best cellular phone service for low minutes user?

[kimo55]

Re: best cellular phone service for low minutes user?

Which reminds me of an ad for Virgin Mobile that I ran across

EEEGGGG zelllent!
that virgin. what kooks.



ok; who can tell which of these two (or any) are the better (best) deal?


tuh hep yew, hea's dis:

http://www.calling-plans.com/payasyougo.html


wuups.
just found that Virg. paygosim is not an active cult round dese parts.

[Surfingfarmboy]

Re: best cellular phone service for low minutes user?

I'd like to suggest the Virgin Mobile pre-paid plan. The minutes you buy do not expire as long as you buy $20's worth of phone time every 90 days, which, if you are a low minute user like me, equates to only $80 for an entire year of cellular service. Since I bought my Virgin Mobile phone last December in Kailua., I have "topped-up" 4 times, carry a cash balance of about $50 to my account, and will not have to buy anything, minute-wise, until next Feb. 2006.

Also, I think the Virgin coverage is excellent...I used my phone in some pretty remote areas of the Big Island, and I had good reception. (Note: some areas of Ka'u didn't). Service on Oah'u was great. Also, since I'm currently (and unfortunately) living in Rhode Island, I still get to keep my 808 area code. ( It's pretty neat to have an 808 A/C here in RI! ) My ohana of aikane can call me from HI, dialing my Aiea number, get me here in RI, and never incur any long distance charges on their land-line. I only pay the minute usage, which is 25 cents for each of the first ten minutes used daily, then 10 cents a minute after that. On average, I probably use about 75 cents to $1 a week.

I think it's the best deal on the market for a low minute user such as myself.

[kimo55]

Re: best cellular phone service for low minutes user?

I'd like to suggest the Virgin Mobile pre-paid plan.

not available in hono....uhhh LULU....

[Surfingfarmboy]

Re: best cellular phone service for low minutes user?

From Kimo55

not available in hono....uhhh LULU....

Did they stop selling Virgin Mobile sevice on Oah'u already? I just bought mine last December at the Radio Shack at the Kailua Shopping Center in Kailua. I can't believe they bailed on Hawai'i this quickly.

[Glen Miyashiro]

Re: best cellular phone service for low minutes user?

I used to have an AT&T Wireless prepaid phone, but the problem I found was that you had to keep on top of your expiration dates. If you didn't remember to buy more minutes before your existing minutes expired, then you lost whatever balance you were already carrying. Kinda annoying.

[shaveice]

to surfingfarmboy

wow! what a move! from the big isle to rhode island! you gatta admit that r.i. is a beautiful place, especially in the fall. man, when those leaves change color, it's magical. and the coastline is awesome....

thanks for the suggestion. i'll double-check to see if that plan is still available. hope it is. at least, it'd be another option...

[Surfingfarmboy]

Re: best cellular phone service for low minutes user?

Howzit shaveice..or as they say on the Big I, "iceshave"!

Fall is nice here in RI for maybe about a week. Yeah, the colors are nice but short lived. After the leaves have faded into browns, they all then fall off the trees, make a month-long raking mess for everybody, and then, soon after that, we can all look foreward to 4 months of gray skies, cold winds, snow, slush, and winter..yeech...biggest mistake of my life was leaving the Big I for here. Hindsight is always 20/20. (Hey, but winter is nothing compared to this: Worst thing about RI: The UH home football games that are on TV are all pau usually around 2:30 to 3:30AM Sunday morning..makes for a long night and morning ) Anyway, as I write this, the trees are still bare, but the daffodils and crocuses have finally sprouted, the grass is greening up, the red-wing blackbirds and robins are back in force, and we are seeing warmer weather at last. RI is nice, but it ain't home..I will be back in HI someday, and not just for my annual 2 week trip home in December.

About the Virgin Mobile pre-paid service: I went to their web-site, and according to it, there are numerous dealers around the state selling the plan. If one goes to the main page, there is a store locator where you enter the zip code of the place you want to find a Virgin Mobile dealer. To test it out, I keyed in Kailua's zip code (96734) and the locater brought up 9 suggested dealers in the area, including Safeway and Radio Shack. (For whatever reason, the site did not bring up the Radio Shack I bought mine at) Now I haven't been in HI since last December, so perhaps things have changed with Virgin in HI, but I can't imagine that their web-site is going to continue to tout the pre-paid plan in HI if it isn't available anymore there. My 808 phone number is still active, through Virgin, and there hasn't been any move by them to change it to a non-808 number.

Here's the link to their web-site. Let us know how it goes for you.

