I also use Tracfone as an emergency cell. sm
Posted By: searching on 2007-04-24
In Reply to: Can anyone recommend... - opie103
I use about 120 minutes every 3 months, average $10 a month. Occasionally out of my area I have to use double minutes, but I find it to be a great and uncomplicated service for my use. Have had it for a year. My DH also has one. He uses 400 minutes a month ($100), but he talks to everyone constantly. His choice.
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I use Tracfone but have heard of cell phone - sm
bills being quite high due to texting. If your plan does not cover that, and your kid or whoever has the third phone on your plan is texting up a storm, you are being charged for each and ever text he/she sends, who knows maybe on the received texts too, call your provider and ask why it is so high, then either find out if you can cancel the texting ability or take the phone away from the guilty party. ---make them pay for the overage too.
There WAS an emergency for me one Christmas Day..
I was cooking Christmas dinner for our family and my kitchen sink got completely clogged up. Apparently, garbage disposals can only handle so many peeled potato skins, which I did not know then. Husband tried plunging, son tried plunging. The only thing left to try was DrainO, which I did not have. Had my daughter go see if the grocery store was open (hoping, hoping, hoping that it was) and see if they had DrainO or similar brand, and to make sure it was safe for kitchens and garbage disposals.
As she left for the grocery, I was plotting Plan B - which would have been to finish making a delicious turkey dinner with all the trimmings by using a bathtub or the laundry tub. Of course, I could not put any garbage down those tubs.
The grocery WAS open. The Liquid Plumber DID work. My family and I did NOT have to eat a turkey that was washed and cleaned in a bathtub!
So, for me....Thank God for the grocery who is open on Christmas!!!
Emergency sick day!
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS just arrived by UPS!
How am I going to work now???
(kidding of course)
Go to the emergency room. That's what I ended
up doing for the same reason. I talked to my insurance company and he made me promise that I would go to the ER and tell them that I was in a mentally critical condition. They did give me anti-depressants although it does take a while for the full affect. At least you'll have something on board in the meantime. You should also be able to go to your PCP and get the same results. Whatever you do, go see a doctor. Either your PCP or go to the ER. They do understand and will help.
You will continue to be in my prayers.
I use only for emergency and quick calls. Pay $100 for yr.
a
Teen fashion emergency! :) SM
OK, please help if you can. My son and I are clueless when it comes to "cool" fashions. His friends sorta teased him today and said he is really uncool (uncool haircut, clothes, shoes). They jokingly said they were going to do an extreme makeover on him. I laughed at first, but then thought, "Hey! That's not half bad!" He is starting high school in the fall, and I would like to help him with a makeover this summer. He is a nice looking kid, just got his braces off (so has a really nice smile), a little bit on the husky side, but his clothes and shoes are Walmart specials. He is just a basic "boy" hair cut.
What is "cool" for boys? Where should we shop? What kind of haircut is cool for a 15-year-old boy? I'm so clueless!
Any advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated!
 Chickadee
Use of emergency contact info
You know how when you go to the dentist office, enroll your child in day care, fill out a job application, everyone wants contact information "in case of emergency." Maybe I'm different from everyone else, but I consider an emergency as defined by my falling to the floor clutching my chest while my lips turn blue and I can't talk, or falling down 5 flights of steps, or being hit by a car...you get the idea.
I no longer have a good relationship with my mother (75) because she is getting senile. I can't trust that anything she knows about me won't make the gossip curcuit as the truth or something totally different, plus she wants to die on her own property without anyone else another and be found days later by some unknown stranger who notices her body out in the yard...so I don't visit, either. Last time I visited, her whole face was black and blue because she had passed out and fallen face down on a concrete pad where she stayed until the next day when she was finally able to stand up and go inside, then hide from the world for almost a month...I happened to visit her within a week of it happening. I don't want to be the one who finds her dead on another visit.
The reason this is important is because of a legal situation that I am in totally unrelated to her and I have a gag order on me...and she can't talk to me without taking "no" for an answer when she quizzes me about it, which she will do every single time we talk. So, I've just had to say, have a nice life, love you, let instructions to my sister to call me if anyone needs me.
Now it comes back to those old applications I filled out. My phone number changed and my dentist used my mother's "emergency" contact information to try to reach me, going into great detail the nature of why they were calling. It was just my 6 months cleaning, but I didn't even schedule it because I was moving and changing jobs and couldn't predict if I could keep an appointment 6 months in the future. So my mother calls my ex-husband, my ex-mother-in-law, trying to reach me for this "emergency". My ex-hubby called me.
