TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Prepaid Questions [was Re: How to Make Right Call On Cell Plans]

Prepaid Questions [was Re: How to Make Right Call On Cell Plans]

Thomas A. Horsley (tom.horsley@att.net)
Wed, 03 Nov 2004 23:17:34 GMT

> I'm not sure the "pre-paid" phones are such a good idea because
> some have expiration dates on the time whether you use it or not.
> Plus you have to constantly recharge the time or you lose your number.

I've been thinking about getting rid of my wired phone and going with
pre-paid only because I make about 3 minutes of calls a year (only
slight exaggeration :-). Even if I have to constantly "charge up" a
pre-paid phone I don't use the minutes on, the minimum charge seems
("seems" is the rub) less than my monthly bill for the most basic
possible phone service from BellSouth.

The main obstacle is my total confusion when I look at the prepaid
folks web pages -- I mostly can't understand a word they are saying or
figure out what the actual minimum amount I'd have to spend really is
(virginmobile.com is the exception -- it almost seems clear).

I usually give up when I get past the first page that says prepaid has
"NO CONTRACTS, NO PLANS, JUST PAY AS YOU GO!", then I see the next
page which lists a huge matrix of "PLANS" for different kinds of
prepaid phones (Aargh!).

Just as a starting point for comparison, can anyone answer this
question:

If I never use the phone at all, what is the minimum per-year charge
to keep it active for each of the prepaid providers "plans"? (I can
start digging up other implications of each plan if I could just order
them first by this criteria :-).

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