Our cell phone contract ended last month, but before we renew the plan with our current carrier we want to investigate some other options. Right now we're paying month to month on our existing contract, which has advantages and disadvantages. One advantage is being able to compare service options at our leisure, but the biggest disadvantage is not being able to get a new phone at a discounted price!
The phone that I've had for two years has become increasingly unreliable. Some days it works fine, but on other days I have to reboot it multiple times before it will work, or every call automatically disconnects after several minutes. I went to the phone department of a big-box electronics store to see what my options were. A nice associate showed me the full-priced phones (which, as I suspected, were very expensive) and then suggested another option I didn't know existed. Today I bought a pay-as-you-go phone and used my current SIM card to switch it onto my regular contract.
I bought the cheapest phone that would work with my carrier. It won't win any awards in the style department, but it will do the job. I brought it home and put it on the charger. While the battery was charging, I saved all the phone numbers in my old phone's address book to the SIM card. While I was doing it, I took the time to delete all the numbers I don't use any more. When all the numbers had been transferred, I took the SIM card out of the old phone and put it into the new one.
I made a call using the address book of the new phone and it worked! I'm looking forward to being able to make a cell phone call when I need to. Another advantage: if we end up staying with our current carrier, I'll be able to keep the prepaid phone as a backup in case I need it in the future.
I am so impressed...... I must confess that I have no idea how to do that. My husband does all that for me. My daughter programmed my last phone with pictures of my grandchildren to pop up when one of their parents called and I have no idea how to put all that onto my new phone. I can cook and sew and iron. I would make a great maid!
ReplyDeleteHubby and I had a prepaid phone for 3 years and it worked just fine for us. Hubby still has one (he got his own last year as we were going to be in separate places last summer), but I bought an iPhone in May and just love it.
ReplyDeleteI rarely use a phone of any kind as I do almost all of my communication with email. The iPhone is a wonderful tool to use to get around an unfamiliar town (we used it a lot on our trip to New Mexico). I can find businesses on it and the directions to get there. I get my emai on it, which makes it perfect for me. The camera is so so. I carry my digital camera everywhere I go so I don't really need the phone for that.
The cost is so much more than I spent on that prepaid phone, but I paid off our house and my car in May so that freed up some money for me to do this. I think the prepaid phone is a great way to go, especially in these tough economic times.
Hey, how's the new job going?
ReplyDeleteGreat idea, as long as it's not a throw-away. I'm over stuff that goes into the garbage.
ReplyDelete