Cell Phone For Emergency Use Only

[spigidygak]

Use your old one or buy one from them.
-dial 911 FREE
-make a calling card call
-make a credit card call
-make a collect call
-make a pre-paid debit card call
-save $250 a year

No contracts and no monthly service fees.
Reprogramming your old cell phones is $9.00 plus $3.95 S&H.

http://www.emergencycellphones.com/

[Speedfreak]

Hmm... maybe I should switch. This seems to be the only reason I ever use my cell, anyways.

[Sandman]

Looks like a great gift for a loved one and good use of that ole analog cell phone lying around...

[jng]

Great Find spigidygak!!!!

[WhiskeyPapa]

Maybe I'm missing something, but where I live, you can do all that with any non-activated cell phone. In fact, it's a federal law that all cellular carriers allow 911 calls from any cell phone, activated or not.

If you try to make a "normal" call from a non-activated phone, you get an AT&T operator who will allow you to pay by credit card, AT&T calling card, or place a collect call. It's $1.99 per minute, but that's not so bad if you don't use it much.

In my opinion, this place is just selling inactive cell phones just like you can buy on eBay or at garage sales.

As for "reprogramming" your phone, I've switched phones 3 times, and each time, the old phone can be used to do all this stuff without spending $9 to get it "reprogrammed".

[johnnymk]

Does anyone know about the calling card thing? Is there an additional charge if you use a calling card?

[Rettirc]

Now we need a deal on a wireless prepaid calling card! LOL

[spigidygak]

Originally posted by kb0wwp
Maybe I'm missing something, but where I live, you can do all that with any non-activated cell phone. In fact, it's a federal law that all cellular carriers allow 911 calls from any cell phone, activated or not.

If you try to make a "normal" call from a non-activated phone, you get an AT&T operator who will allow you to pay by credit card, AT&T calling card, or place a collect call. It's $1.99 per minute, but that's not so bad if you don't use it much.

In my opinion, this place is just selling inactive cell phones just like you can buy on eBay or at garage sales.

As for "reprogramming" your phone, I've switched phones 3 times, and each time, the old phone can be used to do all this stuff without spending $9 to get it "reprogrammed".

I don't know about that man, where did you read that it was a Federal Law? I've had numerous of inactive cell phones gather dust, and if I tried to make a regular call, I get no operator or anything like you descriped. And when I tried to dial 911. . . probably not smart of me :eek:, nothing.

[Rettirc]

From customer support at Emergency Cell:

These emergency phones are truly only for those once in a while calls, not
for ordering a pizza, etc. A typical call will be $1.95 per
minute. This is the roaming charge and access fee. You are charged this by
the cellular provider who ends up getting your call from the operator
(example Cellular One, Verizon Wireless, etc.) For emergency-use only you
are still way ahead, since you don't get a monthly bill of $20 or more. The
cost per year is LOW! We recommend this method for those that will only use
it for flat tires, fender benders, car breakdown, etc.

Example: Your car breaks down, you spend 5 minutes to call road side
assistance. This costs you about $10. If this happened twice
a year, you have only spent $20 for the year on cellular costs.
If you don't break down at all, your costs are nothing! 911 calls
are FREE.

Now if you need to make calls frequently, or take incoming calls,
we recommend our AT&T prepaid wireless phone. The calls on this
phone are roughly .42 per minute which includes long distance
and roaming, takes incoming calls, and the phone can be used anywhere
in the USA, and make international calls. This can be used for
an emergency phone, but also much more. Mostly it all depends
on your needs.

[mrm]

It's true. You can dial 911 or 611 from ANY cell phone, anywhere you can get a signal, activated or not. Furthermore, you can place a credit card/calling card call from any cell phone activated or not. I have programmed cell phones. These guys are just making $9 to do something that takes like 2 minutes. All they do is erase the old phone number out of the ROM on the phone. Don't take my word for it. Try it yourself. Find an unactivated cell phone and give it a whirl. Or just disconnect yours. It AUTOMATICALLY forwards you to an operator when you try and make a call. Unless there is something physically wrong with your cell phone, it will work.

[asian_panda]

i think this is only good if you end up making a couple calls per month. but if your 'emergency' comes up more than that, probably getting a regular cell phone is better.

for me, living in CA, i paid $30/mo, but get a free phone that is much lighter :) now it's even better, i got 300peak, 1000offpeak min that i can use for long distance. so i cancelled long distance carrier from my home. i end up saving about $10/mo from this switch, and get a newer model phone :)

[Edited by asian_panda on 09-14-2000 at 11:35 AM]

[NiceMann]

Has anyone tried a pre-paid service? I hardly ever talk on the phone, but I am a manager of a grocery store and sometimes have to travel a couple cities to hope out another one of my stores. I do highway and back road driving and never had problems with my car. [knock on wood] I really need to get a cell phone for emergencys but it would also be nice to have something like pre-paid so people can me if they really need me. (Sometimes its an hour or so drive between stores).

I was looking at that pre-paid cellular plan....any advice? Like I said I don't need a true cell plan (I hate talking on the phone, don't even do it at home).

~NiceMann

[cougarls88]

Couple of clarifications:

AT&T lets you go 180 days before you have to purchase another card (or if you use it up before then, obviously), regardless if you buy the cheapest card or the most expensive (Verizon goes by the denomination you buy--higher denomination=longer expiration). Cost per minute on the AT&T varies from around .40 per min to around .90 per minute depending on what denomination card you buy (higher denomination cards have cheaper per minute rates). BTW, it appears that there's a $50 rebate + $25 Old Navy GC on the Nokia phone they offer (till the end of the month). Takes the price down to $95 + you have the GC to spend.

Tracfone is a ripoff, IMO...it sounds good until you actually read into it. Minimum cost per month would be of the lowest preaid card ($7.99), which has to be recharged once a month (in other words, you buy another one), and roaming costs you 4 minutes for every minute you're on the phone--you're looking at around $4.00 a minute roaming if you're buying just the low denomination cards (even a credit card call would be cheaper--sheesh!), and you only get 10 units of time on the $7.99 card (10 minutes local/long distance or around 2 minutes roaming)

[Edited by cougarls88 on 09-16-2000 at 06:58 AM]

[NiceMann]

Originally posted by chosenfool
Im using verizon, only because for $100, your talk time is 285 minutes, and you have 150 days to use it (the longest time ive seen). The phone is a refurb (starts at $20), but works well (you have a choice - if youre in the east coast go to your local verizon store, there is more selection).[/B]

Thanks Verizon seems like the right choice for me. Just one question how did you get your 150 days before your time expires? I have looked around and the only thing I can see is that you have to add more time within 60 days. That's still not bad 365 days a year / 60 day *$25 (smallest card)=$152 a year. Still not bad at all. But of course with yours I would get a lot more talk time.

Thanks once again!!

~NiceMann

[Edited by NiceMann on 09-16-2000 at 10:51 PM]

[NiceMann]

Oh and one more thing chosenfool if you are around....do you use an analog phone? I'm not planing on using mine too much so I probably will go with the cheapest.

~NiceMann

[Y2J]

Analog phone plans usually are higher priced than Digital phone plans. It all evens out because digital phones cost more than analog ones.