[?] Subscribe To This Site

XML RSS
Add to Google
Add to My Yahoo!
Add to My MSN
Subscribe with Bloglines


Home
Tracfone
Alltel Prepaid
Net10
Net10 Free Phone
About Me
Straight Talk
GoPhone
Jitterbug Phone
Kajeet
T-Mobile Prepaid
Cricket
Sprint Prepaid
Boost Mobile
Verizon
Virgin Mobile
Current Bargains
Alternatives
Cell Phone Cases
New and Updated
Feedback
Links
Privacy

Verizon Prepaid Cell Phones

Search this Site:

Verizon Inpulse prepaid cell phone plans come in four flavors: Basic, Core, Plus, and Unlimited Talk.

But before we look at the plans lets check out the . . .

Improved Coverage

According to Consumer Reports, Verizon has the best coverage overall nationwide. However, the prepaid coverage map is a little worse than their standard coverage map.

Here is the Prepaid Coverage Map in purple now (Sept. 2009) followed by the prepaid coverage map from a year or so ago. You can tell that it's improved quite a bit.

verizon prepaid coverage map

older verizon prepaid coverage map

Now let's compare it to the coverage map for contract plans:

verizon coverage map

The two types of coverage are now almost the same, so unless you're in an area that's not covered, this is no longer an issue.

Your Local Coverage

You can look at coverage in your local area by entering your zip code on their coverage locator (be sure to set the InPulse/EasyPay button).

Sample Local Coverage Map

We live in the Chapel Hill, NC area. Looking east to Wilmington Beach, Kittyhawk and the Outer Banks, coverage is pretty good with thick bands along most of the highways, with coverage even in the Outer Banks. They also provide a national coverage map. You are only considered to be roaming when you are outside their digital coverage area for your plan. So you can be outside your local area, but as long as you're within their national digital network, you're not roaming.

All in all, the coverage looks okay, except for some states out west which aren't covered that well by other carriers either.

All in all, the coverage looks okay, except for a few states which aren't covered that well by other carriers either.

If you do live in a sparsely populated area, then you might be better off with a standard Verizon plans with the slightly better coverage because you do need to be able to make your calls. In that case you can go for deals like this: Android Blow-Out Sale! Includes the Droid by Motorola only $19.99 through 4/30

So now let's look at the plans.

Basic Plan

The Basic plan is just what it says. There is no daily charge on the days you use it.

Calls

Basic prepaid calls cost 25 cents a minute, which is pretty high so you should consider this plan only if you really don't make calls every day.

Messages

Text messages cost 20 cents each to send and receive. So you don't want to receive texts every two minutes as some people do.

Still if you buy a $100 airtime card that's good for one year, then you'll get 400 minutes. A little less if you also receive a few text messages. All in all, this is not a good deal compared to plans from Tracfone, etc. So if you're a very occasional user, I still don't recommend this plan.

(Inpulse) Core Plan (99 cent plan)

Daily Usage Charge

This plan charges a daily access fee of 99 cents only on the days you use your Verizon prepaid phone. This comes to at most $31 per month if you use it every day, but less if you don't.

Calls

All domestic calls cost 10 cents per minute whether daytime or night-time. The roaming rate is 20 cents per minute.

Free Mobile-to-Mobile

The Core plan does allow unlimited free Mobile to Mobile calling with other Verizon customers. This makes it perfect for those friends and family members who also have Verizon phones (they don't have to be prepaid).

Text Messages

Text messages cost 10 cents each. Sending or receiving a text will probably trigger the 99 cent daily usage charge.

Yearly Cost

Because you are charged only on the days you use the phone, it's hard to estimate what your yearly cost would be without making some assumptions about your calling habits. If you use the phone every day you would have a minimum charge of $361.35 plus the activation fee of $25 plus 10 cents per minute of calls or text messages. If you use 600 minutes or text messages a year (less then 2 minutes a day) that comes to $60. This give an approximate minimum cost of $400 a year.

This would go down quite a bit if, you used the cell phone less than seven days a week and if your frequently called numbers were also Verizon customers.

I definitely recommend this plan if your friends and family already use Verizon and if you have infrequent (but long) phone talks with them on the phone. Compared to a contract plan or even to some of the other Verizon prepaid plans, you could save maybe $400-$500 a year or about the cost of a nice diamond ring like a 5/8 Carat Diamond Marquise 14kt Gold Bridal Set!

(Inpulse) Plus Plan

Daily Usage Charge

The Plus plan charges a $1.99 daily access fee only on the days you use the phone.

However, for the higher charge, you do get . . .

Calls

Free night-and-weekend minutes

The Plus plan gives you free night-and-weekend minutes. Nights start at 9:01 pm to 5:59 am) and the weekend starts at 9:01pm on Friday. That's admittedly a little late for some.

5 Cent Standard minutes

Daytime and weekend calls cost 5 cents per minute, and roaming calls still cost 20 cents per minute.

