Pink Poogle Toy Forum

I'm thinking of switching to a pay-as-you-go cell phone (I already have Skype for long distance, so the cell would have fairly light use). However, after reading some on-line reviews, I'm a bit scared to give up my home phone for one of these... so many of them seem to break and getting a replacement can take weeks. After looking at various plans and reviews, I'm considering going with T-mobile, but I'd love to get some opinions from people who've used one of these services before taking the plunge. Thanks in advance!

I still have a land line. I just don't trust my cable internet folks enough to go with something like Vonage - too many random outages. I do have a minimal cell phone plan, but the battery does die... About 2 years ago, we had a big transformer blow in our neighborhood and were without electricity for about a week. Good 'ol land line was always there. I could call the power company and listen to their recorded messages for hours

As far as T-Mobile, a now former co-worker used to have T-Mobile for a long time, but had nothing but problems - dropped calls, no-coverage areas, etc. Once his contract was up, he did some comparison shopping and went over to Verizon and is much happier now. I can not speak to either one of their pay as you go plans, though. I would suggest asking to find out just how long the pay-as-you-go time lasts before expiring. Cingular used to have one that you had to recharge/add time every 30-45 days, or you lost all of your pre-purchased time. I think one of the carriers has a 6 month option, but I do not really know for sure.

i have tracphone which i guess is what is called prepaid. the coverage is okay. to charge it up with minutes you just go to the local dollar store and get a scratchcard. seems like every other month or so they have a special where you buy 60 minutes and they give you an additional free... not too bad if you ask me. if you are on any form of government assistance, you can even get the phone and some minutes free every month .... www.safelink.com or 1-800-safelink. good luck!

I have gone with tesco and they are by far the best I have had.

Yeah, I've done a fair bit of research regarding pricing and expiration of minutes, and T-mobile is the only one that has the bare bones I want with a decent network in my area (for $100, your minutes don't expire for one year). The only other company I'm even considering is Net10 ($100 for 180 days), which is a subsidiary of Tracfone, but I read some customer reviews and got completely scared off Net10 and am now marginally scared of T-mobile.

Like I said, I have Skype unlimited to make calls from home, but I wanted the cell for the job search, for incoming calls, and to make calls when, say, my internet is down, there's a storm, or I'm on the road -- basically, to replace the home phone which is much more expensive and hardly used. (Skype can sometimes have feedback/echo issues, so I wouldn't want to use it to talk to an employer.) However, if the cell is going to be unreliable, than I"m better off just getting a Skype-in number (so I can receive incoming calls to my computer) and having an emergency cell for calling 911 (which my friend has already given me).

Thanks for the feedback, everyone, and I'd love to hear more input from actual users or friends of users of either of these companies.

I used to have T-Mobile (but not pay as you go), and found the service/customer service HORRIBLE. I refuse to deal with them again.

My first cell phone was a Tracfone, and as someone already said it seems like they almost always have a free minutes promotion going on. Also, I'm not sure if this is still true because I haven't used it in years, but the minutes used to roll over as long as you bought a certain (reasonable) amount of minutes with a certain time frame (a month or two, I think). It's been at least 6 years since I had Tracfone, so I'm not sure that their level of service is like now

yeah the minutes still roll over and they have this niftly little thing now... you pay like an additional 50$ and it doubles the value of any card you purchase... for the life of the phone! when it comes to pay as you go, tracphone is pretty good. i was considering boost because of the unlimited minutes that i could use to surf the net but then got my desktop back online.
different topic sorta... have you tried magicjack yet? it works like skype from how i understand it. it costs like 20$ per year for free local and long distance phone calls and comes with call waiting and voicemail. the only problem is you have to have the computer on and connected to the net. its really awesome and has saves me about 35$ a month by not paying a phone bill.

I was just thinking about MagicJack as an option... Instead of hijacking this thread, it sounds like a new thread should be started -> link here.

Actually, MagicJack sounds exactly like what I'm looking for! Thanks, yusrah and Blue!

ETA: of course, I had to look up reviews before going through with it, and there do seem to be a few drawbacks. I'm considering going with either Skype or T-mobile, after all. Decisions, decisions... I hate making decisions.

Yeah. I have been looking at magicJack since I heard about it, but have always hesitated because it just sounded too good to be true. The ads, the privacy concerns - and yes I have privacy issues - have made me hold off. If I were to go with pay as I go, I don't know where I'd go. I'm content with my super old grandfathered cell phone plan. Sure, I don't get very many "anytime" minutes, but it's really cheap!

Although, the iPhone and/or Blackberry Tour are really tempting, but the monthly $$$ is just way too much for me.