Ok, so you've decided you need a cell phone, or that one of your kids does. What to do?

A traditional plan costs you $39.99 (plus hidden fees and taxes) per MONTH for the next TWO YEARS and this DOES NOT include the cost of the phone! If you have a family plan they charge you $10 per MONTH plus the cost of phone for each line after the first.

While you do get unlimited night and weekend minutes and possibly 1000 minutes of talk time during the (day per month) for your money, how much does it really cost you?

If you used it to make 100 minutes worth of calls during the day and almost none at night/weekend rate you were paying like $.50 per minute, not really a bargain. If you get the family plan (assuming 2 phones) you were paying like $.60 per minute. It costs you even more the less you use it.

So what's the answer? GO pre-paid!

I did a lot of research and looked at all the plans out there (Boost, T-Moblie, Verizion, At&t all have their own pre-paid) and decided that the company who's been doing it for 15+ years is the best bargain for your money.

Why TracFone and not the others? Well, say you have Verizon's pre-paid plan, you are still restricted to the Verizon network. So if you go outside, you are charged for it. Also, some pre-paid carriers have "tiers" where you have to spend so much each month to qualify for the lower rates. Sounds just like a regular cell plan to me ...

TracFone LEASES their cell time from all the other carrieres (Verizon, Cingular, T-Moblie, etc) so EVERY cell tower is YOUR cell tower. This is why TracFone has the largest network and you are less likely to find yourself without service while traveling. Granted if nobody has a tower in your area, you are still out of luck.

With Tracfone 120 minutes costs you $29.99, so that's like $.25 cents a minute. The more minutes you buy at one time, the less you pay, but we'll get to that soon.

First you pick a phone ...

I suggest that you go to TracFone.com and figure out how big your local calling area is going to be.

If it's really huge (like all of southern CA) get the Nokia 2285 $29.99 as it has lots of handy features and is small and light. If you prefer a flip phone, get the Motorola v176 $49.99 (depending on your local area).

You will be charged 2 units per minute of talk time while outside this local map!! ROAMING: 1 minute = 2 units.  ONE RATE: 1 minute always costs 1 unit.

If it's really small or you travel outside a lot, get one of those Nokia 1100 $9.99 (I've had mine for 3 years) or 2600 $39.99 or the Motorola C261 $39.99 (it has a camera). "One Rate" phones have free incoming text messages & .3 units to send also sold as "Single Rate" phones. If you live in NY, NY you can travel to LA, CA and still be charged only 1 unit per minute talked.

Now that you have your phone know some things:

1) You can place 911 calls as long as you have a signal and the phone is charged and turned on. So if you buy the phone and never add airtime, you can still call 911. But ONLY 911 can be called without adding airtime and 911 will not be able to track you unless you have active service, so you will have to know and tell them where you are located.

2) When you first activate, if you do it online you get 20 free units and 60 days of service.  If you still have minutes at the end of the expiration you need to add more to keep your service active.

3) When you add minutes you get 90 days of service, if you still have minutes at the expiration date - you still NEED to add more minutes. If you do not, your service will go out and your phone number will be assigned to someone else. There is no maximum expiration date, just keep adding units and your service will keep adding those 90 days.

4) Again, if you do not want to loose your phone number, you need to add minutes before the expiration date.

5) Airtime cards are available everywhere you look (pharmacy, gas stations, grocery stores, Sam's Club).

But you have some options ...

You can get a 1 year card that gives you 365 days of service from the time you add it. The "400 Minutes & 365 Days of Service" card and keeps you active for one year and costs $99.99. Check out Tracfone.com often as they will sometimes have bonus codes to add 100 or 200 minutes to your 1 year card (like for Mother's day or other holidays). Also when you buy a phone you sometimes get a coupon book with bonus minutes that can only be used once on each phone. The coupon book has bonus codes when adding all denominations of cards to your phone.

The better deal (IMO) is to go and get a "Double Minutes for the Life of your TracFone & 365 Days of Service & 800 minutes" card. It costs $139.99 (web exclusive from TracFone), in stores you can usually find the "Double Minutes for 1 year & 365 Days of Service & 400 minutes" card. for $149.99.

Either way, you get 1 year of service added the web exclusive card doubles all future cards you buy FOREVER (as long as you keep the phone active). So after this if you buy a "120 Minutes & 90 Days of Service" card, you get 240 minutes when you add it (costs just $.125 per minute) for 1 year (or forever).

A very good deal if you use your phone often.  If you use a bonus code, it will not be doubled, but you can still claim the face value of the bonus, lowering your cost even further (240 + 60 bonus = $.10 per minute).  You will also add 90 days to the 1 year expiration date.

If you have this double minute card, adding the "200 Minutes & 90 Days of Service" card, gets you 400 minutes for $39.99, that's $.10 a minute, a great deal since you have these minutes until you use them AND you have a whole year + 3 months to use them!

Lets review ...

Your cost for 1 year of service with TracFone is:

$30 (av phone cost) + $140 (for "Double Minutes for the Life of your TracFone 365 Days of Service 800 minutes" card) + $40 (200 Minutes & 90 Days of Service" card) = $210 and you get 1220 minutes ($.17 per minute, INCLUDING the cost of phone). If you are using bonus codes you could add as much as 200 minutes with this example, lowering your cost even further to $.15 per minute. Much better, now isn't it?

If you call 100 minutes a month (on average) this will easily last you the whole year. The same usage on a traditional plan would cost you at least $480 (not including the monthly fees and taxes) this cost DOES NOT include the price of the phone AND you are locked into a TWO YEAR contract.  TracFone is less than half of the cost!

With TracFone if you decide you don't like it or don't feel like adding more minutes, you can always sell it on eBay or to a friend. Check out eBay and search for "tracfone phone" and see how many people sell their old phones, some with minutes still on them. It is easy to get your money back out of TracFone if you don't like it. With a traditional plan, you are locked in for TWO YEARS or a stiff fine (usually $200) to cancel early.

PLEASE NOTE:

You do not need to spend the whole $210 up front. Get the phone ($30) and three months after you bought your phone (or when your time is running out) spend $140 for the "Double Minutes for the Life of your TracFone 365 Days of Service 800 minutes" card at TracFone's website or from an eBay seller. Finally when you have run out of your 800 minutes buy the "200 Minutes & 90 Days of Service" card for another 400.