There is a five year old thread on this topic (I did use the search feature) but wanted to ask for updated comments/feedback please.


Wife and I were talking and thought it might be a good idea to have a “Burner Cell Phone” on hand in the event she or I lose or have stolen our current cell phone. The burner could be used until a replacement phone for the one that was lost or stolen is purchased and activated (yep it happened so that is why we are having this discussion).

My questions are:

Is it as simple as going to Wal-Mart or Walgreens (just two examples) and buying a cell phone off the rack and also purchasing a pre-paid phone card that has minutes on it to accomplish what we want?

If the answer to my first question is yes, can one activate the phone so that you know the assigned phone number (would load this in both of our current cell phones) and then turn it off for use when needed and the pre-purchased minutes not expire?

What is the best phone to purchase (affordable) and where should I purchase it?

Thanks Mark

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Is it as simple as going to Wal-Mart or Walgreens (just two examples) and buying a cell phone off the rack and also purchasing a pre-paid phone card that has minutes on it to accomplish what we want?

Yes. "Burners" have been my cell phone service for ~15 years.

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…can one activate the phone so that you know the assigned phone number (would load this in both of our current cell phones) and then turn it off for use when needed and the pre-purchased minutes not expire?

As best I understand the question, minutes and time expire at the end of the purchase period. When you renew, the unused minutes (not time) are added on. You can also purchase plans that have unlimited talk & text and X amount of data. Either can be set up online to auto-bill your credit or debit card.

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What is the best phone to purchase (affordable) and where should I purchase it?

I used Tracfone, currently use Simple Mobile by T-Mobile (which I found out is owned by Tracfone) and purchased from Walmart, but there are plenty of other choices. That depends on your needs. They are very close in price. I use a minutes/data plan that is a flat $25 a month.

I do this. I chose Tello since it's cheap

If you use Tello (or others that are similar) you can get the monthly cost down to $5 per month. Limited minutes and no data. $6 if you want just a little data.

For bonus points, do what I did and get an old smart phone that nobody wants and leave it on (and charging), leave location services on so you can see where your car is 24/7.

Handy for when you leave your car for servicing.

Anyway, don't spe3nd a lot of money on a burner phone. Just find an old smart phone that nobody wants (unlocked, of course). Don't go too old since the really old phones don't work on the modern networks.

For reasons still unknown to us my cell phone plan was caught in between upgrades. After being told multiple times not to worry your cell phone plans is just stuck be patient every thing is fine we are working on it.

At one point it appeared the plan was canceled and we were told their was nothing they could do. I was told I lost my number and could not get it back. On the 17th day my wife decided to try one more time. She just happen to get someone who went and tried something different and managed to get my plan back up and running again with my old phone number.

At any point by the third day I needed a phone so we purchased a Tracfone. You buy the phone outright and the smart phone we purchased was less then $100 dollars. We purchased ours a Best Buy but you can go to their website to see all the phone options and plan options.

The phone was easy to set up, we add minutes and data by the month based on their minimum plan. They have several plans based on what you might need.

The one thing we were told, if you let the plan expire you loose might the phone number assigned to the phone so we keep adding just the minimum needed to keep the number in case my phone goes down again.

If you've kept an older iphone with a SiM card slot, (maybe back as far as an iphone 7) you can just buy a SiM card for it from one of the pay-as-u-go airtime re-sellers when you need it. I think Smart Talk and Tracfone do this. Probably others as well. That way you don't have another phone laying around doing nothing.

That's what I do when I go to Europe.

Okay, I got a question in regards to this thread... on every cop show out there they discover the bad guy used a 'burner' phone and there is no way to track or discover him or her... is this actually real or just something the writer critters come up with or just assume... just like on NCIS when Abby can always find who owned a gun by it being registered, in any state.

In the case of the one we have. Once you activate it to get the number the clock starts and iirc have 60 days before we need to buy more mins or it becomes inactive. So it is like $10 a month essentially. And I believe you get an hours worth of talk and text mins. You can always by more data.
One thing to consider is the phone itself. If buying just for talking and text the cheap phone. will work. If you want full blown smart phone functions the cheap phone may not work. Ymmv.

The old days of a "burner phone" are long gone. Easy to track just like your vehicle. So no, your cop shows are old tec just so you know

Depending on your service, they might give a deal on a third line....like Verizon recently did for me. I too had a concern if I had a problem with my regular phone or lost it, I'd have a back up. The second line and phone was free!

