but every time I try to pump people for consumer information, nobody seems to know anything about the damned things. Some people don't know who their carrier is. And I don't know a goddamned thing about them. That's why I'm here.
I'm living with a couple of people currently and I essentiallly want the thing to function as a private line. I won't be talking much on it: mostly I'll use it to field job offers and for bill collectors to hector me mercilessly. I doubt I'll need to make more than an hour of talk time on weekdays. I'd like something with a decent amount of weekend and nightime long distance time. Still I doubt I'll need more than 5 hours of that a month.
What can I expect to pay for the phone? Can someone recommend a plan? Any other info would be of great assistance.
I went with the cheapest plan from Cingular. It's $29.99 per month, includes 250 minutes per month and 1000 night & weekend minutes. Long Distance is free. With taxes, it costs me about $38 per month. If you get any monthly plan, you should get a phone for free.
Don't just look at plans on the Internet. I almost didn't convert from AT&T to Cingular because the cheapest plan in the Cingular website was $39.99 and included a lot more than I needed (actually, the plan that I have includes a lot more than I need).
You can also do a "pay as you go" plan. You can buy a phone for about $30 and either pay $1.00 per day that you use the phone plus $.10 per minute or you can just pay $.25 per minute. Both of those plans include free long distance.
As I look at the pay as you go plans, I'm thinking that, when my current contract expires, one of them may be better suited for me than what I currently have.
If you're planning to use it on or in your ass I'd go with something medium sized with a flared base for safety - you could probably experiment with ring tones...
I'm with Verizon Wireless and find their service to be more than sufficient. I pay about $40 a month for 300 peak mins. and unlimited nights and weekends. The best thing about Verizon is, you can talk as long as you want anytime during the day if the other person also has Verizon, it's part of their "In Network". Most of my friends and family also have Verizon, so I never go over my limit.
As for the phone itself, you can get phones for free with certain deals, they will have less features but that's a given. If you want a better phone, expect to pay anywhere from $50 to $100 or more if you want good camera phones with more advanced features.
Check out Verizon's America's Choice plan and the line of phones they are offering as well, I'm sure you'll find a deal that works just fine for you. (You will have to sign a two year contract in most cases, so you have to take that into account. Conversely, you can also check out the "Pay As you Go" alternatives now being offered by various companies.)
Patience is a virtue, but who wants to be virtuous? 4283 Posts 4/00
Posted - Aug 22 2005 : 10:17PM
For me, the biggest factor of which cell company I go with has always been how good their reception coverage is.
If it's at all possible, ask some people who live near you what their carrier is and what kind of reception is.
Most cell phone companies nowadays all have relatively cheap plans, and most give away a free phone with one of those cheap plans, so the only thing I can think of that sets one apart from another is the phone service they give you in the areas you're going to be using the phone.
If you're sure you're only going to be using the phone in your home, if you already have broadband for your computer, you might want to look at Vonage. For less than $20/month, you get Voice Over Internet phone service. I have it at my apartment, and I really like it. Other than the initial setup, you'd never know that you weren't using normal phone lines.
That's a good point. You might want to talk to the cable company as well. My local cable company gives a pretty reasonable rated for to people who subscribe to TV, Internet and phone services.
Well, they're reasonable for the first year. After that, it's time to find a new provider for all 3.
Patience is a virtue, but who wants to be virtuous? 4283 Posts 4/00
Posted - Aug 23 2005 : 3:12PM
uh oh - what happens after the first year? I don't remember anything in my contract about prices going up. :( Well, they went up a little after the first 3 months, but I kind of looked at it as more like the first 3 months were discounted, and the price after that was the real price.
I was referring to a plan that Cablevision (the Long Island cable company) has where they offer TV, Internet and phone for about $90 per month total for the first year. After that year is up, the price goes up to around $130 for all 3.
It's a good deal for that first year. But once the year is up, it makes sense to switch (at least for the VOIP part it does).
I assume that other cable companies around the country have a similar offer.
The problem is that people become complacent and used to what they have. Then they never look for better deals when the price goes up, which is what the cable company is counting on.
I don't know where you live but I have T-Mobile. Signed up for that 1000 minutes plan for $39.99. I don't know where you live but to be honest with you T-Mobile coverage in south central california, I'll give you some streets name Western Ave, Hoover, Hooper, Imperial, and those areas the coverage isn't very good and sometimes the signal dropped to zero! nada! nothing! so yeah my boss has a Nextel account and he said the signal is superb!
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nietzsche Deactivated User
5470 Posts 8/03
Posted - Aug 26 2005 : 1:02PM
So how do I sign up? Does it matter that I have lousy credit?
Once you decide which way you are going to go, go to any store that sells cell phones from that company. They can get you hooked up.
If your credit stinks, then you might want to go with one of the pay as you go plans. You just buy cards for pre-paid minutes, activate the card and use the phone. No credit necessary.
Patience is a virtue, but who wants to be virtuous? 4283 Posts 4/00
Posted - Aug 27 2005 : 1:32AM
I love this thread. It makes me realize that I'm not the only person who is a little behind on the latest technologies. I have no idea why I thought so, but for some reason, I thought nietzsche was a tech geek. I can't think of any specific examples that would have led me to believe that, it was just my impression.
This thread has made me realize that I'm grossly overpaying for cell phone service given my typical usage. I have the smallest plan that I could get and it gives me far more minutes that I would ever use in a month.
Until doing some investigation because of this thread, I figured that the smallest cheapest plan was the best way for me to go. I had no idea that the pay as you go plans were so economical for people who don't use their cell phone on a constant basis.
As soon as my current contract is up, I'm switching to a pre-paid plan.
Yeah. $29.99 + a bunch of taxes was the the smallest annual plan the Cingular had at the time. At the time, I really didn't have the option of going with someone other than Cingular. So I really couldn't shop amongst the different companies.
If you look at Cingular's website, they show $39.99 as being their least expensive plan. However, there is one below that one (at least there was when got it)