This is so embarrasing to me. If someone dies, let my sister call me. I don't know what to do or how else to get across to her that she doesn't have the right to interfere in my affairs. The dentist office made the first wrong, and her trying to "save" me was the next one. I'm almost 50 years old and I think I can take care of myself, thank you very much. I let the dentist office have it with both barrels. That was abuse of a reason to call my mother as an "emergency" and they have taken her info out of their system. I have even had to change physicians because my mother and I had the same primary care, and all my visits were relayed to her by the staff..."oh, your daughter looked so good when she was here last week!", which prompts a phone call to my ex-hubby. ARRRGH!! Violation of HIPAA!
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to deal with this? I'm almost at the point of having a lawyer draft a letter to her. I'm past the point of feeling bad about hurting her feelings as she shows no consideration for mine. 
She can request emergency leave.
My husband is active duty Air Force, so I know a little bit about the military. As far as I know, she can request emergency leave because of the situation with her infant. Also, I do not think they just give military mom's a year off because they had a baby. I know several women that are active duty military that have had children, and they are given the same amount of maternity leave as a civilian.
Emergency Communications Dispatcher
cab driver must have been crazy!! :)
Being a 911 dispatcher was both my most exciting, stressful, fun, and worst job ive ever had so it definitely wins. Although I have really only had two jobs in my life, that and MT, so I mean... LOL.
In my town we worked both the fire and police radios, answered business calls as well as 911 calls. I liked working the fire side more because people were nicer. the 911 calls for fire/ambulance were much more likely to say "thank you" at the end rather than a hang up on you for the police side.
I have many stories about the calls we'd get and working police chases, on foot and car...
I've thought about going back to it now that Transcriptionist isn't what it used to be... and they can't outsource that job!
Give it a few days. They may be away, have an emergency, blizzard, etc. nm
s
Call the Humane Society or Emergency Vet
Tell them what happened, that the owners are not home, and you are afraid the dog is critically injured. They will then send someone to check on the dog and do what needs to be done.
As far as your neighbors being mad at you for hitting their dog, it is their responsibility to make sure their animals are safely confined. NOT taking a nap in the road.
Don't let the poor beastie suffer for their ignorance. Please call to see if the dog can be helped.
Mine has an emergency phone number to
call when things happen out of the office hours. THe recording at the office should say something about emergencies and what to do about them.
I had a Tracfone too, but I never use it..sm
barely even use the house land line phone, but it is nice to have one, just in case. However, aside from having to buy extra minutes every two months just to keep your phone number, which I never did and had a gazillion phone numbers, you DO lose your minutes when you lose your phone number. I need a plan where you don't HAVE to buy minutes every two months and you can keep what minutes you do have, and you don't lose your phone number. I don't think that there is a plan like that out there, but there should be. jmo
just got a tracfone -
We just got a tracfone right before Thanksgiving after looking at online reviews for it. We ordered it from the tracfone website and they were running a promotion and we got a free reconditioned very nice Motorola phone when we purchased a year plan and got extra minutes with it.It came in 3 business days. I don't want to think about minutes for an emergency phone more than once a year. So far, so good.
I also use a Tracfone, but...
my daughter got a Go Phone from Singulair, which is similar to Tracfone, and my son got a plan with Immex, I think, which is $60.00 a month. He is away at school, so he uses more minutes than I do on my my Tracfone. I always have units left at the end of the 2 or 3 months or whatever it is. If we lived somewhere we got service, I think we would have some kind of plan, but at this point we live in a giant black hole. If I stand in the right spot in my yard, I can get enough signal to send a text message, other than that, forget it.
tracfone
in my research, fits the needs of an infrequent user the best. Costs me about $8 a month for service (w/1-year card), minutes always carry over with active service, they have a 99% footprint of service in the country... my only complaint is talking to what seems like an ESL every time i call company, oh, and the initial coding-in of endless numbers when getting service initiated. But well worth the cost. (even in a dead service area where i live, i can still text message).
tracfone
x
That's why I have a Tracfone
I have heard of cell phone bills that high and higher. I can't imagine paying that much for a phone. My daughter's friend wracked up a $625 phone bill one month from texting and her parents just paid the bill no questions asked.
I have a tracfone - sm
the minutes do not expire per se. Your service plan does though. I buy mine one year at a time, $99 for a year of service, then you buy minutes. Granted I buy a service plan and minutes together, and have the double minutes for life plan too. You can rollover minutes when your renew your service. You can get service either every two months or yearly I believe. I can text with my phone which is one of the Motorola flip phones. I used to have an old dinosaur Nokia but upgaded to a new phone for $10 or so at the Dollar store, phones are a lot cheaper there. If he is a yakker then it will get expensive fast, texting is a bit cheaper but he gets into the habit of doing that all the time his "units" will disappear fast. It is a good phone to have for the occasional call, etc. I would not use it as an everyday general use phone though. My old model phone actually worked better and got a signal just about everywhere, my new one is good but does not work everywhere my old one did, but I like it much better as it is smaller and lighter.
