truphone has no order requirement
Thanks mmfacemm!Then Truphone seems mote a little more expensive per minute Tello. But who cares if it's 3 cents or 0 cents a minute if you only need 2 minutes a month.
Exactly.
I tire sometimes of folks (mostly on other forums) continually slamming different carriers and plans because they're a terrible deal when gauged by the minute or GB. It's the wrong metric. The right metric is how much it costs per month to maintain the service (and units) you'll actually use.
If Truephone matches your usage needs, it's a very good deal.
2 minutes a month?---too bad carrier pidgeons are extinct, for you could have used a few of them for your communication needs without needing a phone. Then, again, feeding the pidgeons might cost more than 2 minutes of cell phone service does. 
Yes, about 2 minutes a month, or about 20 a year. And 10-15 texts a month. Back on my R+ days I was at 50%! I use GV a lot though. Voice and text.
Sounds as if the Truphone Paygo sim would be ideal for your needs, especially since you could use GV with it. Yet, let's hope Truphone doesn't do away with their sim anytime soon.
Precisely KentE. If I add a monthly premium, even $3-5 a month, that's $36-$60 a year. PAYGO at even 20 cents a minute is a better deal for me.
I think I need a new mobile phone to put GV on it. The XP5 runs a proprietary OS, based on Android, which I don't think allows you to install apps on it. It does Wi-Fi but that's for providing internet connectivity to the existing apps, right?
But since this phone has an expiraration date (Feb 2021?) I'll stay put for now. Unless Free Up's free plan goes away. Or Free Up goes Belly Up!
Yes, I doubt you can run any Android apps such as GV on it, though you can use Gmail on it I think. You should be able to use it as a forwarding phone for your GV number at least. And one can't beat the FU free plan for now.
dst11, it's been a while since I've used it this way..... (Please note that some or all of this may have changed since the last time I had a need.....)
It's possible to use Google Voice without the app, in a truncated manner. Calls can still be forwarded to a 'feature phone', using carrier minutes on that phone. Texts can still be forwarded to the same phone's native texting app if configured that way (via PC or browser interface.)
While said phone is listed as a 'forwarding' number in the GV dashboard, outbound calls will use carrier minutes (no calling over data or WiFi), but can still show the GV # as the identifier, with a workaround. GV assigns a 'spoofed' number to each phone contact you call/text, and it typically does this mostly invisibly. But the spoofed number can be viewed from an incoming text on either the feature phone or smartphone. That 'spoofed' number must be saved as an alternative contact # in the contacts list of the feature phone, and selected for each outgoing call where you want the receiving party to see the GV #. (I believe texts follow the same path......)
Drawbacks: it's kind of confusing to keep track of. You cannot place an outgoing call, displaying your GV #, to any contact that is new, or without the saved 'spoofed' number. And until you save a spoofed contact number associated with a contact in your device phone book, you won't know who is texting you via your GV #, since only the spoofed number will display. You can only find the spoofed number from an incoming text, not from an incoming call.
I did this for a while several years ago with a qwerty-based feature phone that I was loathe to give up on for various reasons. I eventually gave up on the process because I had too many contacts, too many new contacts that needed to 'see' my GV #, I was using too many minutes for the feature phone to remain economical, and the phone was going to be sunsetted in the near future. (Verizon 3G device.)
So, you cannot find the spoofed # of a landline, since a landline can't text you right?
You could potentially still call your GV number and place an outgoing call from there, as far as I know. Some feature phones (Symbian OS, I think, for example) may have access to apps or features meant for using calling cards that could let you automate the sequence.
dst11 writes: "So, you cannot find the spoofed # of a landline, since a landline can't text you right? "
It's been some time since I've done this, but I believe that's correct.
Calls would be received via the 'call forwarding' feature of Google Voice, so that only number displayed on the feature phone for an incoming call is the number actually calling, not the spoofed number. (GV doesn't actually impose itself in the middle of the incoming call process.)
SMS is different, since GV actually directly receives an incoming SMS to your GV #, and resends it to your carrier # if requested (instead of rediercting it as it does with an incoming call.) It's the optional 'resend' to your carrier # that lets you see the the spoofed number on a text.
I believe scriptninja may be correct about the suggested wqrkaround for calling a landline. I think I remember reading about that method, but never used it.
I found this from a 2017 post on Howard Forums, regarding calling on a non-smart phone: It seems this process would let you call a landline.
For making calls,
Call your own Google number.
When you hear your voicemail message, press the * key.
Enter your Google Voice PIN.
Press 2.
Enter the number you want to call.
Press the pound # key.
More information about making calls here Make a call with Google Voice - Computer - Google Voice Help
(Thanks to scriptninja-- I'd forgotten about this!)
Thanks KentE. Man, this forum knows more than a Knowledge Base!
I created a PIN. BTW, here's the help post:
Now, I need to charge my phone!
I remember doing these steps using a flip phone, as well as using the Moto E2, back in the RingPlus days.
So I tried this today using a smartphone. No luck getting it to work on a smartphone -- pressing the * key after hearing the voicemail message didn't let me enter my GV PIN.
Given that this used to work with a smartphone back then, it seems like the newer incarnations of GV don't allow this any more?
Thanks for testing, peterquinn.
KentE's landline script works fine here, no modifications needed! At first, I didn't have GV forwarding to my mobile. So after I entered my GV PIN, it said so. But after I entered the mobile number to GV, the landline script worked fine. Note: I have a Sonim XP5 mobile. Not dumb, not smart. I guess it's somewhere in between!