United3dArtists Archive

Just a little rant here.
My wife and I went to talk about smart phones last night. No way. Even with the 'cheapest' route our cell phone bill would effectively double from what it is now.
Screw that! We need money for bills and for a car payment coming soon: Yesterday my wife got into the passenger side of our 14 year old driven-hard Sentra, closed
the door partially on her foot, and I heard a: CCCRRRRUUUUNNNCCCHHHH! I thought, Oh crap; that's her foot! No, thankfully, it was the mud guard on the floorboard of the
door. The mud guard broke off! Geez; this car is Literally falling apart! I'll have to take some pictures and show you all. It's been in several climates, 2 countries, several states,
2 drivers, etc. etc. etc. It still runs well; but the engine will do no good if the body is no longer there!

Ha! This sounds familiar too!
I have a 5 phone family plan that cost a fortune, guess who in the family does NOT have it...ME!
I can't add a 6th phone to the plan so dear old Dad has a TracFone with triple minutes from Walmart.
For Data I carry around my ipod touch and connect to every hot-spot on earth for free, Bob Evans, Denny's, McDonalds,
the Mall, Airport, my work, all my relatives, etc etc. I'm a leach!

http://www.walmart.com/ip/TracFone-LG-8 ... e/17654791"
For $40 I get 600 minutes of data/talk. (and this isn't just per Month)

Ah cool thanks Steinie! Man sounds like you got your phones full~!

My land line phone bill is ridiculous. I hardly make or receive any calls but I do have DSL internet on that bill. I'm probably going to get cable modem for the internet, just use my Tracfone, and drop the land line completely. Maybe get digital phone via the cable too.

Steinie, triple minutes? I've got to get that too. I have double minutes on mine.

Not getting a smart phone here in austria is like giving away money...
I have a contract with a data package and we get points for every payment that you make..
we also get some points if there is a special occasion like christmas etc.... or a shop opening of the phone company...
if you have enough points you can use those points for buying a new smartphone.....
So for example after 3 years of heavy use of your contract you can get an I phone 5 for arond 250 $ instead of the full price of 750 $
here....( I have the Samsung Gallaxy 3S)
that pricing sheme is called "Next"
I have 2 phones one is a simple one(simple Blackbery Curve) and 1 smartphone.. and I only use the smartphone for internet.. but all with 1 phonenumber......
The great thing about the smartphone is that I can use it at a wifi hotspot and pay nothing for the internet...
If used with mobile connection I have a package of 3000 free minutes and 3000sms and 3GIG internet free all for around 50 $ per month
all included including the points that go to a new phone....
Peter

Wow very nice Peter!

Got a Samsung Galaxy from Sprint a while back thinking I needed a smartphone. Soon as contract runs out I'm getting an android with no contract, probably metro pcs, as they are like half the price monthly! and droid phones went way down in price. I am fed up with paying so much to sprint, but it would cost me my first born child to break the contract. TG it runs out this summer. Go with no contract, much better! (if you need one at all)

Dumb phone, no contract.
I buy $100 worth of time, once a year.
Since I never ( all right, rarely) use it and no one (ever) calls, that works out ok.
There are always minutes left over.
I was perfectly fine with pay phones but they are getting more and more rare.

I do use my phone a lot, so I will get the droid, I use my apps and a lot of texting. Although I am not much of a talk on the phone person, and have never used all my minutes. It's very convenient too as my school uses adobe connect, which you connect to on smart phone, I never miss an event. I wish these phones weren't so friggin expensive though!

I hear you frog. That's a good idea spacekdet. Maybe we should buy minutes like that, since my wife and I call each other; rarely use the phones for other uses.

It's a weird loophole and I've probably just jinxed myself by even mentioning it.
If I buy anything less than $100 worth at a time then I have to buy more every month or they won't roll over.
Forget to get more? Sorry, we just ate all your extra minutes.
If I buy $100 I only have to do it once a year. I set one calendar reminder and I'm good.
Don't tell them who told you, I'd hate to lose such a sweet deal.
Update: AT&T, in case you were wondering

Tracfone works like this: You buy minutes and service days with each purchase. Like 120 minutes and get 90 service days. The minutes are added to your current total and the days extend the time until your service expires. If you run out of minutes or service days just buy more and your old minutes or days are still there too. You don't lose them. I bought their double minutes for life thing (life of a specific phone I think) and get double minutes = half price minutes. As little as I talk, mostly for business, I still use enough minutes that my end of service date just keeps moving farther into the future.

Ooh. There goes the runny nose and eyes. Good, that means I have a cold and not a sinus infection. Infection would mean doctor + antibiotics = money.

heh thanks spacekdet.
Thanks Finis; good to keep in mind.