Author |
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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Friday, July 11, 2008 - 9:22 pm
I have the Virgin Mobile 18 cents a minute plan (from Kitt's second link), and am very happy with it. I have the phone for emergency use only, not to chitchat on it. Consequently, I don't use $20 even in three months, so it accumulates. I just have the basic phone, and it cost $20. The kid at Radio Shack could see that I am old, and he kindly set it up for me, LOL. I think Virgin Mobile uses Sprint towers.
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Colordeagua
Member
10-25-2003
| Friday, July 11, 2008 - 9:27 pm
I have a T-Mobile pre-paid cell phone. I am NOT a telephone talker -- home or cell. But I want a cell for emergencies (never happened so far) and the once-in-a-great-while convenience. I'm very happy with it. Sorry, I can't even tell you much in the way of particulars. Forgotten pretty much. When I got it, I went "gold" right away, though didn't understand just what that meant. Turned out to be OK -- for the better. That meant I bought $100 worth of time right away. So I am "gold" forever. All I have to do is buy a minimum of $10 worth of time annually before previous time purchase and I keep my "gold" status and I'm good for another year.
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Wargod
Moderator
07-16-2001
| Friday, July 11, 2008 - 10:07 pm
Me, Darren, and Caleb all have pre-paid phones. Darren and Caleb use Tracfone. Darren used to use T-Mobile, but he works in Mojave (30 minutes away) and the coverage was lousy out there. No problems with Tracfone. What we like about Tracfone for Caleb is that he's only allowed to use his phone to call when he needs a ride after track practice or anime club and I can get a $10 card for him that will last close to 3 months. I still use T-Mobile (haven't been able to find the $10 cards for it, but still usually use less than $20 in 3 months.) We paid $19 or $20 for each phone and the only thing we pay after that is for the cards. All three of us have to add minutes every 90 days, but whatevers left over from the previous 90 days rolls over. We tried the traditional plan years ago and it was such a waste of money for us. Neither Darren or I are much for talking on the phone and my cell I'm lucky if I remember to bring it in from the car so I'm certainly not using that too much, lol. The one month (when my step dad was in the hospital and died) we went over with our minutes on the traditional plan it cost us a fortune. I love the prepaids and wouldn't do it any other way now. During those months I use it more, I just buy more minutes. Though normally, I use the prepaid maybe 20 minutes a month, if that.
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Colordeagua
Member
10-25-2003
| Saturday, July 12, 2008 - 4:54 am
I remember to carry my phone with me, but often I forget how to make a call and then how to "hang up" without looking at instruction book!
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Holly
Member
07-22-2001
| Saturday, July 12, 2008 - 7:49 am
LOL, Color! I have the T-Mobile gold card too. After a year, I still had 987 minutes left from the 1000 I purchased for $100, LOL. Obviously, not a big cell phone user here either. (If I had to do it again, I'd go with the $20 phone deals from either Tracphone or Virgin though.)
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Colordeagua
Member
10-25-2003
| Saturday, July 12, 2008 - 12:13 pm
When I got it and for the first year after, I thought I had to buy $100 worth of time annually to keep it going. (That's still less than $10 per month.) At the second re-upping, learned I only had to buy $10 worth of time to keep me working and keep gold status. I have plenty of time now. I will have to pay my $10 in August.
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Holly
Member
07-22-2001
| Sunday, July 13, 2008 - 1:37 pm
Can someone explain the difference between Pay-As you-Go phones and Prepaid Phones? It looks as though there's a service charge on Pay-As-you-Go? And do they use Sim cards like the prepaid phones? I'm wondering if I can use my T-Mobile sim card with all those minutes on it in the Verizon phone. Anyone? Target has a Verizon pay-as-you-go on sale today for $19 and it's a camera phone, that's why I'm curious.
