I use my cell phone as you do - rarely. I use Virgin pre-paid. It's .25 per minute (after 10 minutes in a day it drops to .10 per minute) and you only have to put more money in every 90 days. The minutes roll over, you don't lose them. I can have my phone for as little as $80 per year. Works for me!
Look for a pay-as-you go phone with rechargable lithium batteries.
Nicad batteries don't last as long on a single charge.
That's the reason I have it. I'm not a chatter either. I want it for emergencies or just for convenience. You can't find payphones anymore these days & when you can you may not want to get out of the car. I always have way more $ on it than I need. But that will come in handy if I ever need to use it extensively. Like when the power is out at home. No problems with the phone & customer service is excellent.
Each member of our family has a cell phone. The disadvantage is cost. The advantage is that none of us ever needs to know where someone is to get ahold of them, we only need to call the number. A family member might be on the coast and not in a hotel. No call needs to be made to a hotel, and no need to call a "pager." Just dial the number. But each plan has its selling points. You can start with pre-paid and no contracts, and if it doesn't meet your needs, you can always go to a different plan.
If you're not going to use it much, get one of those pre-paid plans.
Tracfone.
$10 a month. Can't beat the deal. $18.95 for 60 minutes every two months.
The time rolls over if you keep the phone active.
My wife uses a regular cellphone from Alltel but I'm going to get another Tracfone for her when the contract expires. Walgreen has a sale on a nice one right now for $20. You get 10 minutes up front and 30 more if you register it on the internet as I did.
The time is registered in "units" which mainly means minutes locally but is meaningful in you go outside the local area as then two "units" are then calculated.
Tracfone uses the lines is existing carriers throughout the nation.
I just slip mine in my shirt pocket whereever I go so I can reach my wife or others as needed. That's all I ever needed anyway.
If you are a yakker, then of course one of the other plans will be more desirable but I don't have a cell phone glued to my ear so this one is fine for me. My $0.02.
Worked out great for us....
I also think that you might check into Cricket..there in T-Town.
Best FRegards,
Trac Fone is probably best for you, they even have a card that you can get, although it's more expensive and has more airtime, but it pays for a full years service. You end up spending more upfront, but don't have to worry about your time running out every 60 days.
For more info goto http://www.tracfone.com/
I use the pre paid Boost Mobile phone, because it has the NEXTEL walkie talkie built in. For more info on Boost goto http://www.boostmobile.com/
I have such a phone from walmart....simple freedom.. It effectively costs $10 per month because you have to buy minutes every 60 days.
Although there is a wide service area, in some locations you have to dial the number twice.
You have to purchase a phone, but for those of who don't hear well, it has a loudspeaker function.
It does exactly what I need..... allows me to call whenever I want to. Only one person knows the number so no unnecessary incomong calls.
Mrs. Slim and I recently got tracfones, they seem to be OK. We only use them to contact each other and in potential emergencies.
2J - I used a TracFone when I was driving across country the first time. Worked fine for that, and you can get cards for them at any Wal-Mart and plenty of gas stations, too.
I really liked my Virgin Mobile phone until I started courting with Talon and we needed to talk a lot more :-) You could do all the buying minutes online, which I liked, and it was very hassle-free. My sister had some other plan, Tracfone maybe, and she didn't like it as much.