> So far I have resisted getting a cell phone for myself. Wife & daughters > insist on having one, so that I am paying about $150/month for same. Don't > want to add on to my plan since it requires another 2-year contract, plus > wifey will be constantly calling me for help, for chitchat, and for no reason > other than she's bored. (I don't like to talk on any telephone since meaning > of words is ambiguous without visual communication.)
If you already have a family plan from one of the major cell phone providers, adding a 3rd line for about $10 per month is among the cheaper alternatives. You can get prepaid plans with a $99 or cost for a year, but the cost savings would be minimal. Other prepaid plans like tracfone have low costs upfront but then you either need a yearly plan or have to buy a $99 card good for one year. I suggest if you want no texting that it's relatively easy to accomplish with ATT & Verizon, both apparently allow individual lines to have texts blocked or only allow texts from certain individuals/phone lines. As for not wanting to chit-chat, the easy solution is to set the ringer to silent. You can see who called you and call back when it's convenient. Alternatively you can just turn off the phone. The downside to turning off the phone is that in a real emergency, you may miss your wife/kid trying to reach you. With your phone on silent or off, you would have to develop a habit of regularly checking your phone for either voice mail or to see who called. I strongly suggest getting a phone plan which allows nationwide calling without any roaming charges, it can get really expensive if for example you end up in either NC or MD and need to make a call suddenly. International calling is likely irrelevant to you. Tmobile does allow you to buy a card which in effect gives you a phone for a year or until your minutes run out, for that matter so does the Tracfone subsidiary Net10 among others. ************************************************************************* ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *************************************************************************
