I purchased the AT&T Free2Go prepaid phone October 2001. The reason I went with AT&T prepaid was because of the 90 day expiration of the minutes. They changed their policy in November to 45 day expiration, doubling my monthly cost! Now I'm stuck with the phone. I'd like to use this phone (Nokia 5165) with another prepaid service. I tried Cingular and they said I couldn't use the phone with their service. Does anyone know another prepaid service that's compatible with the phone? I'm from northern Ohio (Cleveland area). Any help is appreciated.
The only way you can activate it with another service provider is to have the lock code to unlock it from AT&T service. The carrier prevent you from taking their phones to another carrier by locking up their phones to their system only.
You might try buying your minutes from ecallplus.com. Their AT&T cards are still good for 90 days. The only drawback is that you probably have to buy their setup pack. Also look at icallplus.com and savecell.com. -Bill Radio
Just wondering because I have never looked at prices but isn't pre-paid really expensive??? THanks Mark
The only afforable Prepaid plan that I can think of would have to be ALLTEL's Boomerang service. It's a type of minutes prepaid service that you pay in advance monthly to keep active. No Credit Checks No Contract $34.95 a month 300 anytime minutes 3,000 night and weekend minutes Long Distance Included Anywhere on the ALLTEL network to anybody in the country ALLTEL
It really depends on how you define expensive. If you mean upfront cost, then prepaid is much much cheaper. I can spend as little as $15 bucks a month and still have enough minutes to get by. If I were to get a post pay plan, I'd be shelling out more than double that per month. If you're comparing minutes for minutes, obviously having 300 peak and 4,000 night/weekend would be much more expensive using FreeUp than just getting an America's choice plan, but some people just don't need that many minutes and can't justify the outrageous cost. I'm one of those people If Verizon offered an AC plan with like 100 or 120 peak minutes and 500 or so night/weekend minutes for around 20 bucks a month, I'd definitely just dump FreeUp and get that. However, they don't and until more companies do, people will continue to either overpay or use their phone at inappropriate times simpy because it's "free". Prepaid does have a market, it's just not the same market as most post play plans.
I agree w/Mooby. People who use prepaid are either light users or smart with their $$$. I could be wrong, but think about it. How many people actually use up ALL their minutes every month for a post-paid account? If you are not using ALL your minutes each month, you are essentially giving FREE money to the providers! It is all a marketing hype... more minutes... and consumers in turn will somehow believe that they "might" need all that minutes "just in case" of unusual circumstances. How many times do you actually need all those minutes? With prepaid, you use what you paid for. Europeans and Asians are smart in that point. They like prepaid because they are not as credit happy as we Americans are! More minutes = more value --> ONLY TRUE if you are actually making full use of the minutes. "More minutes are IRRELEVANT since usage are inefficient" [in a Borg tone]
That's a very good point you make chalumeau. I do use up just about all my anytime minutes every month though, but there is no way I could ever use up my N/W minutes. Mark
i agree with you too. its is like giving away free money back to the provider. like usually if there is the chance i wont use my day minutes i just let my family use it sometimes. its better than having the provider rip me off. worse comes to worse if anyone has mobile web you can always "waste" minutes by using that
Another thing about prepaid vs monthly: Say I'm paying $30 per month on a regular contract. I only use half my minutes but run up $10 worth of email, roaming, etc. Then my bill is $40. On a prepaid plan, I pay for everything I do from zero, but ONLY for what I do.