its great

I bought my phone after researching hard and this is the best overall plan if you need a emergency phone and can spend for a $100 airtime card plus the to go package . Though cheap it wasnt a easy deceision as I am disabled on Social Security Disabillity ( no i am not destitute like so many who I feel for and write this caring about ) I just needed this becuase I am so sick I feel unsafe without one with me 365 days a year when going to the Doctor or alone in bed incase I cant get up to far from our land line . Problem is the phones are all refurbished on the prepaid and if they break you get very poor customer service help mine arrived with problems and I call right away but they ran me in circles and kept telling me it was ok when I should of returned it right away . It wouldnt take a charge ..then did , then didnt . I just wanted to mail it to anywhere . I think Nokia would of done it . I for warranty work or a return its now 60 days old and dead with all my people calling and they just think I have it off or am out of service . I cant go out right now but with a aide or help and its nearly impossible then as I am mentaly confused in pain . I have no family to help . Really needed this it is a emergency phone now with a number all my Doctors have . Anyway you absolutely cannot get warranty help not even at their stores for sure not at the independant dealers . Its sad becuase this is the phone used by 99% of those disabled out there but they wont help them . I will buy a new phone its easier then argueing or crying for them to take it for warranty work by mail like they sent it to me . I will have it sent in the mail like the first one but its hard on 500 a month SSD to buy a phone when you have one and its supposed to be warrantied . I wish they would of just said no the first instead of keeping me on hold forever then trying to sell me plans . I spent 3 hours on the phone and they just passed me around like a joke it seemed with me explaining my situation in tears unable to talk that long hoping they would actually recognize I was for real and couldnt get this serviced other then by mail . They literly ran me around for 3 hours after being told I had a head injury with severe pain and couldnt hold a phone up and this was for medical emergencies . Would I buy one again ..yes I have no choice until I am broke . Do I trust these phones to work NO and if its delivered by mail the warranty should be able to be handled by mail at least for the disabled that cant go around like they would like . I hope they read this and do something . Many elderly and disabled people rely on these for saftey and its sad they cant do warranty work through the mail for those who really cant go to a store when they sell them in the mail over the internet . Its bad enough to wait the extra time and being disabled all this technology is hard to comprehend its just that you need a way to call 911 if you collapse in public becuase the world is so bad nowadays John Q public wont just run you around but might rob and kill you out there . Corperate America at least just steals your money . This phone is a good alternative and if it works and money is not tight buy it for a friend thats disabled give them a cheap model for 39 bucks dont buy a expensive phone its not worth it and try it when you know its ok then buy the 100 card not before . They usually run a 39 dollar deal with a free 25 dollar card thats what I will do again since I cant get my warranty work done due to being terminal unable to go into a t-mobile owned store ..most of them are a long ways away ( my case only 20 miles each way ) But they wont take them at the dealers only the T mobile owned store and they dont even want to honor it they even tell you just buy another phone . Prepaid buy the cheap one not a razr or stripe they wont back it . I had the Nokia 6103 . Prepaid appears to get the factory seconds they want to just dump . Mine was obviously poor quality when i got it but when your so sick you cant even get food on your own , buying this just for emergencies what can you do ? Eat teh 65 dollars and buy the cheaper phone and go on . They wont even let me give this phone to another disabled person who can bring it in they required i come into the store as the original owner even after explaining my situation to them . I imagine you all think i am nuts or this is sour grapes . Its the truth ,its sad , and its a poor reflection on customer service and our counrty nobody helps anyone anymore .

Because I don't live on my phone, I prefer prepaid service (cheaper for me in the long run). What I despise about T-Mobile is its apparent cutback on what web services are available through prepaid. Enough with treating us like second-class citizens! I could get a "regular" (read: overpriced) contract today, but I don't choose to waste more than $100/year for airtime. Puhleeeze! Why can't I subscribe to five-digit text message services like my stock alerts or BBC News? Jeez. I thought y'all were the customer-friendly company. Guess I'll eventually get a Crackberry and reconsider the best prepaid service for my needs.

