buckers

Hi

We are moving to VA in less than 2 months through my husbands promotion. He will have a contract phone through work, but i will have to purchase a personal one, so which is best - pay as you go or contract.

Bearing in mind we have no credit score how difficult would it be to get a contract phone, or initially would it be easier to go with a pay as you go. I have checked a few providers for coverage etc and verizon and Virgin seem to be good where we are going, however i had heard that pay as you go isnt as big in the US, and providers dont offer the same sort of deals that are offered in the UK.


Any offers of advice would be much appreciated.

Best wishes

Duncan Roberts

See if you can add a line to the phone you get through the job.

buckers

Hi Duncan

Do you mean get a second phone off the work mobile? Hubby's company pay for his mobile so not sure if i can split the bills so that i pay for mine and his work pay for his........but certainly worth investigating so thanks for that

Best regards

Duncan Roberts

yes, most carriers and plans will allow you to add lines to a contract, usually about $10 a line. You share the minutes between the phones but you have separate numbers. When my wife was getting her phone covered we paid and then got reimbursed for the first line rental and we paid the extra and for a text message plan.

Mummy in the foothills

We got everyone a tracfone, buy a one year card on a phone that has double minutes for life and none of us have ever run out of minutes/units that includes Ds a teen who can text
I use it to text my mother and sister in UK and Spain. same cost as a text to the person sitting next to me.

chartreuse

I've found contracts to be a much worse deal over here than in the UK (even allowing for called party pays). We've got PAYG - SWMBO's on Verizon (AllTel as was) and I'm on T-Mobile. We spend a lot less than the cheapest contract we could find.

Sharron_

I have a T-Mobile Prepaid or as you say Pay-as-You-Go. If I buy $100.00 in one go the minutes don't expire for one full year.

You can view your account online and buy minutes too. I don't think there is any contract either.

I don't use my phone often...about two, three times a week and because it's prepaid...I make a point of using the home phone instead. So it's been costing me about $10.00 a month to run.

wtkp0u

Yep, this is definitely the best deal because of the non expiring, and you can use unlocked UK GSM phone. Buy refills at cheapphonecards.com and search for a promo code and you can get it for around $92 per $100.

Sharron_

I didn't know that....thanks very much.

Dan725

It's what I always do...for promo codes, try "Save8" first, if that don't work, try "cheap".

mcdavis

We can recommend Tracfone too as we've been using them for all our visits to the US and find them really good - even calling the UK has been reasonably cheap (word of caution - there are 2 international tariffs (one is 2x the other) and it's not obvious which you are getting when you buy the phone ).

There always seem to be offers to increase the minutes, although calling their customer service to add them can be time consuming.....

emailrob

If you're really not sure get a $15 AT&T phone from target or walmart. Pay per minute (20c I think) and the phone costs next to nothing. Do that for a few months, as you settle down. They work out if you want a contact phone (you probably will I guess).

Its a very low cost way to settle yourself down.

and remember, you pay to receive calls and texts on the same rate as you make calls (unlike the UK). So if you make a call for 5 mins and receive a call for 5 mins, it'll cost you 10 mins of talk time. that's why many ultimately go contract.

Also, we use the phone for when visitors come from England. They give us $10 or something and they can then take the phone to call us, restaurants while out shopping etc. Much much cheaper than them using their own phone while here, given roaming charges.

Bob

They have a pre dial number that you call before you dial international, means you get charged local rates, only for a handful of countries, but the UK was one of them...but it might be a phone specific thing I don't know...

kins

Because we had no credit history Verizon took a $400 deposit which they refunded after the first year...

augigi

Sprint took a $150 security deposit which they refunded after a year (well actually, they didn't "refund" the cash, they applied it to my account).