Another cell phone question

I can't for the life of me remember who the cell phone guru here is, but I have another question. My wife and I have sprint. One smart phone, one dumb phone. We need a third line for VERY occasional use. Basically, the kids are old enough to be left at home alone for a short time and we need a phone for that time. I have an iPhone 3G. What's the cheapest way to get that activated? It doesn't need to be with sprint, just cheap.

Thanks.

You have WIFI at home? VOIP - no phone plan needed.

Datsun1500 wrote: Cheapest way will be to add it to the sprint plan, if you have a shared plan set up.

Unless it's unlocked, it is not the cheapest way- that ish can be expensive. I'd say go with the VOIP thing and make sure it stays at home.

Yeah, it should have wifi. I am getting it in a day or two.
Who can edumicate me on VOIP?

looks like something along these lines

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mobilevoip-cheap-calls/id362528311?mt=8

The advise you are getting here is good.
Voip would be the cheapest and will stay in the house. (I don't know Voip so others will keep the advise coming.)

I do know cell. As mentioned, adding another user onto your Sprint account will be the cheapest. You can do this with a non-smartphone (referred to as Feature Phones) and you will not see upcharges for data.

Caution and I do not know the answer...If you add another line to your Sprint account, will that second line be held to a two years contract?
I suspect yes, if you "take" something like a free phone. Ask and verify that if you bring in a spare handset that you already have, will there be a contract time period tied to that handset?
What about any extension of the primary contract?

If you do not have a spare Sprint handset, just say the word and I will provide you with one like this which is a solid choice for simple calling. The AT&T iPhone that you have will not easily work on the Sprint system.

Word of caution #2: Your oldest kid could very well see this as "their phone." If that becomes the case, expect that the young'en will want to do a lot of texting and surfing from the handset so choose equipment appropriately.
Your first thought may be that the 'lil one does not need this but you may also find that keeping a handset in that small pocket can make keeping tabs on them and coordinating school pick ups an drop offs that much easier.

if the phone is unlocked something like this might be cheaper then even the basic basic sprint plan

http://www.puretalkusa.com/mobile-flex-plan.php

prepaid... get the cheapest plan and you might not even need to refill it every month... the T Mobile prepaid plan that i had for about 5 years was as cheap as i wanted it to be- i could put a $10 card on it and that time was good forever until i used up the minutes.. i think it cost me on average over that time maybe $50 every 6 months or so.. about a year ago, i "upgraded" to a prepaid $50 monthly unlimited 3G plan and a $150 "not very smart" phone because i do a lot more texting and i became addicted to something called "facebook"... i'm not sure if T Mobile even knows my name after all this time, but i'm cool with that..

I use www.ting.com and find it to be the cheapest. You pay $6 a month for the line and the minutes, text and data are charged in different brackets each depending how much you use them. https://ting.com/rates

So if you use less than 100 minutes a month and no text or data is $6 plus $3 for the minutes, plus taxes less that $5.

It uses the Sprint network, so you can usually transfer phones from sprint to it. That is what I just did for my mother as she does not use it much at all, we turned on an old feature phone so that she can always have it in her pocket even around the house.

This is not a canoe. I'm just a happy customer that likes the simplicity and cheapness of it. Myself I have a samsung smartphone with them and normally spend less than $40 a month. Except this month since I turned it on as a hot spot on a trip for my wife to use her laptop on it.

You can plug in what you think you would use and it will tell you the cost.

NoBrakesRacing wrote: I use www.ting.com and find it to be the cheapest. You pay $6 a month for the line and the minutes, text and data are charged in different brackets each depending how much you use them. https://ting.com/rates So if you use less than 100 minutes a month and no text or data is $6 plus $3 for the minutes, plus taxes less that $5. It uses the Sprint network, so you can usually transfer phones from sprint to it. That is what I just did for my mother as she does not use it much at all, we turned on an old feature phone so that she can always have it in her pocket even around the house. This is not a canoe. I'm just a happy customer that likes the simplicity and cheapness of it. Myself I have a samsung smartphone with them and normally spend less than $40 a month. Except this month since I turned it on as a hot spot on a trip for my wife to use her laptop on it. You can plug in what you think you would use and it will tell you the cost.

Thanks canoe haha. No really, thanks. I will look into that. I expect it to be near 0 minutes a month because it'll only be used for when my wife and I are at home and the kids are home alone. At their ages, that's no longer than 20 minutes right now. So, it'd really only be used in to dial 911 or to tell me that her brother took her Barbie or some other emergency

the last place i lived, the land line phone was only a couple of bucks a month since i had it bundled with the internet and cable tv... the bonus to this is that you know that they are in the house if they answer the phone- especially if you get a proper phone with a cord..

anyone looked at Republic yet?

i heard Clark Howard talking about them...