Cell phones for husband/wife

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Pergamum

Ordinary Guy (TM)
Hello,

Me and my wife will be travelling a LOT in the US starting in June.

Sometimes we will be apart.

We also want to conserve money.

Would you advise getting a cell phone or two for married couples apart and travelling? Blackberries?

What is the best way to keep in touch when needed and out travelling (i.e. not tied to a home phone).


Finally, here in Asia you can prepay for minutes (pulsa). I HATE US calling plans. Is there any way to prepay cell phones and buy minutes as needed?
 
Pre-pay is very common now. Almost all carriers have it. Be careful though. Sometimes you can buy unlimited plans that are actually more cost effective. Independent studies repeatedly show that prepaid plans end up costing the party more. You can also add to that no charge calls to certain numbers or to phones that are on the carrier. This way if you and your wife talk to each other it won't cost you.

I used to sell Nextel. Almost all wireless has a hint of scam involved. Really research the plans and contract stipulations, even on prepaid. We currently use T-Mobile. We have been with them for five years. Their customer service is much better. They also seem to have a much greater latitude in their customising of plans.
 
If you are only going to be using them for a month (June), I imagine that it would be difficult to find a contract that is more cost-effective than the pre-paid phones. We have been using pre-paid phones for a few years now, in two countries. It is occasional more expensive, but overall has been the best option. Just search around.
 
You can prepay cells and buy minutes: they have many such phones at Wal-mart etc., however the best deal I've found was through Kroger's i-wireless phones and pre-payplans. Kroger - Services - Phone Services

I don't have a contract and pay 5.00 a mo. and 10 cents a minute -- we don't use the cell phone except for emergencies so that works fine for us. (We use magic jack through our internet connection -- I don't know if that would be an option for you: as it's through your computer of course you have connectivity wherever you have an internet connection; and you pay 20/yr for US/Canada calls). Cell phone plans are a pain: we bought one a couple years ago when we had to be in Arizona: we are finally finishing up the contract but the phone fell apart almost six months ago and they wouldn't fix or replace it: we weren't about to invest in another phone or sign another contract with them so we've spent the past months paying for a service we can't use (T Mobile).

They often have promotions with free phones and sometimes 500 free minutes etc.
 
We plan to start using them JUne 1st and stop about Feb 1

-----Added 4/21/2009 at 10:48:56 EST-----

I would love to text message.....

.."at store back 3pm" etc, or "buy milk" so that I don't have to go through the whole rigamorole of calling, waiting for pick up, hi, how are you, what did you call about, etc, oh, can you buy milk, etc.....love you smooch smooch, see you at 6 pm...etc.

....3 seconds of text rather than 4 minutes of chatter.
Can this be done?
 
Pergamum said:
We plan to start using them JUne 1st and stop about Feb 1

-----Added 4/21/2009 at 10:48:56 EST-----

I would love to text message.....

.."at store back 3pm" etc, or "buy milk" so that I don't have to go through the whole rigamorole of calling, waiting for pick up, hi, how are you, what did you call about, etc, oh, can you buy milk, etc.....love you smooch smooch, see you at 6 pm...etc.

....3 seconds of text rather than 4 minutes of chatter.
Can this be done?
Click to expand...

I think we pay for texts (quite possibly 10 cents a message?) but it is free to receive them: yes, the texting can be done with prepaid, just not so inexpensively as with a plan.
 
Scottish Lass said:
Most contracts are 12-24 months with pretty severe penalties for breaking them
Click to expand...

Unless you want to use it for the whole contract period, the penalty will be greater than any additional cost incurred through the pre-paid phones. Maybe you could speak with the company, and get a special missionary on furlough agreement. Never hurts to ask.
 
Woohoooo...we gonna be textn'!!!

10 cents to send "smoochie smoochie" to my wife is a fair deal I think!
 
I am not sure what Ruben would think if I sent him a text reading 'smoochie smoochie'. It's an interesting thought.

But yes it's worth the ten cents.

-----Added 4/21/2009 at 11:27:33 EST-----

Pergamum said:
Can I get a plan and hand off the phone to someone else who wants to use it?
Click to expand...

I don't think this generally possible unless the other person is willing to keep the contract/number in your name and pay for the phone -- a private arrangement. For a while after my grandma passed away I was using her phone while it was still under contract on my parents' plan; but my parents couldn't transfer the number they had on her cell phone etc. to put it in our name.
 
PS. Pergy, I looked up our phone plan details: it is ten cents a minute to send a text as well as ten cents a minute per call, with the 5.00 a month plan. You can get unlimited texting for 24.95 a mo instead of 5.00 -- but I think you still have to pay ten cents per minute to call.

The 5.00 plan is month to month so I assume the 24.95 one would be, also.


Plan Only
Requires 4.99 /mo.



Plan with Unlimited Text
Requires 24.98 /mo.






  • Just 10¢/min. anytime of the day or night.
  • Sending a text message is just 10¢.
  • All incoming text messages are FREE.
 
cool, I'm ready to buy! 4.99/month sounds groovy! Can you send me a link to sign up?
 
Last edited:
It sounds like you need 2 phones for about 8 months

You need to crunch the numbers to see if a one year contract, where you pay for the last 4 months that you don't use, is going to be cheaper than prepaid plans for 2 people. In either case, look for a plan that will let the 2 of you talk to each other (and probably text) for free.

For most shared minute plans, you can add additional users for about $10 a month over what the single user costs. So 2 folks sharing say 300 minutes a month might be cheaper than 2 prepaid plans where you pay a monthly fee and per minute. (Some of the prepaids charge a hefty daily fee for each DAY that you use the phone, even if only for one call that day)

Most of the companies that sell one and two year contracts have prepaid divisions.

Wal Mart probably has the largest collection of various pre-paid services and plans, although other stores may have a lower price option.

If you have GSM phones, you might be able to swap out the chip and use it on the AT&T network (other networks generally use other technology; TMobile may be GSM as well).

Taxes and fees will add about 40% more to the quoted price on the long term contracts.
 
My wife and I have cell phones, but I stopped calling hers because she never EVER EVER (Pam, are you reading this?) turns it on. Argh!

We have ATT Wireless and pay $99 a month for 2100 minutes and free nights and weekends. My two oldest children have phones on the plan and share our minutes, but they each pay me the $9.99 per month for their numbers and they pay for any extra minutes or texting.
 
Verizon recently purchased Altell, so now those with either company can talk to one another free, and they share towers. Both companies pretty much cover the nation now, though Altell phones still work better with Altell towers, and Verizon with Verizon, for some reason.

I just bought the Motorola Hint. There's not much special about it, except that you can email for free through their email feature. I can email pictures, text, etc. from my phone via my gmail account. But you have to make sure to use the email feature through your personal email because simply sending text via email still incurs a charge. I just found that out the hard way. Bummer.

You might also send out a quick prayer letter asking if anyone has a couple of cell phones they can loan you for a few months. It's possible that someone has a contact for a business that's no longer operating, or an extra phone or two that they can lend you. A friend of ours was just here on furlough and some church members here gave them a phone to use while they were here. You might ask your mission agency as well.
 
Webservant said:
My wife and I have cell phones, but I stopped calling hers because she never EVER EVER (Pam, are you reading this?) turns it on. Argh!
Click to expand...

My wife will turn hers on to call and leave a message for me to call her and then turns it off! Double Argh!
 
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