Are there any cheap gsm, or verizon paygo, or other options available for uneven cell use over the course of a year, that even begin to approach Tellos 2 cents per minute?
Unfortunately Sprint is the one provider without service in my current home area.
I'll be returning from assignment sometime between September and December, and cheap paygo, makes sense for my our limited cell phone use.
Last year we were able to buy , with help from extraterrestrial zoologist, 2 , tracfones with 800 minutes for $20 each. We each have over 600 minutes left over.
Thanks in advance
als
Check out SpeedTalk Mobile for GSM T Mobile inexpensive plans.
Not quite as good a deal as the $20 Tracfone, but not far behind on a per-minute cost:
Tracfone has a decent VZW Smartphone on HSN.com now for $50, including 1200 minutes/1200 text/1200 MB & a year of service.
There's a similar package on an AT&T-carrier Tracfone (smartphone) for $70.
If you all of the allotments, and don't need anymore, the per-unit cost seems to beat Tello. Of course, the chances of exactly-that-and-nothing-more-or-less usage pattern isn't likely to happen......
It's possible to shave a few dollars off those costs if you qualify as a first-time customer at HSN, or if you're willing to sign up for their email list.....
You can, of course, add an additional year of service to your existing Tracfones-- unless it's changed recently. Purchase the smallest refill card online from Tracfone, and frequently a "supersize" offer will pop up before purchase confirmation: sometimes extra minutes at a special price, and sometimes a year of time for $50. If you don't get the offer you want, cancel the transaction and try again later.
If the Tracfone deal from last year represents the bulk of your phone needs, there's no need to worry overly much about the cost per minute-- worry about a provider that offers full rollover of your balance without a refill. If you use 200 minutes in a year (and I'm ignoring possible SMS use), your true per-minute cost of that $20 bargain Tracfone is about $0.10/minute. (Still a bargain!)
Kent E It's possible to shave a few dollars off those costs if you qualify as a first-time customer at HSN, or if you're willing to sign up for their email list....
How please???????
Still a bargain, if I've got minutes available for changing circumstances over the next year!
I'm looking at the HSN Tracfone 1200 minutes for one year 'cause it has no preset activation date, l could buy it now , for one of service,
on one of my lines, then when my one plan is ready to terminate, transfer my remaining minutes in from my other phone, and be good to go with 1800 minutes available with a total cost averaged of $70 over a two year period.
als, for the email list promo from HSN, scroll all the way to the bottom of the main HSN.com website, and you'll see it (bottom right side, on my browser). It's good for a 15% discount via your email address.. I did this a few days ago (looking at the Tracfones mentioned above), and the discount code was in my email within a few minutes. (I used a secondary "throw-away" email address.)
I don't remember where I found the other discount codes, but seem to be current:
HSN 10% off with NEWTOHSN code for new customers--(Not sure how long you have to have been away to qualify, or whether they track by email, address, CC, etc-- I haven't tried to use it. and I did buy a tracfone from HSN a couple of years ago.)
or
Code 176209 , $10 off for new customers
Pick the one that works out as the best deal for you! Not having to activate on a deadline is a big plus for the phone you're looking at.
Although it may not matter for the way you use your phone, only the smartphones still in the pipeline for a while will allow you to use the standard refill cards with Tripled allotments. The newer smartphones require to add smartphone-only refill cards. (Both of the phones I mentioned above will allow either the standard refill cards, or the smartphone-only cards. The Triple Minutes for Life program is apparently burned into the phone itself, so it should be grandfathered for those phones.)
There is a specific set of steps you have to take to move existing minutes on one phone to another phone. If you're still using the featurephone from that $20 deal, I think it's still possible to transfer time and minutes to a newly activated smartphone, but according to a recent change they will no longer add an equivalent number of text and data when transferring from an existing feature phone-- you'll get straight minutes and days transferred to the new phone.
If you're not familiar with it, I highly recommend the Turk Forums as the best Tracfone-specific user forum. It's here: http://s1.zetaboards.com/Turk/index/
The folks there are very good at staying on top of any changes, deals, etc., and are very helpful if you need Tracfone-specific advice.
Howdy Als !!
Here - not GSM - verizon - but a good value if there is any of that coverage where you are:
TracFone LG Rebel + 1 Year of Service with 1200 MIN/1200 Text/1200MB US $49.99
The above is not an affiliate link - just a deal offered currently by TF & a good one too.
Also bear in mind that using CDMA via Twigby that service is very cheap and when no Sprint coverage it also uses verizon as a failover with no roaming charges - this is what keeps our phones going lots of times here...
Best Wishes to You and Yours !!