Best deal on Hobby phones? Whats your deal?

[newalhobbyist]

Tracfone/Net10 cards are sold at Walmart, and various convenience stores, though often not a card put a printed receipt with PIN. I would just get a new card/slip with PIN each time.

[rgvpapi]

I found a local Pocket Wireless place that didnt ask for ID.

bought a nice phone for $80, including first month of service, and my plan is unlimited talk text for $25/month. I can walk in and pay my fee every month for an extra $3...

the cheaper phones ran $50 with first month of service paid (ie, $25 for the phone)

[BOING936]

another vote for google voice just remember to go too settings and turn the ringer off, I learned that the hard way.

[Kathmandu]

Lots of good advice. I managed to buy a STI Mobile phone from Staples some time ago. Rates are very good but it's hard to find the recharge cards in local stores.

Kathmandu

[grtrader]

If you used a credit card to pay for any part of it you wasted your money. Be it the phone, the minutes, the activation anything that ties your card to the phone means you wasted your money.

Even if you filled up a prepaid card then used it to pay for it. You wasted your money.

Credit card companies keep all that data. They even compile info on you such as did you buy medication, what is your favorite things to purchase and so on. They even sell it off to other companies usually the info at that point doesn't have your name attached and is compiled with a lot more peoples info. You have to understand that kind of info is potential for discovery. Think law enforcement, PI, divorce...

Your credit card can even say where you been fairly well. Such as did you fill up for gas when you went to X place. Just the extra fill up on the credit card may show an unexplained trip you have to answer for.

[Razor]

New hobbyist in the DFW area. First post and asking for a favor already: Can someone send me a Google Voice invite via PM? I'd appreciate it.

Interesting information here, thanks.

[sleepy]

Me too if anyone has one

[Little Stevie]

Originally Posted by grtrader

Your credit card can even say where you been fairly well. Such as did you fill up for gas when you went to X place. Just the extra fill up on the credit card may show an unexplained trip you have to answer for.

I have always been paranoid about that and fill up before and after trips that wander far from the Rockwall Rock Star Retirement Center.

I would love to hear grtrader's opinion on Google Voice or any precautionary wisdom that might make it "safer" for hobbyists.

[juicystrawberry]

VIRGIN MOBILE HAS PLANS STARTING AT 39.99 I HAVE TWO!

[WetVelvetSAT]

Originally Posted by Replicant

I'm a fan of Google Voice. No physical device to worry about.

Originally Posted by VeronicaMoore

I, too, use Google Voice. It's great and it's free.

Originally Posted by Dick Diamond

I signed up for google voice but have not heard back from them it's been about two weeks.

Originally Posted by rgvpapi

looks like Google Voice is not accepting new sign ups at this time nor is Gizmo, who were acquired by Google since they managed to offer free outgoing calls using Google Voice via their program, Gizmo5.

I guess I was a little late to this party. Nevertheless, I still learned something today!

Originally Posted by jackie@sintropolis

Every Google Voice subscriber has three active invites they can use . . . some corporate customers have hundreds - if not thousands. You can purchase a valid Google Voice invite from a reputable seller for as little as a dollar (or less) on eBay, I purchased from one seller and received 20 for $5.00 - all were forwarded to friends of mine in this business and all worked beautifully.

Kisses,

- Jackie

Originally Posted by BOING936

another vote for google voice just remember to go too settings and turn the ringer off, I learned that the hard way.

Hi,

I WAS a supporter of google voice, myself, it's original application was grand central but then google revised it.

About 3 weeks ago, I saw a CNN report about google becoming so powerful because of the information it gathers from our IP addresses (has more information than the CIA and FBI). I deleted my account as quickly as I could! I had been using it over 2 years.

They KEEP records of our address book, phone calls, text messages, searches and emails for 18 months (which link our IP addresses to this information) and have been subpoena'd over 20,000 times within the past year for those records! Be careful!

I went back to using my tracfone!

Sincerely,
Velvet

[guest041110]

Folks, this is real simple. Stay away from Google just like WetVelvetSAT wrote. They are very intrusive in their IT operations and cannot be trusted. Follow the KISS principal by using the simplest form of a hobby phone if you don't want a plan. Use Tracfone, Cricket Wireless, Vumber or a pre-paid phone such as is offered by T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint by using a prepaid credit card.

As Chef Tell used to say, "Very simple, very easy... see you later. Bye-bye."

[BossyWillson]

Go phone (ATT)
10 cents a minute
Costs me about $10 a month to hobby

[einszweidrei]

Originally Posted by ofcoursenot

I also like the T-Mobile pay-as-you-go setup. Get the basic Nokia phone from Target for $17 (comes with 200-300 minutes as I recall), then buy 1000 minutes refill from CallingMart.com for $94.00 (or $88 when they have a special) once a year. If you blow past the 1000 minutes before the year is up you'll have to refill sooner, but I've never had to. Conversely, if you have minutes left at the end of the year, you keep them so long as you add a 1000 minute refill once a year.

actually you can add a $10 card on the 364'th day and it will still roll over all the minutes... Its a very sweet deal for the hobbyist...