Getting The Most For Your Money With a Prepaid Cell

This article is for USA residents only for the reason the cell phone service I’m going to mention is the best deal in that part of the world.

A backup cell phone is one that is used strictly as a secondary wireless phone, or something if you only use a cell phone very infrequently. In other words it’s something you chuck in the glove box of a car and use when you need to call AAA to fix a flat tire or call for a tow.

With a phone of this type, you want something that is completely contract-free, works reliably and at the cheapest possible cost.

Currently in the US, Tracfone is still your best bet – but only if you purchase minutes for it in a very specific way. More on that in a moment.

Tracfone is great because the phone itself is cheap (10 to 20 bucks) and has coverage just about anywhere.

Buying the Tracfone

I specifically suggest buying your phone at Radio Shack just in case phone coverage/reception isn’t to your liking. Radio Shack makes returns easy, and that’s why you purchase there to begin with.

In addition, employees at RS will configure the phone for you to make sure it works before you leave the store – another big plus.

Specifically buy a phone that is not a flip. You want what’s known as a "candy bar" one-piece style. Why? Because they last longer and can take more abuse. Remember, this is a backup phone so it doesn’t have to be pretty. It needs to be tough. One-piece phones are built better.

Using the Tracfone

The phone you’ll get will most likely be a Motorola. By nature it will be simple to use. It won’t have a lot of features, but that’s not a big deal.

Purchasing minutes for your Tracfone

This is what you need to pay attention to the most.

When you buy your phone, it will come provided with 15 or 20 "starter" minutes. The RS employee will ask you if you want to buy a phone card at the store to add in some more minutes. Don’t do that. Take the phone as is and go home with it.

Specifically go to www.tracfone.com to buy minutes. Why? Because you’ll always get double-minutes on purchase. With plain off-the-shelf cards you don’t get that.

This is how I suggest purchasing minutes from tracfone.com:

Click on the green "Activate phone, add or buy airtime" button on the right.

Hover over "Buy airtime" and click "Buy airtime online"

For the remainder of the purchase process, I suggest to not sign up for an account. You can opt to use a "guest" or "one-time" purchase. Doing this is recommended, else Tracfone will send promotional stuff (i.e. spam) in your email.

What’s the best deal?

"400 minutes / 365 days of service" for $99.99 is not the best deal. It sounds like it is, but it isn’t.

The best deal is "60 minutes / 90 days of service" for $19.99.

The reason this is so is because it’s $20 cheaper per year compared to the 400-min/365-day option.

With the 60-min, you will have to buy it 4 times per year. That’s $80 annually. If you were to do the math on a per-month basis, that translates to under $7 a month.

Also bear in mind that yes, minutes do roll over if you don’t use them.

I own one of these phones and barely use it. When you purchase time online, you get your double minutes and it keeps rolling over from whatever you have left.

Yesterday I had to buy some airtime, and with the rollover I now have almost 300 minutes:

When you don’t use the phone that often, the minutes pile up quick, and that’s wonderful.

Tracfone does tell you how many days of service are left and how many minutes you have right on the main screen, which is darned convenient.

So there you have it. If you were looking for a good cheap backup cell phone, go with Tracfone. As long as you get good coverage in your area, that’s all that matters.

What about Verizon’s Prepaid?

Verizon tries to convince you that they have a good deal with prepaid. They don’t. You’ll be pouring cash out the window compared to Tracfone.

With prepaid, Verizon has four choices:

• $3.99 per day only on days used
• $1.99 per day only on days used
• $0.99 per day only on days used
• Basic, $0.25 per minute, $0.20 per text message

When you have Verizon-to-Verizon calls, you have unlimited minutes, but call anybody that’s not a Verizon customer and you get charged. That means a 20-minute call to a non-Verizon customer is 5 bucks. Ouch.

Verizon’s prepaid is only good if the only people you call are other Verizon customers. Otherwise you will in fact spend more.

Tracfone’s way of doing it is much more straightforward because there is absolutely no guessing as to how much you’re spending/using.