones through Sprint. We were supposed to be on a family plan, but Sprint never got it sorted out, and honestly, I'm sick of dealing with them. So we're dumping Sprint.



We also almost NEVER use our phones. I used 9 minutes last month. I'll probably top out at 30 minutes a month when I'm traveling a couple of times a year.



So we want to go PayGo. But it looks like T-Mobile and Cingular both have your unused minutes expire after 90 days. Is this true? Does anyone have any advice about plans, carriers? I have a few requirements:



1) No Sprint.



2) I want a phone with a SIM card so I can change phones if I want.



3) I need decent coverage in UT, OK and MS. But basically, I need coverage anywhere there's an interstate.



Any advice?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 18
    I use Virgin mobile and the deal is that if you don't top up within 90 days of your previous top up then your number will be deactivated and you have to reactivate it. I"m sure that they do this the same way, and if you have your minutes low enough this won't be hard.
  • Reply 2 of 18
    midwintermidwinter Posts: 10,060member
    Did some more poking around, and it looks like we might go with the T-Mobile gold plan. $100 gets 1000 minutes that don't expire for a year.
  • Reply 3 of 18
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by midwinter


    Did some more poking around, and it looks like we might go with the T-Mobile gold plan. $100 gets 1000 minutes that don't expire for a year.



    That sounds like a great deal. I might have to look into it.
  • Reply 4 of 18
    e1618978e1618978 Posts: 6,075member
    I use the Cingular plan - They either charge 25 cents/minute or $1/day+ 10 cents/minute (the $1 only gets charged on days you use the phone, so the break even point is 5 minutes/day). $25 refill lasts 90 days, $100 refill last a year.



    I use about 5-10 minutes per week on the 25 cent plan, so I re-fill with $100 and it lasts me about a year.



    There are tons of various unlocked phones on eBay which you can use with the service (I bought a pink RAZR for my daughter that way). If you buy a quad-band (850/900/1800/1900) phone like the RAZR, then it can be used worldwide with other sim cards.
  • Reply 5 of 18
    midwintermidwinter Posts: 10,060member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by e1618978


    I use the Cingular plan - They either charge 25 cents/minute or $1/day+ 10 cents/minute (the $1 only gets charged on days you use the phone, so the break even point is 5 minutes/day). $25 refill lasts 90 days, $100 refill last a year.



    I use about 5-10 minutes per week on the 25 cent plan, so I re-fill with $100 and it lasts me about a year.



    There are tons of various unlocked phones on eBay which you can use with the service (I bought a pink RAZR for my daughter that way). If you buy a quad-band (850/900/1800/1900) phone like the RAZR, then it can be used worldwide with other sim cards.



    Yeah. That's another concern. When my wife and I are in England, we'd really like to get paygo SIM cards with a couple hundred minutes on it so we can keep in touch in case, you know, I'm trying to ride the Piccadilly line to King's Cross the day it blows up.
  • Reply 6 of 18
    shetlineshetline Posts: 4,695member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by tonton


    I pay about $13 for 1900 minutes. PER MONTH.



    If I want a stored value SIM, I can get one with 2000 minutes for about $30.



    What the fuck is wrong with the USA?...



    Whoever decided to use GSM1900 as the US Standard when the whole world was already 900/1800 was about as smart as the morons who invented DVD region codes. It's time to fix that mistake.



    Maybe we already had too much going on in the 900 and 1800 bands in the US to use those for mobile phone service? Whatever the reason, that shouldn't be such a big deal. I don't know why the phone manufacturers don't simply make all GSM phones quad band (GSM operates in the US at 850 MHz as well as 1900) and get it over with -- I doubt that it takes much effort or adds much cost to add one or two frequency bands to a phone. It's much easier to change all of the phones to be more flexible than it is to change what frequencies are used in different countries.



