The BEST “Pay as You Go” cell phone plan?

October 3rd, 2005

I was really tired of my Sprint cell phone plan last year. Hated the contract, the really BAD customer service, the constant billing disputes and the budget line item of: “$500/year for cell phone plan”. Luckily our contract came to an end…. Freedom!

Now we are looking for a simple phone to use in case of emergencies and for just random convenience. I’ve priced 3 of the top companies below and found the first one - “Virgin Mobile” to look the best so far.

Most companies charge about 25c /minute…. no contracts/taxes etc etc….
You “pay as you go” by buying “buckets” of minutes at a time.

The thing you have to watch out for is that your minutes expire (usually after 30, 90, 180 days), so you need to keep your account active by re-adding minutes at the end of each quarter (e.g. Must spend $20 every 90 days to keep your account active for the Virgin Mobile plan).

Each of the company’s basic plans below come out to about $130/year per phone (assuming you meet {abide by} their minimum requirements). Doing this, I should now only need to pay approx. $130/year opposed to $500-$600 to have a cell phone for when I really need it.

I’ll let you know how it goes. Let me know if you have any better ideas.

• Virgin Mobile
• Cingular
• T-mobile

Entry Filed under: Money, Budget