Target's weekly ad only mentions Virgin Mobile phone cards on sale but doesn't give specific prices, so this could be nationwide. Since I'm going to be by there, I might check it out.
It also looks like you won't have to add minutes for a year (unless you run out) with this card. At this price, I would definately get one.
estebanj
New Member
posted: Nov. 9, 2009 @ 9:22p
Just to confirm, I bought one and deposited the $90 into my BroadBand2Go account and it worked flawlessly. The card says "expires one year after activation." I don't know if this means that the funds must be consumed within 12 months, or that the funds have to be deposited into my account within 12 months. Regardless, I expect to consume the $90 within 12 months. I will most likely buy another one to have for the next round, since the price is extremely nice.
I bought some in Texas based on the recommendation at HoFo. Great deal! Remember that you can buy handsets with your account balance, so this has the effect of making phones available at about half price!
nsdp said: How are Virgin Mobile's coverage areas? I am in South Texas and T Mobile tends top be iffy on connection quality. Contract is almost up.it runs off of Sprint, and actually Sprint just purchased them a few months ago
clos1084 said: nsdp said: How are Virgin Mobile's coverage areas? I am in South Texas and T Mobile tends top be iffy on connection quality. Contract is almost up.it runs off of Sprint, and actually Sprint just purchased them a few months agoUntil the acquisition is complete in a couple of months, VMUSA is a Sprint MVNO, which means it only uses Sprint's CDMA towers and does no roaming. You'll do fine near interstates and large cities, but in the hinterlands, you'll be without coverage.
That coverage won't change overnight after the acquisition is complete, since the millions of VMUSA handsets already out there aren't capable of operating outside of CDMA frequencies.
I'm in for one, but just as a heads up, please keep your receipt in case it will not activate. This just happened to me last month with a Top Up card that was purchased at Target. It took several calls to VM and a fax of the card and receipt to get it fixed.
UkeDoggie said: Now to find out if the "Expires One Year From Date Of Purchase" printed on the back by the UPC code means either:
- You have one year to activate it, but once activated it provides 1 year of service.
- You have 1 year of service from (Target) purchase date, regardless of when you get around to activating it...The first one.
BTW, the 1 year of service does not mean one year of calling. It means that the account stays active and assigned to you for a period of one year. Since VM is a prepaid service, if you try to make more calls/texts or use more data than the funds on the account will support, you won't be able to use your active account until more funds are added.
excoriatorb said: clos1084 said: nsdp said: How are Virgin Mobile's coverage areas? I am in South Texas and T Mobile tends top be iffy on connection quality. Contract is almost up.it runs off of Sprint, and actually Sprint just purchased them a few months agoUntil the acquisition is complete in a couple of months, VMUSA is a Sprint MVNO, which means it only uses Sprint's CDMA towers and does no roaming. You'll do fine near interstates and large cities, but in the hinterlands, you'll be without coverage.
That coverage won't change overnight after the acquisition is complete, since the millions of VMUSA handsets already out there aren't capable of operating outside of CDMA frequencies.
Mostly correct. Right now, Virgin Mobile prepaid can only operate over Sprint owned towers, but if you have an annual contract with VMU, you have the same coverage as if you had a Sprint phone..which means you can use the Sprint towers and the Verizon towers. Compare the two coverage maps (No Annual Contract/Annual Contract) on the VMU site Virgin Mobile Coverage with the maps on the Sprint site. Sprint Coverage
So even though the handsets are CDMA only, they won't need to operate outside of CDMA to have better coverage. However, I would expect that Sprint continues the policy of not allowing roaming between carriers for their prepaid customers. Hope that clears up the original question.
Anyone know exactly how $90 applies to the broadband adapter? Can I apply it in chunks, or do I need to put it all into the broadband2go account at the same time, and only get 30 days with it?
iluvminivans said: Does anyone know if you can apply this to texts, or only minutes? My tween texts like crazy but doesn't use any minutes.The card goes onto the account as $90 worth of credit. How you apply it to the account once it gets there is up to you. If you want to spend it on messaging packs, you can do that.