    The bigger problem isn't frequency bands, it's the incompatible encoding/signaling standards. The best mobile coverage in the US isn't GSM at all. It's CDMA together with the old analog standard, AMPS. CMDA and AMPS don't have anything equivalent to GSM's SIM cards, so that kills a lot of service portability there. Less portability, less competition, higher prices.



    Further, the US population is less densely packed than in many other parts of the world, so more money gets spent on infrastructure that covers fewer people in a given area. I also wonder: Do some other countries subsidize the mobile phone infrastructure to help bring down the consumer cost?



    I happen to be selling a GSM phone on eBay right now, an expensive impulse buy I made while at Heathrow earlier this year, on my way to Egypt and Libya. I bought some really cheap prepaid minutes while in Egypt, but when you add in the cost of the phone (even after subtracting what I'll make back on eBay), those phone calls and e-mails I sent with that phone were pretty damned expensive.



    Even though I'm selling that phone (it was a tri-band phone, lacking the US 850 MHz band), when my two-year contract with CMDA/AMPS carrier Verizon expires in November, I plan to switch to a GSM phone soon.



    We've really only got two GSM choices in the US: Cingular (which recently took over AT&T's mobile business), and T-Mobile. I tried T-Mobile out for a trial period, but their signal coverage in my area sucks. Since we're talking about public airwaves here, I really think the government should force these carriers into roaming agreements in exchange for the privilege of using the airwaves.



    For now Cingular looks pretty good for signal coverage in my area, and better than T-Mobile in general in most of the US. I'm still not going to get coverage as good as I do with Verizon, however, when you compare using one of Verizon's CDMA/AMPS phones, which can fall back to using the analog service which is still the only coverage in some less populated areas.



    But I'll take a small hit in coverage for the benefit of using unlocked phones and SIM cards. Even though buying your own unlocked phone can be substantially more expensive than the subsidized prices for carrier-provided locked phones, I love the idea of the flexibility of being able to change my phone any time I like. In fact, since I'm having a bit of trouble choosing between a very slim, RAZR-like iMate Smartflip and the somewhat bulkier, but very powerful HTC TyTN, I'm thinking I might simply indulge myself and buy both phones, and simply move my SIM card back and forth to whichever phone I'd rather be carrying at any given time.



    Plus, although I don't travel all that much, I really like the idea of a phone that will work for me almost anywhere in the world. There actually are a few combo CDMA/GSM phones, but the choices are very limited, none of the models I've seen excite me, and they don't do US GSM -- they're meant to keep you locked into a particular CMDA carrier when using them in the US.
  • Reply 7 of 18
    keshkesh Posts: 621member
    PAYG (Pay-As-You-Go) services are almost always set up so that you get X days to use what you bought before either 1) you add more money or 2) what money you have on there expires. For most services, when you add money it extends the expiration date for your entire balance another X days.



    Some services set it to 90 days for any amount. Others only give you 30 days for a $15 renewal, 90 days for $25 and up, or a year for $100 and up.



    Others offer no-contract monthly services, where you pay a flat rate every month for Y number of minutes and then $0.10 per minute out of your balance after that.



    Based on what you're describing, I'd take the Cingular PAYG service. Drop $25 onto it and you've got 3 months before you have to add money again. Personally, I picked the $1 per day service, as most folks I call are on Cingular contract phones. That way, I pay $1 and can call them all I want all day. For anyone else, it's $0.10 per minute. However, I still pay the $1 on the days I use it no matter what, which can be expensive if you only make one 30-second call that day.



    The other one is a flat $0.25 per minute to anyone you call. If you really use the phone that infrequently, or you call mostly non-Cingular customers, that may be the better route to go.



    As for coverage, I can use this phone in rural Kentucky. I think that's pretty good coverage. I used to have a Virgin Mobile phone, which had a lot better features, but it runs off the Sprint network. And I only get coverage in one corner of the nearby city, not at home or at work, so that's useless to me.



    Forgot to mention, I bought the Sony Ericsson T-290a. It's an okay phone. MMS, AIM, uses a SIM card, no music/voice ringtones, and it's tiny for a candy-bar phone. You might be able to find one cheap at Wal-Mart (I got mine for $50), especially now that it's been replaced with a newer model.



