[Travis McGee]

About $10 a month, buying minutes only. Keep it off unless you need it for a road emergency. For greater security, keep it in a foil bag until you need to use it.

I refuse to carry a tracker/microphone.

[jimfr]

better yet, own only a landline

[Oorang]

That's the phone I've had for 20+ years. Land line at home, no cell service here - too rural. I'm retired so the minutes I have on the flip phone last forever. I do an annual plan that requires $100 balance on the phone at the time of renewal. Because I use it so seldom at last year's renewal they only charged me $12.00 - for the entire year. It's worth calling them to negotiate.

"Smart" phones have become so accepted that people think there is something wrong with you if you don't have one; that alone is disturbing to me. One relative offered me his old smart phone when he upgraded, I politely declined. Another relative refers to me as "the luddite" (I'm not).

[MtnClimber]

Many of the older flip phones don’t have GPS capability. To track those took the triangulation technique which is time consuming and requires a stationary target.