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Y2krazy
Member
09-17-2002
| Sunday, July 13, 2008 - 1:59 pm
I have a different question, or am wanting your opinions...What is the "standard" for a baby shower gift, wedding shower gift and a weeding present these days? I realize it depends on how close you are to the gift recipient and how much you can afford...but is there a standard today... the last of the showers and weddings I went to were about 20 years ago...when my own DS was born...so I'm out of the loop, so to say. HOwever, the nephews and nieces are about to start the whole process all over again...and I don't want to appear cheap, stupid or overly generous...ya know
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Dipo
Member
04-23-2002
| Sunday, July 13, 2008 - 2:26 pm
Y2Krazy, I usually spend about $50 unless I can find something that I know they really love/want that is cheaper. I go with the registry on the wedding/shower and depending how well I know the person and if I know the baby's sex, I have been known to go a little overboard. I love buying little baby clothes. I am curious about the phone thing as well, I pay $30 a month and never use my cell phone, it is ATT. I am thinking that there is a cheaper thing I can do.
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Pamy
Member
01-02-2002
| Sunday, July 13, 2008 - 3:15 pm
i will try a simple comparison you want a shirt pay as ya go....(you gave the store no money prior to today) you buy shirt and pay right now for it prepay (you gave the store 30.00 last week to hold for you) you buy shirt today and dont have to give them money today since you technically paid for it last week
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Julieboo
Member
02-05-2002
| Sunday, July 13, 2008 - 3:37 pm
A standard wedding gift (at least here in Chicago suburbs) is a minimum of $100, (cash or check--as gift gifts are typically given at the shower). Actually I think it's got to be $125-$150 by now as it's been $100 for a loooong time--like since I was married which was over 9 years ago. Wedding shower gift will vary, but anywhere from $25-50 if you are not super close. Baby shower is all over the "scale." Baby clothes are super cheap to get, so you can spend less than $20 and still give a lot. But if you are closer and go off the registry, you may spend more. For baby showers, if I know there are a lot of friends/relatives (so that the registry will likely be covered) I like to get stuff that is useful but not often thought of. Like little swimmers, sunscreen & a blow up pool. Or something that won't be used for a while like a toddler big wheel. (Cuz at a shower there are usually 200 onesies, 300 blankets and a ton of newborn size clothes.)
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Kitt
Member
09-06-2000
| Sunday, July 13, 2008 - 3:53 pm
Aren't Prepaid and Pay-as-you-go phones the same? In both cases you pay for a batch of phone calls, use them up, then buy more. I thought "prepaid" was what they started calling them here, but as they're called pay-as-you-go in Europe, both phrases have now caught on. The sim card depends on the phone and the network. My Virgin pay as you go phone does not have a sim, although it is a few years old and cheap even then.
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Gilda
Member
08-21-2006
| Sunday, July 13, 2008 - 8:22 pm
I recently went to my friend's daughter's wedding. She first had an engagement party (selection) & spent about $50.00, then she had a bridal shower -- bought a platter for $20 plus tax. For the wedding my companion & I went -- I gave $200.00.
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Stray_cat
Member
06-21-2006
| Sunday, July 13, 2008 - 8:35 pm
The Fido phone I have is pay-as-you-go in that you purchase the phone (I got it from a Club Z points promotion) and then buy the vouchers (depending on which suits you i.e. $10 voucher for 30 day @ 30 cents a minute, others are more expensive for different amount of days and/or less cents per minute). This one also had a sim card that needs to be setup with Fido. The Virgin Mobile that my Mom has was purchased and has the pay-as-you-go vouchers, but I don't recall a sim card with that. Both phones can be switched over to monthly plans but the Fido one there is a service charge to switch. I don't think Virgin Mobile has a charge for this.
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Twinkie
Member
09-24-2002
| Sunday, July 13, 2008 - 8:50 pm
I might use my cell phone once a week if that often and only for a few minutes so I needed something cheap. I got a phone for $20 and signed up with Virgin Mobile. There is no contract. I just pay $20 every 3 months and it accumulates over time whatever I don't use. So easy.