A special separate one-star rating for the 15 minutes that I wasted trying to add minutes via the web app and the 10 minutes and bazillion characters I had to navigate before FINALLY re-upping my airtime. The web app should NEVER, EVER be that slow for customer transactions.

T mobile to go sucks. I get harrassing phone calls and they wouldnt give me a diffrent number. I bought a 369.99 dollar phone to and they didnt refund that bull crap@@@@####$$$$%%%

I purchased a t-mobile to-go phone for $40 in October and bought $100 card so I could get the gold rewards. Soon after, my phone lost the ability to send and receive calls and T-mobile "customer service" said there was no record of my phone number or sim card. We went back and forth over the course of 2 months and, in the end, T-mobile screwed me for $100. They suck.

All I can say is -- Virgin is better.

PROs: (1) T-mobile uses GSM technology phones, which means they have better battery life than cdma stuff. It also sticks with good brands: Nokia, Samsung, etc.
(2) Also, it has the lowest minimum-monetary-commitment-rate: $40 per year to maintain your service. (Virgin has $60 per year when linked to a credit card, $80 otherwise)

CONs: (1)Really pricy minutes, unless you commit to at least $100 per year. Text messaging is expensive too -- Virgin offers 5 cents sent or received, half the price of t-mobile's 10 cents.
(2) The cheapest phone offered is $40. Virgin's cheapest is... free, if you're a first time customer, $10-20 otherwise. Granted, Virgin's phones are Kyocera -- the Yugos of the cell phone world. Still, some (like the K10) are pretty sturdy.
(3) T-Mobile website BLOWS. You can never get a straight answer from them as to how much things cost. They tell you you have so-many minutes, but they never tell you how much they cost, per minute.

T-mobile Prepaid is Outstanding!!

I find T-mobile prepaid basic and fast to activate. I buy a pre-activated card from an auction site , made a quick call to change phone number, insert it to phone and all set. cheapest for someone like me who make the average of 1 minute of call per day.
Oh, and cheapest prepaid phone out there, you wont find others as cheap as their prepaid starter kit. The phone is brand new and pretty decent quality for the price.

Read the fine print.
For those that think the prepaid service has the same "quality coverage on same network as plan subscribers", you are wrong.

The coverage map shows 850 MHz Roaming Coverage and T-Mobile Roaming Coverage

From the FAQ:
"What is 850MHz roaming?
850 MHz roaming allows T-Mobile postpaid customers to access roaming service in areas that previously were not accessible. Currently 850MHz roaming is not available for T-Mobile To Go customers."

Much of Main, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, are 850MHz roaming areas. Does that mean I won't be able to use it at all there? Check out all the other areas in this system. This service is not for many travelers.

Coverage in my area is such that I'd have to be outside any time I'd want to use it. So I have to shop around for something better for me.

I used to be on a T-Mobile plan, which was all well and good, but now that I am forced to use the Prepaid system, I am anything but satisfied.

It is one of the most expensive pay-as-you-go services, and comes with no features whatsoever, such as free night/weekend minutes, free T-Mobile to T-Mobile calls, and the text prices are outrageous. If I had any other option, I would take it. The Gold Member discount is okay, but no better than that.

I would avoid using this service like the plague, unless you make about a phone call or two a day.

I have a prepaid sidekick3, and i love tmobile service. they gave me 200 minutes when i activated the phone for 30 dollars, and its only a dollar a day for unlimited texting internet and email. anything betetr than that? pshh no way!

I love my tmobile prepaid service. If you can afford the $100 refill card I will go with that. I have had verizon wireless prepaid and did not like it. I have researched all the other companies and Tmobile still came out on top. I have not had any issues with their service. If you buy the phone it probably will be better to buy it at Walmart of Target so you know you can get your money back, and I would not recommend to add a lot of minutes at first until you know you are going to keep the phone. The minutes are not refundable.

