cool thread. I've been wondering how to reduce my cellphone bill (from Verizon). Tracfone's annual plan sounds great. Note that most markets now allow you to retain your phone number when you change carriers. Tracfone leases time on Cingular and Verizon networks, so quality of phone service will be that of Cingular or Verizon dependant upon which is being used at the time and in your area. If I'm not mistaken, Cingular is TDMA at 1900 MHz and Verizon is CDMA at 800MHz. So for your area, check on the phone (datasheet or FCC sticker) to see which network is being used. Some phones may be dual mode. Verizon probably has the overall best coverage in the US. Cingular merged with AT&T (no?) and their networks are merging (or merged already). Hmmm, also, to be fair, I think that you should calculate an 'effective' cost per minute depending upon the (traditional or pre-paid) plan you're using. Use the monthly bill total including all the fees, divided by the actual minutes used (traditional).

It depends on the phone and the carriers. There's a number of different types of service out there too. For instance different carriers use different frequencies (CDMA, PCS, GSM, etc) SIM cards are suggestive of GSM technology used by Tmo and ATT. If you're looking to use prepaid service you can sometimes use the phones but won't always have all the features. If you're looking for a contract service, then as cautioned before, beware of costs to change. Often the smallest thing will extend your contract. For instance, if you get a new phone, you generally get a new (extended) contract with hefty cancellation fees. You'll have to get more info from the companies, but generally speaking, Tmo will not be interchangeable with Virgin and Verizon. Tmo & AT&T are more likely to be options. Probably not answering your question, but not an easy question to answer!

Could you call your cell phone company and ask them to check it out?? Another thought, when you bought something did you put in your cell phone # while registering the product, and even some medical center are asking for cell phone numbers also. Also there are ways people can pick up phone numbers electronically and if your friends and relatives are calling you either from a car, motel, and even home, someone can "capture" your phone number.

Lots of choices! To answer your questions more directly, you want an unlocked phone if at all possible. An unlocked phone can be moved to a different carrier if you have issues with your current carrier's service where you need to use the phone. Unlocking also can let you move to a carrier offering a lower-cost plan. Some phones can be unlocked by the carrier after you pay for a number of months of service with them. These might be an option if you know you'll be happy enough with that carrier for as long as you need to use them. In your price range, it will be hard to find even a recent iPhone. If you're looking at smartphones, you'll be considering Android phones. Or you'll be looking at "feature" phones (the old non-smart kind). There may still be a few Windows Phone models that look like screamin' deals. Don't do it -- Windows Phone is a great OS but it is a technical dead end. You could buy a refurbished phone; that will save some money and some potential grief. Several manufacturers sell refurbs at their Web sites; carriers do, too. Usually this is a recent-model phone which has been cleaned up and batteries replaced so it is, effectively, a new phone for you; they carry the manufacturer's usual warranty. You also could buy a used phone, but, in your situation, I don't recommend it. For one, smartphones often are tied to cloud storage provider accounts and/or bought on purchase contracts which must be satisfied before the phone can be moved to another account. Many sellers don't clear things up appropriately. Second, phones live hard lives. Buying a phone someone else has used for a couple of years exposes you to however they stored or dropped the phone and/or abused the screen and battery. Paying to fix that negates much of what you save in buying a new phone. And you likely will have no warranty recourse on a phone that old. I'm not really familiar with the Android smartphone landscape (we're an Apple house). Features you could look for: removable battery; slot for additional memory; the quality of the camera (if you plan to take pictures with it); a bright screen that renders colors accurately. Consider screen size -- bigger screens are nice to look at but it makes the phone harder to stow in a pocket or even for those with smaller hands or limited mobility to use. If you can, find out if the phone you're considering will get future Android operating-system and security updates (no phone will be supported forever, but the older the phone and the smaller the manufacturer's phone business, the less likely they'll bother accommodating updates). Good luck!