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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Sunday, July 13, 2008 - 10:09 pm
Dipo, sounds like you might be a good candidate for the Virgin Mobile that Kitt, Twinkie and I have. Y2K, I sort of think they are the same thing too. If you can get a good deal from Verizon on minutes without having a contract, then a camera phone sounds very attractive to me. <races off to the living room to paw through today's Sunday Target ads> I have to admit, I am not real clear on what a SIM card is, or why one might want one. I know from reading travel message boards that you might want a SIM card phone if you are going overseas, but I have no idea what they are, how they work, or what is the advantage in having one. If somebody wants to take the time to explain it to me, I would be grateful. I have my $20 original purchase price Virgin Mobile phone set to charge the $20 every three months to my credit card. No muss, no fuss, no contracts, no remembering to buy prepaid cards, no brainer. Just perfect. IF you are in their range, which Dipo probably is. See Kitt's links above.
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Y2krazy
Member
09-17-2002
| Sunday, July 13, 2008 - 10:20 pm
Thanks for all your help. It eases my mind a lot, knowing your ideas and opinions.
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Holly
Member
07-22-2001
| Monday, July 14, 2008 - 6:54 am
OK, I found out the answer to my question. Verizon's Pay-as you-go is a no contract deal and you buy minutes, BUT you pay them service for each day you use the phone. The charge is either 99c or $1.99 per day (only on the days you use it though) depending on which minute plan you choose. So it IS difference from a prepaid which is what Twinkie, Juju, etc. have with Virgin Mobile. So, if you made just one phone call a day, it would cost you $30 a month. The benefit is that you are not charged minutes for incoming calls nor for phoning another Verizon number so your minutes might last longer.
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Dfennessey
Member
07-25-2004
| Monday, July 14, 2008 - 7:17 am
I have a tracphone (you can get them at wal-mart, target, even grocery stores) I love it because they do not charge you every day. and if you buy certain phones they will give you double minutes (for instance if you buy a 90 minute card you acutally get 180 minutes )
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Holly
Member
07-22-2001
| Monday, July 14, 2008 - 7:21 am
Yup, the prepaid seems like it's definitely the way to go! Especially when the minutes roll over.
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Kitt
Member
09-06-2000
| Monday, July 14, 2008 - 9:16 am
Juju, a sim card is a little microchip that fits into the back of the phone. It holds the details of the network connections and so on, and you can store your contact list on there, so you can take out the SIM from one phone and put it into another. For instance if you had a sim card phone here and wanted to go to India, IF you could connect there your call cost would be astronomical. But you could take your physical phone over there, switch the US sim for an Indian one, and make calls there as if you were any other Indian cell phone user. When you get home you just swap back to your US sim.
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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Monday, July 14, 2008 - 1:39 pm
Oh, thanks, Kitt!! That is very interesting. I had no idea how that worked. Cool!! So these people on my Africa cruise who were using their phones all the time must have had sim cards. I wonder if they had to get one for each country? Surely not. I didn't see any people racing off the ship looking for sim cards.
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Kitt
Member
09-06-2000
| Monday, July 14, 2008 - 2:12 pm
Some phones allow you to connect to networks while overseas, I think AT&T has some, but I don't know how reasonable the rates are - probably not very reasonable at all. I have a UK phone (pay as you go) that I use when I'm home, and I can use that pretty much worldwide (on the same sim), it just searches for a different network to connect to. Although if I use it when I'm here it's £1 per minute, so I don't use it often!
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Rissa
Member
03-20-2006
| Tuesday, July 15, 2008 - 6:24 am
I have another wedding related question. Got a dress (only took 6 days of shopping, 5 hrs each over a 2 wk period... that is PROGRESS!!), am heading out today to get shoes. Question is regarding nylons/stockings.... for an August wedding in Ontario (aka 90+ degrees) are they mandatory? At one time going to church or any formal event with bare legs was a big no-non but I don't think that still stands. Right?
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Texannie
Member
07-16-2001
| Tuesday, July 15, 2008 - 8:03 am
No one here wears stockings anymore, even with cocktail dresses or to church.
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