What kind of a cell phone could I buy my daughter that doesn't have a contract and has texting? I don't want her having a phone racking up a bill going over minutes. Our cell bills are high enough without adding another one.
So you pay for the phone and get 1000 min for one time or each month?
I use Straight Talk. It has two plan types. $30/ month- 1000 mins., 1000 texts, and some data usage. $45/month- Unlimited mins., texts, and data usage. What I like about it is you have no daily use fee, like a lot of other phone plans do. The phones start at about $60 and go up.
I have a boost mobile phone - it is unlimited txt, talk, web, everything for $50/month......the coverage is great too. I rarely have problems.
TMobile has a pay as you go plan with unlimited texting for $15 per month. They dont really advertise the plan but it's there. Also you can get cheap phones for the plan online.
We use Virgin Mobile. It has limited coverage area, but in Milwaukee, you should be fine. I've used mine down there a few times and it worked great. The have a couple different plans, but the one we use is $25 a month for unlimited texting and data and 300 minutes. There are other plans were you just buy a $20 card and texts are like 10 cents each, but in the long run, if she texts a lot, go for the Beyond Talk plan. So much cheaper!
My teenage son has a Net10 phone. You can generally buy the phone for $15-$20 and then you add minutes monthly. We buy 200 minutes for $20. Minutes costs .10 and texts cost .05. As long as you add minutes before the 30 days is up, any minutes you have left roll over.
They also have 300 minutes for $30 and you have 60 days before you have to add minutes. For $45 you get 600 minutes and 60 days. For $60 you get 900 minutes and 90 days. I like it because he has to pay attention to the amount of time he spends on his phone or he will run out of minutes.
I have Virgin mobile. I could get onto my DH's plan, but honestly I barely use my phone and spend about $15 every 3 months to keep it activated. It's not a set number of minutes, they charge per minute/txt (I think its 10 cents/min, a quarter/txt) if you don't use it one month it rolls over to the next (indefinitely). You have to load up a minimum of $15 every three months to keep it active, even if you have not used up your previous amount (but it does accumulate, you don't loose any funds if you don't use them all).
It works great for me ... no smart phone though (but I do believe they offer prepaid data plans and they do have android phones).
Good luck.
Right now I have Verizon Prepaid, but my next one's going to be Straight Talk or Virgin, they're the best deals
not sure what choices you have but we just got our daughter an i-wireless. might have a contract but it's unlimited texting and mobile-to-mobile and 100 minutes of other talk. she mostly texts now and most people she calls also have i-wireless. $20/month. we started with a tracphone from walmart but turned out we spent more adding minutes than we thought we would. texts used .3 coming and going and calls by the full minute. i think the price of cell phone plans are outrageous but have fallen into the "how did we survive without them" trap. can't trust people to borrow their house or business phones like we used to for emergencies when out and about.
S. m
We have tmobile, unlimited text, and I think 1000min and we have no contract. Only downfall is that you have to pay full price for the phones
i have virgin mobile. for a smart phone with android market it's $150 for the virgin mobile lg optimus. it's a great phone. for 300 mins a month, ulnlimited text and data it's $35. there are a lot of free apps for the phone. it's great. i love mine.
cricket-no contract and has texting
i bought a go phone from AT&T. You can buy them much cheaper at wal-mart than the AT&T store-- I paid $60 for mine. I pay 10 cents a minute for phone calls and pay $5.00 a month for 200 texts. That would probably not be enough for a teenager but there are other plans. I love it. I will never go back to a contract phone.
My daughter got a cell phone for her birthday. She gets 80 minutes a month through Tracfone. Her phone gets double minutes for life. Our two phones togethercost us $15.00 per month. Once she's out of minutes she's out or if she wants to use her allowence to purchase more minutes she can.
My husband and I both have Tracfones. You can buy them at Walmart, Target, etc. You buy the phone and then the number of minutes you want. The minutes are good for a year...but if you have some left over and you buy more minutes before a year is up the extra minutes will carry over. It is the cheapest we could find and there is no contract.
Virgin Mobile http://www.virginmobileusa.com/happy2009
25 a month, 300 min, unlimted text and web access. Teens can put a lot of text messages through, I would not limit to 200, or you will be paying a lot of xtra money when they go over. Phones are pretty cheap too.