Activation fee and setup fee

There is also a $35 activation fee and a setup fee of either $15 or $20 depending on where you live.

Yearly cost

If you use the phone every day, the minimum yearly cost for this Verizon prepaid plan (including the activation and setup fee and 600 minutes) is a little more than $800 a year.

Adding airtime to your Inpulse account

You can buy up to five $30 or $50 refill cards at a time.

Depending on how much you add to your Verizon prepaid account balance, your minutes will expire in either 30, 60, 90 days or one year.

This plan could be great for someone who calls home on weekends.

Unlimited Talk Plan

Daily Usage Charge

The Power plan charges a whopping $3.99 daily access fee on the days you use the phone. For this even higher fee, you at least get . . .

Unlimited Calls

Unlimited calls include . . .

Unlimited night and weekend minutes

Night and weekend calls are free.

Unlimited moible to mobile calls

Call to Verizon customers are still free.

Unlimited daytime calls

Daytime calls are also free.

Text messages

Text messages cost 1 cent each.

Yearly Cost

If you use the phone every day, this will cost you . . .

3.99 x 365 days = 1456.35

Or about $1600 once you add the activation fee and a decent phone.

I wouldn't recommend this plan unless you use it for work, and you get back many times that amount in increased business. You can get a standard contract plan that will probably give you these same set of features for less than $100 a month.

Additional Costs

You can buy downloads, text messaging bundles, web surfing bundles for a reasonable fee.

Picture and Video Messages

Picture and video messages cost 25 cents each. These are apparently(?) not included in their . . .

Text messaging bundles

If you have a prepay plan that charges a lot for text messaging, and you know you're going to want to send and receive a lot of texts, then you can buy either a $20 a month bundle for unlimited mobile messaging to anyone in the US, or if you're mainly going to be texting some who has a Verizon phone, you can get their $10 a month bundle which also includes an additional 250 messages to anyone outside the Verizon network.

Mobile Web

It will cost you 99 cents per day. The day last for 24 hours. This is not bad. Having mobile web, means you can access most common email accounts like Yahoo, etc.

Ringback tones

Ringback tones cost 99 cents per month and 1.99 per year.

Music Downloads

It looks like it's cheaper to download songs to your PC and then upload them to your phone than dowloading them directly. Downloads to PC cost 99 cents. Downloads to phone cost 99 cents plus a 99 cent download fee.

There is again a $25 activation fee.

There is also a $25 activation fee. There used to be an additional setup fee of either $15 to $20, but it looks like that has now been eliminated.

Adding Inpulse Airtime

You can add Inpulse airtime by buying airtime refill cards online or in stores, or you can add minutes directly via a "My Prepay" account at Verizon's website.

Inpulse Airtime Refill Cards

You can buy airtime refill cards in many locations. The cards range in denomination for $15 to $100 and last from 30 days to one year for the $100 refill. Verizon has extended the length of some of the calling cards to match those of other companies.

Here are the current refill options:

30-day cards

If you buy airtime worth $15-$29.99 then your airtime expires in 30 days.

90-day cards

If you buy airtime worth $30 to $74.99 then your airtime expires in 60 days.

180-day cards

Airtime bought for $75-$99.99 expires in 90 days

And finally, airtime bought for $100 or more expires after one year. It makes sense then, to buy airtime in $100 increments especially if you don't use a cell phone all that much.

Buying Refill Cards Online Direct

If you want to buy individual refill cards, you can buy up to 5 $30 refill cards online. To buy refill cards in other quantities you have to look in retail stores.

For more flexibility, you should get a

Verizon Prepaid Account

You can get an online Verizon prepaid account called . . .

My Prepay

Signing up for a My Prepay account allows you to purchase and add airtime balance in various amounts to your phone without going to the trouble of purchasing airtime refill cards.

When you sign up for an account, you are asked if you want to receive any offers and promotions. Make sure you choose what you'd prefer there.

Phones

You can choose from a few phones which are constantly changing. A year ago you these phones ranged in cost from $50 for a basic Samsung Sch-U410 phone to $135 for a Samsung Alias phone. The Alias is hard to get but they now also have some other good phones like the LG VX5500 and the Motorola W755 with music player. You can also get them from retail locations such as Best Buy and Walmart.

Samsung Alias – SCH–u740

Verizon prepaid Samsung Alias SCH-u740The Verizon Inpulse Alias from Samsung is a Verizon Inpulse Prepaid cell phone which offers a QWERTY-style keyboard for composing text and email messages. The Qwerty keyboard is the main upgrade from the Razr offering. The phone which costs $135 also offer a 1.3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth capability. Like the Razr it has a slightly flat squarish look different from the more rounded looks of most flip-style cell phones.

You can see more Verizon Inpulse Prepaid phones here.

Do you get any free minutes?

Yes, you get 10-15 minutes upon activation (though there is an activation fee).

