PagePlus, the Prepaid Service Few People Know About even though theyare usually the cheapest option with the best coverage

"SMS" <scharf.steven@geemail.com> wrote in message
news:46f6f23c$0$27170$742ec2ed@news.sonic.net...
> Today I was doing the den meeting for my son's Cub Scout den, and part of
> the program was about family budgeting and reducing recurring monthly
> expenditures.
>
> Besides the parent's suggestions of saving electricity by eliminating all
> video games, and the scouts suggestion of cutting showers back to once a
> month to save water and natural gas, one of the topics was saving money on
> items like internet access, long distance, and cellular.
>
> I mentioned that I paid only about $2.50/month each for cell phone service
> for my kid's phones, and after the meeting I was surrounded by parents
> wanting to know how to sign up.
>
> PagePlus must be about the worst in terms of getting the word out about
> their service. They'll be getting about six new accounts in the next week
> thanks to me. Since Verizon is the predominant carrier in my area, almost
> everyone at the meeting had at least one spare Verizon phone to use
> (though the kids of course want a fancy camera phone--tough luck!).
>
> I had to go into explaining how to sign up (having to buy activation on
> eBay is kind of strange), and which phones to use (any phone that was ever
> on Verizon CDMA), and explain the rollover, the re-upping every four
> months, etc. All these parents were thinking of prepaid in terms of the
> horrible deals with high minimums from Verizon, AT&T, Virgin, Tracfone,
> Net10, etc. (T-Mobile doesn't work in my area, so they are not a
> consideration).
>
> PagePlus costs:
> --------------
> $76/1400 minutes = 5.4¢/min
> $47.50/700 minutes = 6.8¢/min
> $10/83 minutes = 12¢/min
>
> Add a minimum of $10 every 4 months to keep account active and roll-over
> existing minutes. 50¢/month service charge.

Yes indeed. PP is the best prepaid service out there for anyone in native
Verizon territory. An old and reliable company. You can use any Verizon,
Alltel and some Amp'd phones or buy a shiny new INpulse phone at Walmart or
Target. The other good alternative for folks in the central US where native
Verizon coverage is often lacking is Tmo2go. Check out the people who know
instead of posting speculative crap.

http://www.howardforums.com/

GP

Godzilla Pimp wrote:

> Yes indeed. PP is the best prepaid service out there for anyone in native
> Verizon territory. An old and reliable company. You can use any Verizon,
> Alltel and some Amp'd phones or buy a shiny new INpulse phone at Walmart or
> Target. The other good alternative for folks in the central US where native
> Verizon coverage is often lacking is Tmo2go. Check out the people who know
> instead of posting speculative crap.

T-Mobile has very spotty coverage in the western region, so they're not
a good choice for prepaid (or postpaid) out here. I've used them with no
problem on the east coast. It's not that they don't want to improve
their coverage, it's that to do so means placing towers in places where
they can't get zoning approval for towers. It's not like satellite
dishes where the FCC prohibits any zoning ordinances from preventing
satellite receivers.

On Mon, 24 Sep 2007 14:35:19 -0700, Bob Fry <bobfry@mailinator.com>
wrote:

>SMS has been hard-selling PagePlus on another group, claiming it is
>the only prepaid plan worth squat...and that other plans are never any
>good.
>
>I say that given the variety of ways the prepaid plans charge for
>their service (connection fees, daily use fees, minute fees, monthly
>charges, and expiration of minutes), the best plan depends on a
>person's usage pattern.
>
>But SMS can't see that. Kinda a black-and-white view of a colorful
>world.

So I've noticed. I don't spend much time on this, because I hardly
ever use a cell, though in the past I paid for a few various plans for
the kids. I've come to see cell selection as having only 2 major
components; coverage and cost.
COVERAGE
I'm assuming coverage always includes good signal quality. SMS has
claimed he can get a signal - with PagePlus I think - in some isolated
backwoods area he frequents, where other carriers don't work.
Fine. For him. Others might not care about that.
My phone is used locally, and where I vacation, namely Chicago,
Florida, and points between. I don't care about anything else.
But for anybody, adequate coverage - for them - is the FIRST
consideration.
COST
Determined by usage, but I call it cost, because like coverage, it is
basically out of your hands. Sure, you can adjust your usage to
change the cost, but from what I've seen, that's not much of a
consideration when one gets a cell phone. Since I'm reading/posting
in the frugal group my thoughts are mostly on the frugal tack that
has been discussed here, for limited cell use.
Before that, what I've seen on the cost side in dealing with the
monthly contracted plans I initially bought for the kids, and their
current ongoing plans that they pay for, is that it is a fluid market,
and costs change fast. It is best to keep contracts as short as
possible, no matter how attractive they may seem.
Keying on "limited use" prepaid and my own usage, cost per minute is
virtually meaningless if you can lose the minutes you initially paid
for.
I went with T-Mobile prepaid 2 years ago, and my fist year cost with
new phone was $150. That got us 1200 anytime/anywhere/no roaming
charges minutes. The phone worked fine everywhere we went from
Chicago to Florida (remember, coverage, coverage, coverage.)
Since I bought a $100 fill that made me a "Gold Member." An extra
200 minutes got tossed in as some kind of bonus.
Last year near yearly expiration I loaded up another $100 minutes.
The old minutes were still valid, so we had about 1300 minutes.
Last month it was time to re-up, but since we still had 638 minutes
I just paid $50 and we now have about 1200 minutes, so my yearly
cost is minor, and the cell is great to have.
Anyway, I look at this as a pretty cheap way to have a cell phone.
It looks like we use about 600 minutes a year - mostly while on
vacation - and I realize others might use this much monthly.
10 hours a year on a cell phone is plenty for me.
But one of my kids had a U.S. Cellular contract and is currently
in Tennessee incommunicado because of the roaming charges.
Of course he has no problem paying $60-100 a month to yak at somebody
1/2 mile away who he will be seeing in 1/2 hour and do useless text
messaging.
As you said, lots of colors out there.

