Cheap phone plans?

So my Nextel phone is going away tomorrow and I won't be able to use their service anymore for certain reasons. I need a phone for my job and I'm loose on money since a number of my paychecks haven't arrived in the mail yet.

I opened an account with Washington mutual(Wamu) recently, but they hold checks for a week before depositing them since I'm new. So what do you guys suggest?

Find more posts tagged with

Free for TechExams community: Cybersecurity salary guide

Compare cert salaries and plan your next career move

Button

Comments

xwesleyxwillisx

Skype

Just kidding.

RTmarc

Verizon is about the best in terms of coverage. I think they offer a $99/month unlimited plan now. I would switch over to that but currently it can't be family shared which sucks when you have three other lines.

JDMurray

Go to Wal-mart and buy a prepaid, pay-as-you-go phone, like TRACFONE. You buy the phone and only the minutes you want. No frills, but it's cell phone communication, and the phones themselves are practically disposable. Great for teenagers too.

mikej412

JDMurray wrote:

Go to Wal-mart and buy a prepaid, pay-as-you-go phone, like TRACFONE.

+1

And use Skype to make your calls if you have a broadband connection.

dynamik

Don't a lot of companies offer free phones with a year or two contract? You may be able to avoid paying anything until you receive your first bill.

KGhaleon

Not working for a while, need to go through the lengthy background check.

I think I'll buy one of the disposable phones mentioned above along with a card. That's assuming I get a phone number to use with it, so employers can contact me. That seems like a nice, cheap method. Skype is a good idea for making calls from home, but I'd need to purchase a Mic for that...maybe some speakers too as I only have the speakers on my laptop.

I'm living out of an empty room in LA right now.

Luckily I do have broadband.

dynamik

KGhaleon wrote:

Skype is a good idea for making calls from home, but I'd need to purchase a Mic for that...maybe some speakers too as I only have the speakers on my laptop.

Just purchase a headset.

leefdaddy

KGhaleon wrote:

Not working for a while, need to go through the lengthy background check.

I think I'll buy one of the disposable phones mentioned above along with a card. That's assuming I get a phone number to use with it, so employers can contact me. That seems like a nice, cheap method. Skype is a good idea for making calls from home, but I'd need to purchase a Mic for that...maybe some speakers too as I only have the speakers on my laptop.

I'm living out of an empty room in LA right now.
Luckily I do have broadband.

Yes you get a phone number when you buy one of those phones.... My father in law has one he uses only when he travels.

Kasor

Just get a BB 8300...u will love it.

JDMurray

The Plantronics .Audio 325 is very nice, but I prefer the beefier DSP-500 for gaming. Both are around $25US.

SRTMCSE

google magicJack. A buddy of mine uses those and gave me one, they're pretty awesome. Only pay like $25 or $35 for a year plus the cost of the device (don't know how much it costs, i got mine free).

plugs in via usb, you plug a phone in...bam...instant landline. you of course must have the pc on and logged in and on the internet, but you get my point. unlimited long distance, voicemail, forwarding and you get a regular phone number.

Plantwiz

KGhaleon wrote:

I opened an account with Washington mutual(Wamu) recently, but they hold checks for a week before depositing them since I'm new. So what do you guys suggest?

A better bank!

Good grief, I haven't seen/heard of that yet.

*****

Always been happy with Verizon. Or see if AT&T will make a nice deal...they are always pushing their plans on us...we cannot use them though.

jamesleecoleman

T-mobile has good plans. The prepaid part has it where if you spend over $100 in credits you'll be able to keep your minutes for a year plus I think 15 percent of the minutes that you brought added on to the total amount. T-mobile did have a 1000min and unlimited nights and weekends for 39.99 but the deal is up. Maybe they'll get it again. They don't have the most recent phones but they have a cheaper plan than at&t wireless but att wireless has the rollover minutes and they have recently made phones. Also at&t plans are alittle more expensive than t-mobile. Hope this helps some.

KGhaleon

I went into a store earlier and asked about prepaid phones, they pointed out some fancy, but cheap, virgin mobile phones. I bought a "Cyclops" for $29.99. It has a camera and loads more features than my old cell phone did.

http://www.slashphone.com/media/data/798/medium/koycera_cyclops_1.jpg
http://www.wirefly.com/images/phones/kyocera_cyclops_virgin_z1.jpg

(just so you know, the last cell phone I bought was 4+ years ago)

I also had them put $20 on it. I think it's $.10/per minute...which seems fairly cheap. I can put more on later. Only problem I've experienced is that when I checked my account...it said I only had $15.32 on there. What the heck?

Maybe they take part of the money as some sort of tax or something.