Shraf

check this out:

i'm sure this exists at other phone companies where you can suspend your cell phone service for a couple of months and you wouldnt have to pay the monthly charge then. So you could do this during breaks when you go overseas and for two months during the summer.

Here's the deal with this pay as you go stuff.....with regular plans you get free nights and/or weekend minutes....so you can literally get this plan:

http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/plans/d...d-6cff082ce00b

and then talk as much as u want during the weekend and still have approx the same number of "whenever minutes" as you get with the pay as you go: 1000 minutes for 100 bucks w/ pay as you go and here 900 minutes for 90 bucks (for three months) but you also get as many minutes during the weekend as you want! It all depends on whether they let you suspend service or whether its only a verizon thing, but i bet they would.

The Ace is Back

Thanks for this I'll look into it.

By the way is 10 cents a minute reasonable or a bit of a rip-off?

Denzera

i suppose that's reasonable, but the larger monthly plans are much cheaper than that.

Shraf

true...for 10 bucks more you get twice the number of whenever minutes and free nights (starting at 9pm)...but it all depends on how big of a talker you are

I think any plan where you have to worry about your minute-to-minute usage is simply inconvenient. Honestly, you will be hard pressed to find anyone using this pay-per-minute plan since it is both extremely new and pretty inconvenient.

dubaiite

i have been using pay as you go on T mobile for a few years now and do so only because i visit New York City for a month every year. Even though it is convienient, i must say it is expensive. Incoming and outgoing calls are charged at 10 cents a minute and outgoing texts msgs are or 10 cents too. Internationals sms are upto 40 cents a minute. Although there is no service charge,in the long run you are better off getting a contract with a package. Also, my daughter is at Columbia and uses a package deal from T Mobile. She has almost no signal at campus for most times and her friends that use Verizon have full signal.So do give my two cents a thought.

The Ace is Back

If I go with a monthly plan do I need to get a phone with it? My current phone is unlocked and the phones listed under Verizon's EasyPay plan look pretty crap.

I'm a bit annoyed actually that T-Mobile have bad reception in Columbia because Verizon look like a bit of a rip-off. Thanks for the heads up though.

Out of interest do most students use the landlines when in Columbia or just stick to mobiles?

dubaiite

Most stick to mobiles. The only time my daughter's landline rings when i call her /you can use your own phone,all they do is give you a sim card which will probably be a 347 calling code. Also, when you refill for $100, you get a 15% bonus in minutes and the amount can be carried on for atleast one year. For the $10 and other denominations, i think they have to be used within one month of the refill or they expire. Hope all this was helpful.

Shraf

AT&T is the next cheapest and i didnt have very many problems with it at columbia. I had T-mobile a few years ago and it wasn't so great, and i dont think it has gotten that much better. AT&T's service is solid though.

If you want to use your unlocked phone, first of all it must be tri-band or quad-band depending on where you are from and you also will have to use either AT&T or T-mobile since the other two do not use sim cards. Usually however you can get a free phone if you sign a contract which you can sell on ebay for ~$100-$160 if you decide to use your unlocked phone.