How can I cash out my prepaid cell phone?
As a very frugal person, I have a prepaid phone plan that costs 0 a year. For the past two years, I've spent roughly of that each year. As long as I renew the plan with another 0 every year, I can carry over the unused balance.
But there's a hitch; if I only used half of the balance one year, I'm not likely to vary that dramatically. I was talking with a friend of mine who had a Virgin prepaid plan and lamented that he had accrued quite a balance this way over a few years and decided it was a ripoff. I understand the sunk costs fallacy, though maybe not why he decided it was enough to change providers.
I'm comfortable with writing off 50 dollars a year, but I'm wondering if there's any good way to cash my balance out, or at least put it to a better cause than T-Mobile's bottom line. I hear about some places using minutes as currency and I'm wondering: is there anything now or on the horizon in the US that might let me cash out the unused balance?
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I've found you can give the money to charity. If you text REDCROSS to 90999 for example you can give to the redcross
If you are using T-mobile you don't have to put 0 in each year to keep your minutes for a year. Once you spend 0 you get a year with any additional minutes you buy. Buying them 0 at a time is the cheapest way - but when you renew you can renew with only or and you have a year to use them from the last time you bought.
I did this this year - only put on each phone because we don't use 0 worth in a year.
I typically only purchase - for each of our phones yearly as we do not use them very much. The first year, I purchased 0 for each, but after that, any amount will continue service for a year and you keep/roll over any unused minutes. Can't beat $- per year for two phones...I just wish their coverage was much better in rural areas. I wish Verizon offered the same deal as their coverage is superior in Ohio.
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