If you're looking for a cell phone service plan without the long-term contract or upfront credit check, Common Cents Mobile may be an inexpensive alternative to not only a long-term contract plan but to other prepaid cell phone plans.
Common Cents has only one plan. Their plan is the seven cents round down plan. Just as the name indicates, the service costs seven cents per minute. All you have to do is add airtime to your phone and you can talk at the seven cents per minute rate.
Maintaining Cell Phone Service
One downside to the Common Cents no contract cell phone plan is that you must add $20 worth of airtime to your phone every month regardless of whether or not you have existing airtime. Therefore, you should do a little calculating before signing up for the Common Cents plan. If you don't think you will use $20 worth of seven cents a minute calls in any given month, then maybe this isn't the plan for you.
Common Cents Cell Phone Area Coverage
Before bringing out a calculator to determine whether or not the plan will work for you, first check to see if it is available in your calling area. Since it is powered by the Sprint nationwide network, if you are able to use a phone on the Sprint network, you can use the Common Cents plan.
If you're not quite sure if Sprint is in your area, go to the Common Cents website (CommonsCentsMobile.com) and click on the Coverage Check link. There you can insert your zip code to find out if there is coverage in your area.
Common Cents Prepaid Cell Phones
As of this writing, the Common Cents mobile phone selection is rather limited. They only have three phones to choose from, the LG 101, Samsung M340 and the Kyocera S2300. The phones range in price from $19.77 the $69.77. The LG 101 is a basic cell phone for talking and texting, the Samsung is a flip phone while the Kyocera S2300 has features such as e-mail, instant messaging, Google maps and more.
Maintaining Service on Common Cents Mobile
As mentioned earlier you must purchase at least $20 worth of airtime as every 30 days to maintain your service activation. Common Cents Mobile does offer two alternatives to purchasing $20 of airtime every 30 days. You can buy the one-year annual activation which costs $150 which translates to $12.50 a month.
If you don't want to dish out $150 for a year, you can opt for the auto refill option whereby Common Cents Mobile will deduct $15 each month from your account to keep your service activated without interruption. The auto pay and the one year activation are more cost effective than purchasing $20 of airtime each month.
Adding Airtime for the Common Cents Phone
You can add additional air time to your phone through the cell phone itself by following the appropriate menus, or you can call them using their toll-free number at 1-877-477-1737 or you can dial *FILL or *PAGA (Spanish speaking customers) from a cell phone.
In addition to the above options, you can purchase airtime cards from Wal-Mart and redeem the card online at the Common Cents mobile website.
Texting on the Common Cents Plan
Texting on the Common Cents prepaid plan is simple and straightforward. It costs seven cents per message which includes picture messages, instant messaging and e-mail.
While the seven cents per minute for prepaid cell phone talk time is an attractive rate, seven cents per minute for texting is a bit expensive compared to other no contract cell phone plans. For example, Texting on the Platinum Tel prepaid plan costs two cents per text while Verizon's Pay as You Go plan offers a one cent per text messaging rate.
If you're looking for a straightforward no contract prepaid cell phone plan with a good talk rate, Common Cents mobile maybe the plan for you. However, if you do more texting than talking, you may want to look at an alternative plan such as Wal-Mart's Straight Talk or Platinum Tel's plan.
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Felicia A. Williams - Felicia A. Williams is a full time freelance writer with over 20 years of business writing experience.
