yea but not to the point net10 and tracphones are.. have you ever seen one of those handsets?? it's horrible.. i cringe when i see one!

I've seen them, but just never owned one.

pick up a cheapy one at walmart one day, and you will see what i mean

No thanks! I'll stick to my TMobile and Cingular phones! ;)

Yes, their handsets are definitely plain-Jane, I'll admit. However, Net10 is probably the cheapest way to get Cingular coverage. With the flat 10 cpm and no daily fees, it's far cheaper than 25 cpm or the $1/day fee with 10 cpm, and $150 gets you a one-year expiration. The only exception is if you need the Cingular-to-Cingular minutes for "free" after the $1/day charge. If you end up with a T-Mobile coverage area, though, TMo2Go is a far better deal with better roaming (my roaming on Centennial problem resolved itself this morning - I think it was Centennial's problem after the storm here). And icerabbit is over on HoFo claiming Cingular GoPhone doesn't roam at all (something I never realized because my area is so Cingular blanketed).

As for Tracfone, their minutes are too expensive to buy off-the-shelf at the store, but there are still other ways to get cheaper minutes - ebay, bonus codes, online sales, etc. But a Tracfone in each of the flavors (GSM and CDMA) will get you coverage virtually anywhere you travel in the US, and the maintenance cost is very low if you work with the online deals. I do miss RAF sooooo much, LOL!

I have, this is no lie, more than 10 TracFones. Six of them are activated and working. I have service from Verizon, T-Mobil and at&t. I can latterly activate and get a cell phone into someone's hands for the trunk of my car.

Now what was the cost of all of this? Much less, MUCH LESS than one phone would have cost me from a large carrier. If you want to a phone that will wipe you when you are through, TracFone is not for you. If you want to be able to use it as a telephone, have I got a deal for you. :krider:

I have a Motorola V195 that I use on one of my TMobile lines, and although there is nothing fancy about it, unless you include bluetooth, it's the best plain cell phone that I've used in a long time, and I got it at a good price as well.

It isn't so much the cost of the phone it is the cost of the service. Where can one get a half year of service, a phone and 180 minutes of talk time that includes, local, long distance and international long distance with no roaming charges for $19.99?

I'll gladly pay the extra few pennies just to avoid a looked down phone that doesn't have the ability to be unlocked and used on another carrier.
With TMobiles $88 Target deal going on, you get a Nokia phone that is capable of being unlocked, a prepaid starter kit, 1000 minutes that don't expire for a whole year. Also includes no roaming or long distance charges.

I looked at T-Mobil pre-paid and there are many different charges and to get 10 cents a minute takes a 100 dollar card. Roaming is free *National roaming on the T-Mobile USA network* only on T-Mobile's network. They don't have a very big network. As for the phones, TracFones are free so no need to worry about them.

The $100 card is the $88 deal, and they throw in the Nokia 6030 as a freebie, and the phone is nice. Plus it does come with $10 and 30 minutes which last 90 days before you have to put on the $100 card.

I still like my Tracfone, don't get me wrong, but this $88 Target deal is really good. I love the fact that it all rolls over to another year with only adding a $10 card at the end of the first year. Which can be a year and 90 days.

You and me Earl, we are not big talkers, so 1000 minutes is going to last a loooong time, it will pay off to have that roll over thing for only a $10 card per year after the first one.

Plus the Nokia 6030 is a very nice little phone. And T-Mobile has updated their coverage map, and my house and neighbourhood are in the dark green full coverage zone.

Speaking of Zones, they have this thing called T-Zones on this phone through T-Mobile, I have not looked into it yet, but it is free to use, it does not cost you any minutes. If you choose to buy some of the stuff, that will cost you, but I think the news and sports and stuff is free to read.

I got mine tonight, and I am happy with it. I also got 10% off by getting Target's credit card.

TMobile has a small coverage area? After having them for a year I would have to disagree with you here. I have no coverage issues with them at all.
As for the phones being free, I wouldn't want a neutered free phone anyway that didn't have the ability to be used overseas in places where your FracFone doesn't work).
TMobile To Go has added many roaming partners over the past few months and are still in the process of acquiring more, so a TMobile customer is not only limited to TMobilies USA network.
I'm not sure what other charges you seem to be referring here when you said TMobile has extra charges. I don't really text that often, I use a memory card in my camera phone. So no extra charges for me.

As pre-paid becomes more popular I see the carriers having to come out with better deals.

TracFones can now legally be reprogrammed to work with any carrier but that is another story.

I agree. That topic would be better off being posted in this thread.
http://www.cellphoner.net/tracphone/