I ALWAYS come to DU for advice, and I need some now. Tired of my nephews and

[MADem]

117. I'm an old dinosaur, myself. I've had a tracfone for years!

It costs me about a hundred and fifty bucks a year to have, and I never use up all the minutes. I can get a signal anywhere--even in the woods in northern Maine or in the USVI.

If you yak on the phone a lot, you can use up the minutes easily--I don't yak, though, I get a one-year card and never use them all.


I am on my second phone with this company. I upgraded to one that gave me "double minutes" and takes pictures and can browse the web in a VERY limited fashion, and is good for texting several years ago, from one that was a simple candy bar phone that had the BEST speaker of any phone I have ever had and was a champion flashlight--it could light up a room in an emergency and had a fantastic battery. I could talk across a room and be heard on that old workhorse. I will probably upgrade to one that can take a bit of video soon.

I also like that I can call overseas with the thing at the same price per minute--it's an absolute bargain if you only need to speak to someone abroad once a month or less (those minutes aren't cheap overall, but they are if you don't have an overseas phone plan on your landline).

I've been happy with my phone. I've turned a few "Don't really need a phone" relatives on to tracfone and they are happy too. They're competitive with those stupid geezerphones that don't do anything, and you do not have to get billed monthly if you don't want that. You can, though, if you want, set it up so they debit you monthly and that way your phone never will die (you have to have both minutes and "time"--a yearly card, for example, keeps your phone active for 365 days and gives you 400 units--which can be 800 or 1200 depending on the phone you have). There's another company, also owned by the Big Guy Carlos Slim, wealthiest man in the world, called Net Zero that does the same thing--pre-paid, no "plan," no credit cards needed, etc. Virgin Mobile has a similar scheme as well--they are a bit more expensive, IIRC.

What I like about my phone is that it works very well, if I lost it I wouldn't have a cow, I could buy a new one and have my "minutes" transferred to it, and I'm not repeatedly billed for it--I pay for a "one year card" once a year and that's IT. No nickle-and-diming over and over again. For me, that works.

However, if you really want to get the spirit and spend some money and be "cool"--those smart phones are pretty jazzy. The real neat ones are like mini computers, you can watch TV on them, do everything AND even talk on them. Our family's younger generation have them and they even get bigger batteries for them because they're always glued to the damn things. Thing is, though, if you have a really nice one, be careful in a sketchy place--people will knock you down and steal the thing from you.

No one wants to steal my crappy little phone (that works great and always can get a signal, when those jazzy phones can't!).

Good luck in your quest to find the perfect phone! Weigh what you want, what you need, and what you're willing to pay....and then go for it.