Coffeesister’s Budget Tip for Fulltimers: Choose Virgin Mobile
Posted by: Rene in Spending Money, Full-Timing Tips, Work, Live
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My friend Coffeesister just can’t contain her excitement about Virgin Mobile’s cell phone service. Like us, she and hubby Rhodester are on a really tight budget. Yet, she has a phone that’s way cooler than ours, and a plan that costs about half of what ours does, for around the same amount of minutes.
She uses Virgin’s “Pay as You Go” option, which allows you to add minutes to your phone either online or at Target. Virgin uses the Sprint network, so coverage is good. One of the best parts about Virgin: no contracts, ever, even if you choose one of their competitive monthly plans.
When you start making plans to become a full-time road tripper, one of the things you’ll want to analyze before leaving is your current cell phone coverage. Do you have the kind of plan that will give you the flexibility you’ll need when traveling across the country? How much coverage does your current provider’s roaming network have?
I just learned that the town we’ll be workamping in this summer has terrible cell phone coverage. Since our antique phone will be sitting idle all summer, why should we pay our $65 bill every month when we’re not even using our minutes? Thanks to Coffeesister, we’re going to make the switch and save some money. I like that!
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April 19th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
WOW, uh..
April 19th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
Very cool! Who knew I’d inspire a whole post, not just a mention? Tis an important tip tho’, if I do say so myself.. ~_^ The lack of contracts mixed w/really decent prices creates the ability to change up one’s service month to month. Rhodester & I have different monthly services whereas our best friend lives across the pond & only pays for a month of service when he’s going to be stateside. The fact that Virgin’s an eco-conscious company certainly doesn’t hurt; don’t forget to recycle those old mobiles. ^_^
|_|) “This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.” ~ Western Union internal memo, 1876
PS: Fun fact - include the phone # of a current Virgin Mobile user as you register your new mobile @ http://www.virginmobileusa.com to provide some free minutes. Mine available at request via dorian [at] coffeesister [dot] com - heh.
April 21st, 2008 at 1:50 pm
Wow. I wish we’d seen this sooner. We let my mom negotiate contracts for four phones and ended up with unlimited minutes, free roaming and $40 per phone. You can’t deny she got a good deal, but we just don’t need that level of service. I want a $15 a month bill already!