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| | The ABHP - A Bit of Humble Pie Network is not currently active and cannot accept new posts | | Looking for Prepaid Cellular | Views: 865 | | Apr 06, 2010 11:18 pm | | Looking for Prepaid Cellular | # | 
Kurt Schweitzer | | I was recently hired as a Crew Leader for the 2010 Census. My crew and I will be helping to track down and count those people who neglected to mail in their census forms before April 19.
I'm currently going through training. My instructor has led me to believe that I will probably be on the phone 1-1/2 to 2 hours a day for Census business. Uncle Sam won't provide me with a cell phone, but will reimburse me for calls - provided I can document them. Daily call lists from a website are acceptable, and will speed up my reimbursement.
I have also been advised to purchase a prepaid or no-contract phone just for this purpose, so that:
a) there's no mixing of business and personal calls,
b) I won't be leaving my personal cell phone number on the doorknobs of strangers, and
c) when the job is finished (in two or three months) I can simply dispose of the phone and go back to normal life.
I've started looking at prepaid phones, but I'm not finding any that are cheap, short-term, and include the call list capability. Anyone have any recommendations?
Private Reply to Kurt Schweitzer | | Apr 07, 2010 1:41 am | | re: Looking for Prepaid Cellular | # | 
Stephanie Tweed | | Hi Kurt...you might try Lightyear Wireless. I don't believe that you have to have a contract.
-Stephanie Tweed
Private Reply to Stephanie Tweed | | Apr 07, 2010 3:38 am | | re: Looking for Prepaid Cellular | # |
Kurt Schweitzer | | FYI, I've spent the last four hours researching this issue, including calling Customer Service numbers for information (NOBODY has the information I'm looking for on their website!)
I've found that AT&T, TracFone, Verizon, and Virgin Mobile offer call detail information on their websites for prepaid phones, while Net10 and someone else I called do not.
The cheapest way to go is with some of the "unlimited" plans, which charge $30+ per month for "unlimited" calling. (One page I came across said that the average cell phone customer uses 750 minutes a month, so the anticipated charge is $0.04 per minute.)
My new employer, however, will NOT reimburse the base plan for a cell phone - only for additional charges caused by business use. This means that it's better for ME to get a phone with ONLY per-minute charges so that I can be fully reimbursed.
I really don't care what the per-minute cost is, except for the delay between incurring the cost and being reimbursed. I get paid weekly, with pay periods ending on Saturday and the pay being deposited 11 days later (on Wednesday of the of the second week following). This means there's up to 18 days between making a call and being reimbursed for it. I need to fund, in advance, at least 18 days worth of calls. If I'm on the phone two hours a day that could be hundreds of dollars.
The best deal I've found is with Virgin Mobile. Their basic rate is $0.20 a minute, but they offer "Minute Packs" which can drop that down to $0.05 a minute. Verizon and AT&T let you reduce the per-minute cost by paying a daily charge ("only for the days you use the phone") but their lowest rate is still $0.10 per minute.
I'm trying Virgin. I've ordered the cheapest phone listed on their website (a $9.99 flip phone) and when it gets here I plan on buying some minutes and seeing how things go. Virgin gets their service through Sprint, which I've never used so I'm not sure what the local coverage will be like, but I figure I can risk ten bucks just to see how well it works.
Private Reply to Kurt Schweitzer | | Apr 08, 2010 5:26 pm | | re: re: Looking for Prepaid Cellular | # | 
Bobbi Jo Woods | | Hi Kurt
Sounds like you've answered your own question here, but it's any help, Boost mobile has the unlimited plan as well, for talk, text and web, for $49.XX per month. I'm looking at trading up my piecemeal pre-paid service (Tracfone, was a gift), for something like that, because if I load my phone 2x/month at $19.99, that's $40 for only 300-some minutes, where I could pay a few bucks more for unlimited.
Good luck!
PS - I'm not filling out anything on the Census other than the number of people I live with (1, including me). That's all the gubmint needs to know about me, the rest is none of their beeswax.
Bobbi Jo Woods, Owner, B. Woods Design
Professional Websites for Small Business
877-996-9932 Toll-free
http://www.bwoodsdesign.comPrivate Reply to Bobbi Jo Woods | | Apr 08, 2010 5:50 pm | | re: re: re: Looking for Prepaid Cellular | # | 
John Snyder | | Net 10 has a program that is available through Wal-Mart. You buy a phone, that comes stocked with 200 Minutes and the whole package only costs #29.95. Every two months you can buy as little as 200 Minutes to keep the phone active. I give these to all my Salespeople so I know this program works.
