Electronics

[Moonchilde]

The very first thing you need to find out is what coverage is like in your neighborhood or where you will primarily potentially be using the phone. No point buying a $50 phone from a super-cheap carrier if that carrier has lousy coverage in your area. If you live in a densely populated urban area you can probably go with anything. Otherwise, I'd ask friends and family about services that *don't* work well in your area, so you can rule them out and not waste money.

[vac]

I pay $45 and change per month for service from Walmart Family Mobile with unlimited talk, text, and data. You can pick up a flip phone anywhere on the cheap.

[missy1]

On 3/28/2015 WIlliam Joseph said: go to any store and get a 10 dollar tracfone...

I have seen them for $5 at my grocery store. It's the minutes that cost.

[hckynut]

You can get a good Tracfone for less than 80 bucks on hsn. Divide that for the year contract and it costs you $6.67 per month.

[Lynnj]

On 3/29/2015 Kachina624 said:

On 3/28/2015 WIlliam Joseph said: go to any store and get a 10 dollar tracfone...

Yes, and spend $99, for less minutes and a year of service. Do you want to spend $79, or $110?

But OP said they wouldn't be using the phone, just carrying it for "emergency". So then there wouldn't be the minutes expense to worry about.

[Kachina624]

No, but presumably she'll need the months of service. I do the same with my Tracfone; use it rarely but need the months of service so for $79 at HSN, I get a year of service and carry my minutes over to the next year.

[madcity411]

On 3/28/2015 Mz iMac said:

On 3/28/2015 rina33 said:

I just need a phone to carry with me when I walk my dog. Otherwise, if there's no "emergency", I'll never use it. So, I just need cheap.

Safelink phone. Roll over minutes & best of all..........

It's free!!!!!

Safelink is a Government program phone service available ONLY is you qualify!

[ValuSkr]

The AT&T Go Phone costs as little as $25 per quarter, or $100 per year. There are several models to choose from, smart and not smart. The cheapest one might even be free, I don't remember.

[PINKdogWOOD]

I have a phone that I barely use because I hate cell phones. I use it and have it with me when I need to and I'll be honest, I bought it mostly to converse from the hospital when my husband had a few surgeries for his cancers.

I bought my phone through AARP, it's the high end Dora. I can sign up for MANY services as I so choose, when I so choose. Right now I can take really nice photos with it, can text, receive calls/voice mail and of course can call out. Again, I rarely use it but I really do like to take photos of my yard and send them to my sister and a good friend of mine.

My monthly bill runs $27and change. Best feature is that the buttons are large enough that I can see them, see what I'm doing, text easily, send photos in a snap. It's a black very sleek flip phone which I really do enjoy, AND it has a built-in emergency phone number so if I did take it w/me on dog walks, good for me. I've had it for 3 years now, it's all I want & need.

I'd highly recommend you check out AARP.com phones and see for yourself. They add phones to their offerings often so you can easily upgrade if you want to. ANd in fact they now sell the Apple Iphones top of the line. If you're also of age, AARP gives you a price break.

[gardenman]

I bought an LG L41C Tracfone Ultimate 2 with a full year's of service (1200 minutes, 1200 texts and 1.2 gb of data) for $134.99 in January which comes out to $11.25 per month for a full featured smartphone. I bought it through Amazon but the Q has the same deal often. Refill yearly cards (400 minutes which are tripled on my phone) cost $85-$90 at Amazon/E-Bay which will drop my monthly costs to $7.08-$7.50 per month in future years as long as I keep the phone.

There's no real downside to that deal. You get a really good smartphone, a year's service and a low price. The phone is a very nice device and is very capable.