[PCWorld]

Post your comments for Reconsidering Prepaid Cell Phones here

[mrb186]

We went that route for a few years with the in-laws and parents, but having to constantly purchase minutes every month (when you didn't need them) was a costly hassle. Now we can add additional phones to our cell plans for $10 per month and that has been working well. We generally get new phones every 2 years and I have never paid for a phone (including smart-phones).

[rak1948]

Gee - how about some kind of list of reasonably current Android and Windows phones?

[wewe]

Bell Canada allows you to buy $100 cards that don't expire for a year. Usually I don't use up half of that, but it allows me to get occasional texts and use a cell phone for the odd call when I need it meeting someone. Works for me. Coupled with an IP home phone my communication costs are about 1/3 what they used to be for the same service.

[BKrasnoff]

rak1948, on 16 April 2012 - 07:04 AM, said:

Gee - how about some kind of list of reasonably current Android and Windows phones?

There are 5 Android smartphones and 1 Windows phone listed in this slideshow: http://www.computerw...ow/detail/41167

[DavidRoblesgtaa]

It's funny how it is here, but in Europe people have been able to be out of a contract with smartphones including the iphone for years. Yes it was considered as a monopoly to offer the iphone with only one company so it passed only a few months before opening up the options for carriers for apple users.

[Patruns]

Both my wife and I use smartphones on prepaid T-Mobil accounts. We do not have a data plan so only use those features when in a wifi area. One you spend $100 for minutes, with each new minutes purchase all your minutes are good for 1 year. I end up buying minutes a few times a year and my wife just buys $10 worth or so once a year since she does not make many calls. This well offsets the costs of buying the phones.

[zeth006]

Prepaid plans in general are underrated. With T-Mobile and especially Straight Talk, you can use higher-end smartphones, save a bit of cash, and still avoid pesty contracts and their hidden fees.


Currently rocking a LG G2x which was in really great condition when I bought it from eBay, also paying $30/month for 100 minutes/unlimited text/5gb data. If I need to go past 100 minutes, I can always pay $0.10/minute, but haven't had to do that yet.