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Originally posted by old rugged cross:
The old days of a "burner phone" are long gone. Easy to track just like your vehicle. So no, your cop shows are old tec just so you know

As I understand it, "they" may be able to track the phone either through triangulation or GPS, but they won't know who's phone it is since you can buy them anonymously at any WalMart.

(Could be wrong though)

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Originally posted by Gustofer:

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
The old days of a "burner phone" are long gone. Easy to track just like your vehicle. So no, your cop shows are old tec just so you know

As I understand it, "they" may be able to track the phone either through triangulation or GPS, but they won't know who's phone it is since you can buy them anonymously at any WalMart.

(Could be wrong though)

They know the exact, date, time and location the phone is purchased. Check video and see your bright shinny face on video paying for it, probably with your cc. So no, its not a secret squirrel phone.

Rather than buying a spare phone that you might never need and then also paying a monthly fee or continually reupping expired minutes, it'd make more sense to just wait and buy a cheap prepaid phone when/if you happen to lose your primary. You can get them at just about any gas station, grocery store, or electronics store, so finding one when/if you need it won't be difficult. Just keep a laminated card on hand with important phone numbers, and memorize your spouse's number.

not sure if this helps, but Even a phone with no paid plan can still dial 911.

As long as it's not some ancient phone that no longer works on the network.

So what RogueJSK says makes sense. Keep a spare phone to call 911 just in case, then get to a 7-11 or any truck stop to buy that burner phone when you need it.

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Originally posted by old rugged cross:
They know the exact, date, time and location the phone is purchased. Check video and see your bright shinny face on video paying for it, probably with your cc. So no, its not a secret squirrel phone.

Just wear a mask. It's all the rage now.

There are services that permit you to "park" you phone and or number for a few dollars a month.

You can purchase a low cost phone and minutes or monthly plan, activate it so you know the number and enter it in your current phone(s) contacts and other way of having the number handy, then park the phone/number, or activate a number and "park/freeze" it and then when you activate a phone plan on the fly, you have then port you number to that phone's plan/service.

(I used to do this back when I was a slave...)

RE: needing to know the number of the spare phone in advance....

To avoid triggering the start of the minute expiration timer, couldn't you wait till you need the spare, and then just call the other person's phone to let them know the new/temp number?

Another idea? Maybe tie Google Voice into the mix? That's a free service that gives you a new phone number and (among other things) autoforwards calls made to that number to one or more other phones.

Get a GV number, have it forward to your current phone, and then give out the new GV number, and have people use that.

Then, if you lost phone 1 you could log into GV's web site, change Google Voice to autoforward to the new phone's number and nobody would need to change or even know you had a new phone/phone number.

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
The old days of a "burner phone" are long gone. Easy to track just like your vehicle. So no, your cop shows are old tec just so you know

As I understand it, "they" may be able to track the phone either through triangulation or GPS, but they won't know who's phone it is since you can buy them anonymously at any WalMart.

(Could be wrong though)

They know the exact, date, time and location the phone is purchased. Check video and see your bright shinny face on video paying for it, probably with your cc. So no, its not a secret squirrel phone.

the only real secure way to aquire a true burner phone is to steal it. I know that is tacky but I am keeping it real. you can wear a mask or hat or whatever, pay w cash etc..but the store, the parking lot (where you get into yoour car etc..) is all on video nowdays. I listened to a podcast from a retired CIA agent who said the only way to get it done completely anonymously is to steal one. I think he is right.

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Originally posted by sigmonkey:
There are services that permit you to "park" you phone and or number for a few dollars a month.

You can purchase a low cost phone and minutes or monthly plan, activate it so you know the number and enter it in your current phone(s) contacts and other way of having the number handy, then park the phone/number, or activate a number and "park/freeze" it and then when you activate a phone plan on the fly, you have then port you number to that phone's plan/service.

(I used to do this back when I was a slave...)

This post made me think of what you can do even for no cost.

Get yourselves a free google phone. I've done this for use overseas where I can receive and send calls over the internet. But for your purpose, these numbers will be it.

Then, when you need to, buy the phone and activate as you need it. Download the google voice app. And you're up and running.

The only requirement to keep your google number is to use it at least once every three months. I have it on a tickler file to call the other phone number every 2 1/2 months.