I have had a Tracfone for several years and am pleased with it. I don't use my cell a lot, so it is perfect for me. I buy $100 worth of time per year and that is it. There are always specials srunning. Right now I have 1600 minutes waiting to be used. It is a pretty good deal if u don't use it a ton.

I have a Virgin Mobile for the same reason you said. You get free weekends and after 7 and 450 anytime minutes a month. It is over $50 a month though but no contract needed. I just didn't like the way it worked here so just signed the 2 year contract with Sprint/Nextel. I wanted the walkie talkie on the phone (Direct Connect) that the rest of my family has.

A Virgin here too....that is Virgin Mobile. We buy a $20.00 top-up card every 90 days. You can buy the cards in larger amounts, but as we only use the phone when we are going out of town in a just-in-case situation, it works for us. Dottie

DH had Virgin Mobile, but now we have TracFone and like that better. I bought a double minutes phone (cause it had an external antennae and display), it was $49.99. If I buy a 400 minute card, I get 800 minutes. and if you don't use your minutes, they roll over. I buy that kind of card, but put my Mom and DH on a family plan. She gets 50 minutes a month, he gets 30 (which he'll never use).
Cost for the two of them is about $15.00 a month, which I think is terrific. When his minutes build up, I'll use his phone instead of mine for a while.
We both have flip phones. DH's cost $10.00 and so did Mom's. I got hers at WalMart, came with a car charger, house charger and case.
JoanMN/FL

I have a T-Mobile prepaid and I love it. It has the best program. For $100.00 you get 1000 minutes that don't expire for a year. If you find the phone you want and check it out daily, they offer special promotions. You can get a free $25.00 card with the phone.
Donna

I've had a tracphone for about 12 years. It works for me. I buy the yearly card and always have a balance of minutes left. The first phone I had was huge! Now, it's just a little flip phone.

Another tracfone satisfied customer. I seldom use it, but it's wonderful knowing that I have it for emergencies. I always have minutes left over at the end of the year, and I can carry them over.

Last week, I was out in the boonies with DIL, her new boyfriend, and my grandson. The 3 of them have expensive phones that they use constantly. None of them could get a signal, but my el-cheapo little tracfone got a signal that was clear as can be.

i've always had contract cellphones since 1990 plus a work phone since 1996 but several yrs ago i got DH a virgin prepaid when they first came out. for us it was a PIA because he ran thru the minutes quick and he had to remember to reload before it totally ran out or the minutes expired. he always forgot so it was easier to just get him a regular plan. i got rid of our landline and we have sprint w/ 2 phones w/ 300 minutes for only $70, free long distance and free after 7pm. everyone we know has sprint so we only use maybe a 100 minutes a month. ~ liz

What Jenson said goes for me too... except I only have about 600 minutes on mine right now. I have had a Tracfone for several years and am pleased with it. I don't use my cell a lot, so it is perfect for me. I buy $100 worth of time per year and that is it. There are always specials srunning. Right now I have 1600 minutes waiting to be used. It is a pretty good deal if u don't use it a ton.

Wow, $70 and use 100 minutes a month. That's 70¢ per minute! LOL I look more for 3¢ to 10¢ per minute! That's the thing that makes me laugh at contracts. If people realize what they're actually paying, most would do far better on a prepaid.

One warning on prepaid, check the coverage where you use it most. I really liked Virgin but I needed better coverage out of town and off the main roads. But their PCS service is very clear. T-mobile has terrible coverage here so that's not a good option for me. So after different phones I settled on a CDMA Tracfone. It's old technology so it's not the clearest but I get coverage and ability to USE the phone when I want to is important to me. I use about 30-40 min per month and it costs about $8 a month. The thing is I could use more for about the same actual cost. I usually build up minutes then just "burn" them off when I'm adding more.

My buddy has a $100/month contract phone they said would work at his lot way up north. Of course it didn't. I tried my Tracfone there and guess what? Yep, worked fine! I offered to let him use it for only $75/month!

