Keep in mind when you read this review, I’m pretty new to the cell phone game. I resisted getting one for years. But then I got a job taking dogs to the park to play (yeah, I know, really rough). That’s the kind of job that really needs a cell phone because you might get a last-minute call to pick up a dog.

So I went searching for the absolute cheapest plan I could find. I was expecting to only get a few calls a month.

I couldn’t see paying a big fee per month (typically at least $30 – $40), so I looked for cheap pay-as-you-go plans.

I thought that pay-as-you-go means that you pay for minutes you use. But I discovered that no company has this type of plan. Things called pay-as-you-go really mean that there is no traditional monthly service fee, but they force you to buy minutes every 1 -3 months, so it is in effect the same thing.

The difference is the price. Their forced minute-buying price is usually $20.

The cheapest of these types of pay-as-you-go plans I could find was from Virgin Mobile.

They charge $20 for 100 minutes that lasts 3 months. You have to add $20 to your account every 3 months, whether you have unused minutes or not, but this is pretty standard among cell phone companies.

If you buy a "minute pack" you get 200 minutes for the same $20. The catch is that the minutes expire after 30 days.

The first thing that rubbed me the wrong way was that the sales person didn’t explain this to me. He knew I was a cell phone newbie and asked if I wanted to buy a minute pack. "Uh, I guess so," I answered. Then after he charged my credit card, he told me they expire after 30 days instead of the usual 90.

So that aside, here are my observations thus far.

Pros

• Cheap if you have very little useage

  This is by far the cheapest plan I’ve seen if you only use 200 minutes per 90 days. So if you just want a phone to have for emergencies, like for one of your kids to carry around, this is a great plan.

• No activation fee

  After I bought my phone from target (Marbl) and an additional car charger, there was no other fee to get started (other than the service plan itself).

Cons

• Coverage is spotty

  So far in the month I’ve had the phone, I’ve noticed a lot of times where the person on the other end starts to cut out. (I had a Verizon phone for a brief period of time and this didn’t happen with that). I live about 20 miles from Boston, so I’m not at all out in the boonies.

• Incoming calls are unreliable

  When I was out with a client’s dog, he tried to call me. He went right into voicemail; my phone never rang. I know I was getting service because I kept checking the time on my phone (I can’t see the time when I don’t have coverage).

  Then after he told me he had called, I tried to find a record of it on the phone. I looked under missed calls, received calls, etc. Nothing. So this makes me a little nervous.

• Website needs more polish

  Their website could use a little quality control for usability. For example, I tried to activate my phone myself online but I got an error message.

  Later I tried to take a survey they emailed me about my customer service experience. When I clicked on the link to take it, it told me I had already taken it.

• Can’t download transactions

  Here’s a minor annoyance. Again, I’m pretty new to this stuff so this may be common with all companies. But there is no way to download my account activity.

  I know this is a very small thing, but it means that if I want to itemize the minutes on my taxes, I need to get out the electronic calculator and go through page by page to add up each line.

• No free phone

  I see that other companies offer free phones; Virgin Mobile did not. But the other companies charge an activation fee so I guess it all evens out.

After a month’s worth of usage, I used more minutes than I thought I would. It has been about 25 days and I’ve used 130 minutes so far. And none of the calls were that long: 2 minutes, 4 minutes. The longest conversation I had was 8 minutes.

I did notice that some calls were to my same cell phone number. So I assume this is when I called voicemail. I didn’t realize this counts as minutes.

My verdict is if I’m going to consistently use about 100 – 150 minutes per month, it’ll cost me $20/month if I stay with Virgin Mobile. But I’m thinking now about moving over to Consumer Cellular. It looks like they use AT&T’s network, and they have a plan for 250 minutes/month for the same $20. And I can keep my cell phone number if I switch.

But that will be another review. I guess my summary for Virgin Mobile pay-as-you-go is, it is the cheapest plan to get if you just want to have an active cell phone for emergencies. The $20 for 90 days is the least expensive way to do this.

But if you have slightly larger usage, like 100 minutes/month, there are better plans out there.