I hate my tmobile prepaid service. When I get a sim card form them some strange has my phone number. I get charge for wrong number or a miss call. I got my phone back on friday last week with a $10 card and it's lasted three days.

Who buys a $10 card unless you're in a jam? That's like putting $5 of gas in your car and complaining you're always having to fill up. Buy the $100 off the bat and stop complaining. And some would have you beleive 50% of these phones just break by looking at them. That or the population is truely doomed because these people are idiots.
Great service that fits my needs.

T-mobile is awesome, I buy 1000 min which last me a whole year and thats just little over $8 a month. Now days there are phones everywhere so I don't use my cell that much. I've been with this service for about 2 years and always had phone service in most areas. Best part is no extra fees, taxes or hidden charges, you pay for what you use.

I have bought a t-mobile to go plan.
I have made 10 calls to customer care asking them to take someone else name off my caller ID (he had the number before I) and to put my name on...I get promises that it will be taken care of and this has been going on for 4 weeks and I am totally frustrated....customer care does not care. Can anyone help me?

Cheap to buy but then expensive if you buy lower denomination cards. Minutes expire too fast. Try boostunlimited, its the best.

I LOVE T MOBILE I had for it for a three years and I just love it!

After researching all the wireless prepaid plans I still believe that T-Mobile is the best. I've a Samsung phone with camera, etc... and it is great! Reception is great as well. Even though I only get 3 bars in my home it is more than enough to get calls out and get downloads in my phone. Reception all over the Nevada area is superb. Well done T-Mobile!

I've had a T Mobile prepaid phone for about 3 years now. I HIGHLY recommend it. I wouldn't even think about switching to another provider or going back to a plan (no way). It's silly to pay $40 plus every month whether you use the phone or not!! This way I only pay for the minutes I actually use and there's NO risk of ever getting a $500 phone bill!! I have their cheapest Nokia phone and the sound quality is excellent, I've never even once experienced a dropped call and their customer service is excellent!!

As far as cost goes, well I spend $25 every two or three months...on my previous plan with Cingular my bill was $100+ a month and my phone usage is exactly the same as it was then. You can see why I'm a fan!! My teenage son is also on the T Mobile prepaid plan, no way would I trust a teenager on a regular service plan!!

I think Tmobile To Go service is quite a great service but their customer service is the worst thing ever created. Get this I bought two phones paid overnight shipping because i had no phone and the darn activation codes on both phones were invalid. And every person i talked to from customer care told a different story. It has taken 11 days for them to send the new activation cards. And they said they would put overnight mail. Then i discovered that everyone lied about sending anything to me. Today i finally got a Garuntee that they would send it overnight tomorrow. But awesome prepaid service. Pray to god that something doesn't screw up when you get it. And never order anything electronic online it always smacks you in the butt.

Just arrived from EU bought a WM Nokia model with 10$ free time, lasted about 3-4 min (local calls). Bought a 50$ refill; Now the phone log says 105 min total in AND out airtime and my account at t-mobile 1,25$ and 10 min. Where did my money go? I send max 3-4 sms (text) and the calls were only local, some of them were even to t-mobile free 800 number. Trying to get support from there web site give me: Server error: An unexpected error has occurred. We apologize for any inconvenience, please try again later.
I dialed about 12 different numbers in the period, I recived about 9 calls, had one missed call, in total my call log lists 22 calls. I wonder if anybody would be able to explain where did the money go? Gues I'll try to call customer service tomorrow - but deff not using the mobile (though I thought it would be free). Is kind of hard recomending the compagny if they say you get arround 400min/50$ and expirience 105/60$ - right?

I have been with prepaid T-Mobile service for 5 years now and find it fantastic. I have been with Gold Rewards program and it only costs 10 cents a minute and there is not too many companies out there that offer that rate. My husband and I made a trip to South Dakota for a funeral and found that my phone and my husband's Virgin phone) didn't work there. That's the only problem I have had with my phone. I would never go to a contract again after being burned by a contract company years ago. My phone gives me extra security that I need without all the expense of paying for minutes that I would never use.

