-
After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.
Where can I get a cheap dumb phone with prepaid minutes
- Thread starter shortduck
- Start date
Tracfone might be a good option for you. My sister (for her 10 year old) and one of my friends use dumb-phones with no issue. They have a year long plan with 400 minutes but it triples to 1200, I think it's $99 for the year and the unused minutes roll over. If you aren't going to use a ton of minutes it's worth looking at.
And for the phone... chain stores like Best Buy, Target, Walmart, etc. will usually have a couple prepaid phones like Tracfone for around $20.
Thanks for your reply, should I just get any unlocked phone, to get started ?
See Kate's reply, you can pick them up anywhere really.
You can use any phone (but I'd check w/them first), even a smartphone and just not buy data. For phones that have SIM cards there is a little starter pack with cards that can be used on GSM or CDMA (not Sprint though). So, if you wanted to use Verizon you'd have to get a CDMA/LTE phone and the starter pack thingy. If you don't care then just go to Walmart and get a Tracfone off the shelf and active it.
edit: to maybe make that clearer (or worse); my nephew had a smartphone with Verizon radios so we got the SIM package and set that up to use Verizon's towers. My niece just has a dumb-phone from Tracfone so my sister just activated it and it seems to be using ATT. I'm not sure you can choose a network on the dumb-phones. They use T-Mobile and ATT as much as they can.
You can use any phone (but I'd check w/them first), even a smartphone and just not buy data. For phones that have SIM cards there is a little starter pack with cards that can be used on GSM or CDMA (not Sprint though). So, if you wanted to use Verizon you'd have to get a CDMA/LTE phone and the starter pack thingy. If you don't care then just go to Walmart and get a Tracfone off the shelf and active it.
edit: to maybe make that clearer (or worse); my nephew had a smartphone with Verizon radios so we got the SIM package and set that up to use Verizon's towers. My niece just has a dumb-phone from Tracfone so my sister just activated it and it seems to be using ATT. I'm not sure you can choose a network on the dumb-phones. They use T-Mobile and ATT as much as they can.
Last edited:
An unlocked phone will be more expensive, around $50 - $100 is the cheapest.
When you buy a cheap $20 prepaid phone it's locked to that network (usually for 6-12 months).