I've had a family plan through Verizon for about 4 years and I realize that the cost is really not justified for a couple reasons:

1) My wife and I have recently gotten phones completely covered by work
2) Our total usage is under 300 minutes a month

So I looked into multiple pay-as-you go plans, and they make a lot of sense for us, except for two things:

1) We want to keep our old numbers. Friends know that number, etc.
2) My daughter's line (teen) is used heavily for texting, and of course she wants to keep that number

So I figured out that if you switch to a pay-as-you-go plan from Virgin or AT&T Mobile, you could move your number. Terrific. But this has raised a few other questions:

1) If I get a pay-as-you phone from AT&T, could I take the SIM from that phone and put it in another (unlocked?) GSM phone and use it there? (I'm not clear if phones can be locked to specific SIMs or vice-versa)
2) I assume moving my phone number back to another plan someday would not be an issue
3) If the pay-as-you-go phone runs out of minutes or isn't used, would my phone number be gone?
4) Do any pay-as-you-go plans support unlimited texting?

I realize these may sound like silly questions, but my experience has been with Verizon, where there is no SIM concept, and the network and phones are locked down tighter than Alcatraz.

Thanks for you help.

Check Page Plus Cellular. They have the same coverage as Verizon Pre-Paid (InPulse). While PP does not include the same coverage as VZW postpaid, it may provide all the coverage that you need. Basically, if your current phone has never displayed Extended Network, you will most likely be covered without an additioanl roaming fee. Check the VZW coverage map for the areas(s) that you plan to use your phone, click on Prepaid (InPulse) coverage.

$10/83 minutes = $10 added, 12cpm, 8c text, 59c roaming, 50c monthly fee
$25/300 minutes = $36 added, 8.3cpm, 5.5c text, 41c roaming, 35c monthly fee
$50/700 minutes = $84 added, 7.1cpm, 4.8c text, 35c roaming, 30c monthly fee
$80/1400 minutes = $168 added, 5.7cpm, 3.8 text, 28c roaming, 24c monthly fee
Note that the actual rate will vary if you mix various $ denominations.

All airtime is valid for 120 days ( must refill on or before day 119 (17 weeks) )

If you have all the required info (Acct #, phone #, ESN, etc), you can be up and running on Page Plus with your current # and current phone (or any other VZW phone) usually in less than an hour (only took 10-15 minutes when I switched). Plus, they'll give you $12/100 minutes (valid for up to 119 days). Total cost = $0, zilch, nada.

Now for your daughter, just cut her off.

Page Plus may or may not work for her. Text is as high as 8c ($10 card) or as low as 3.8c ($80 card). An $80 card would allow for 4400+ text (or 2200 send/receive) over 17 weeks or approx 1100 text (550 send/receive) a month.

Also, VZW InPulse may work for her.
The daily charge is either $.99 (Core), $1.99 (Plus), or $2.99 (Power).
Text are 10c, 5c, or 2c.
The daily charge is only applied if you use make or receive a voice call. At the present time, there is no daily charge for text only, but that may change at any time.

P.S. Make sure you're out of contract or VZW will charge an ETF fee.

I'd echo PagePlus. It's quite cheap (quite no frills too) but their customer service is very good. The 119 days to expire is also great.

Cheap basic phone service - how much you pay / min as desc'd above depends on how much you need to use.

If you want a phone just for emergencies obviously you can get it to about $2.50 / mo w/ above rates.

I also echo PagePlus... they are the cheapest prepaid provider, and they have great service. And moving from Verizon to PagePlus is trivially easy. Just make sure that you are outside of any of your contracts.

Howard Forums has a vibrant discussion community.

To start, call Page Plus and talk to their porting department. It took me less than 5 minutes to move my Verizon phone.