    Disclaimer: I do not work for Cingular. In fact, I work for another PAYG service's tech support. And I still use Cingular's PAYG out here. In a bigger city, I might go for my employer's service, but you won't find good coverage outside urban areas for my employer's service. If you want coverage practically anywhere, Cingular's the best option.
  • Reply 8 of 18
    midwintermidwinter Posts: 10,060member
    I'm looking hard at the T-Mobile Gold Rewards plan. Buy the phone, spend $100 for 1000 minutes and they don't expire for a year. I have an old SE T610, but it won't take a charge anymore (the plug was always dicey), so I'll likely get that cheapie Nokia...although that SET290 looks nice. I had horrible reception issues with my T610, though, and the guys at T-Mobile said that it was a problem with their phones. Anyone know anything about this?
  • Reply 9 of 18
    e1618978e1618978 Posts: 6,075member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by midwinter


    I'm looking hard at the T-Mobile Gold Rewards plan. Buy the phone, spend $100 for 1000 minutes and they don't expire for a year. I have an old SE T610, but it won't take a charge anymore (the plug was always dicey), so I'll likely get that cheapie Nokia...although that SET290 looks nice. I had horrible reception issues with my T610, though, and the guys at T-Mobile said that it was a problem with their phones. Anyone know anything about this?



    Before I bought the P800, I had a T68i, which is similar to the T610 - and no problem with reception with Cingular. One of my friends had a T610 that had no reception problems on Cingular also, so I think that T-mobile may be the problem.



    You could always try a bunch of your friend's phones with your sim card to see if you get bad reception on all of them.
  • Reply 10 of 18
    midwintermidwinter Posts: 10,060member
    I would normally agree that it was T-Mobile...but the phone was just weird. I'd be in the back yard talking to someone (full strength signal), and if I BENT OVER TO PICK SOMETHING UP it would drop the call. That makes me suspect that it's the phone.
  • Reply 11 of 18
    midwintermidwinter Posts: 10,060member
    OK. Another set of questions:



    1) My wife and I travel to London about every other year. Last time, we'd have had much less stress if we'd had cell phones, but they're too expensive to just buy and dispose of. If I get an unlocked RAZR v3 (quad band), can't I just buy a SIM card over there and pop it in?



    2) Can I *just* buy the T-Mobile SIM card in the US?
  • Reply 12 of 18
    shetlineshetline Posts: 4,695member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by midwinter


    1) ...If I get an unlocked RAZR v3 (quad band), can't I just buy a SIM card over there and pop it in?



    2) Can I *just* buy the T-Mobile SIM card in the US?



    Short answers: Yes and yes.



    Longer answers...



    1) If you buy a SIM card in the UK with some UK carrier like Orange or Vodaphone, your current mobile phone number won't be travelling with you. If your main concern is outgoing and not incoming calls, that's no big deal. Besides, you can always make one of your first calls a call to tell the people you most care about your new number.



    Unless you plan to spend quite a bit of time in the UK on an on-going basis, chances are that you'll only want to get some sort of pre-paid/pay-as-you-go plan, rather than signing on for a long-term commitment with a monthly bill. You'll probably have to pay some sort of activation fee the first time you buy a SIM card for this sort of thing, and if you go for long periods of time without using the SIM card, your activation will probably expire.



    Pre-paid plans that I know of in the US often aren't covered by the same roaming agreements that you get with monthly plans, so your usable signal coverage might be less on a pre-paid plan. You also might be restricted or cut out entirely from some services like texting and mobile data while on a pre-paid plan.



    2) Yes, as part of a pre-paid or monthly plan. On a monthly plan, you can also get international roaming. The international roaming rates can be high (like $1-$2.50/minute), and often apply to incoming as well as outgoing calls, but if your use of your phone overseas is limited (or can be charged to an expense account ), this can work out well compared to actually buying local service in other countries, and your same mobile phone number can travel with you.
  • Reply 13 of 18
    midwintermidwinter Posts: 10,060member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by shetline


    Short answers: Yes and yes.



