Looking for a Good Place to Purchase a Cell Phone (without contracts)

I'm a little confused. How can she have a "very old phone" if she has one year left on her contract. A typical cell phone contract (up until recently) was for up 2 years. If she didn't upgrade last time her family extended the contract, she may be entitled to a phone at a discounted price.

Alternatively, as suggested, check eBay.

yanks0114 said: I'm a little confused. How can she have a "very old phone" if she has one year left on her contract. A typical cell phone contract (up until recently) was for up 2 years. If she didn't upgrade last time her family extended the contract, she may be entitled to a phone at a discounted price.
Her phone was passed down to her by her father, and there's a chance that he didn't get it new, so the phone is very old. It cannot accept or send pictures, does not have Bluetooth, does not have a SIM or memory cards, does not play music (not important to her though), etc.

forbin4040 said: eBay
yanks0114 said: Alternatively, as suggested, check eBay.
Thanks for the eBay recommendations. I should of thought of checking there.

forbin4040 said: Or Target and get her one of those pay as you go phones (AT&T brand) and put in her chip.
vanillaicecream said: the prepaid phones are often cheaper than stupid phone upgrades whilst no contract extension...
Are prepaid phones full-featured? I'm about to go look at reviews of pre-paid phones. If anyone would like to recommend any, that would be great. And just to be sure, I can buy just any prepaid phones? As I stated above, her current phone does not have any cards (i.e. SIM cards), so I am not sure what to do with these.

Thanks for all the replies! If possible, keep them coming!

Edit: I found some Motorola RAZR v3 on eBay for slightly more than $100 each, but cannot tell what version of the v3 they are. Are there sites that would sell these phones for cheaper? Also, what is the newest version of the RAZR v3? Thanks.

yanks0114 said: If that is the case, she should be entitled to an upgrade at promotional pricing. Say you sign a new 2 year contract. You have to keep the service for two years, and can't get an upgraded phone at promo price for two years. However, if you make a change to the contract (raise minutes or whatever), they may extend your contract, but your upgrade pricing date does not change.

Summary: I would check with ATT to see if she can upgrade at discounted pricing before paying retail for a phone.

mastavic said: yanks0114 said: I'm a little confused. How can she have a "very old phone" if she has one year left on her contract. A typical cell phone contract (up until recently) was for up 2 years. If she didn't upgrade last time her family extended the contract, she may be entitled to a phone at a discounted price.
Her phone was passed down to her by her father, and there's a chance that he didn't get it new, so the phone is very old. It cannot accept or send pictures, does not have Bluetooth, does not have a SIM or memory cards, does not play music (not important to her though), etc.


I wish she could, but the situation is a little bit different because it's under her father's name. I cannot go into specifics, but that just would not be possible. I appreciate the advice though.

I am planning to make a purchase of a RAZR v3 today, perhaps on eBay, if possible. $100 is actually a lot cheaper than I thought unlocked RAZR v3 phones go for, so I may jump. I am planning to get one of those RAZR v3 red phones, but cannot tell what version they are. Can anyone provide me with more information? For the time being, I'll be searching Google.com for more answers. Thank you very much.

NoMoneyInMyWallet said: If her Cingular phone does not have a SIM card, then she is most likely still on their TDMA service. You cannot get a new TDMA phone. In order to get a new phone, you will have to change to an AT&T (Cingular) GSM plan and get a phone that takes a SIM card.

FYI - a prepaid phone is no different than a contract phone. Oh wait, there is a difference; the contract phone costs more!

BTW, if she doesn't use the phone much, she should look into going pre-paid instead of signing a new contract.
Thanks for the reply and the information. She won't be able to get out of the family contract, so going pre-paid won't be an option (she uses her phone rather often anyway).

NoMoneyInMyWallet said: Do you know what brand and model phone she currently has? If you can tell us the model, we can determine the technology.

The model number should be listed under the battery.
She is not with me at the moment and I won't see her for a few days, so I am unable to tell. I can't go right out and ask her because the gift is going to be a surprise.

NoMoneyInMyWallet said: If her Cingular phone does not have a SIM card, then she is most likely still on their TDMA service. You cannot get a new TDMA phone. In order to get a new phone, you will have to change to an AT&T (Cingular) GSM plan and get a phone that takes a SIM card.