Tried to pick up a couple more of these today. Two Target stores I visited were completely out of them, but I found some on the rack at a third store. If you want this deal, you'd better hurry!
estebanj
New Member
posted: Nov. 10, 2009 @ 4:03p
"Anyone know exactly how $90 applies to the broadband adapter?"
"The card goes onto the account as $90 worth of credit. How you apply it to the account once it gets there is up to you."
To confirm this is the case. I deposited $90 into my account, and then "purchased" a $10 BB2G plan with the $90 available. Now I have $80 in the account.
estebanj said: "Anyone know exactly how $90 applies to the broadband adapter?"
"The card goes onto the account as $90 worth of credit. How you apply it to the account once it gets there is up to you."
To confirm this is the case. I deposited $90 into my account, and then "purchased" a $10 BB2G plan with the $90 available. Now I have $80 in the account.
excoriatorb said: I bought some in Texas based on the recommendation at HoFo. Great deal! Remember that you can buy handsets with your account balance, so this has the effect of making phones available at about half price!
My son wants the Rumor that's in this week's Target ad too. Are you saying that the card can be used for that purchase?
Thanks OP! Great deal. Picked up 4 for the family in Reston, VA. Lots more on the shelves.
QuarterDMG
Member
posted: Nov. 11, 2009 @ 3:18p
Went to my local Target here in San Antonio and they had about 40 of them. I was going to buy a new phone this Christmas anyway and have been a Virgin Mobile subscriber for about 5 years. Bought a card, went home and added the funds to my account, and placed an order for the Rumor II. Thanks OP!
TheGMan said: excoriatorb said: I bought some in Texas based on the recommendation at HoFo. Great deal! Remember that you can buy handsets with your account balance, so this has the effect of making phones available at about half price!
My son wants the Rumor that's in this week's Target ad too. Are you saying that the card can be used for that purchase?Not at Target. You can buy any phone from VM using your account balance. VM's phone prices won't be as low as Target's, but you'll save because you only paid about 52 cents for every "dollar" that you spend for the purchase, thanks to this deal.
CaptainPotatopants said: how many minutes is this good for? is it 20 cents a minute (before the discount?)Depends on whether you're on a plan or paying by the minute and whether you've been a customer for a while. I pay by the minute, but have been a customer for a few years, so I pay 18 cents a minute before the discount. People who get a new pay-by-the-minute account today pay 20c/minute.
lakefan
Member
posted: Nov. 13, 2009 @ 11:34p
excoriatorb said: TheGMan said: excoriatorb said: I bought some in Texas based on the recommendation at HoFo. Great deal! Remember that you can buy handsets with your account balance, so this has the effect of making phones available at about half price!
My son wants the Rumor that's in this week's Target ad too. Are you saying that the card can be used for that purchase?Not at Target. You can buy any phone from VM using your account balance. VM's phone prices won't be as low as Target's, but you'll save because you only paid about 52 cents for every "dollar" that you spend for the purchase, thanks to this deal.
If I don't already have an account, how would I be able to create an account to purchase a phone? Thanks.
wasp
Ancient Member
posted: Nov. 14, 2009 @ 12:06a
great deal, got one today, was kinda odd as they had the $50 cards for 47.50 and the $90 cards for 47.50
lakefan said: excoriatorb said: TheGMan said: excoriatorb said: I bought some in Texas based on the recommendation at HoFo. Great deal! Remember that you can buy handsets with your account balance, so this has the effect of making phones available at about half price!
My son wants the Rumor that's in this week's Target ad too. Are you saying that the card can be used for that purchase?Not at Target. You can buy any phone from VM using your account balance. VM's phone prices won't be as low as Target's, but you'll save because you only paid about 52 cents for every "dollar" that you spend for the purchase, thanks to this deal.
If I don't already have an account, how would I be able to create an account to purchase a phone? Thanks. Same question...since I don't already have an account, when I try to order a phone, it's only cc/pp options for payment. How to use these cards for a phone then?
