Where can you buy cellphones without a new plan?
 

Everywhere you look Cellphone! 250 bucks - 50 for this deal and -25 for this and free with the plan! I dont want a damn plan! I'm so tired of looking for phones and everyone forces you to sign up for some stupid plan!

So Im asking you guys, where can I browse and purchase phones only! Besides ebay.. :confused:

Yep, come up with multiple schemes and confuse the hell out of consumers with different modes to extract maximum $'s, that's the phone companies model. I have a minimum contract/plan $20 a month that surprise actually costs me $34 a month without any calls, can you say hidden extra's. $34 and I only use ~20-25 mins a month. My contract is up (I think, not that I can find out from the bloated website if my contract term is over) and am looking at pay as you go schemes. Most of them require minimum monthly top-up ie. they are plans. Here in Ottawa, I am looking at Virgin mobile who recently launched here, they have 120 days expiry on the pay as you go units, and there is no minimum monthly payment if you want. The downside seems to be they only offer 4 phones, and are CDMA based (If that is a problem, GSM phones seem to offer more features.)

Remember, you will be paying much more for a phone outside of a plan, because the cellular companies spread out the cost of the phone over your 2 year service agreement.

The reason I dont need a plan is that my dad is currently signed up for one and pays for it himself. I dont see a point in buying a whole new plan for myself and wasting that money. Had a few unsuccessful attempts at purchasing on ebay do to those stupid bid snipers at that last 2 seconds.. ><

I always sell my old phones on Ebay. I have also purchased several phones there.
You just buy the GSM phone you covet (After making sure it uses your providers frequency) and pop in your gsm chip. many are availible new in box.

Amazon also sells gsm phones without service, and they still have the warranty through the manufacturer.

TigerDirect.com also sells gsm phones without service.

Remember though, that if you purchase a phone without service, you will pay much more. The price of phones is subsidized by the contract you sign, and the provider gives you the phone at a loss and makes it back in the contract.
Buying a phone without service will cost between 200-400 dollars. becuase this is what the phones actually cost (Wholesale cost + 20% is the rule of thumb there) .

You can buy some pretty nice phones for fairly cheap on ebay. I've sold some of my fairly high end phones there and they have never gone for more than 30 or 40 bucks.

Try checking with your friends and family. Between my wife and I, we have two phones sitting in a drawer doing nothing. This is after giving a phone to my brother-in-law. People seem to go through cell phones like TP so they may have some they are willing to part with for cheap.

I picked up a replacement phone for my son on ebay a few months ago. I looked for a buy it now that had a few days left on it - everyone always checks for the auctions about to expire so this phone wasn't even being looked at. I was able to get it at a very decent price using buy it now while the same phone was selling for much more than that through auctions.

You can buy a phone pretty much anywhere that sells cell phones/plans, but you're looking at *at least* $200. Why are they so cheap when you get them with a plan? Because when a store activates a new line of service, the providing company gives them money. The amount of money depends on the duration of service being signed up for, and the monthly service fee range. This is usually enough to offset the price of the phone, with plenty of room to make the store some money as well.

If you're looking for one on the cheap, I suggest a Tracfone (available at Target). $29 for a non-camera Nokia.

I use this very sparingly, so I bought 40 minutes for $20. It gets a LOT cheaper if you buy time in larger increments.

An additional bonus is the anonymity. Although you activate it online, you can easily do so without anyone knowing who you are.

Samsung was selling their pre-paid clamshell phone for free after rebate this past weekend. There was a serious pirana feeding frenzy around the display. It almost looked like the display and offer was meant to go beyond the weekend so check it out. I know nothing about their cost/minute. The phone looked to be a step up from the basic TracFone/Net10 models. The display said they use Sprint's network.

Also, Is the phone for you or your dad? I couldn't be sure from your post. If you want a phone but will be adding it to your dad's plan, be aware carriers provide the same discount deals for add-on phones as they do for the primary phone.

You have to make sure the phone you buy is compatible with your dads carrier. Find out what your providers network runs on, GSM or CDMA. Sprint and All-Tell are off the top of my head CDMA networks. The others use GSM.

The other thing to make sure of is that you purchase an unlocked phone. Phones that are unlocked will work with any carrier (as long as the phone supports the standard they use, ie GSM or CDMA). This way if you change carriers you wont have to buy a new phone. If you want the latest and greatest phones, you should purchase them from someone online, in the UK. They get all the cool phones first (after japan that is).

I've been drooling over this phone and will promptly order it the second its released:
http://www.infosyncworld.com/news/n/5944.html

The Nokia n91: 4gig harddrive, PDA capabilites, MP3 playback that pauses with incoming calls, and Wi-Fi!! It will seamlessly roam into publicly accessible wireless networks (ie for normal computers) and use VOIP (free phone calls whever your on a public wireless network!!!) ! Sorry im a geek. Only problem is its like 800 bux. But thats not bad considering its like 10 devices in one.

i kind of lucked out 2 yrs ago. I bought a fido monthly plan and realized that I only make about 4 calls a month. This amounted to a huge waste of money, so I called Fido, and had them convert it to a monthly pay as you go plan.

Now, if you do that, you have to pay a conversion fee to do this.

I also just bought a Rogers pay as you go: Phone was $175, and then the monthly is $10 top up.

Buy a nokia pay as you go phone (target has a realy good one for $99 right now ). Unlock it via unlock.nokiafree.org , stick in your old simcard and you are good to go. Same phones , 1/3 the price.

Found this post at another forum a few months ago regarding buying a Pay-N-Go phone, and just using it with another/already existing plan:

For info and review of cell phones, I recommend Phone Scoop.

actually, you can usually get a contract deal phone when you add a line to your fathers service, it depends on the provider, but I did this with my mothers plan with Verizon. It's not something they advertize, but just give the provider a call and ask them about it, it's the best way to go if you can

I am still confused as to what you are exactly looking for, your father has a plan but no phone? OR, you want to add a phone to your fathers plan.....


If you want to add to the plan you will have to get either a new plan on the same bill with a new number OR a new plan that has addon or shared minutes with a new number as well, either way you are looking at a new plan anyway. If it is the contract you are trying to avoid guess what, you will probably have to join a new contract as well even if you bring your own phone, I know it sucks but that is the way it is, also by adding an addon or shared minutes plan again look to get locked into a new contract.

Really look into what you are wanting to do with the provider and getting your phone through them may actually be your best bet if you have to get a new contract and plan then might as well get a decent priced NEW phone you know will work and have warranty if anything happens to it.