Ok, here's the deal. I want to give one of our older neighbors a cell phone for Christmas. They have limited funds and cannot afford a cell phone bill each month. They have family in Virginia and travel there pretty often (the wife's sister is in a nursing home there). It bothers me that they don't have a cell in case their car breaks down or they have a medical issue themselves. My question is...is there any kind of cell phone that we could buy for them with some minutes on it and they could purchase extra minutes as needed. Which I hope they'll never need the darned thing, I just worry about them. Or will I just have to get a regular cell phone and pay a monthy fee? Thanks! Brenda
The go phones, you can get them almost anywhere. They put money on it every so often. Got one for my DS and we put 25 on it to start, then we have to put more on it every 3 months. That's the one downfall whether they use all the minutes or not you have to put more on it. Hope this helps.
Yes, that is the way to go. We did it for my son, but he wasnt allowed to use it, just to have when bike riding etc.... BUT we forgot to add minutes and even though he still had some they cancelled it. I called to add more minutes and they said we would have to buy another sims card. Uggg....so now he is phoneless again. How sweet of you to be worried about your neighbor!
Well ljk, they're good people. They've been great neighbors to us for 11 years now. They don't have any family locally, so they've sort of adopted mine....and we've adopted them. :lol: The husband has lots of medical issues and the wife has a few medical issues of her own. But yet they go to Virginia to check on their relatives as often as they can. Like I said, they're just good people!! Brenda
You could look into tracfone, right now they are offering two phones with double minutes for life, it's $20 for 60 minutes, so they'd get 120 minutes. They say that you have to reload every 3 months, however, I have an old one that's on my account online, and whenever I go in to add minutes, the phone is there with a link to reactivate it, which I have done in the past, but now have no clue where the phone is, lol.
Virgin mobile pre-paid works great for me. 0.25 cent a minute for voice, 0.05 cent to text. U can get the top-up cards @ any Target store (and the phones). My wife, and I had them for probably 7 years now. I basically just use it for emergencies, and text back and forth to the wife. It works everywhere I've been (wife just back from Boston, a few years back we went to Florida) Check them out @ www.virginmobileusa.com
Wonderful ideas everybody. Will check them all out. I've been really busy at work today and haven't had time to play! :lol: Thanks!!
What about those phones that they advertise just for the elderly? They are called Jitterbug. I've seen the commercials on TV but I bet they have a website also.
Yep, Jitterbug is the one that Ken always teased KDs and me with. It is actually a good phone for older folks. What a great neighbor, Sherry
Thanks Michelle but I just went to their website. The phones are $147 and then there is a monthly plan. They can't afford any monthly fees and I certainly can't afford another monthly phone bill. Thank you though!!! Brenda
Well I may have to pick another gift. It looks like on all of these I would have to purchase more minutes for them every 90 days or the phone would be no good. I just want to find a phone that I can purchase and buy them some minutes that will not expire and they can add to them if they want to. I don't want to burden my neighbors with HAVING to do it. Guess I'm wanting too much, huh? :lol: Thanks everybody!
Wow, dunno bout the rest of the plans. But with virginmobile, you can get a free phone with the purchase of $20 in minutes. If they cant put $10 on it every 3 months, then they probably have bigger issues than needing a phone. Good luck.
