Alltel Prepaid Plans
Search This Site: Alltel prepaid was a pretty good deal, once you've figured out their plans, but then they got bought out by Verizon and slowly seemed to disappear. However, recently, their service has been re-introduced in select areas of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Ohio and Illinois. So it's worth taking a look at them again. Alltel offers both standard cell phone contracts as well as prepaid wireless service. They used to call their prepaid service AlltelU to avoid any confusion.
Is it for you?Note: Alltel has been merged into Verizon Wireless.Note: Earlier, Alltel had bought out Simple Freedom, another prepaid cell phone plan. You can find out more here. You used to be able tell the difference between Tracfone, for example, and Alltel by looking at the pictures on their websites. While on Tracfone's website, there was an grown-up with her phone to her ear talking, on the Alltel prepaid home page on the Alltel site there was a smiling teenager looking at the cell phone in her hand.The girl was either sending a text message or using it for entertainment. Whom you identified with was a good indicator of which service you'll prefer. How things change. Later, the AlltelU web site featured a grown man wearing a sweater and collared T-shirt talking on his phone while the Tracfone web site sometimes shows links to video of teenagers walking through their high school. Don't know how that all worked out, but eventually Alltel has been bought by Verizon. However, you can still use Alltel prepaid phones and add minutes to your account via airtime cards bought from stores or via an online account. So let's go over if Alltel still might be right for U, uh, I mean, you. CoverageIf you peruse the old version of the Consumer Reports Guide to Carriers, you could see that Alltel prepaid got a good ratings even though Alltel used be one of the smaller full-fledged (i.e. they own their own network) carriers. Even then Consumer Reports mentioned that currently Alltel served only 26% of Americans while Verizon serves about 87%.The numbers for Verizon have gone up of course but Alltel may still be a good alternative when you can't get service from Verizon. Coverage MapYou can check the Alltel Prepaid coverage map here.Alltel Prepaid Roaming?The Alltel Prepaid roaming fee is 59 cents per minute on the pay by the day and pay by the month plans. There is no roaming fee specifically mentioned for the pay by the minute plan, but I assume it's there.PhonesYou could get Alltel prepaid phones at Walmart such as the Alltel U Prepaid R500 HUE by Samsung and 3 removable faceplates for $99.99 but you are better off choosing from a large selection of Alltel prepaid phones online.Rate Plans for Alltel Prepaid WirelessAlltel's rates are easy to understand in terms of usage but a little harder to understand when comparing them and when trying to figure out whether it will fit in your budget. They charge a $25 activation fee which adds to your cost.There are three plans:
Pay-per-minuteThe Alltel Pay-Per-Minute plan charges by the minute.Calls cost 15 cents per minute. Text messages cost 10 cents and picture messages cost 20 cents. There is a $25 activation fee. The minimum initial balance required when you sign up is $20. And finally there used to be a $4 per month usage charge but that seems to have been eliminated. The cost calculations are based on the previous rates as the expiration dates on the refill cards are not available on their new site. Minimum yearly costLet's compare the cost to a double minutes Tracfone, where a 1000 minutes (400 minutes 1-year card doubled plus 200 bonus minutes) costs $100:One year of Alltel's pay-per-minutes service, using 400 minutes will cost at least $173.00. This includes the activation fee($35), the monthly usage fee ($48 = $4 per month x 12 months) and calling charges (400 minutes x $0.15 per minute). You'll have pay more if some of those calls are roaming calls.
