I recently had to purchase a new cell phone. I work in a rural county and my regular cell phone company does not offer service there. It is a major company, but service is poor in rural areas. For Christmas, my husband bought and activated a Net 10 cell phone for me as Christmas present. I was so afraid that I would still not have cell phone service in the rural county I work in. Was I surprised.
I work about 30 miles from the nearest town. There is only one major cell phone company offering service there, and I did not want to go into another contract deal. Net 10 offers different calling plans, all costing 10 cents a minutes. This probably seems a bit high, but it is worth it for peace of mind. The phone does have service in the area where I work. in addition, I live in a small rural county, 35 miles from Jacksonville. The north part of our county, Baker has no cell phone service. We were driving through that part of the county the other day, and low and behold, we had cell phone service except for a two mile area. For a couple more miles, we only had one bar, but I tried using the phone, and the signal was clear. here is how their plan works.
You purchase a bundle of minutes. You can purchase $10 which buys you 100 minutes and activates your phone for two weeks. You can purchase $20 which buys you 200 minutes and activates your phone for a month. Or you can opt for my plan, which is $30 and activates your phone for two months. The unique thing about Net 10 is that you only pay ten cents as minute, as the name implies. Text message cost five cents. So far, I have found no hidden charges.
You can opt to buy minutes one of three ways. You can either purchase online, by calling direct, or by using your cell phone. Although I have not yet taken advantage of it, I have been offered free minutes twice, if Ioad my phone with minutes by a certain date. The last offer, texted to my cell phone was for an additional 50 minutes. However that does not extend the time of the contract it merely give you more minutes.
I have had clear coverage and no problems with service. As of yet, I haven’t used the operator so have no idea what fees are. I did call the operator once about a number that wouldn’t go through and she was very polite. She stated there was no charge for operator service
There are a couple of neat features with the phone. Although the phone is very basic, you can check your minutes and contract date via the key pad. Perhaps the nicest feature is a free game of Sudoku, with levels from easy, to medium, to hard. That may not excite some people, but if you are an avid Sudoku fan, it will.
If you do not want to go into a contract for a phone, or need an emergency cell phone, which my is, I would suggest getting a contract with Net 10. So far I have been very satisfied with my service.
