Pay as you go cell plan...chapter 7

[whatamess]

We have no cell plan anymore as our contract was up, phones shot, bad credit...etc. So we bought T moble pay as you go...
what plans have anyone else tried Pay as you go? I noticed there are quite a few now.
Will the pay as you go 'bill' (Buying monthly cards to 'top up' your accounts???) still count as a monthly expense even if its not a standard amount?
Compared to verizon the quality isnt all that but what can you do?
WAM

[pambysue]

Hi Whatamess. I have Cricket. Its a standard monthly amount, but you pay in the beginning of the month for the whole month. My bill is $53 with unlimited calls, free long distance, caller id, call waiting & instant messaging. I dont know if Cricket is available in your area, but I really like it! I had verizon before and my bill was alway much higher! and, this is counting as a monthly expense on my BK. I dont have a home phone (it is cheaper for my daughter & myself to have cell phones) and I have cable modem for my internet service.

[JollyGG]

We have a trac phone. We bought the phone for something like $20 then recharge it with trac phone cards as needed. We really like it. We can buy more minutes when we need them and less when we don't.
We did include $20 per month cell phone bill on our monthly expenses worksheet for this phone.

[poorme]

Don't know what area you live in, but Metro PCS is good. Very similar to Cricket but you can also get unlimited 411 for about $2 extra. Limited service, tho, in like 8 cities nationwide.

I also recently found consumercellular.com. No contracts, although they do run a credit check. You need a 550 or better. They buy and resell resell bulk Cingular minutes at non-cingular rates, and you can add extra lines for $10.

[niteflytes]

I use the Cingular pick-your-plan for my cell phone and I chose the $30/mo option. For my daughter I'm using Cingular's pay-as-you go since she doesn't use her phone much. I switched while I was paying off my lawyer, before filing. When we went over final figures I told about it and it was just put in the budget as a monthly expense. My contract with Cingular was included in the BK. I didn't get to keep my original cell # that I had for years but what I'm saving each month more than makes up for losing that #. I'll never go back to a contracted cell phone.

[manglicmot]

I have t-mobile. It is a GREAT pre-paid plan. I use the $25 for 130 minutes or 3 months plan, but you can buy more or less. Here's what I really like about it, if I renew before the end of the three months, I keep my unusued minutes. Right now I have over 200 minutes available. Here is their website: http://www.t-mobile.com

[yomama]

I've been wishing for awhile already that we had gone with with another company or at least not the plan that we have. I don't know how it compares to other companie's plans but my husband, our daughter, and I have a shared plan through Cingular and pay about $80/mo for 450 weekday minutes and I think that many anytime minutes (I'm not even sure because we were never given a copy of what we signed). We have unlimited mobile to mobile (they have to also be in the Cinglular network), yet on our phone bills whenever the three of us call each other it's subtracted from our minutes (I don't get it). We have lousy reception and unlike their commercial suggests, we have MANY dropped calls. When our contract is up, we're definitely going with another company. The next time we are going with a pay as you go plan. Then we won't have to worry about going over our allotted minutes and paying 49 cents/minute.

[whatamess]

T-mobile

Yes, this is what I got plus if you buy $100 or more over time you get extra minutes, right?
So with two T-mobine pay as you go phones, with two $25 a month cards I hope to have another $50 bill added to my monthly expenses for BR!! My Dh HAS to have a cell for work, and I need it if my daughter were sick at school or there was an emergency so I cant see how a trustee could argue.
I had Virgin Pay as you go long before and it annoyed me.
Thanks for the input all!
WAM

I have t-mobile. It is a GREAT pre-paid plan. I use the $25 for 130 minutes or 3 months plan, but you can buy more or less. Here's what I really like about it, if I renew before the end of the three months, I keep my unusued minutes. Right now I have over 200 minutes available. Here is their website: http://www.t-mobile.com

[Minnymouth]

Have had a trac-phone for 5 years now besides my land phone.......
Phone is really for travel and away from home use.....
I buy the plan once a year (if on special plan is around $100.00)which covers service for 1 year, plus 450 min to start + bonus 450 bonus minutes for renewing..... All minutes are rollover each year.... I now have 14 hours of talk time if I need it. Use it for all long distance calls also......

One thing I don't do is use my cell phone if I'm sitting at home!!! Use my land phone then.

Spread out over the year the plan cost me approx $8.00 a month.

Has worked out extremely well for me so I have a phone with me a all times.

Nationwide coverage, no monthly payments, no contracts, and my minutes I don't use roll-over....

Minny

[FilingOnMyOwn]

Yes, this is what I got plus if you buy $100 or more over time you get extra minutes, right?

Yes. Once you buy $100 in airtime, it goes down to 10 cents a minute on $50 phone cards as well as the $100 cards which you get 1,000 minutes for. I bought $100 as my first card, then after that have bought $50 cards and get 500 minutes, and all minutes are good for a year. I claimed this as an expense in my filing with no problems.

[toomuch]

A lawyer told me last week that cell phones and cable are considered luxury and we can't list them on our expenses. I'm in Georgia.
I wonder if a person has health issues if this is debatable.

Also, I have been with Alltel for 8 years. If I'm in a contract, do I have to list them? I really want to keep my phone as I live in rural area and am 45 minutes away from town.

Toomuch

[poorme]

You can certainly use health issues, or any other reasonable 'cause' to justify needing a cell phone. Whether you're buying pay-as-you go minutes or have a recurring monthly fee, HOW you fit this into your budget for the trustees review is the key. Ask him/her how they would expect to function if they had a health problem or a family member who required the ability to contact them in an emergency.

These trustees and judges are not without compassion, folks. We just have to muster up the courage to face them as equals, and ofter their demeanor will show positive. They're providing us a new start - that doesn't necessarily mean penalized.