Trying to find a phone plan that’s paid by the minute, not by the month. I want a phone that only charges me when and if I use it – no recurring monthly fee whatsoever, and no ‘inactivity’ fees either.
I don’t use my phone much at all. Even if it costs $5 per minute, that would still be cheaper for me than even the cheapest monthly plans. And I don’t need any data connection at all, ever. Just voice calls and texts.
Such a thing used to be possible, but after searching and searching, I can’t find any such thing now. Do they no longer exist?
I’ve never heard of one of those with no recurring charges (typically you get a service plan that expires after 1 year), but yes, that type of phone is super cheap. Like here’s two flip phones each with 1 year of service, $70 for both:
https://www.qvc.com/tracfone-blu-b300v-2-handsets-1200-talktextdata.product.E323463.html?sc=srch&sku=062
I think there’s a way to do two sim activations on one phone, so you get two years of service. r/nocontract on spezzit would have more info about this.
QVC used to have tons of cheap Android phones (search “tracfone”) with similar deals but they’re all OOS now, I guess due to AI semiconductor shortages. No idea about Walmart. I haven’t looked at ebay recently.
Here’s a bunch of other links: https://old.reddit.com/r/NoContract/comments/1setzil/low_data_phone_plan/of1yxnz/
I think Helium Zero is long gone, and has to have been a privacy invasion scam or something. But other stuff starts at $2.40/month which most people can manage. Redpocket is fairly decent these days and they have a $30/year plan on ebay.
Here’s some others: https://prepaidcompare.net/ But remember that “free” never really is.
Added: I can reasonably recommend this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/136840233242?
It’s $30/year for unlimited voice and data plus 200MB/month of data, which is comfortably enough to check email and Lemmy now and then, though not enough for video watching or heavy web surfing. I’m on a $10/month T-mobile plan from them and it’s mostly been ok.
Hmm, another idea might be a data-only plan plus your google voice number and a VOIP client. That’s going to be pretty annoying though.
Strange… Why are $2.50/mo plans available on ebay, but not through Red Pocket’s website? The lowest shown on their website is ~$10/mo.
IDK but they’ve done that for a very long time. I remember wondering if ebay had some exclusive deal with them for annual plans. For a while, the website only had monthly plans. Or maybe, they are adding some friction in the hopes of getting some less careful shoppers to pay more.