I personally like TracFone
I just bought a new one at Dollar General a few weeks ago after not having a cell for a few years. It was only $20 for this cute little Nokia with a built-in flashlight, and when I activated it online and registered with an email, I got 80 minutes free. I had a phone number in 10 minutes. You never lose your minutes but you do need to buy new minutes at least every 2 months to keep your phone number, which works out to $10/month. I've had TracFones on and off throughout the years and I've always had a good experience.
Yep, LOVE my Tracfone!
I have a Tracfone too, that's why I asked. :)
nm
I use a TracFone. I pay only for the minutes I use. sm
I have a landline and DSL that costs me $70 a month. I need the landline for my computer. I am not too trusting of the Skype, Vonage, etc. You lose your power, you lose your phone.
That said, I use TracFone. It is probably one of the first ones made as I can't take pics, or 2-way, or do any of the fancy stuff. However, I have never had it let me down by not having any coverage and the calls are always clear as a bell. I would get another cell plan with more bells and whistles, but I just can't see being tied to a 2 year contract with hefty penalties for early termination.
TracFone also has some awesome deals on minutes, phones with lots of features, etc. The nice thing about a TracFone is that if you run out of minutes, you don't lose your phone number. And they also have coupon codes you can use to get extra minutes, or an extra phone, etc.
www.tracfone.com
What saved the folks on the edge was pulling up the emergency brake
s
i buy time once a year/tracfone
and it averages out to $8/month. I wanted a phone for emergency mainly too. Initial phone cost was about $20. The big plus to me besides cost is that they feed off ALL cell phone towers, not just their own as other companies do. works good enough for me, and being pretty rural, its really my only option of value.
My tracfone does have texting capabilities
my daughter figured that one out all by herself. LOL. We've been thinking about getting her one for a long time, but our problem is she'll have the minutes gone within weeks and then she'll have no phone. I guess she'll have to learn the hard way if that happens.
I have a Tracfone and don't like wasting my minutes....
I have one of the original TracFones and my fingers are too fat to text. The keys are too close together, so I don't bother with texting. LOL.
That would be why I would need a full keyboard if I were to ever get a lap top. LOL.
I have a TracFone. And I LOVE it. It is the original Nokia, but..sm
I can text on it. Texting uses up your minutes. However, when you run out of minutes, you don't lose your number anymore. I think there have been many changes to TracFone plans in recent years. As long as you refill your minutes before they expire, you should be good to go. If you buy more minutes before your old ones are up, they accummulate. I usually buy a 120+ minute card and sometimes, depending on the "codes" that you have, you sometimes can get bonus minutes etc. So if I have 10 minutes left on my phone and I buy another 120 minute card, when I am done activating it I will have 130 minutes on my phone. And if I have a "code" then I will have the minutes from that also.
I would not hesitate to get another TracFone. They have some really cheap, reconditioned ones too.
Agree. My TracFone has worked ever time, very
aa
I only use a cell. It got to
where I figured I was paying for a home phone for no reason, as most people were calling on our cells anyway!
Actually I am considering just using cell...sm
I am considering the cell phone as my primary phone. My husband also has one and there is no use really in having a house phone and cell phones. My cell talks perfectly fine here. Bellsouth offers DSL now w/out a phone line too. So I may very well do that.
Thanks for your advice. :)
I have Verizon cell and
they do not offer any discount at all. I pay $180 a month for both.
I had it on my cell phone too! lol
x
How many of you use only a cell phone? sm
We're going totally wireless in our house next week after our alarm company converts our system to a radio one. The cell companies in our area have finally gotten the offers down to where it's cheaper to go cellular exclusively than pay a cell and regular phone bill. What about you?
cell phone
My family and I (husband and two teenagers) all have our own cell phones. In a dire emergency of no power, our car will accommodate an attachable adaptor for the cell phones to recharge. It made things simpler, and no extra added bill from a phone company. It has been this way for over three years now.
cell phone
I have 4 phones on my bill. We pay $9.00/month extra for unlimited texting for my son, otherwise our bill would probably be that high. Our bill with 4 phones and extra for the texting is $90.
What is your cell phone co.? I'm shopping around sm
Our family uses TracFone. My daughter is trying to convince me to go to something different. I need to keep costs down, but would like any info on something that includes texting and some free anytime calls. What are your experiences and what does it cost you a month for a family plan? Thanks.
