Hobby Phone Reccommendations

[gaijin1969]

I know it's been discussed often, but I haven't seen a recent thread on it so I thought I'd bring it up again. (I have heard that requirements for getting pre paid phones have changed after 9-11)

At any rate, for this discussion, let's say google voice and the like are out. (Data constraints.)

With that said, which of the current services offered are the most anonymous, as well as the best coverage? (Mainly local use only in WNY.)

Last time I got a trac phone, I don't remember needing a credit card to activate it. Just a minute reload card. I'm not sure what the requirements are now to activate a new line... and there were a lot of choices at Walmart, none of which jumped out at me as being the most hobby friendly. I would stick with an android phone, and noticed a couple services offered a good deal on the Moto E I think it was. (A budget friendly version of the Moto X phone.) Some offered rather generic touch screen phones from manufacturers I never heard of LOL as well as the stand by flip phone. Yes, there were Galaxy III's available as well, but I'm trying to keep it relatively cheap and I'm surprised they're still asking 100 bucks for a III, but it's a very serviceable phone still. Figure the Moto phone was 40 bucks on sale.

Anyways, recommendations?

If there was a current thread covering all this, feel free to point me in the right location instead of rehashing it all. Thanks for the help!

Oh, figure the vast majority of use would be texting and voice, with modest data requirements.

[cowboy8055]

Cheap throw away trac phone has worked fine for me.
Pay for phone and minutes with cash to avoid leaving an electronic trail.
Activate phone from a pay phone somewhere to avoid it being tracked back to you.
Don't answer personal questions when activating. The automated system will eventually skip over them.
I last did this a few years ago. Hope this helps.

[gaijin1969]

Originally Posted by cowboy8055

Cheap throw away trac phone has worked fine for me.
Pay for phone and minutes with cash to avoid leaving an electronic trail.
Activate phone from a pay phone somewhere to avoid it being tracked back to you.
Don't answer personal questions when activating. The automated system will eventually skip over them.
I last did this a few years ago. Hope this helps.

That's how it was when I got a Trac phone, geez, a long time ago. I was wondering if the process was the same. Thanks for the insight.

[Guest070916]

Originally Posted by gaijin1969

That's how it was when I got a Trac phone, geez, a long time ago. I was wondering if the process was the same. Thanks for the insight.

Pretty much the same. Got another one of them at Walmart and a sales guy there activated & got it up an running right in the store for me.

Just never use it to call 911, or charge it in your vehicle if it is OnStar capable! Doing that will linck it and ID you by your vehicle, rendering it useless for hobby phone purposes. This will happen even if you let OnStar lapse and don't even use it anymore! If this happens you may as well toss it and get another burner phone.

Gotta luv how fast tracking tech has developed!.....

[Lazy]

At the bottom of the TracFone "new online activation" page there is still the option to skip the personal information and activate service. Although I don't know if roaming in Canada is included.

[Guest101217]

I have a prepaid Verizon phone and it works great ....they have phones as cheap as $10-$15 and you can either buy a $45 refill card that covers the entire month and everything unlimited ...I have the Samsung galaxy j1 and love it !!

[blackhand315]

I would look into Freedompop service, you have to buy the phone , i bought an s5 for 180, the monthly service is free for 200 Mins, 500 text and 200 mb data. This is all free once you buy the phone. That's what I use for hobby phone, 200 Mins and 500 text is well enough, and for free how c an you go wrong

[Madame X]

Freedompop is a great idea... not such great execution imo. It took *so long* for me to get the phone that I ordered, and when it finally arrived I found that it was piggybacking off of the Sprint network, which has terrible coverage just about everywhere I ever go except Canada.

I bought a cheap LG Tracfone smartphone for about $20 and set it up right at the store where I purchased it. At the time they were offering a sale of triple airtime (including monthly plans) so I bought a stack of cards and put them in the account queue. Very good deal!

~Mme X~

[gaijin1969]

So far, looks like trac phone is winning... I like being able to set it up in the store, if it can be done as anonymously as the Web or pay phone. Unsure how helpful the kid behind the counter would be if they weren't as familiar with the set up process.

[Luvbubbles]

Trac phones work in canada - I have been able to get calls in Crystal Beach and Sundowner.

[Guest070916]

Originally Posted by Luvbubbles

Trac phones work in canada - I have been able to get calls in Crystal Beach and Sundowner.

Your lucky!
TracFone can get spotty after going a few miles deep into Canada. Werks pretty good when close to the US border though.

Here's a good site to get extra bonus minutes when adding minutes to TracFone. Been getting triple minutes all the time since using it:

http://tracfonereviewer.blogspot.com...omo-codes.html

[gaijin1969]

Good points everyone thank you!

[Guest070916]

On and the 5 buck TracFone was a Samsung with decent sound quality.

[yerassman2]

Straight talk at Walmart is excellent, the phone is 30 bucks, very limited internet but 1500 minutes a month and 50000 texts for 30 a month phone card. It has served me well in the Rochester and Buffalo areas. It is some how tied to Trac phone. XL recommended it to me last December.

[Tirolian]

Anyone use the burner app?