    Thanks. I suspected that that was the way it worked. Here's what I'd like to do:



    1) Buy an unlocked RAZR v3 for about $150-$180.



    2) Buy a US T-mobile paygo account with SIM card WITHOUT BUYING A PHONE AS PART OF THE DEAL.



    3) Pop the SIM in the phone.



    4) When I go to London next time, pick up a T-mobile paygo SIM over there and just switch the SIMs out. I'm usually in London for 3-5 weeks, and even if it's £40 or so, it's worth it to me for my wife and I to be able to communicate (I tend to work at the British Library, the Guildhall and the PRO; she tends to work in Cambridge, so we often have to arrange a meeting time and place before we can coordinate dinners, etc. It would simply be easier for us to just call one another, obviously).
  • Reply 14 of 18
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by midwinter


    OK. Another set of questions:



    1) My wife and I travel to London about every other year. Last time, we'd have had much less stress if we'd had cell phones, but they're too expensive to just buy and dispose of. If I get an unlocked RAZR v3 (quad band), can't I just buy a SIM card over there and pop it in?



    2) Can I *just* buy the T-Mobile SIM card in the US?



    To further clarify Shetline's points...



    Pre-pay (or Pay-As-You-Go as us brits call it) is a LOT more popular in the UK than it is in the USA. For the most part it works as Shetline said - there are four main carriers in the UK (O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone) all of which offer this service. First, you'll need to purchase a sim card - we have big chain stores in the UK which offer services for each carrier (notably Carphone Warehouse and The Link), so go into those and compare which Pre-pay service is for you. They will be able to sell you a sim from any of those carriers. The sim usually runs between £10 and £25 pounds, and usually comes with some form of credit when you register the sim card. There is no additional activation fee on top of this.



    Credit for the pre-pay sim works on a monetary basis rather than a minutes basis like in the US, so you will be buying credit (can be done online, or purchased at most retail outlets) in denominations ranging from £5 up to £100. Each carrier will then have a quoted charge list, each with there own selling point, but costs are generally £.10 p/ minute off peak (6pm onwards and weekends) and £.30 p/ minute peak for land lines, and £.30 p/ minute at all times for calls to other mobile phones. Text messages usually run £.10 p/ message, with prices slightly higher if you are sending pictures. Unlike in the US, only the caller pays for the call, so if for example you call your wife, she won't be paying to receive it. Also, as far as I know, your credit doesn't expire nor will your number deactivate after a given period of time.



    Finally, as Britain is relatively small, we don't have 'roaming' - the above costs apply for calls made anywhere in the country, and the network coverage/availability is the same as for those using a contract.



    Anymore questions, let me know!
  • Reply 15 of 18
    midwintermidwinter Posts: 10,060member
    Sounds exactly like what I want. Now I just need to write my grant proposal to pay for my next trip over!
  • Reply 16 of 18
    shetlineshetline Posts: 4,695member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by your_ad_here


    Unlike in the US, only the caller pays for the call, so if for example you call your wife, she won't be paying to receive it.



    Paying for incoming calls isn't common anymore on monthy contract plans, but yes, with prepaid or "pay as you go" plans it looks like you pay for incoming as well as outgoing calls from what I've seen here.



    I'd suspect that if you take your phone outside of your home country, you might have to pay for incoming calls too, like I've seen with US plans, if you can get international roaming at all on a prepaid plan.



    Quote:

    Also, as far as I know, your credit doesn't expire nor will your number deactivate after a given period of time.



    My guess would be that, because telephone numbers themselves are a limited resource (at least in the US -- we've undergone several area code changes over time just to increase the number of available phone numbers), if you didn't use your plan for a year or two your carrier would want to reclaim the phone number you were using so someone else could use it.
Sign In or Register to comment.