Cheapest Prepaid cell phone (unemployed, to buy, best)

[cityGuy1]

Hello,

I need a prepaid cellphone, with following:
1. Minimum cost.
2. Minimum service fee
3. Max min at Min cost
4. Best Coverage

I found following choices:
1. TracPhone (with Double Min): 60=120min, 90d service, carryover Min, $20 card
2. Virgin Mobile: 200min (10c/m), 90d service, $20 card, carryover Min, Sprint Network
3. Boost Mobile: 200min10c/m), 90d service, carryover Min, $20 card

Tracphone has least min, but Service days add up i.e. 60+90=150

Please advise.

Thank You

[saharaga]

We use T-Mobile for our prepaid cell phone. We don't pay any service fees and pay $0.10/min for regular calls and $0.15/min for text messages. We get the benefit of nationwide long distance and we have a year to use our minutes. The only time we've encountered any issues with cell phone coverage was in the North GA mountains and on our cruises-I don't think any cell carrier offers coverage in the middle of the ocean.

[rcsteiner]

I used Tracfone several years ago (while I was unemployed and needed to have access to a phone at all times w/o paying for a full cell contract), and I was very happy with them.

[cityGuy1]

Thanks.
On reading the fine print, the service duration of both Virgin Mobile and Boost is NOT additive 90 days.
In fact actual Virgin rate is 20c/min (=100min), which makes TracPhone (with Double Min) better.

Which TracPhone CDMA or GSM ?
Which is better for local and national coverage ?

[MilkMachine]

Hmm, I had Virgin up until about 4 months ago. I did pay 10 cents a minute, but I had to buy 200 minute bundles. My issue was that I didn't use enough minutes and kept losing them. I finally got a family member to add me to his Verizon account and I paid for a year up front.

I believe Clark Howard recommends Boost.