Cell Phone Service

Virgin Mobile has a pay-as-you go plan that I use for both my kids and will be switching to myself (I had an old T-mobile plan that is only $19.99/month that is no longer available, but think the pay-as-you go may be cheaper). They sometimes have the free phones (usually right after Christmas), but the phones are fairly cheap (my son has lost 2) and if you buy a $90 card, you don't have to buy another for a whole year. Otherwise, you have to add at least $20 to the acct every 3 months to keep it active. Just keep an eye on the Target ad as they regularly have the phones and cards on sale.

T-mobile's prepaid plans are highly recommended.
http://t-mobile.com/shop/plans/Default.aspx?plancategory=4

Like yourself, I just used a few minutes out of the month and spending $30+/mth was not justifiable. With T-Mobile, you can pay $100 for 1000 whenever minutes which are good for a year. Or spend $25 for 130 whenever minutes good for 90 days. No contract. No monthly bill. You can refill your minutes on-line, thru your phone, or buying a prepaid card from an authorized dealer.

After I made the $witch, I could not believe how much $$$ I wa$ $aving! I am a 3-year prepaid T-Mobile plan user and loving the extra ca$h. :)

Here's a link to their combo deal, if you're interested
http://t-mobile.com/shop/phones/prepaid.aspx

Good luck!

Virgin is a good one also. That is what I use. I purchased the phone and purchard a $90.00 phone card that activated the phone for 1 year on top of the minutes. I have been happy with it so far. Nothing fancy, but it sure comes in handy.

I'm going to second the "Go Phone" by AT&T (or Cingular...whoever they are this week).
I've had one for about 3 years now & really like it. Some months I talk a ton & others I hardly talk at all so being able to add minutes when I need them is awesome. Also, you don't actually have to buy a minute card, you can use their automated system & pay with a debit or credit card so it's easier that way. The smallest amount you can put on the card is $15.00 and the way the payment breaks down is:
Calls are 10 cents a minute unless it's to another AT&T (Cingular) customer and then it's free.
For every day that you use the phone it automatically deducts $1.00 from your account. So let's say in a 5 day time frame (M-F) you talk for 5 minutes on Monday & 10 minutes on Wednesday. If you started with $15.00 then your ending balance would be: $11.50.
Make sense? Anyway, sorry about the math tangent I went off on!! No clue what got into me! Hope you find a phone to fit your needs!

You may want to check out the "Go Phone" plan with ATT/Cingular. It is a pre-paid service and you can just add minutes to your phone as you run out. I don't know how much it costs, but there is no monthly fee. You just buy a phone and a minute-card...

I would check with T-mobile. Ive been with them for 10 yrs. They were Voicestream first, then became T-mobile. My husbands plan is $19.99 a month. It includes 75 weekday minutes. And 500 night and weekend minutes. My plan is a little more. $39.99 a month which includes 650 weekday mins and unlimited night and weekends. And they have many other plans to chose from. Here's a link for you http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/plans/ Hope this helps you out. Have a great day.

Just needed to add...Alot of prepaid phones charge you fees for everytime you dial a number. So make sure you read the fine print. Its a connection fee or something like that.

Angela,

I have T-Mobile's pre-paid service. It made the most sense for my phone habits, which sound a lot like yours. I got my phone at Target and bought $100 worth of minutes. They are good for one year. This works out to about 10 cents a minute, no monthly fee. Before the year is up, you can add additional minutes, which as part of having purchased the $100 worth of minutes initially, means any minutes you add after that will be good for one year as well. If you start out only buying $50 worth of minutes, the per minute rate is higher and they only last for 6 months. I am no where close to using up my 1000 minutes and I have had my phone since January. In all other ways the service is like monthly-fee based services - free long distance, caller ID, voice mail, etc. I got the bare-bones phone for around $40, but I think the service is available on any of their phones if you want more bells and whistles. They have stores at the malls and around town too. I liked the convenience of being able to get it all done without dealing with a sales person wanting to Up Sell me on everything, so I went the Target route. I'd be happy to answer any questions you have about this. N.

Have you tried one of the prepaid phones? That way you only pay for what you'll use.

I know Sprint has a Boost pre-paid phone. Not for sure how much it costs but it's an option.

I have Cingular's Go phone. It is pay as you go. You can put as little as $15 on the phone. The only thing that I don't like about it is that you have a time limit, as in number of days, like 90 days. If you hardly ever use the phone and 90 days is up and you still have money in your account you have to put more money into it or you will lose what you have left in it. In other words, the minutes - money don't rollover. Now they do have this new plan where if you were to put $100 into your account, your minutes/money will rollover for a full year. I hardly ever have to use mine and I don't want a contract so this was all right for me. Plus it's the only one that has service where I live. Hope this helps some.....