--Vic

Bob Fry wrote:
> SMS has been hard-selling PagePlus on another group, claiming it is
> the only prepaid plan worth squat...and that other plans are never any
> good.
>
> I say that given the variety of ways the prepaid plans charge for
> their service (connection fees, daily use fees, minute fees, monthly
> charges, and expiration of minutes), the best plan depends on a
> person's usage pattern.
>
> But SMS can't see that. Kinda a black-and-white view of a colorful
> world.

"Never argue with an idiot. He'll drag you down to his level and beat
you with experience." Loath as I am to neglect this excellent advice, I
feel that I need to respond to this post by Bob, so here goes...

It's certainly possible to come up with a usage pattern where there are
better deals and expirations than with PagePlus.

When looking at prepaid carriers you want to look at:

a) per minute cost
b) minimum monthly cost
c) coverage

SpeakOut Wireless has a lower minimum monthly cost at $2.08/month ($25
per year). They also have a one year airtime expiration versus four
months on PagePlus. On the other hand, their airtime prices are much
higher, and their coverage poorer.

T-Mobile can have a minimum monthly cost of as low as $0.83/month if you
"go gold" with an initial purchase of 1000 minutes for $100. The $100
purchase also extends all future airtime purchases to a 1 year
expiration. But their airtime cost is more than PagePlus at each
recharge level. Their coverage is much, much poorer.

Virgin, Tracfone, AT&T, have high minimum monthly fees at $5.00, $6.67,
and $8.33 respectively. All have poorer coverage than PagePlus.

If you do a lot of international calling, STI Mobile is a good deal with
a $3 monthly fee, but a flat rate of 10¢/minute plus a fee for some
countries, but many countries you can call at no extra charge, including
most of Mexico, and much of western Europe and Asia
("http://www.stimobile.com/ratelookup.aspx"). Their coverage isn't
nearly as good as PagePlus because they use the inferior Sprint network,
with no roaming.

The worst deals in prepaid are from the companies with very high monthly
minimums, such as Net10, which has a $15/month minimum. The per minute
rate isn't very good either, considering the high monthly minimum,
though it's better than Tracfone.

See "http://www.cellguru.net/prepaid_compare.htm" to learn more.

-For the absolute best coverage, choose PagePlus
-For the absolute lowest recurring monthly cost, choose T-Mobile and go
"gold"
-For the lowest international rates, direct from the phone, choose STI.

I think the problem is that in Bob's case he got taken in by Net10 and
is trying to defend the decision by making these ridiculous statements.
No one would think any worse of him if he just admitted the mistake and
moved on. After all it's not such a big deal in the scheme of things.

I have no connection to PagePlus. I just hate seeing people getting
taken in by these carriers that trick people.

Vic Smith wrote:

> I'm assuming coverage always includes good signal quality. SMS has
> claimed he can get a signal - with PagePlus I think - in some isolated
> backwoods area he frequents,

Not so backwoods actually. All on fairly major roads, often not far from
mid-size to large cities. One of the routes to Lake Tahoe, past a major
ski area (CA 88). Much of Crater Lake. Much of Yosemite and the roads
into it (served by Golden State Cellular, a Verizon affiliate). Much of
CA 1 between Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz. None of these are out in the
woods at all.

It's true that if you never leave the urban core that prepaid services
that use AT&T's network are fine. What you want to avoid, at least out
in the west, is any Sprint or T-Mobile based prepaid carrier, as both
the 1900 MHz GSM and 1900 MHz CDMA networks are _much_ less developed
than AT&T's 800 MHz GSM and Verizon's 800 MHz CDMA networks.

SMS wrote:
> Vic Smith wrote:
>
>> I'm assuming coverage always includes good signal quality. SMS has
>> claimed he can get a signal - with PagePlus I think - in some isolated
>> backwoods area he frequents,
>
>
> Not so backwoods actually. All on fairly major roads, often not far from
> mid-size to large cities. One of the routes to Lake Tahoe, past a major
> ski area (CA 88). Much of Crater Lake. Much of Yosemite and the roads
> into it (served by Golden State Cellular, a Verizon affiliate). Much of
> CA 1 between Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz. None of these are out in the
> woods at all.
>
> It's true that if you never leave the urban core that prepaid services
> that use AT&T's network are fine. What you want to avoid, at least out
> in the west, is any Sprint or T-Mobile based prepaid carrier, as both
> the 1900 MHz GSM and 1900 MHz CDMA networks are _much_ less developed
> than AT&T's 800 MHz GSM and Verizon's 800 MHz CDMA networks.

