[agooga]

Thanks in advance!

[wouldntbprudent]

I've been wondering about this, too. On occasion I would like my kid to have a cellphone, but don't want to get him (and he doesn't need) a full-time line.

I thought Tracfone might work in this situation, but frankly haven't been able to figure out how it works, if it works, etc.

[stands2reason]

My husband either uses it, or another one that's cheaper. I remember he switched to another pre-paid cell, but I can't recall if it was to or from Tracphone.

I don't know about a yearly plan though, he pays by the month.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

I have one, for "emergency" use - and once I have it, I use it a little because they require you to buy minutes every couple of months anyway (unless you go for the yearly deal). So I guess I use it very little, but it has worked when I have tried to use it. Tho no cell phone seems to work well inside my house, Tracfone or not.

[Sloth]

We got a V170 refurbished plus the 1-year card for around $100, maybe the same deal you are talking about. I think it's great. As long as you don't use very many minutes, it's a much better deal compared to regular cell plans. No service problems, and no roaming (on this model phone). You get more bonus minutes by activating cards online, using coupons, etc.

[Sue Perkick]

450 minutes in a year would only give you 37.5 minutes a month. That's not much but I'm not sure how much you need.

I'm an infrequent user myself & use Virgin Mobile. $20 every 90 days. I've never needed more than that. It's .25 for the first 10 minutes of each day then .10 a minute for the rest of the day. They also have other offers even cheaper I believe. Never had a problem & customer service is great if you have any questions.

[codercpc]

We have two of them (one for me and hubby, one for son), and we love it! Before getting it, we never once used up our allotted minutes, sometimes not even using it for that month, yet still paying for an unneeded service. As someone else pointed out, we do use the yearly plan, and if you don't use up all of the minutes, they roll over. You just have to buy a minimum amount of time each year.

If you are such infrequent users (as we are), the amount you save will be substantial.

[lysie]

The 3 of us in this house each have one. We use them for important calls only not for long conversations. IMO, well worth it.

[ZGuy]

We use the T-Mobile To Go (pre-paid) phone. We spend $100 for 1000 minutes which are good for one year, but they roll-over whenever you buy new minutes, so in effect, they never expire. We, talk about 50 minutes a month. So now our cell phone cost is $5/month or $60 year. We're in S. California and haven't had any problems getting a signal. You can find more info at http://www.t-mobile.com/

[Tijeras_Slim]

Been using one about a year. Works fine, and adding minutes on the web is easy.

I only talk about 10 minutes a month.

[Truth'sBabyGirl]

Don't you use this?

TBG

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

One thing, you can only load Tracphone minutes into a Tracphone so if you switch to another provider the phone becomes a paperweight.