What's the best way to find a cell phone plan, and is it best to buy a phone separately or with the plan?

Question

I know I can get a phone at Sam's or other places without the plan, but I also see all the free phone deals. Mostly I need a plan that gives me I guess about 1-2 hours a day of peak time use.

Answer 1

Most any non prepay service you decide to go with will make you buy the phone at the time you activate your service, this is based on the fact a provider cannot activate service without an ESN number or an IMEI number which is linked with the equipment you are going to use. So wether you decide to buy a phone off ebay or from the guy down the street make sure the phone you are buying is compatibile with the provider you select. For one or two hours of peak time per day I do reccommend a post pay service that way you do get a standard set of airtime per month and are not charged a daily fee like prepay service. your stating that your going to use about 120 mins per day that come to 3600 mins peak time in a month..You do the math. And see what works better for you.

Answer 2

We tried pre-paid phones with the pre-paid phone cards and it was such a waste of money. You use double credits to connect, usually the service area isn't that great, and if you get dropped from the call you are still paying more credits to get connected. Also a phone that is pre-paid like a tracfone can’t be bought and the used later as a plan phone. If you check out the phone cards for most of those phones you will see that it costs so much just for one card with maybe 100min or units on it. Plus you have to keep reactivating. It's a hassle!.

Now pre-paid plans usually you can get a small discount for your phone and it is auto an auto debit system (From your credit card, check card and I think some providers do bank drafts now) Most major providers like Sprint, altel, cingular, cellular one, etc. have the plans set up pretty reasonably and you can choose what plan you want and usually extra features like wireless web, text messaging, IM, etc. You can usually find a pretty reasonable plan especially if you don't plan on using your phone to much. Plus it's automatically debited so you don't have to worry about reactivating your account and adding min. every month. Some of these plans are also adding rollover min. to their pre-paid plans so you can keep your unused min. unlike a card where you just loose them at the end of the cycle. Also the service area is usually much better.

The best however, if you have the credit is a plan through a cellular provider (Altel, cingular, etc.) Usually you can get a free phone, great features, lots of extras, and the best service area. The down fall is a contract agreement for one to two years. I think though I save more money with a plan.

Also take into consideration that even though that you will probably use the phone more than a couple hours a day especially if you are using it to communicate with family, friends, or business. We found this out the hard way with our first pre-paid phone and the phone cards. I wouldn't get one except in case of emergencies.

My best advice is to check out some of the local cell phone companies in your area. Some also provide phones that use pre-paid cards but you still get service through them. Much better than a phone bought off the shelf of a discount store.

I'm not sure if this is what you were asking but I hope some of it helps!

Answer 3

You just have to see which place has more coverage in your area for the plan. It is best to buy the phone with the plan because you either get a free phone or you get a discount on the phone you like. Certain phones are made for certain cell phone carriers and you don't want to get a sprint phone if you're going with verizon. By the way, I like verizon the best and an LG phone. They have the best service...

Answer 4

I have a Nokia with Virgin service. It is prepaid, or I can use a credit card. This one can be used any time of the day or night no restrictions.

Answer 5

sure you ought to purchase a used cellular telephone and convey it into your cellular provider provider and have them activate your new telephone. Your purely restrict is the kind of telephone you are trying to activate. once you're nonetheless attempting to purchase a sparkling cellular telephone, or in case you want to sell your previous broken cellular telephone, you may desire to look at a company referred to as %worldwide. I met the owner till now, his call is Steve Hopwood, genuine severe-high quality guy. anyhow, his employer buys and sells used cellular telephones.