Consumer Cellular ReviewTaking its Own MedicineSearch This Site: And it turns out that these easy-to-use plan are excellent for . . . DiscountsSeniors (AARP Discount)Consumer Cellular is the exclusive cell phone provider the AARP. If you are already a member you get a 5% discount on your phones and service and a 30% discount on accessories. In fact, if you sign up for the Consumer Cellular's $30 a month plan, then just the discount would pay for a year’s membership, making you eligible for other discounts as well (such as a big discount on a Nintendo Wii which may be of some interest to someone in your family).One other way they appeal to you with . . . AAA DiscountAAA members get a free earbud, and free roadside assistance calls with the AAA roadside assistance number PRE-PROGRAMMED into your phone. In addition, you get a 30% discount on select accessories, and a 45 day/45 minute warranty instead of standard 30 day/30 minute warranty.Good Sam RV ClubConsumer Cellular has a partnership with the Good Sam RV Club. Specific discounts are not listed, but do contact Consumer Cellular and request the discounts offered to either AARP or AAA members.Standard No-Contract BillingYou get a standard paper bill every month rather than having to constantly buy airtime refill cards as you might with a prepaid phone. Because there's no contract, you can cancel at any time without any termination fees, and you can also change your plan at any time.Simple Rate PlansTheir rates plans cost either $10, $20, $30, $40, $50 or $60 a month. No "29.99" a month plans from them.$10 a Month PlanIn most of Consumer Cellular ads you’ll see their rates advertised as being as low as $10 a month, and it’s true they do have such a plan. If you use your phone only for emergencies but want to make sure you have an active phone and don’t want the hassle of refilling your phone with airtime cards every couple of months as you would with a regular prepaid phone, then you can opt for their $10 a month service.For any actual calls you pay an additional 25 cents a minute. If you make a lot of calls you’ll end up paying quite a lot. But don’t worry, you can always change your plan and move up to plans that give a fixed set of minutes. Additional minutes still cost 25 cents each. $20 to $50 a month plansWhen you choose a $20, $30, $40 or $50 a month plan, you get 250 to 1500 minutes a month with additional minutes costing 25 cents each.$60 a Month PlanWith the most expensive plan, you get 2000 minutes, but also, additional minutes cost 10 cents each rather than 25 cents.There's a big advantage to having these simple plans, but there's also one cost. Cost of SimplicityNo Free Night and Weekend MinutesOne way that these plans are simplified is that there is one standard set of monthly minutes and one rate for additional minutes. There are no features like free night and weekend minutes. With other plans, even prepaid plans from Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile, you can get some form of night and weekend minutes free.With these other plans how much you get charged depends, for example, on how many days a month you use the phone. This can be good if you would like to make long cell phone calls in the evenings. Then you would get the cheapest plan that still had that feature – this usually works out to about $30 a month plus taxes. On the other hand, if you mainly want to simplify and control your cell phone costs then Consumer Cellular could be for you. So let's take a look at the . . . Phones – High Quality, Low PriceConsumer Cellular offers an attractive set of phone starting including a FREE basic flip phone. For $40 to $50 you can choose a video-capable, Bluetooth phone with an MP3 player.Free No-Contract PhoneMotorola W259You can get a Motorola W259 flip phone free when you sign up. The W259 is a basic flip phone with external lighted indicators for calls, messages, and battery life. You can use it for calls and text messages but not for surfing the web. Nokia 6085h $20Nokia 6085h for $20 is considered a senior-friendly flip phone because is has large raised buttons for easy dialing. It’s got a camera as well, and you can even use it with a hands-free Bluetooth headset. The screen is also a little bigger. The external screen shows you who’s calling so you can whether you want to answer it.Nokia 2680 $20The Nokia 2680 is a slider-style phone that has a digital camera and is also compatible with a Bluetooth headset.Motorola EM330 $40The Motorola EM330 has a 1.3 megapixel digital camera and an mp3 music player. At $40, this is a good deal. It comes in blue-and-white or gray-and-black.Motorola KRZR $50This has a better 2 megapixel camera to go with it’s music player.If you plan to have your Consumer Cellular phone for a year or two, you may as well choose the EM330 or the KRZR so you can take pictures or listen to music. You can use your phone for up to 30 minutes or 30 days (45 days and minutes for AARP members) and still send it all back and get a refund for everything except the . . . Activation Fee: $35There is a non-refundable $35 activation fee. So it’ll cost you at most $35 to try out the service.In addition to the basic rate plans, you can add on packages for text messages and web surfing. Text Messaging and Web Surfing PackagesText messages cost 10 cents each to send or receive, though you can also decline to activate text messages if you’re sure you don’t want them.Do you think you will send more than a text message a day perhaps receive them from (just as an example) from a teenage relative? Then you may want to get a text message package. Messaging PackagesYou can sign up for the following message packages:Message packages:
And finally a Similarly, you can sign up for web packages. Web Surfing PackagesYou can sign up for the following packages:
Realistically, you’re either the kind of person who checks the web a lot from their phone, which means you could try the $20 a month package to see if it works for you, or you can wait until you’re in front of your computer. It’s also not clear whether you can only check the websites they let you check such as USA Today and CNN or whether you can check any website you want. The megabyte allowance is difficult since you have no way of knowing how many you’ve used or how many bytes it takes to view a particular webpage. In any case, you can probably forget about checking any YouTube videos. Once you go over your allotment, it costs 1 cent per kilobyte, which can add up pretty fast, and after receiving your bill you might be making a call to . . . . Customer ServiceConsumer Cellular offers both live customer support as well as other resources such as list of frequently answered questions and tutorial videos.Support Phone Number 1-888-345-5509You can reach Consumer Cellular Customer Support at 1-888-345-5509 from 5 am to 6 pm Pacific Time on weekdays and 6 am to 5pm PT on weekends. Overall, as long as you stick with their basic plans you shouldn’t have any problems. International CallingThere are two kinds of international calls you can make with Consumer Cellular, one kind which you should try to avoid, and the other kind you should DEFINITELY avoid.Calls from the US to other countriesFor calls from the US to other countries you are charged your usual minutes plus an additional fee which varies depending on where you’re calling but seems to run at least 20 cents per minute extra. These rates are more expensive than what you would normally pay if you used a special service or calling card. So you would normally try to avoid these calls. (Don't Make) Calls Made from Outside the USCalls from outside the United States are charged exorbitant roaming rates of at least $1 to $3 a minute. Even worse, if someone calls you, you are charged even if you don’t answer the phone! So the motto with a Consumer Cellular phone when traveling abroad is to “Leave Home Without It!” Why Consumer Cellular Could Be For YouNot for You?So this is probably NOT for you if you
or For YouOn the other hand, if you want
and then Consumer Cellular may be a good choice for you. And, again, if you are eligible for an AARP discount, you should grab it. If you don’t have an AARP membership, it easy to sign up. A member will make you eligible for further discounts even including goodies for children or grandchildren or even yourself! Referrals - Refer a FriendWith the Refer a Friend program, customers earn $10 for each friend or family member they refer.Guest ReviewsAlready using this service? Tell us about it!Your Consumer Cellular ReviewsShare your opinion about this no-contract plan! What Other Visitors Have SaidClick below to see contributions from other visitors to this page...
Consumer Cellular Benefits for AAA Members
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