I've been on Tmobile prepaid for several years and love it. Always buy the $100 refill and it costs me a quarter of what I was paying monthly before. Internet news, sports, and stock quotes are FREE on this phone.

i have a razr with t-mobile and it rules!

Got tired of paying $40 a month on a contract, so I went with T-mobile's prepaid - $100 for 1000 minutes. Coverage is great, refills easy, no problem at all with the phone. I'm glad I made the change.

So far so good, I don't see anything wrong with this plan. People who curse T-mobile gave no sound reason....

t mobile was fine till I tried to refill my minutes.then they told me my credit card was no good.they were very rude over the phone.went to the local office gave the same credit card every thing was fine.I just do not like there attitude.my credit card is 100%

I use my phone a couple of times a week so I'm averaging about $5.00 a month for cell phone use. Minutes renew for another year every time I purchase because I'm on gold status. Texting options are expensive though

After I was done with Virgin Mobile, I decided to go with T-Mobile. It looked very good, had good looking prices and phones that I knew were good like the Razr. The guy at my local mall told me there was a $30 activation fee when first buying my phone. I did not want to pay to activate my phone. The man at the booth was a very bad listener, he kept asking us if we could sign up on a contract like 8 times in the 15 minutes we talked. I found out months later there was no activation fee when buying online. So that man was no help. I resigned after a few months because I can afford a monthly contract with my phone company. I can say I would recommend T-Mobile to go, just don't ask a retailer and be sure to get a gold SIM card, you can get them off of ebay.

Its good. Better then tracfone and virgin mobile.

I haven't had many problems with t-mobile to go (when I use to travel I would loose signal every now and then), though I do agree with those who say 'free night or weekend minutes, extra minutes or discounts for loyal / long-time customers would be great.
You need to know that if you use under 350-ish minutes per month ($35), often flux with monthly usage, do not use texting heavily or Absolutely Hate yearly contracts and monthly payments, you will probably like it.

MOST IMPORTANT:
buy the $100 card once a year, if you remember the month and make sure you re-up, you CAN call 911 on just about any phone with a good battery for FREE regardless of how many minutes you have. A great light-talk and emergency phone service.

I love T-Mobile To Go. After buying a $100
card minutes are 10 cents and I can take the sim card and put it in anyGSM unlocked phone that I want. Great service also.

I put $50 on my phone Thursday at 3 p.m. and on Friday at 10 a.m. my balance was $13. I thought maybe I just put $10 on my phone and not $50 but nope. They stole my money!!! So when I called to complain they tried to tell me I used it all on text messaging and instant messaging. How can one person text that much in that amount of time?? I would have had to send over 300 messages!! What did I text in my sleep or something?? Come on now. I am done with this company.

I will never again buy a single minute from this "company"! I am a causal user, at best, yet they claim I used 998 minutes of my 1,000 in less than 6 months - Impossible ! I asked for a detailed Call List for the #'s to where these alleged calls were made, but they responded that they keep no such records! I said what ?! Then can they know how many minutes were indeed used & how can I, the consumer, dispute alleged or hijacked calls ?! I mean, let's face it, the calls are out there floating for anyone with tech experience & nefarious ideas to steal & we as consumsers, do have a right to dispute them!
They now won't even respond, as I asked for a supervisor!

Nope, stay away from this "business'. I asked a general question in a few Forums & 83% of all who responded said they too will leave T-Mobile when their contracts are done, due to poor, or lack or customer service. And the Samsung Phone is not at all good.