With cell phones it really shows the old addage there's a sucker born every minute!

I have a prepaid thru at&t and love it....Stacy

I've had a tracfone for 12 years also. When I need new minutes I go to the Nokia tracfone site. They always offer new phones for free when you buy the cards so I've updated my phone several times. The one I have now is a flip with all the bells and whistles. I pay no more than 98.00 a YEAR.
When I don't need a new phone I buy my yearly card on Ebay, it's much cheaper so then it's about 70.00 a year. I only use my phone for finding my DH in a store and ordering from restaurants on the way home :-) plus an occasional necessary call. I'm not a phone person.

Tracfone here too...just need it for the girls to find me or to call them to say I'll be late..usually just buy an hour every 3 - 4 months (19.99) goofed one time and bought the service for $5 bucks extra so the phone's good until 2013...and then some every time I buy minutes

I have a Cricket phone, which is about $55 a month, unlimited talk and texting. There is a cheaper plan that is about $10 a month cheaper. I had a Tracfone but I didn't like having to load the minutes on it, which really isn't that big of a deal, but I like Cricket better.

I don't like talking on the phone but need it for the shelter to call me to pick up possums and my friend who rehabs me calls me when there is a load of dogfood donated and needs to be picked up. Also my husband is working away from home and calls me every day. I also use it to order take out for the old man I look after.

Since I got a wireless thing for my computer, I am thinking about getting rid of my house phone. I never plug it in unless I want to use it, and that is rare and I could use the Cricket since we are finally getting better reception out here.

I have a phone from T-Mobile.
Buy the phone, buy the minutes.
When minutes get low, buy more minutes.
I like it!

I use my phone very little, and it's not worth the monthly charge, for me!

Marilyn, you said I had a Tracfone but I didn't like having to load the minutes on it With the new SIM card all the phones have now you no longer have to put in all those codes. If you do it from the website it automatically sends the new minutes to your phone! You hear a tone and ta-da.. minutes have been added!

I have one through AT & T. It is one of those Razors, pink of course. The phone itself cost me $20.00 and I pay 10 cents a minute. I can load the minutes directly through the website and they are good for up to a year. No contract and everytime I load minutes I usually get $10.00 free. Plus since my boss also has the same carrier we talk for free. Granted he usually pays for my minutes but I have paid for a few of my own if I used the phone for more personal reasons.

Trish

the problem w/ the prepaid is having to watch your minutes and sign-up for more before they are completely gone. back when we had virgin prepaid for DH he routinely paid extra fees when he'd left the minutes expire if he bought too many or run completely out and also pay a fee & not have minutes when at that moment you needed them. i don't have time for that and neither does DH, we barely have time to cook for ourselves and are on the verge of getting a part-time personal assistant/housekeeper. i work full-time & go to school part-time, DH goes to school full-time & works part-time. we both have lots of other things & appointment going on every week, we just do not have time for "issues". it's far easier & less stressful to pay more than budget (a word that never has or will cross my lips lol).

300 minutes is the smallest plan sprint has. since i don't waste $$ on a landline and everyone we know is sprint too we use almost no minutes. i also have a work cell w/unlimited stuff so we definitely don't need more minutes. the cost per minute really does not matter it is all about safety & efficiency. $70 a month in the grand scheme of my life is never even noticed lol having a problem w/ a cell phone now that would put a halt to our life. ~ liz

love, love love my tracfone... I've had it for several years. I've had it so long that six months ago they sent me a letter saying they were discontinuing that phone and they were going to send me a free one... lol... they did. I average spending less than $9.00 per month because I use it so little. Great investment for someone who doesn't use it that much. Never have had a problem getting a signal. Great reception.

