Pre Paid Cell Phones
by Grandpa Chuck
I have had my AT&T Go Phone now for just about a year and decided that it was time to look for a new service. The Go Phone served it’s purpose but during the past month I only used 14-minutes. The monthly cost (minimum fixed cost) was $19.99. This figures out to about $1.42 a minute. That is a bit more than the 25-cents a minute I would have been charged if I used all of my available minutes. With the AT&T Go Phone you cannot roll over minutes from month to month so the extra minutes that were not used are gone with the wind!
The AT&T Go Phone has no annual contract, no cancellation fees, and offers cell phones from $9.99 to $279 if purchased from their online store. If you were to stop by your local Staples or Wal-Mart the cost would be around $69.99. The package includes a headset and charger.
I’ve decided to switch over to a TrakFhone. It is similar to the AT&T Go Phone except that you can roll over minutes from month to month provided you purchase additional minutes every two months.
With the TrakFhone you again have no annual contract, no cancellation fees, and offers cell phones from $29.99 to $99.95 with minutes included in the package if purchased from their online store. If you were to stop by your local Rite Aid or Kmart to purchase a TrakFone the cost would be around $43.92. The package includes a charger.
The TrakFhone has a display that shows you the minutes you have left to use before needing to purchase more.
Both phones have voice mail, text messaging, caller ID, and comes with a battery charger. TrakFhone also has Call Waiting included in their package.
Another service that was recommended is Simple Freedom. This cell phone has voice mail, text messaging, caller ID, call waiting, and roll over of unused minutes. Available at Wall-Mart, Kmart, and Sam's Club for $69.82. Simple Freedom cell phone is not available for purchase over the Internet.
A question came up on the subject of disposable cell phones. I found that there was one that was scheduled to go to market in 2002 but ran into copyright problems. The phone was never sold in the United States.
I’ve noticed over the past year that I either use my cell phone a lot or not at all. This has helped me to decided to change over to a service that allows for the rolling over of unused minutes from month to month.
There are many cell phone packages available but these are the three prepaid services that I’m aware of.
