We use iPhones with service plan from Total Wireless, 2 phones, $60 / month total (plus $4.30 taxes & junk fees), as our primary phones.

I have an Android phone for a back-up. It is capable of operating on any of the Big Four networks (AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon), or their MVNO air-time resellers.

I am looking for the lowest cost no-contract service that I can find for the backup phone, preferably with cost keyed to actual usage rather than flat rate per month.

Don't need a lot of talk time, I'm hearing impaired so I don't use the phone for regular calls.

I communicate mostly by text, maybe 10 / day average, and it's also a portable email device.

Other than email, I use minimal data. No audio or video streaming, maybe an internet lookup once in a while to find a business or a restaurant. I do not even use 1 Gb / month of cellular data, out of the 15 Gb on our primary plan.

Any suggestions for a service plan that will meet my needs?

Check Consumer Cellular. Geared towards those of us who are unyoung.

https://www.consumercellular.c...AvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

quote:

Originally posted by Johnny 3eagles:
Check Consumer Cellular. Geared towards those of us who are unyoung.

https://www.consumercellular.c...AvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Thanks for that suggestion Johnny. I looked at their website. $20.00 / month (plus taxes and junk fees) for 250 minutes talk, unlimited text, and 250 Mb data. Hmmm... I could pay the same $20 / month and add the backup phone to our Total Wireless plan, moving from two phones to three on the family plan.

Not really what I'm looking for, though. I was hoping to find something that was not flat rate / month, but billed for actual usage. Maybe I'm looking for something that does not exist.

I did see a TracFone plan for $125.00 / year, 1,500 minutes talk (I'll never use that), 1,500 texts which is plenty, and 1.5 Gb data which should be enough. Add-ons are available if needed, $10 / Gb data and $5 / 1,000 text. This might be the way to go, but I'm looking for something similar at lower cost for lower usage, remembering that this would not be the primary phone -- it will be a backup with relatively little actual use.

Try www.tello.com. Custom plans

If over 55 T-Mobile has unlimited everything,two lines $60/month all taxes and fees included.

I just got freedompop for my wife. I paid for 6 months up front for 11.99 a month for unlimited talk text and 2gb data.

The negative? They are on the sprint network.

I was using freedompop for my son’s phone. Worked on android and iphones. It uses att networks in my area. Had the free plan. Worked fine. He used minimal minutes and data. Texts are limited to text only. No picture nor group messages. Only got rid of it because I finally added him to my tmo family plan.

If I can find the sim card, I’ll mail it to you to try if you want it. It will be a 216 area code number. Hopefully my son told all his friends his new number.

I actually have a free freedompop sim in my old phone which I keep for emergencies

We have that T Mobile plan as well. 60 bucks for 2 lines unlimited.

No complaints at all.

Bob

I moved us to Cricket a while back, 4 gig per phone, unlimited everything else. The cost is $100 even per month. They use the AT&T network, so one needs to ensure it works in the area.

They may well be cheaper plans, much better than we had been paying.

Cricket has nickel & dime fees if you go in a store, so I avoid the store.

I’ve never looked into these, and I don’t know if they would work for you, but what about the prepaid phone cards?

Pay for the minutes, texts, data you want and just buy another when you run out. If they don’t have time limits, and you’re using the phone for a backup, one card might last a long time.

Have you considered Tracfone? We live in one of the black holes, where there's no cell service from ANY provider, so a $60-100+ plan with one of the major providers would be kinda dumb.

Tracfone's plans are $20 for 60 minutes, but if you buy a phone from them, some phones qualify for triple minutes as long as you have the phone. All unused talk/data/text minutes carry over. We're not slaves to our cell phones, so that's the route my wife & I went, and we've never had a problem with reception on our travels, (Once we leave the cell service black hole where we live).

Check out Ting. You pay for what you use and their website lets you calculate what that would be.

V-Tail, I found the card, if you want it, shoot me an email with your address and I'll toss it in the mail.

If you can get it to work on your phone, it's 200 minutes, 500 TEXT messages (no pics, no video, no group) and 500MB data for $0/month.

I'll write down the phone number on the card.
You'll need to install the freedom pop calling and messaging app on your backup phone.
You might have to set the access point as well. It's been awhile since I set one of these up.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
I was hoping to find something that was not flat rate / month, but billed for actual usage. M

Take a look at Ting, I have used them for a couple of years now, very happy with the cost, but I am a very light cell phone user.

Thanks for all the responses.

So far, looks like FreedomPop, Tello, or Ting might be what I'm looking for. I'll look into them further.

Chowser, thanks for the offer. I'll need to pull the SIM from the phone I have, and see what size it is -- micro? nano? I'll let you know.

EDIT to change "Chowder" back to "Chowser," the way I originally typed it. Damn auto-correct changes things when I'm not watching.

Even my phone corrects it to Chowder

It’s a nano sim but i have included adapters to make it micro or regular.