On 12/4/2015 6:32 PM, Ralph Mowery wrote:
"gareth" wrote in message
...

Especially for we old fogies who, to all intents and purposes, do not
have a mobile phone. I do have one, but only switch it on for
emergency-style outgoing calls. 15 years ago I got a £50
pay-as-you-go card upon which I still have baout £7 left.


In the states I don't know of any pay plan that will let you buy a plan that
lasts more than 1 year. I usually buy my wife a 1 year plan for about $ 100
and she probably has $ 90 left at the end of the year. We still have a
regular land line and it gets more in comming calls than out going.

I have a $ 10 per month plan for a smart phone and it is good for cell phone
service as much as I want and data when around a wifi system.

I wish we could get a plan that would actually last for the minuits we pay
for.

I used to shop for the absolute cheapest plans I could find ending up
with Net10 and $60 900 minute cards that only last 3 months, but I had
two years of days on my phone, so I got to use all the minutes. Trouble
was, the Net10 phones get very poor quality connections (Verizon was the
carrier) and their customer support was the worst!

More recently I got on a friend's AT&T account as a second phone and pay
$20 a month with unlimited voice and text. Now I just don't give it a
thought and the thing works pretty well. Much less hassle than buying
the PITA phone cards.

You don't pay for minutes with your land line do you? You may be in the
UK where I think all usage is metered. In the US most people pay
$20-$25 a month for unlimited local use. Think of your $100 a year in
that light.

--

Rick