<p>Hey, I am an international student coming for college to the USA this fall and I'm on a pretty tight budget regarding phone plans. I don't think I shall be using my phone more than normal students do. I have no clue about which companies/plans are the best.
Which are the cheapest/best phone plans? The companies I am considering are verizon (preferred) and AT&T.
Also, are pre-paid plans any good? How exactly do they work in america? Do you just fill in some money and use it until it finishes, or do you have to refill even the pre-paid ones every month? Sorry, I am really confused..as to how the thing works. You have to buy the handset from a phone plan company and you're stuck with the same company for 2 yrs? Is there any way to buy and handset and also get a nice cheap plan??</p>
<p>Best bet would probably be a pre-paid plan. Given that your an international student, calling home on long distance could be costly.
At least with pre-paid phone the worst that would happen is you would run out of minutes and your phone call gets dropped. As opposed to running up a few hundered dollar phone bill.</p>
<p>pre-paid plans are fairly simple, once you buy the phone, go to just about any cash register in the US and you can find these little credit card looking things hanging up near the counter that have pre-paid minutes on them. The cards have a number you call and a pin number of some sort. Just call the number on the phone and follow the instuctions. You can also buy refil minutes using debit/credit cards, at an ATM…etc</p>
<p>and these talk either of a monthly pre-paid plan or a per-day plan. Isn’t there something like- you pay a certain amount and until that amount expires/finishes, you continue using that amount, after which you just use a card to refill and continue again so on.
(That’s how it works in my country)
I didn’t get why even pre-paid plans have a monthly rent (?) .</p>
<p>OMG icedragon, THANK YOU! Trackfone seems to be amazing!! But is the coverage good in massachusetts? (I was advised to take either at&t or verizon which is why i ask)</p>
<p>I get Tracfones for myself and my kids, also. There is no monthly charge. I bought a simple Tracfone for about $8.50 at our local Rite Aid.</p>
<p>This past weekend, we were on Martha’s Vineyard (MA). My husband’s fancy Verizon cellphone did NOT have coverage. I didn’t even think to check my Tracfone, because I figured it didn’t have coverage if my husband’s didn’t. Then my phone rang, lol! It turns out the Tracfone got coverage everywhere on the island. If there’s coverage in one of the more remote parts of the state, I bet it’s good in the rest of Massachusetts.</p>
<p>If you get a Tracfone, be sure to purchase the “double minute” feature. After that, whenever you buy minutes for the lifetime of the phone, you automatically get double the minutes.</p>
<p>Text messages count for only 0.3 minutes, too, so it’s economical for my text-happy 16-year-old son. As far as I can tell, 411 (information) calls just cost however long they take - much cheaper than when we make 411 calls from the Verizon phone.</p>
<p>Virgin Mobile was $25 a month until a couple of days ago… but now they’re plans are $35 a month for 300 talk minutes, unlimited web/data/texting. They have three different droids and a blackberry for smartphones and they have other phones too. It uses the Sprint network, so it’s pretty reliable. You can’t get anything cheaper or as good in my opinion. But you should check the college that you’re going to… One service might be better than another.</p>
<p>I have an Opitmus (Droid) and I absolutely love it.</p>
<p>And if you don’t use your phone that much… then you get a basic Virgin Mobile plan, where you only have to “top up” at least $20 every three months… the phones are pretty cheap. You could probably get one for $10-$15. That’s only $80 a year. Not too bad.</p>
If you cannot find pay-as-you-go options from Verizon or AT&T that you like, there are a number third-party providers that operate on the Verizon and AT&T networks.</p>
<p>One things to pay attention to with pay-as-you-go plans is that there’s usually a trade-off between per-minute rates and how frequently you need to add money to your account to keep your service active. The cheaper rates usually require more frequent top-ups. For example, one provider might charge 10 cents per minute but require a $20 top-up every 30 days. Another provider might charge 30 cents per minute but only require a $20 top-up every 90 days.</p>
<p>Thank you SO MUCH everyone! That was really really helpful, and now I don’t feel as lost as I did before!</p>
<p>So I checked out my college area, someone told me virgin works okay too!
Yes, I don’t think I’ll be using my phone too much although I do plan to use messages quite a bit (that’s what I think now). In the beginning, I plan to buy a cheap phone and check out if I like the service provider/plans/etc. Then when I’ve chosen the one I want to stick to for the next four years, I might splurge on a nice expensive phone. :)</p>
<p>PS: A special thanks to UCBalumnus for that awesome link :)</p>
<p>There are several good affordable plans that could help you meet the goals you are seeking.
Some phone service providers now know that texting is big and are providing services at discounts fro students.</p>
<p>Everyone’s usage varies quite wildly, depending on their personal needs or preferences. Good thing about prepaid though is that you can switch quite easily while figuring out your usage, without the stupid 2yr contracts, etc.</p>
<p>If you plan to be calling home a lot (internationally), H2O wireless tends to cater to that market quite well.</p>
<p>There’s also SimpleMobile, which is great for high data usage.</p>
<p>PagePlus cellular is based off of CDMA2000 technology, but if your usage is relatively low and you don’t mind figuring out their quirks, it’s hard to beat their prices.</p>
I’ve used it all over the US, and haven’t had a problem with it.</p>