HAD TO PURCHASE NEW PHONE AS OLD NUMBER WAAS GIVEN AWAY..THEY CAN DO THAT WHEN ITS NOT ACTIVE...BOUGHT NEW PHONE..COULN'T JUST BUS SIMS CARD...NOW TRYING FOR 3 DAYS TO REFILL CARD NO CAN DO ON LINE COOMES UP WITH "EXPERIENCE TECH PROBLEM" TRY BACH TRIED ON 3 DIFFERENT DAYS..SENT E-MAIL REPLY "WE WILL COONTACT ARE RESOOVE IN 24 HRS...TIME HAS COME AND GONE..CALL 800 NUMBER STILL WAITING TO SPEAK TO SOME ONE..MEANWHILE I AM STUCK WITH 2 PHONES AND CAN'T GET SERVICE..ONLY TIME STORE CLERKS OR MANGER WAS HELP FILL WAS WHEN I HAD TO PURCHASE PHONE...I HAVE WARNED EVERTONE I KNOW..I WAS HAPPY TO SEE THAT OTHER HAVE HAD PROBLEMS WITH THIS COMPANY.

I don't really like this prepaid plan. 10$ is like 30 min. and for me it doesn't even last up for a month, i have to keep refilling it every 2 weeks. Its sucks. You cant even talk at all you get charged for every second. There is on unlimited offer. Sure its cheap but it does rip you off

I am a longtime communications dealer and user of various postpaid and prepaid phone services also. I have read reviews that were very good and many others, if not most, that are so horribly written...no wonder people cannot use their phones or get good customer service.

Why does anyone want to use services which charge ridiculous fees for small minute purchases, and also add on daily charges if you use the phone even one minute per day??

I have long concluded that T-Mobile is the best for the money and service, by far. My wife doesn't use many minutes per month, so we went to a prepaid plan for that account. I had a 600 minute plan with free nights and weekends, but she wasn't using more than an hour monthly. So I simply obtained another local number and went to prepaid for her phone.

I buy a 1000 MINUTE card/refill for $85.00-$92.00 discounted ($100.00 plus tax at most centers), and it's good for ONE-FULL YEAR, with NO monthly requirements at all. The first year, she only used about 400 minutes, so I figured a $10.00 add-on would carry her for another year or so. It did.

People, WAKE-UP! Don't get ripped off by all these cheezy plans and hype, just because of advertising or peer pressure. I have a postpaid 1500 minute business , plus free nights and weekends, T-Mobile plan for $44.95 a month. Now, that's a lot of time! And I sometimes don't even use a 1000 of that, but I'm keeping it because I'm "grandfathered" in on the rate plan. If I was only using 200-300 minutes monthly, then I would switch to a prepaid T-Mobile account and purchase a 1000 minute refill every three to five months. That would still only be $20-33.00 monthly...with NO TAXES and FEES.

Now, getting back to our prepaid T-Mobile account; even if we only use 83 minutes a month, that would equate to only $8.33 per month for a full year without expiration. Then, roll the balance for another year for only ten dollars, unless you need more time. Ours has worked out to about $6.00 per month for approximately 60 minutes monthly. When I last rolled it over at the year's expiration, there were 556 minutes left, we added another 100.00 1000 minute refill, leaving us with 1556 minutes for the next year! I suggested she talk more...you know women can do that...lol.

Plus, another good thing; T-Mobile is a GSM service, like AT&T, Cingular, Rogers (in Canada), and several other local providers. There are NO ROAMING Charges, or daily fees with T-Mobile. You still have ALL the features and services of a postpaid account. You can use any one of dozens of phones, including AT&T and Cingular, if they are unlocked (even an iphone). Just remove your SIM card and place it any unlocked or T-Mobile phone, and it works...instantly.

Do your research before you leap.

I have had my t-mobile to phone for 2 years. I love it, in 2 years i have only spent $250. The service is great and I have I bought my phone on the T-mobile website and I got a free $25 refill card with my Nokia phone it has an fm radio and the corded hands free headset came free with it. Sometimes they offer these specials you have to keep checking. The most important thing that i would like to say is that prepaid phones ( T-mobile, att, verizion, sprint, etc.) are not for the heavy cell phone users it is for people who don't use their phone very much MOST MOST of the time. this goes for T-mobile or any other prepaid cell phones out there. If you are a heavy user you should sign a contact for your phone. That is the reason they have better packages is because you have to sign a two year contract so they know that they are going to get their money even if you default on your contract. With prepaid you have the freedom to come and go as you please it's a convince that you have to pay for/ but with T-mobile the price is not so expensive. They have flat simple rates and no access fee, and after you spend $100 all at once or how ever you choose to get there you will be added to the gold rewards and your minutes last one year even if you only buy a $10 refill card, T-mobile is the only prepaid company that does that. Also my coverage is great.

