I am in Vermont, and currently am a Verizon wireless customer. My bill ends up being around $42/mo. and I'm sure I don't use the amount of peak time minutes I'm paying for.

My wife has Virgin Mobile, and she puts $20 on her phone maybe every couple months. She only uses it really for emergencies, and "Honey, I'm on the way home. Do we need anything at the store?" kind of things.

There are many companies out there that do the pay as you go thing, but I'm looking to get into that setup, and still keep the reception I currently have with Verizon in rural Vermont. Does anybody know if companies like Virgin, or TracPhone, Cingular, etc., use Verizon towers, and have the same reception characteristics as Verizon?

I'm just stick of wasting that money every month, and am really pretty dumb when it comes to phones and what not. Any help would be grealy appreciated.

-adam

I'm on Virgin mobile and they use Sprint towers (I think). Not sure what the other guys use...

Adam - you and the wife would be better off sticking with Verizon and switching to a "Family" plan. I'm not 100% on the rates but if you get a $35 per month plan with 500 min and add the wifes phone for an additional $10 per month. You will be ahead of where you are now and most Pay as you go plans. You get 500 any time min inc long distance, Free in network calling (all calls to verizon phones are free) and you split the 500 min.

Most "pay as you go" plans have a minimum monthly charge. Using Virgin's .18 per minute, 500 minutes would run you $90 and 10 minutes would cost you $20 if that is their minimum use fee.

There are usually other perks with using a plan like Verizon offers, Free phone, discounts on high quality phones etc.

Tracphone is the way to go you buy your minutes every three months. :beers:

adam,
I am pretty sure that Verizon has the same type plan. One of my employees used to have it. Call them and ask.

costco sells a preappaid T-Moble phone for $79 with a $39 rebate which comes with 50 minutes also includes case and car plug. you can call anywhere in the U.S. included hawaii and alaska for .10 per minute. good Samsung phone and you fill it up online anytime for the .10 per minute rate!

HI All
my Kids have prepaid Alltel phone free texting with no money left to call on the phone, I pad for the first phone only and $10 in Mins they have to pay the rest.
Larry

My wife has the T-Mobile pay as you go too.She has had it long enough she is a gold customer and her minutes are good for a year at a time. I don't know about service in your area but it works great for her at .10 per minute.

Pretty much every cell carrier is in cahoots with one of the pay as you go services. Virgin mobile runs on the Sprint-Nextel network, I'm not sure how the rest of them lay out.
Technically, as long as the technology is the same (there are 2 main ones in use in the US), any cell phone can use any tower...if your not on your own companies network then you go on "roam" on another companies tower, and it does cost considerably extra.

My wife has the T-Mobile pay as you go too.She has had it long enough she is a gold customer and her minutes are good for a year at a time. I don't know about service in your area but it works great for her at .10 per minute.

I got my wife the T Mobil card phone also. I buy a $100 phone card which is good for a year and then so are all her minutes. Total with the phone etc was 1300 minutes. It lasted her on year because she doesn't use it alot. The phone we used was a one year old phone my son had. Its great to have a phone for her and its under 9 bucks a month. I have a verizon cell phone paid for by my employer. :)