John
Prof WordsearchPrivate Reply to John Snyder | | Apr 08, 2010 6:01 pm | | re: re: re: re: Looking for Prepaid Cellular | # |
John Snyder | | I forgot to mention that the Net 10 Program is only 10 cents a minute Private Reply to John Snyder | | Apr 08, 2010 10:33 pm | | re: Looking for Prepaid Cellular | # | 
James P Reardon Sr. | | I know it's probably to late but this may help someone else. Or if you needed to get a contract. Have you tried celltradeusa.com? It's a website helping people get out of contracts with no penalty fee by finding other people to take over their contracts.
James P Reardon Sr.
Owner of the Business Networking Online ( http://bno-network.ryze.com )
Partner of Movies Makes Me Smile ( http://movies-network.ryze.com )
Partner of Work At Home Friends Network ( http://wahfriends-network.ryze.com )Private Reply to James P Reardon Sr. | | Apr 09, 2010 12:11 am | | re: re: Looking for Prepaid Cellular | # |
Kurt Schweitzer | | Guys,
While it's true that monthly "unlimited" plans tend to be cheaper overall, the government won't reimburse the monthly cost of a phone - only the "added" cost caused by business-related calls. Thus, if I purchase an "unlimited" phone they won't reimburse me for any of it, but if I purchase a phone with no monthly fee (all costs are per-minute charges) they will reimburse 100% of it. It's up to me to find the cheapest phone with no monthly fee, and I think the one from Virgin fills the bill.
Bobbi Jo,
I think you're short-changing your local community and your descendants by refusing to answer the census questions. My parents used Census data to put together genealogies of both sides of my family, which means I have a better-than-average idea of how my ancestors traveled across this country and where my distant relatives might be found. (The Census data is kept confidential for 72 years, so more recent relatives had to be located by other means.)
While the IRS is charged with collecting money for the Government, Census data is used to determine how it should be returned to the states and localities. Federal road building, school aid, and homeless shelter funds are determined by Census information. You may not like anti-discrimination laws, but since they are on the books don't you think their enforcement should be based on real information and not "estimates"? That's what the Census provides.
All government workers have to take an oath of office, even if the "office" is being a clerk. The oath for a Census worker includes a bit about keeping the information we collect private - even from other branches of the government! The only information shared is statistical information. Anything that could identify an individual (to law enforcement, the IRS, Immigration, or whomever) cannot be divulged for 72 years. They are REALLY serious about respecting personal privacy.
Anyway, if you mailed back the questionnaire there's no reason for a Census worker to come knocking on your door.Private Reply to Kurt Schweitzer | | Apr 10, 2010 3:29 pm | | re: re: re: Looking for Prepaid Cellular | # |
Bobbi Jo Woods | | Hi Kurt
I filled out a complete census ten years ago in 2000 and have only changed one thing -- I moved about 3 miles away.
This year's was addressed to my landlord, and I'm sure he wasn't going to fill it out. All I did was put how many in my household and mailed it back.
I'm pretty sure you were offering that as a hypothetical/for example, but who said I was against anti-discrimination laws?Private Reply to Bobbi Jo Woods | | Apr 10, 2010 3:55 pm | | re: re: re: re: Looking for Prepaid Cellular | # |
Kurt Schweitzer | | BJ,
This year's census is quite a bit different from 2000's. There's no "Long Form" - everybody gets the same questionnaire. They do want to know the names of everyone in a household, and how they are related to one another, but that's about it.
I mentioned affirmative action (or anti-discrimination) laws simply because two of the questions are probing at the race and ethnicity of people. Those questions have been argued about in Congress for years, and are still being complained about on talk shows and in blogs.
The questions are:
Name
Relationship (family, etc.)
Male/Female
Age/Birth Date
Hispanic/Latino ethnicity
Race (self-identified)
Do you sometimes live elsewhere?
That's it! There are a few check questions ("Is there anyone else living here?" etc.) but it's pretty simple, really.
I heard a statistic last night - a completed, mailed-in questionnaire costs the government around $3 to process, while sending out an Enumerator to knock on your door costs about $50 more. (And while the Enumerators do get paid, it's much less than $50 per door!)
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