I am wondering if anyone can share some tips about cell phone and plans.  I'd have it just so the people could get a hold of me and to talk with fmaily that live out of state.  I don't want to pay $200 for a phone and then $75 a  month to take pictures or text message.  Thanks.

My husband and I have phones through trachpone. They are prepaid phones and we buy the yearly card, so we don't have to buy an air time card each month. If you are wanting to talk a lot it might not be best for you, but if you just want to have a phone to stay connected when away from home it works well. I would say we don't spend $200 a year.

 I second the Tracfones, we have 2 of them and spend under $50 a year.  We use them for travel contact only but they are so inexpensive we can afford the deal ont he landline for every other call.  That and we write a lot of letters!  : )

Brianschef Michelle 

My DD and I have phones from T-Mobil. I just recently looked into getting verizon cell phones for us, but I just don't want to have to sign a contract. So, we will stay with the phones from T-Mobil. At least I know what to expect. They are pay as you go phones, just like trac phones.

I suggest pre paid as well. Hubby and I have sprint because of the great plans. However the customer service is about as bad as it gets. Experience tells me that you would be best off with prepaid to get your feet wet and decide how much you actually use the cell phone. If you find after a bit that it would be more cost effective go ahead with a plan. Remember to read the fine print(you have 2 weeks to return the phone and cancel the contract) if you change your mind or find that the carriers service is not so great in your neighborhood or even your house. Good luck. 

it depends how much you want to use it.

we pay $70 per month for two phones. We have 1000 anytime minutes. We can talk free on weekends, and after 9 oclock every night. We can also talk to each other for free, and anyone else who has our same service provider.

 It's been great for us. We don't come close to using our minutes. Our family lives out west, so it's no big deal to call them after 9 (six for them). My family all has the same provider, so I can talk to them on their cell phones for free. We would get a plan with fewer minutes, but we locked in this rate years ago, and so fewer minutes cost more than what we pay now.

With our company, whenever you sign a contract (usually two years, and you pay a fee to break it before that) you can pick out a free phone. It's not usually the latest of greatest, but there are really nice phones. With opur company we can get a new free phone every two years, when we re sign our contract. So, we've never paid for a phone.

 

HTH

I agree with Pink Lemonade, it really does depend on how much you plan to use them!  DB and I had our phones through T-Mobile's prepaid and they worked great.  At first they were just for emergencies, but we started using them more often, especially to call our parents (both sets are over 9+ hours away) because it was cheaper than long distance.  One month we totalled our refills and realized we were averaging $230 a month!  We switched to a T-Mobile myFaves family plan and spend $89 per month, but worth it for us.  We have unlimited calls to/from our favorites (each other, our parents, close friends, etc.)  700 shared whenever minutes, unlimited nights & weekends, unlimited text/picture/video messaging, and caller tunes (people calling us hear music of our choosing instead of a ring tone).  For us its great, we never come close to our minutes.  We also dropped our home phone service, which was running $65 per month, so for $24 more a month we're completely mobile.

It really does depend on how much you use it.  We didn't realize how much we were until we started adding up the minute refills.  For someone just using it for emergencies or to call long distance prepaid is probably the way to go.  You can always reevaluate later since there's no contract with prepaid.  We keep ours on hand still as back-ups.  I suggest getting your phones at places like Target or Walmart for prepaid.  The exact same, but less $$ than a cellphone-only store.

DH and I have a Sprint Plan which works great for us b/c we use our phones frequently. My parents use pre-paid as they only want to use the cell phone for some long-distance calls and to have when traveling which my mom does each Monday for her medical appts. They got a phone with a coupon for $19.99. Very basic no voice-mail, text or photos. Perfect for them.  I can't tell you exactly what they pay but they bought a yearly plan and it must not have been expensive or my dad wouldn't have considered it.

They bought a prepaid plan from a carrier that has towers all over the state so they can use that network and have good signal strength. I know some companies only have good service in cities/populated areas. Since my parents live in a rural area, they needed something that worked where they live and travel.

We have two tracfones that suit us fine since we use them very little. The 120 minute/90 day cards that we bought when we got the phones are about to expire and both phones still have over 100 minutes left. So I'll get cards figuring what is the cheapest for time, not usage minutes.

For long distance we have Verizon's Freedom plan which works for us. All calls in the U.S. are free for $59.95/month plus all those stupid taxes & fees. But where we live everyone is long distance so DW can yak away and I don't have to think about a three-figure phone bill.