Virgin Mobile Pre-paid Service

[kimo55]

Re: best cellular phone service for low minutes user?

that's weird. Put in my zip code on one virgin mobile wsite and response is "we do not offer service in Honolulu".

but then on another site, we find their outlets, below.
and the disclaimer; sprint is the actual service Virgin uses. So, if ya like sprint you may be happy. If not, not.

RADIOSHACK
7192 KALANIANAOLE HWY #KOKO MARINA S/C
HONOLULU, HI,96825

SAFEWAY
1060 KEOLU DRIVE
KAILUA, HI,96734

RADIOSHACK
4211 WAIALAE AVE
HONOLULU, HI,96816

I C COMMUNICATIONS
4211 WAIALAE AVE. ##G12
HONOLULU, HI,96816

SAFEWAY
200 HAMAKUA
KAILUA, HI,96734

SAFEWAY
2855 E MANOA ROAD
HONOLULU, HI,96822

RADIOSHACK
1712 S KING ST
HONOLULU, HI,96826

[shaveice]

eh surfingfarmboy

thanks again for the info. a little busy now but i'll go to one of the radioshacks to find out what the deal is.

what??? bigges mistake was leaving the big island for there? man, is it that bad??? i guess you have a contract or some kind of committment to stay then? hope you can make the move cuz being happy is pretty important!!! you know about the housing situation though so be prepared. prices are ridiculous. and gas ain't cheap either.

you were probably in diapers or maybe not even born yet when i flew to hilo to study at uh hilo for two years ('72/73). i stayed in the dorms and absolutely loved it. don't know what it's like nowadays but way back then, the people were super nice and queen's bath was still open! hapuna didn't have a single building in sight. just open sands and water. beautiful. waimea definitely was a different place. 4 mile beach was awesome; first time i ever experienced two levels of water temperature; warm by my feet and damn cold above my knees!

great, great place. great memories.....

thanks again!

[mapen]

Re: best cellular phone service for low minutes user?

I have T-Mobile prepaid and am happy with it. If cost is the number factor in who you choose, T-Mobile can't be beat. They often have promotions where you can buy minutes that don't expire for a whole year (instead of the usual 3 months). And after you've spent a certain amount, you get on their gold plan which gets you double the minutes for the same amount of money.

Keep in mind that the phone you're using is also a big factor in why you might be getting bad reception. Sometimes just getting a different phone can solve your bad connection problems.

[shaveice]

Re: best cellular phone service for low minutes user?

hi mapen. you said that the phone might be the reason i've been getting lousy reception. might be. but if that's the case, i still wouldn't wanna do business with tmobile cuz i got the phone from them. not the cheapest; just a flip phone. so if they're selling me crapola, i don't see why i'd wanna continue with them. if you're saying the phone might be a lemon, i can accept that.

my contract ends this month so i think i'm gonna try cingular. it helps that someone said they offer a 30 day test period. if it sucks, i'll just leave. i hope not, though. such a hassle...

[AbsolutChaos]

Re: best cellular phone service for low minutes user?

I lost my cell phone recently, so I'm shopping around for a new prepaid provider. I currently have Verizon, but I wanted to see if there were better deals out there. I was drawn initially to T-mobile's offer, but after reading about what bad reception their phones have on Oahu, I'm probably going to stay away from them.

Right now I'm debating whether to keep my Verizon Freeup service or whether to switch to Cingular's pay as you go...

Anybody out there with experience and advice on these two (or any good alternatives), I'd love to hear it! I'm trying to figure out the best way to get both a decent phone AND a good prepaid deal.

Thanks...

[shaveice]

hi chaos

howzit chaos, i don't have any personal experience with a prepaid plan but my brief look at cingular's prepaid plan made me decide against it almost immediately. after reading your post, i thought i'd check cingular's website for more info so that i could get some info to pass on and i've changed my mind a bit. i mean, i'm glad i got the family plan but the pay as you go $.10 per minute plan isn't as bad as i thought. i guess i misread one important point: i thought you had to pay $1 per day regardless of whether you use your phone or not and that'd be about $30 per month but i'm wrong. i see that you have to pay that dollar for every day that you use your phone so if you're a very low volume user, it might work for you. see what i mean? i mean, if you make one 30 second call every day, you're kinda screwed. better to make a bunch of calls on only certain days. the other GREAT thing is if you only call a certain group of people and if they also have cingular services, then the plan includes unlimited mobile to mobile minutes.

good luck with your search.

[adrian]

Re: best cellular phone service for low minutes user?

Or just do what my uncle does, and go on someone else's plan. You'll share the minutes with him/her, and if its a family type plan, then you'll get free calls to the same mobile user as you.

But the downside to that, is that you can't upgrade the phone or services w/out their consent.