Then, buy your refills from a discount place like. Amazingly, these sell the cards at a discount below the Page Plus phone card pricing. I've used these three places:
Babble Bug
Calling Mart use the ca3p-1207 coupon for an additional 3% off. (reported to still work)
Cellular 360

As regards comparing prepaid plans. Here's a very useful grid:
Cellguru's Prepaid comparison grid

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Earlier poster said:All airtime is valid for 120 days ( must refill on or before day 119 (17 weeks) ) This is not strictly true. The airtime remains valid as long as you apply any refill within the 120 days. So, you can buy the $80 card (giving you minutes at 5.5cents), and then purchase a $10 card every 4 months. Your family uses 300 minutes per month: that means your monthly phone cost will become less than $20 with Page Plus... Our family also was using 300 to 400 minutes per month with Verizon. With Page Plus our bill has dropped from about $70/month to approximately $25 per month... And that's with the exact same service: Page Plus is using Verizon towers. We kept our phones, and we kept our phone numbers.

sang614 said:Give your daughter a Sprint Sero plan; unlimited text message, unlimited night with 500 min for 30. Can't beat that.
Bah!

$30/month for a cell phone is too much. That's $360/year... Besides, it's not really $30. After taxes & fees, the total is most likely 15-20% higher than that. And then there's the 2 year commitment.

Page Plus has no commitment... and the taxes/fees are included in the price.

Yeah, if your daughter uses more than 800 text messages/month, then SERO is a better deal than Page Plus. But really, does your daughter need to text message more than 20 times per day.

Calculation: $30/3.8cents per message = 790 messages.

Well I heard ppl can complaint to Verizon because Verizon recently change there policy on text message pricing (You have been informed over postal mail). Since they changed the contract you signed you should have the rights to discounted service as you wish. For me I am myself a VZW customer which I don't prefer over there pricing plans other they have the best reception where I live.

FCC: Wireless Local Number Portability says that a wireless carrier may not refuse to port a number.

Virgin Mobile Porting: I am switching from another company, can I keep my number?
Yes, depending on where you live. You have to have a Virgin Mobile phone in order to use Virgin Mobile's service. If you don't have one of our phones yet, you can check them out here.

But really, Virgin Mobile is 20cents per minute with $5/month minimum. Doesn't beat Page Plus at $2.50/month minimum with 5.7cents per minute. Page Plus also will port your number... just make sure that you are out of contract, or else you will pay ETF.

NoMoneyInMyWallet said:johane said:Doesn't beat Page Plus at $2.50/month minimum with 5.7cents per minute.$2.50/month minimum is useing $10 card = 12cpm. Still cheaper than VM and for the most part, native VZW has "better" overall coverage than native Sprint.
Buy the 5.7cent minutes with the $80 card. Then, you can pay $10 every 4 months forever... The 5.7cent minutes don't expire, as long as you buy a $10 card every 4 months.

I look at the $10 every 4 month as a reoccurring $2.50/month expense. The fact that you happen to get minutes as well is just a bonus. Then, when I run out of minutes, I buy another $80 card of 5.7 cent minutes...

turrboenvy said:This sounds cool, since we like our Verizon phones (VX8300) but don't use a fraction of the minutes on our plan.

FYI: There is a 50c/month "service charge."
Yes, the 50c/month "service charge"... It is deducted from your existing balance. It is in "funny money", so if you bought the $80 card, it is more like 20c/month. It is deducted around the 25th of the month...

johane said:Buy the 5.7cent minutes with the $80 card. Then, you can pay $10 every 4 months forever... The 5.7cent minutes don't expire, as long as you buy a $10 card every 4 months.

I look at the $10 every 4 month as a reoccurring $2.50/month expense. The fact that you happen to get minutes as well is just a bonus. Then, when I run out of minutes, I buy another $80 card of 5.7 cent minutes...The 5.7cpm is only for the minutes bought with an $80 card. When you add a $10 card, you are diluting (increasing) the cpm of your account. Everytime you add a card, your cpm changes, unless you always add the same denomination.

My use is so low that I've only added a total of $45 since I activated with PP in April 2007. I think I still have 375 minutes left. I also have TMO to Go account (since March 2006) with $175/1750 minutes.