TheGMan said: lakefan said: excoriatorb said: TheGMan said: excoriatorb said: I bought some in Texas based on the recommendation at HoFo. Great deal! Remember that you can buy handsets with your account balance, so this has the effect of making phones available at about half price!
My son wants the Rumor that's in this week's Target ad too. Are you saying that the card can be used for that purchase?Not at Target. You can buy any phone from VM using your account balance. VM's phone prices won't be as low as Target's, but you'll save because you only paid about 52 cents for every "dollar" that you spend for the purchase, thanks to this deal.
If I don't already have an account, how would I be able to create an account to purchase a phone? Thanks. Same question...since I don't already have an account, when I try to order a phone, it's only cc/pp options for payment. How to use these cards for a phone then?
You can always just get one of the cheap phones (usually under $20) and than after you initialize it, go and purchase the one you really want and swap it. In fact, I have an old cheap VM phone that you can have for just shipping cost. I think VM will give you like $10 in talk time just for re-using an old phone, but not sure about that anymore.
I have an account, but when I go to order a phone it does not give me the option to pay from my account balance. Don't think the top-up cards can be used for this.
BangBangAnnie said: I have an account, but when I go to order a phone it does not give me the option to pay from my account balance. Don't think the top-up cards can be used for this. Can anyone confirm the phone order from top up? Worstbuy has the RumorII for $99 this week but I'd hate to pay them if I can go through VM for half price.
lakefan said: excoriatorb said: TheGMan said: excoriatorb said: I bought some in Texas based on the recommendation at HoFo. Great deal! Remember that you can buy handsets with your account balance, so this has the effect of making phones available at about half price!
My son wants the Rumor that's in this week's Target ad too. Are you saying that the card can be used for that purchase?Not at Target. You can buy any phone from VM using your account balance. VM's phone prices won't be as low as Target's, but you'll save because you only paid about 52 cents for every "dollar" that you spend for the purchase, thanks to this deal.
If I don't already have an account, how would I be able to create an account to purchase a phone? Thanks.
Buy a Marbl from VM, it's $9.99 and comes with $9.99 of credit when you activate. Then add the top-up card and buy a new phone from VM, transfer the line to the new phone, sell the old one on craigslist.
By the way, everyone, don't go crazy- this isn't that great a deal for prepaid service. Even at $47 for a $90 card, the pay as you go rate becomes 10.4 cents per minute with 8 cent text messages.
Net1O or Boost Mobile both offer pay as you go for 10 cents a minute. Net1O has 60 day expiry dates (have to add money every 60 days, minimum $30) and 5 cent texts, Boost has 90 day expiry dates (have to add money every 90 days, minimum $10) and 10 cent texts. Net1O will have better coverage than Virgin (uses AT&T and T-Mobile's networks together), Boost uses the sprint nextel network, so slightly better coverage than virgin, but not so much that you'll notice.
If you use one of the virgin minute packs the cost goes down (5 cents a minute, or thereabouts), but they have short (30 day) expiry dates. (The minute pack will roll forward if you buy a new minute pack within 30 days of the first one, otherwise minutes expire off the phone. Minimum $20 per pack.)
Now, if you're using virgin mobile broadband- that's another story. $30 a month for a gig of download anywhere you can get a signal? Without a contract? That's nice. Especially if you travel sporadically, then you aren't stuck paying $50 a month for 5 gigs of download whether or not you use it (I have an AT&T laptopconnect card, and it's great, but when I'm not travelling it's definitely wasted.)
TheGMan said: BangBangAnnie said: I have an account, but when I go to order a phone it does not give me the option to pay from my account balance. Don't think the top-up cards can be used for this. Can anyone confirm the phone order from top up? Worstbuy has the RumorII for $99 this week but I'd hate to pay them if I can go through VM for half price.Yes, just look for "My Cash Balance" at the bottom of the payment methods list on the first checkout screen. See the image at the link below.
OK, silly me. Your account balance has to be greater than the price of the phone. I only had one top-up card applied ($90), but was trying to but a $99.99 phone. As soon as I selected a cheaper phone the drop down was updated to include my account balance. Presumably if I add another top-up card, I can buy the $100 phone.
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