International Calling and Messaging

Calling

You can call internationally using your Inpulse phone. In most cases there is a surcharge added to your normal rate. Also you can actually make roaming calls from a few places like Puerto Rico, Mexico, Canada, the Virgin Islands and Bermuda.

To Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico is treated as being in the USA so there's no additional charge from making calls to Puerto Rico.

In Puerto Rico

Roaming calls made while you're in Puerto Rico cost 69 cents per minute.

To Mexico

Calls to Mexico landlines cost an additional 10 cents, and calls to Mexico cell phones cost an additional 29 cents per minute.

In Mexico

Roaming calls made while you're in Mexico cost 99 cents per minute.

Canada etc.

The same additional 29 cent charge also applies to Canada, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Saipan.

These rates are somewhat reasonable, but not the rates for calling anywhere else.

Rest of the World

It costs a whopping additional $1.49 to anywhere else in the world, which means you'd only do it out of desperation. Most of the time you'd want to use those calling cards with a toll-free number.

Text Messaging

Verizon has a good setup for sending international text messages from the USA. You can access it through their website as well and send a text message to almost any country. Clicking on their text message map brings up the various mobile networks in that particular country.

Mexico and Canada

It costs an additional 10 cents to send or receive a text messages from participating carriers in Mexico and Canada.

Rest of the World

It costs an additional 25 cents to send and receive a text message via participating carriers from elsewhere in the world.

This page allows you to select your country and click "Display" to see the list of carriers.

Okay, so International calling is acceptable for Mexico, Canada and some protectorates. For any other country, you're better off using another phone or buying an international calling card.

Promotions

You can get discounts for purchasing Verizon prepaid cell phones directly from their website.

Porting your number

Since offering local number portability is the law of the land, you can port your current cell phone or home phone number to Verizon. (Note if you port your home phone number, that line will be disconnected.)

Customer Service Phone Number

Here's the customer service phone number as well as a link to their forums.

Customer Service - Pay As You Go

To get Verizon Prepaid customer service you can either:

Dial *611 from your cell phone

or Call

(888) 294-6804

Customer Forums

Use their customer forums to find out if others are having similar issue. This forum is for all voice and broadband issues, but the search button seems pretty effective for finding a particular issue.

Thanks for reading this Verizon (Inpulse) Prepaid review.

Customer Reviews

Check out these Verizon prepaid customer reviews.

Do you already use Verizon Inpulse Prepaid? Tell us about it!

Your Verizon Prepaid Review

Share your experience with Verizon Prepaid!

Enter Your Title

What Other Visitors Have Said

Click below to see contributions from other visitors to this page...

Verizon prepaid not very economical  starstarstarstarstar
I tried the Verizon prepaid plans (got sick of cell contracts quite a while ago) but found that even though they offer great network coverage, they are ...

Misleading: This site needs updating.  starstarstarstarstar
I have had good experiences with verizon wireless. There are often down times where they are updating there systems. When this happens you can still make ...

Problems with Verizon Prepaid and Customer Support  starstarstarstarstar
I have a Verizon Prepaid Phone, A LG VX5500. Rather nice phone to use and I like it. My problem has been with the Corp Store sale people in Holland, MI ...

Problems refilling Verizon prepaid plan for college student  starstarstarstarstar
I have a Verizon prepaid phone for my daughter in college. She has the Inpulse Core plan with an added unlimited texting bundle. Since most of her calls ...

Grandfathered Verizon Free-Up Plan  starstarstarstarstar
I am fortunate to have the older Verizon Free-Up pre-paid plan. I've had this plan for more than 10 years and I am very satisfied with it. I don't pay ...

Very happy with prepaid Samsung Juke  starstarstarstarstar
I've had my prepaid, Samsung Juke, phone for 3 months and am very happy with it and my prepaid service.

I used to have a cell phone, with a contract,...

Verizon Inpulse a good deal for parents and kids  starstarstarstarstar
My husband & I recently made the switch. Fairly happy we did. Most everyone we know is on the Verizon network, so at $.99/day (only when we use it) we ...

My View on Verizon INpulse  starstarstarstarstar
I just left Verizon INpulse not long ago but I slightly miss it. For the exception of the rates, INpulse is a major improvement over companies like Virgin ...

Replenish Verizon Prepaid from outside USA ?  Not rated yet
I have a Verizon prepaid phone for travel in the usa. I live in nova scotia canda and cannot reload minutes with a major credit card through verizon 611 ...

Verizon's prepay phones perfect for the kids  Not rated yet
Verizon's prepay phones are perfect for parents like me! Phone plans tend to be a little too expensive for your average teenage child, yet some parents ...

Verizon prepaid very expensive...not worth the money!  Not rated yet
I bought a Verizon Inpulse Prepaid phone when I moved to a new area and was unsure of the carrier I wanted to use. I thought the Verizon prepaid phone ...


footer for verizon page