I have Page Plus and several times have gotten strong
signals where my friend was not able to pick up
anything and she had to borrow my phone - e.g. Amish
country in Central Ohio.

Marsha

On Mon, 24 Sep 2007 17:39:01 -0700, SMS <scharf.steven@geemail.com>
wrote:

>Vic Smith wrote:
>
>> I'm assuming coverage always includes good signal quality. SMS has
>> claimed he can get a signal - with PagePlus I think - in some isolated
>> backwoods area he frequents,
>
>Not so backwoods actually. All on fairly major roads, often not far from
>mid-size to large cities. One of the routes to Lake Tahoe, past a major
>ski area (CA 88). Much of Crater Lake. Much of Yosemite and the roads
>into it (served by Golden State Cellular, a Verizon affiliate). Much of
>CA 1 between Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz. None of these are out in the
>woods at all.
>
>It's true that if you never leave the urban core that prepaid services
>that use AT&T's network are fine. What you want to avoid, at least out
>in the west, is any Sprint or T-Mobile based prepaid carrier, as both
>the 1900 MHz GSM and 1900 MHz CDMA networks are _much_ less developed
>than AT&T's 800 MHz GSM and Verizon's 800 MHz CDMA networks.

I agree that needed coverage is the most important consideration.
But in your previous post you said:

"When looking at prepaid carriers you want to look at:
a) per minute cost
b) minimum monthly cost
c) coverage"

Try to keep priorities straight.
And nominal per minute cost is meaningless if you lose minutes.
Refill hassle is also a consideration, and sometimes related
to losing minutes.

--Vic

Marsha wrote:
> SMS wrote:
>> Vic Smith wrote:
>>
>>> I'm assuming coverage always includes good signal quality. SMS has
>>> claimed he can get a signal - with PagePlus I think - in some isolated
>>> backwoods area he frequents,
>>
>>
>> Not so backwoods actually. All on fairly major roads, often not far
>> from mid-size to large cities. One of the routes to Lake Tahoe, past a
>> major ski area (CA 88). Much of Crater Lake. Much of Yosemite and the
>> roads into it (served by Golden State Cellular, a Verizon affiliate).
>> Much of CA 1 between Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz. None of these are
>> out in the woods at all.
>>
>> It's true that if you never leave the urban core that prepaid services
>> that use AT&T's network are fine. What you want to avoid, at least out
>> in the west, is any Sprint or T-Mobile based prepaid carrier, as both
>> the 1900 MHz GSM and 1900 MHz CDMA networks are _much_ less developed
>> than AT&T's 800 MHz GSM and Verizon's 800 MHz CDMA networks.
>
> I have Page Plus and several times have gotten strong signals where my
> friend was not able to pick up anything and she had to borrow my phone -
> e.g. Amish country in Central Ohio.

Yeah, several times when I've picked up my daughter for sporting events,
I have to wait because her friends are using her PagePlus phone to call
their parents because their cell phones don't have a signal. This isn't
out in the middle of nowhere either, it's typically at playing fields
located at middle schools. The schools are usually in very residential
areas, with no tower very close. When I look at the maps for T-Mobile
they show no coverage, and I assume Sprint is the same since they have
almost identical needs in terms of towers (CDMA has slightly longer
distance from the cells, but not enough to make much of a difference at
1900 MHz).

Vic Smith wrote:

> Try to keep priorities straight.
> And nominal per minute cost is meaningless if you lose minutes.
> Refill hassle is also a consideration, and sometimes related
> to losing minutes.

Yeah, four months is about as short as I'd tolerate in terms of having
to do refills. I can't imagine having to do them every sixty days.
PagePlus is one of the easier ones to refill, just call them and they
re-up your account, without having to enter any PIN numbers, or buy the
card directly from their web site (which does require a PIN number IIRC).

On the one occasion when I missed the refill date, I called them and
they restored $50 worth of minutes I had lost. I doubt if the large
carriers would have been nice enough to do that.

Always look at the big picture, coverage, cost, and hassle.

Steve wrote:
> SMS <scharf.steven@geemail.com> wrote:
>> Yeah, four months is about as short as I'd tolerate in terms of having
>> to do refills. I can't imagine having to do them every sixty days.
>> PagePlus is one of the easier ones to refill, just call them and they
>> re-up your account, without having to enter any PIN numbers, or buy the
>> card directly from their web site (which does require a PIN number IIRC).
>
> Might be easier to use the Yahoo store -
>
> http://pagepluscellular.stores.yahoo...paidcards.html

Then you have to enter the PIN to recharge it, rather than just letting
them do it. Also, my Visa card wouldn't work on their site, but worked
fine when calling.