I have been debating cancelling my Sprint cell phone service and changing to Metro PCS. Do you have this service? Are the phones worth the price, etc? It would be about $10.00/mo cheaper for me and has internet access from what I researched. Any input would be helpful. Thank you!

__________________
-Kristi

Hi! Sorry. I don't know anything about the metro thing. But - I have Sprint and thought about changing a few years ago. When I called to cancel they gave me a deal that made me want to stay. I love finding ways to save money.

We don't have Metro PCS where I live. I use PagePlus, which is also a prepaid service.

What sort of a plan would you have with Metro? Texting? Data? Voice only?

well from what I see it is $45/mo for free text, voice, and limited sites on the internet with unlimited usage. I think it sounds great. My Step-daughter got it for Christmas, but haven't seen her since to talk to her about it.

__________________
-Kristi

Sounds a lot like PagePlus. With Page Plus - which uses Verizon's towers - you add money every 120 days to keep your phone active (or sooner if you run out). You can add as little as $10 or as much as $80 (and actually, if you add $80 it keeps your phone active for a full year). The larger the amount you add, the less your minutes cost.

Standard Plan:
$10 PIN = 100 minutes - 120 days ($.10 / minute)
$80 PIN = 2000 minutes - 1 year ($.04 / minute)
(and there are several increments in between)
Texts subtract $.08 from your balance.

You can add monthly text 'packages':
$10.99 - 2000 texts
$19.99 - unlimited texts

OR...

$29.95 / month - Talk 'n Text 1200 (1,200 Minutes / 2,000 SMS/MMS / 100 MB Data)
$44.95 / month - Unlimited Talk 'n Text (unlimited domestic voice minutes, unlimited domestic text messages, and 20 megabytes of data transfer)

You can use any Verizon phone with PagePlus *except* Verizon PrePaid phones (InPulse) or the IPhone. I believe Sprint and US Cellular phones work, too, but sometimes they need 'flashed' to work fully. There are two basic phone technologies - CDMA and GSM. Verizon and Sprint use CDMA. AT&T uses GSM... so an AT&T phone wouldn't work with them.

My son picked up an almost new Droid on eBay for $80. He rarely talks - just texts - so we put an $80 PIN on his phone, and each month it just automatically debits his balance the $10.95 for his 2000 texts package. Whenever he makes a phone call, it deducts $.04 per minute. That $80 will last him 6 - 7 months. :-)

He also uses Google Voice and has his cell number associated with his Google Voice number, so he can text directly from the computer and those texts are never filtered through his phone, so they don't count against his 2000 texts. He just gives everybody his Google Voice number and when they text or call him, Google Voice routes them to his phone (unless he is at the computer, in which case he disassociates his phone from his Google Voice account temporarily so he can text from the computer for free).

I actually buy our PINS from Callingmart, so we save 3% or so off the retail rates.

www.pagepluscellular.com

wow that sounds cool! I almost feel old reading the last post because I don't know about all the new fangled texting with the internet things :P

__________________
-Kristi

Ha!

Google Voice is awesome. You can sign up for a free phone number, and it doesn't cost anything to use it. Once you have a Google Voice number/account, just log in and associate up to eight phone numbers with your GV number. I currently have:

1. Our Landline
2. My Cell
3. DH's Cell (which he almost never, ever, ever carries)

When people ask for my cell number, I give them my Google Voice number.

I have it set so that anytime anybody calls my google voice number, it rings our landline and my cell. I can answer either phone. Since I work from home and I pay per minute with my cell (just four cents per minute, but still... lol), I just answer my landline most of the time. However, if I'm out and about and have my cell with me, that's the phone I answer. If my phone is misplaced or not charged, all I have to do is grab my DH's cell, turn it on, and it gets all my calls.

You can log into your GV account on your computer and text from there for free. If you have an IPod Touch (or IPhone) there is a Google Voice App. I use my Touch and text for free using WiFi.

Google Voice also takes voicemail for you. It transcribes the message your caller leaves, and emails it to you - both the transcription and the actual audio file.

This is a series of videos about Google Voice: Google Voice - Features

I love love love my GV! :-)

This sounds great. I'm always at one end of the house and I hear the cell ringing. I dash in to get it and as soon as I get there is stops ringing and then 30 seconds later the house phone starts ringing and then I have to dash to the nearest house phone. I've said for years that I need a cell phone on a lanyard so I can keep it draped around my neck, but this is so much cooler. The only problem is that I have a nice, easy to remember cell number and I would have to retrain everyone to a new number. Do they give you a choice in numbers?

Actually, yes, they do! :-) You tell it what area code you want, and you can play around trying to find a number that you'd like. If your name was "Joan", for instance, you could try for a number in your area code that would correspond with "JOAN" on the alpha-numeric keypad on your phone. If nothing is available, you can just pick from the available numbers.

Another nice feature is that you can have Google Voice initiate a call for you. I have a friend who pays per minute for her cell use, and when she makes personal calls long distance from the office landline, she pays through the nose. So... she can have Google Voice initiate long distance calls while she is at the office for free. Just tell it you want it to make a call, and tell it what number you're calling, and which of your associated phones it wants to hook you up with. As soon as she tells it "Office Phone", her office phone rings. She picks it up, and then it calls the other party. It costs her nothing. :-)

Don't you love google docs, m3??? I don't know how I got along without them! I love love love that I can store documents there and access them from any computer. I keep a spreadsheet with usernames and passwords and airline / hotel 'priority club' numbers and social security numbers and such as a doc. I love to share docs for editing by others, and think it is so cool that several people can be conferencing on the phone and looking at the same spreadsheet in google docs, and you can see the cells people are talking about when they point their cursors to them, since each person's cursor shows up in real-time in a pre-determined color. It is SO COOL! lol

Do you use Picasa? That's yet another favorite google thing around here! I pay $5 year to host my pix. I'm about to need to upgrade that, though, as I have a lot of photos to upload. It's worth it for the peace of mind, knowing if my machine crashed, my photos would still be safely stored on google's servers! :-)

Making more notes to self. Check google docs and Picasa. After many years on a Mac, (basically all I have ever known), I recently changed over to a PC and I have hundred, perhaps thousands of recipes and other documents that did not safely transfer to my PC. I bet with google docs I could go into the Mac and put them there and then retrieve them on my PC. That will be a great relief, if it works. And if it doesn't then I can use it for my current batch of recipes.

i just got a Virgin mobile phone that I really like. Its only $25 month for unlimited data and text and 300 minutes talk. You might want to check them out too. I got my phone at Target.