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The "Best" Cell Phone Deal
At Mountain Wireless we try to appeal to the value-conscious
cellular buyer, and we share some of the
cheapest or best-priced cellular plans available
for a first or second phone. We have suggestions
on Our Recommendations page, and we announce new finds on our Mountain Wireless News/Blog. But one cellular offer rises to the top
for the majority of users who want something
simple, convenient and priced right, and
on this page we pick our favorite. It could
change as better deals come along, but a
new choice must be time-tested. Our current
favorite is T-Mobile to Go. And there's more than one way to enjoy
the savings this plan offers.
- Buying Direct from T-Mobile:
- Visit the T-Mobile To Go web page. Click on Plans > Prepaid.
- Choose from among their phones and purchase
a T-Mobile To Go "Prepaid Starter Kit".
- After receiving your phone, activate it and
choose from a range of local phone numbers.
Be careful, in some markets they aren't too
detailed on what numbers are local to you.
This isn't important If you don't plan on
many incoming calls. The entire process is
handled right on your new phone.
- Add $100 to your account. This gives you
"Gold Rewards" status and your
new minutes won't expire for a year. Mark
your calendar for next year. If you run out
of minutes you can refill with whatever amount
you'd like, you're still "Gold,"
and your refill rests your account for another
year. Your per-minute cost will rise with
smaller refill amounts, but this isn't significant.
Your $100 refill will give you about 83 minutes
a month, but you can use more or less and
your rate stays the same. If, after one year,
you haven't used all your minutes, you can
refill with as little as $10 and your minutes
are good for another year. Discount refills
are also available from cheapphonecards.com.
- Using an Existing Phone:
This could mean an T-Mobile phone you already
own, a phone you acquire from a friend or
buy on eBay, or any "Unlocked" GSM 850/1900 MHz phone.
- Visit the T-Mobile To Go web page. Click on Plans > Prepaid.
- Choose and purchase a "T-Mobile SIM
Activation Kit".
- After receiving your SIM, insert it into
your phone, activate it and choose from a
range of local phone numbers. Be careful,
in some markets they aren't too detailed
on what numbers are local to you. This isn't
important If you don't plan on many incoming
calls. The entire process is handled right
on your phone.
- Add $100 to your account. This gives you
"Gold Rewards" status and your
new minutes won't expire for a year. Mark
your calendar for next year. If you run out
of minutes you can refill with whatever amount
you'd like, you're still "Gold,"
and your refill rests your account fro another
year. Your per-minute cost will rise with smaller
refill amounts, but this isn't significant.
Your $100 refill will give you about 83 minutes
a month, but you can use more or less and
your rate stays the same. If, after one year,
you haven't used all your minutes, you can
refill with as little as $10 and your minutes
are good for another year.
- Expiration:
Once you have achieved Gold Rewards level,
your minutes are good for one full year,
regardless. Those minutes do disappear at
the end of that last day, (Midnight Central
Time)...Poof! If you should pass the expiration
date without refilling, here are your options:
- Call T-Mobile To Go customer service (877-778-2106)
within 48 hours and you can get all minutes
back with your refill.
- Refill within 90 days and you can keep your
Gold Rewards status and keep the the phone
number, but your minutes are lost.
- After 90 days past expiration, you must enter
as a new customer and you'll need another
$100 to once again achieve Gold Rewards.
- Additional Tips:
- T-Mobile To Go coverage is almost the same as T-Mobile's regular
plans, which is very good. Check their prepaid coverage viewer.
- You can buy your refills from T-mobile online
or at their store. Discounts can be had from
online retailers like cheapphonecards.com, and from some retailers like Target, although
Target's cards need extra steps to be activated
toward your account, and "stacked"
to achieve Gold Rewards level.
- T-Mobile To Go phones are also available
at retailers like Target, Wal-Mart, Walgreens
and others, often on sale.
- You cannot activate an existing phone by
just getting a new SIM from places like eBay.
The SIM must already be "activated"
and can have some minutes already available.
With an inactive SIM, you may need to buy
an "Activation Kit."
- T-Mobile SIM Activation Kits are available
at T-Mobile stores, but online prices can
be as low as $5.
- You can change your phone number once every
6 months. This is helpful if you buy a card
that was "activated" somewhere
else, even if the seller says otherwise.
- T-Mobile To Go includes "T-Zones"
which is free access to a handful of useful web sites
such as news, sports, weather, horoscopes,
etc.
- When calculating among different refill amounts,
T-Mobile always rounds up your per-minute
total to your advantage. If your previous
fill was $100 and your refill is $10, the
calculated per-minute rate is between the
amounts, pro-rated on the number of remaining
minutes...a good deal!
- T-Mobile recently introduced a per-day prepaid
plan. Based on the success of these plans,
the current T-Mobile To Go price structure
could change.
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