Alltel User ReviewHere's a Mom describing an Alltel LG AX155 she bought for her son.If you use many more minutes in a year though, then Alltel prepaid wireless may be a better deal for you than Tracfone, if you use one of their other plans. Pay-per-dayThere are three levels of pay-by-the-day plans - 75 cents per day, $1.00 per day and $1.25 per day.Anytime calls calls cost 10 cents per minute on all versions of the plans. There are four free calling options you can add to these plans - Nights and Weekends, Mobile to mobile, Favorite Number, and Free Text and Picture Messaging. The 75 cents per day lets you add two of those options, the $1 per day plan lets you add three of those options, and the $1.25 per day plan lets you add all four options. So, how does it add it? Minimum yearly costStill, the minimum cost for one year is $298.75 plus the actual cost of the number of daytime minutes.This includes the activation fee($25), the daily usage fee ($273.50 = $0.75 per day x 365 days), plus whatever number of daytime minutes * 10c per minute. Depending on how many daytime minutes you use, this can come out a little cheaper than a standard cell phone contract while still retaining the unlimited nights and weekends feature common in the standard contracts. You should consider this if you knew you will be making a lot of night and weekend long distance calls. Pay-per-monthThe pay-per-month is like a standard cell phone plan without the long-term contract. Alltel has recently introduced a $45 per month unlimited monthly plan which seems like a pretty good deal. It however has a slightly different coverage map than the rest of the other monthly plans. I checked out the map, and I couldn't really tell the difference visually, but it's something to keep in mind.Here are the other plans. 29.99 per month planWith this plan you get 300 daytime minutes and 1000 night and weekend minutes per month. If you go over this fairly generous allotment, you have to pay a whopping 35 cents for each additional minute.The minimum yearly cost is $360 plus taxes. 39.99 and 69.99 per month plansThere are also pay-per-month plans that cost $39.99 per month and $59.99 per month. You get more minutes and you aren't tied down to a long term contract. There's even a 69.99 per month plan.This is really a compromise between a standard cell phone contract and a prepaid cellular service. It may be useful if you just want to avoid a credit check -- not necessarily a bad idea if it's true that even with good credit, each credit check reduces your credit score. Alltel Credit CheckIf you are curious about whether you will pass a credit check, you go to the official annual credit report site set up jointly by the three main credit report companies. You don't need to buy any additional services. You can get one report from one of the three companies every four months to keep track throughout the year.Add Minutes to your Alltel Prepaid PhoneYou can add minutes to your airtime balance in a number of ways: buy prepaid airtime cards at a retail location, add to your balance online or directly via the phone, or you can go to an Alltel retail dealer.hBuy Airtime Cards at a Retail LocationMost big box stores like Walmart, Target etc., and even convenience stores and pharmacies carry airtime cards for Alltel Prepaid minutes.OnlineAlltel My PrepaidYou used to be able to go here to register with My Prepaid to be able to register your credit or debit card, check your balance and add airtime.Nowadays you can still add airtime online. See the answer to this question to see how. Via your phoneYou can add minutes to your prepaid phone directly once you set up the feature by registering your credit card or debit card with "MyPrepaid".Alltel Prepaid Bonus MinutesGet Alltel Prepaid bonus minutes everytime you add to your airtime balance using a credit card via MyPrepaid.Alltel Retail LocationAlltel Retail location have been converted to Verizon Wireless stores, but you can still go there add minutes. The only drawback, other than having to go there physically is that wasting your time checking out all the other phones and options, which is fun but you might come out of there with a lighter wallet.Alltel Activation and Activation FeesThe Alltel Activation fee is $25. You can activate your phone either online, at an Alltel retail location, or via (another) phone.Alltel Activation OnlineYou can also activate your Alltel prepaid phone online for which you may get some bonus minutes which helps offset the activation fee.Activation FeeThere is a $25 activation fee as mentioned earlier. You can get some of this back in two ways.Instant CreditWhen you order your phone online, you may get an Alltel Instant Credit rebate.Bonus MinutesIn addition, when you also activate your Alltel Prepaid phone online, you get additional bonus minutes which also help make up for the activation fee.Service Period and other Usage FeesYour service does not expire as long as you maintain your account balance, but there are usage fees.Monthly usage feeThere is (or was) a $4 per month usage charge for the pay-per-minute plan. So every month $4 is deducted from your airtime balance. (Have to confirm whether this is still true.)Daily usage feeEvery day your balance decreases by the amount of your daily usage fee.Text MessagingYou can send text messages either by phone or email.Sending an SMS phone to phoneWhen sending an to a phone you naturally enter the telephone number you wish to send it to.Sending an SMS to a phone via emailAs this forum post says, to send a text message to an Alltel prepaid phone via email, you send the email to:phone#@message.alltel.com where you enter the full nine digit phone number without any hyphens, spaces or brackets. VoicemailBasic voicemail is a standard feature on Alltel prepaid plans. You are charged minutes while accessing your voicemail.Note: You have to set up your voicemail greeting within 60 days of activation, or your voice mailbox will be deleted. Alltel Prepaid Voicemail InstructionsThere are two ways to get instructions for setting up your voicemail.Via phoneYou can dial #VML on your phone to hear instructions on how to set up your voicemail. Alternately, you can . .On the webGo to this Alltel setup page and on the lower left choose "Basic Voicemail", enter the first six digits of your Alltel Cell phone number, and click "Go" to receive the instructions.Thanks for reading this Alltel Prepaid review. If you've already tried this service, share it with the rest of us.
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