FYI - a prepaid phone is no different than a contract phone. Oh wait, there is a difference; the contract phone costs more!

BTW, if she doesn't use the phone much, she should look into going pre-paid instead of signing a new contract.

You can buy a phone and have no contract when contract expires. It is not necessary to sign contract in order to use un-prepaid reg contract service plans. My Friend Jason has been with sprint/nextel for 4 years now and isn't under contract. these new contract commitments aren't the way to go. just buy gently used phone off craigslist or buy reg new phone and use. The contract is the biggest misconceptions by people, they think in order to get service, contract is required.

FrugalFreak said: You can buy a phone and have no contract when contract expires. It is not necessary to sign contract in order to use un-prepaid reg contract service plans. My Friend Jason has been with sprint/nextel for 4 years now and isn't under contract. these new contract commitments aren't the way to go. just buy gently used phone off craigslist or buy reg new phone and use. The contract is the biggest misconceptions by people, they think in order to get service, contract is required.My point was that if it's a TDMA phone (don't know yet), you can't buy a new one and I don't think they ever made TDMA camera/Bluetooth/etc phones. If she wants a modern phone, she will have to convert to GSM and get a new or used phone. Is it possible to convert a TDMA plan to GSM without singing a new contract?

If she indeed already does have a GSM phone, then no, she doesn't have to sign a new contract.

The only reason I'm mentioning TDMA is that the OP said that it was an old phone and does not have a SIM card. Did they ever make a SIM-less GSM phone for Cingular?

BTW, I never had a contract in the 4 years that I was with Sprint. And I was out of contract for 1+ years with VZW before going pre-paid. But, of course, I never got a "free" phone upgrade either.

cheapphonecards.com

mastavic said: angelinaluna said: NoMoneyInMyWallet said: FrugalFreak said: You can buy a phone and have no contract when contract expires. It is not necessary to sign contract in order to use un-prepaid reg contract service plans. My Friend Jason has been with sprint/nextel for 4 years now and isn't under contract. these new contract commitments aren't the way to go. just buy gently used phone off craigslist or buy reg new phone and use. The contract is the biggest misconceptions by people, they think in order to get service, contract is required.My point was that if it's a TDMA phone (don't know yet), you can't buy a new one and I don't think they ever made TDMA camera/Bluetooth/etc phones. If she wants a modern phone, she will have to convert to GSM and get a new or used phone. Is it possible to convert a TDMA plan to GSM without singing a new contract?

If she indeed already does have a GSM phone, then no, she doesn't have to sign a new contract.

The only reason I'm mentioning TDMA is that the OP said that it was an old phone and does not have a SIM card. Did they ever make a SIM-less GSM phone for Cingular?

BTW, I never had a contract in the 4 years that I was with Sprint. And I was out of contract for 1+ years with VZW before going pre-paid. But, of course, I never got a "free" phone upgrade either.

That's correct, GSM never had sim-less phones. And I agree, it sounds like OP's gf has a TDMA phone. The reason you can't get a new TDMA phone is becuase TDMA has been phased out. It's the old technology and only the people who have been "grandfathered in" still have that service. No chance of getting a modern phone if that's what she's got.
If it is TDMA, that would mean that everyone on the plan is TDMA, right? Her brother has a RAZR, so does that mean she can't still be on the older system? Thanks.

That's correct, shared/family plans on the AT&T network have to all be on the same technology so if her bro (on the same family plan) has a RAZR then she would have to be GSM also. You might want to try to sneak it away from her and open up the back to find out 100%.

If one member has a RAZR, then plan is GSM and there is a SIM card somewhere in that phone, maybe under the battery on old phone. After you give her the phone, she can talk her father into going to a Cingular store and request a new SIM card. They should give him one for free seeing that the phone is so old. If newly purchased phone comes with SIM, then Cingular will activate it for free while killing the old SIM. Because the account is under father's name, he will be the one having to request the SIM change though. We've done this several times and I have had to request the SIM change for my kiddos phones.

By the way, I still have one of our four year old phones with Cingular and yes, it has a SIM card.