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?
The shitty burner phones they sell at Walmart or Dollar General, often called “drug phones” are pay by the minute, no contract needed things.
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.
Hmm… Last time I checked, though, they’ll still withdraw from your balance every month whether you use it or not, though … so it still amounts to a monthly payment.
It depends on the plan you get. Either you get pre-paid minutes (which can be bought with cash, which is another reason they are commonly used by drug dealers) or you pay month-to-month.