Technology: Cell phones for a song, just in case

Cell phones for a song, just in case

The malls are a lot less crowded these days. But there's one fascinating exception: phone centers, which are doing a thriving business.

©New York Times

Many of the new customers are what cell phone companies call glove box users: people who have no intention of walking around with a handset grafted to their temples but who want to keep a phone in the glove compartment for emergency use. In the new national mood of vulnerability, a lot of people are grasping for whatever straws of security they can find.

Not all of them are phone shopping in anticipation of another skyline-changing cataclysm, of course. But "just in case" and "be prepared" have more urgent meanings these days, even if the emergencies are the same ones that have always made cell phones attractive: car breakdowns, power failures in cordless-phone-only homes, orchestrating pickups of children. The cell phone also is useful when the emergency is someone else's. When you're a witness to an accident or crime, the cell phone lets you call for help. (On any cell phone, 911 calls are free and never use up monthly minutes.)

For many cell-less Americans, the greatest impediment to signing up for a phone is the cost. Monthly cell phone fees average $45 and can run as high as $200. With a little digging, however, it's possible to uncover much more economical deals for the infrequent user.

Here, for example, is a pleasant loophole that may surprise you: Any cell phone that ever had service in the past, even a dusty, deactivated one, can still call 911. In other words, you can equip yourself with a genuine-emergency lifeline for next to nothing. All you have to do is get your hands on one of the 25-million retired cell phones rattling around in America's junk drawers. (If you don't have access to such a drawer, at a friend's house or even your own, used cell phones are going for about $20 on eBay.)

But not every kind of emergency requires the attention of the fire, police and rescue squads. When you're lost on the way to a wedding, or you're running late, or Blockbuster doesn't have the movie your spouse sent you to pick up, the number you want to dial may not be 911.

In these cases, you need a less limited emergency phone. The key to spending very little in this category is the prepaid cell phone. Under this arrangement, you pay for service by the minute, not by the month. You buy minutes in advance, usually in $25 to $100 chunks, either by calling a toll-free number with a credit card or by buying a refill card at a phone center or convenience store and plugging its code into your phone.

Once you own those minutes, you have 60 or 90 days to use them. At that point, any unused minutes expire, and your phone lies dormant until you buy another refill. There's one exception: If you buy a refill before your minutes die, they are reborn, joining the newly purchased minutes for another 60 or 90 days.

Prepaid calling plans have a tarnished reputation, partly because you wind up paying much more per minute than you would on a monthly plan, usually 15 to 35 cents, depending on how much you spend on each refill.

You can buy TracFone's phone-in-a-box, for example, for as little as $20 (after rebate) at almost any electronics or computer store. Then the fun begins.

If you care about keeping a single phone number for incoming calls, you must feed your TracFone a steady diet of refill cards, which you can buy every month or two ($8 to $100 per card, good for 10 to 300 minutes) or one $100 card a year (good for 100 minutes). A moment with a calculator will show those minutes to be staggeringly expensive, up to 80 cents each. Note, too, that TracFone relies on the older analog cell network, meaning that you don't get caller ID, three-way calling or the other digital extras. (Digital TracFones are coming soon.) On the other hand, you have a working cell phone for as little as $96 a year, putting you well ahead of the $240 annual bill, plus steep taxes, you'd pay for the least expensive traditional plan. (AT&T's prepaid phone service costs about the same, four $25 refill cards can keep your phone in service for a year, which works out to a more reasonable 35 cents a minute.)

But you can save even more money. Both AT&T and TracFone give you a grace period (six weeks and 16 weeks, respectively) after you've let your minutes expire without buying new ones, during which you still maintain your phone number. Only after that is your account closed.

With a little effort, then, the emergency-use-only customer can play a very economical game. Buy a $20 TracFone, for example, and an $8 refill card. Wait out the four-month grace period before buying another $8 refill, which keeps you in the game for another four months. This routine involves monitoring the phone's display, which shows you how many minutes you have left and when you must buy another card to avoid having your account closed. But three cards can last the entire year. After buying the phone, you'll pay only $25 a year for a bona fide cell phone that's there when you need it.

But the least expensive cell phone plan of all awaits those who don't care about maintaining the same phone number. Buy a TracFone or one of AT&T's Free2Go prepaid phones ($100, including a digital Nokia phone and $50 for about two hours of calls). Don't buy any minutes, ever. Eventually, AT&T or TracFone will close your account and give away your old phone number, but that's no big deal. When an emergency arises, you can pull the phone out of the glove compartment, call AT&T or TracFone toll-free and buy some minutes on the spot, thus reactivating your account (albeit with a new phone number). Presto: You have the freedom to call anywhere in a pinch. And if that day never arrives, you haven't paid a nickel for cell phone service.

All that may sound like a lot of effort to save a few bucks, and the phone companies are understandably unenthusiastic about this scheme (while admitting that it's perfectly legal). But hey, time is money.

The final alternative is signing up for a traditional pay-by-the-month contract. Every carrier offers one rock-bottom, restrictive $20-per-month program.

Caveat caller: Before you sign up for any cell phone plan, confirm that the carrier has service in your area. If you travel, ask how much extra you'll have to pay for roaming (using the phone outside your home region or outside the carrier's own network). Ask about long-distance calls, which, in the bottom-tier price plans, sometimes carry a steep surcharge. Also ask what happens if you ditch your carrier before a year is up (you usually get socked with a $150-to-$200 fee).

Finally, note that many glove box users find that having a cell phone for use only in emergencies is like keeping a bowl of chocolates on the kitchen table "for guests." Sooner or later, you won't be able to resist dipping in.

Fortunately, you're free to upgrade or downgrade your cell phone plan at any time, without charge. You can even convert a prepaid phone into one with a monthly contract. So if you buy a phone for emergency use but wind up becoming addicted to its convenience, you wouldn't be the first. You're safe either way.

The malls are a lot less crowded these days. But there's one fascinating exception: phone centers, which are doing a thriving business.