Cell phone arguments
I was in line behind a woman who was talking to her child on her cell phone. She said she would be home about 10 minutes, could she talk to Daddy? Daddy got on the phone and she proceeded to rip him a new one rather loudly in a matter of seconds. Really see no need to air that kind of thing in public.
Do you think that when Paris heard cell sm
she was thinking "OH, at least I get to keep my phone" Lol
Looking for cell phones you no longer need...
Hi! My church is collecting cell phones as a fundraiser. If you have an unused cell phone lying around that you would like to get rid of, please let me know! Just let me know what the brand, model number, phone co used for and I will let you know if that is one that is on the list. I will pay for the shipping to get it here!
Thanks a zillion!
kids and cell phones
Both my sons got their own cells phones when they went to college and I suggested they get the prepaid type....When their minutes ran out they were outta luck....They learned to budget their money pretty quickly though. Both worked and went to school. It also taught them that there's no such thing as a free ride in this world. 
Teenagers and Cell Phones
We plan on getting our 13-year-old daughter a cell phone for Christmas. She does a lot of afterschool activities and I want her to be able to reach us at all times. But we're getting her the prepaid trac phone. We already told her, don't expect a fancy phone with a camera and texting capabilities (you can text with the trac phones, but it just takes away your time). If she doesn't accept that, then no cell phone. My husband had a friend at work whose daughter's cell phone bill was $600 one month. I can see that happening with a teenaged daughter.
Are you sure it was him? Does someone else have access to the cell phone?
.
it is awfully peculiar that he used your cell phone..sm
No offense, but he either purposely wanted you to see this or is extremely moronic. I think you deserve better. That is not what someone does to their significant other if they truly love them.
Close down the cell phone
I bought a cell phone from Radio Shack. It's pay as you go. I'd play innocent to him and say...oh no, someone must have gotten a hold of our phone number because there is over $150 of charges to some phone sex place. Then tell him your going to the police to fill out a fraud report. If he then admits to it you should tell him that if he wants to do that (call sex places) fine, but he should respect you enough to tell you about it. Then I'd have a serious conversation about our future together and then tell him if he wants to continue to buy his own cell phone with pay as you go and he can work the extra hours to pay for the bill.
Our high schools here all have a no cell
phone policy. First time, the parent comes to pick it up. After that the school keeps it until the end of the year. No reason for them to have cell phones turned on during classes is the way I see it. Before and after school is fine, but not during. My daughter's middle school also has no cell phone policy. Even if they are in their lockers and ring, they are taken away.
One school in a neighboring county was confiscating them and giving them away. The parents there filed a law suit and they now keep them, but the student loses it until the end of the year.
Cell phone as a modem
I'm moving and won't have a home phone with DSL for a month so I'm about to buy a Blackberry Pearl so I can use it as a modem and tether it to my laptop for downloading sound files and then uploading my work. I've about gone insane in the details so I'm looking for anyone who has done this and can confirm for me that it works.
My cell phone provider has told me this will work.
Can anyone recommend a cell phone - sm
plan, one number, two phones if that exists, or a 2-phone plan, 2 numbers? That is not outrageous in cost. Thinking of eliminating home phone at $65 a month just for the line, extended local calling and unlimited LD, just keeps going up, was $50 a few years ago. In a rural area so really don't have any choices out here. So figured we could get a plan with 2 phones, one for me, one for my husband, just don't know how that works. Did a little looking on line and cheapest I could find was about $70 a month, which obviously is not what I am looking for. Prefer to find something for $40-$50 a month, may 500 minutes unlimited calling at all times a month, don't need much as we are not on the phone that much. Just had Verizon put a tracer on the home phone so I can track how much LD we actually use and if it would be more feasible to just go back to a pay-by-min plan and ixney the unlimited LD. I think we can save a lot that way. Probaby have to give up the caller ID but so be it. We may be able to get away with a 1 phone plan as my DH has a company cell phone for which I could call him on if he was at home and I was at work. Just cancelled my 2nd line as I was not using it much anymore for work so that will save us $30 a month right there. Just trying to pince a few pennies here and there. 
I still pay for my daughter's (20) cell phone,
however she pays for texting. She also makes her own car payment and pays her insurance (she is on my policy). SHe is a full time college student only working part-time, so she does not pay rent.
every prisoner becomes *conditioned* to his cell in time--sm
sorry Hayseed. as much as I like you and your responses, I still do not agree with crating. This is just my opinion, but to me, there are always other options than caging an animal to comply with human wishes.
People talking on cell phones while having
dinner in a restaurant. I realize some people have to take calls, but just get up and leave the table.
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