T-Mobile Prepaid Cellular Service

Summary

The T-Mobile prepaid cell phone plans offer some great rates and phones.

Rates

Each T-Mobile prepaid cell phone comes with 60 minutes of airtime upon activation. After that you can refill them in increments of:

$10 for 30 minutes of airtime expiring in 30 days
$25 for 130 minutes expiring in 90 days
$50 for 400 minutes also expiring in 90 days, and
$100 for 1000 minutes expiring in one year.

Text messages cost 10 cents to send and are free to receive.

You can keep your number if you refill your account within 90 days after your minutes expire. This is good.

The $100 card gives you 1000 minutes which are good for one year. This is a great deal compared to Tracfone based solely on minutes. As long as you are in an area they cover, I would snap it up.

If you get the cheapest phone starter kit for $50 and the $100 card, that should go a long way for just $150

Refill cards are available online and at convenience stores such as Circle K and 7-Eleven, pharmacies like Eckerd and Walgreens, and superstores like Walmart, Costco and Office Depot.

Online, you can even buy minutes for someone else, a convenience if you've got children away in college or summer camp.

Phones

There are starter kits ranging in price from $29.99 for a Nokia 6030 to $199.99 for a Motorola Razr V3 to $399 for a Sidekick. As you can see, there are a couple of camera phones included.

The starter kits include some free airtime and some accessories.

Coverage

T-Mobile says it covers 90% of the U.S. population. My town in North Carolina is included in the "roaming coverage" area. I'm not sure if they include that in their 90%. As always, you have to check out the coverage for T-Mobile Prepaid phones for yourself by punching in your address or zipcode on their website.

For example, I used a borrowed T-Mobile phone on a car trip from Western New Jersey to Buffalo, New York. Despite going through some pretty rural areas, their coverage and signal was quite good. If they had better coverage in North Carolina, I would have gone with them

Check it out for yourself.

OK, so, once you've checked out that their coverage is okay for you, then you should consider going with them.

International Calls

You can make international calls from the U.S. at higher airtime rates. You cannot make calls when outside the U.S. on a T-Mobile prepaid plan, but that capability may be added soon.

Thanks for reading this T-Mobile review.

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