I'm like Dotmom, I have the same phone and love it...Every 90 days they automatic add $20.00 and I'm set to go...I get great reception everywhere and it's the only phone I use to call home when I go to Florida....I'm not one to use it a lot, we got it mostly for emergencies...It's a good deal.....

those 100 minutes we only use are only the minutes we are calling someone not on sprint, we'd need one of their biggest plans otherwise. we are each on the phone for 60 minutes a night weekdays(5 days a week) DH often doubles that during the semesters plus add 2 hrs each for the weekend. all that time is free cuz everyone we talk too is sprint(i planned it that way ;-))...we'd have to pay for those minutes on prepaid. ~ liz

Yayagal, where is the Nokia tracfone site?
JoanMN/FL

Wow, thanks for the input everyone! I've always had phones with contracts before. I'll look into the options mentioned. We currently have a phone at home because both of us had Alltel service & it's terrible right here. DH now has AT&T & that's much better. So my other option is to find a phone that has decent coverage here, even if it has a small contract, & drop the home phone service. It's $30/month & I don't want to spend much on a cell if we keep this. It just seems that all the contracts now are very expensive every month! Thankfully DH has a company-provided cell.

We got ours from an ad in AAA magazine. The phone (Nokia) was free and there is no contract. You decide the number of minutes you want and pay accordingly. We have 200 minutes and it costs $20. You can call anywhere in the US, Canada, Mexico and PR. We did have 800 minutes (way too many but I have no sense of time). You can change at any time to add or subtract times. The bill comes from Consumer Cellular and we've been pleased with the service.

The phone does all kinds of things like take pictures, etc. Someday I'll read the booklet and learn how to do all that stuff, but we just use it for emergencies. It did come in real handy when DH was in the hospital just before Christmas. He could call me whenever he wanted. If he hadn't had it, he'd have to wait til I called him. He could also talk with his DD in California.

Tracfone here and it's just right for me as I only use it for emergencies and take it with me when I'm away from the house.

I'm on dial up and the phone line is often busy while I'm on the computer and one of the kids try to call me and I gave them the cell #, so they can just call me on that when I'm online.

We use a phone very little and I still have over 500 min.and the yearly card isn't due until May. I always have minutes to roll over.

Lydia, thanks for the info on adding the minutes now.

I have a Net10 phone that I keep as a backup in case I go over my minutes on my regular cell phone & I also use it for long distance if I need to make a long dis. call before my "free nights" start. The phone was my husbands (before he died) and it was set up on bank draft ($15.00mo=150 minutes) and the minutes roll over. That little sucker has over 1300 mins. on it now.

When I first bought the phone, it was around $30 and you got 300 minutes (kinda like getting the phone free)

I have aservice with Consumer Cellular. No contract and we pay a flat payment every month. there website is consumercellualar.com. check it out , might fit. no problems with service or'billing for the past two years.

Another Tracfone user here. Only use it for emergencies, traveling, check on the kids on my way home from work, etc...Spend about $100 a year.

When I had my Tracfone, I got in the habit of turning it on when I got in the car and off when I got home. I would take it with me anytime I got out of the car to run errands but off once the car was in the garage. I'm trying to get my cousin to get in that habit too. She will call me but turn the phone off before I can call her back and it drives me NUTS.

Another thing I really like with prepaid is if you want to change for whatever reason, it doesn't cost you an arm and a leg. I tried out several different companies before settling on TracFone. For me, $70/month is significant, fer cryin out loud my service costs 1/10 that LOL, plus I only pay one bill a year instead of 12! Less fiddling around. But to each their own.

A friend of mine will turn his phone off too. Don't understand that. I realize that if you just use it to call people and don't want them calling you back, fine. But when you are meeting someone and want to contact them that you might be late or something, it's a bit rude to not have it on. I keep a charger in my vehicle to keep it charged. Charge it while I'm driving if I forget to charge it at home, which I often do. This one goes much longer than my other phones did. Oh and I buy cell accessories on fleabay. Much cheaper than retail.

depends on how much you use it. for us $70 a month for more than 4000 minutes is a bargain :-) the 300 minutes we pay for involves calling non-sprint ph#'s. we got rid of our $40 landline yrs ago, so it really only cost $30 more a month and includes long distance which was not on the landline. to me i pay no bill as it's auto pay and i never notice ~ liz