Fair . Network is limited and has holes in my area . Needs to add call records online (even VM has thus) and online text messaging on/off switch and mtext messaging pack options (like VM).

Very verg good for those who do not use cell phone a lot. Strongly recommend!

I've had T-Mobile To Go prepaid mobile service for about 2 yrs now and I love it, the phones, service, rates...I love everything about T-Mobile's prepaid service. I purchase the $50 refill card and the 460 minutes last for a good two months. I just purchased the Nokia 6263 and sold the other phone I was using (Nokia 6133), on eBay. Both phones work get on T-Mobile's prepaid service. T-Mobile To Go is GREAT!!!!

my parents have t-mobile and they buy 100 dollar cards and use their phones for a couple of days and are allready out of time. T-mobile is a money sucking service and i don't reccommend them

I have been using the T Mobile pre-paid service for about 14 months. I really like the signal strength in my area (Atlanta NE suburbs) and the phone quality (Nokia 6130)is okay, if not great. I bought the $100 card so the cost is minimal. I do very little texting and no instant messaging so I have no concerns about those features. What does concern me is T Mobile blocking the phone's ability to receive services like traffic updates, sports scores, etc., even though they give me no ability to block unwanted text messages from spammers. I don't travel much but on a recent trip to Savannah (a 5 hour drive), I had no reception problems even when I left the interstate and traveled on back roads in rural areas for about half of the return trip. For the person who complained that their parents bought $100 cards and were out of minutes in "a couple of days;" that's using the phone over 8 hours a day! They do not need to be using any pre-paid service if they use their phones that much. I am a light user myself and, with the exceptions noted, have little complaint with T Mobile's pre-paid service. The company does have a somewhat condescending attitude toward pre-paid customers but that is an industry standard. The customer service people that I have dealt with have been unfailingly polite if not always completely helpful.

A great deal for those who don't constantly chat. I've used this program for about 3 years and went "gold" right away. I buy a $50 refill about every 4-5 months--try getting any other phone for 12.50 a month. If all you use your cell phone for is short calls you are throwing money away on most plans. The coverage is just OK but improving.

Wow!!! I've just visited T-Mobile's website and guess what? T-Mobile has a NEW "Pay By the Day" prepaid plan. Just pay a $1.00 a day (only on days that you use your phone) and you'll get free mobile-to-mobile, free nights (7pm-7am) and all other calls for 10 cents a minute. I immediately called TM's prepaid customer service so that I could switch my plan but the csr I spoked to was shocked to hear that I knew about the plan. He told me that the Pay By the Day plan will not become available until mid-May. He said that there will be commercials on tv advertising the new plan some time next week. When I told him that the plan is already being advertised on T-Mobile's website, he was shocked about that too. He said he doesn't know why it's already being advertised when it won't become available until the middle of May. Well, I wasn't sure if he knew what he was talking about so I logged into my TM prepaid account online and switched my plan myself. Now, I only pay $1.00 a day for free nights, free m2m and all of my other calls are just 10 cents a minute. I'm going to save so much money on this plan. Who needs Verizon's expensive Inpulse prepaid when you have T-Mobile? Right?(lol) I guess TM really does listen to their customers. This is great.

@ Dee: Yes, with T-Mobile you get free mobile-to-mobile AND free nights that start at 7PM and end at 6:59 AM. I'm not sure if you get free nights with AT&T.

I like the new plan that they have now with free m2m and free nights it works out great for me .

Its great as long as you dont actually have to make a call. The coverage sucks here in the northeast. I had better coverage with my old Trac-fone!!!I just hope that when i have an emergency, (thats why i have a cell phone),that im within a hundred yards of a tower.Otherwise i might as well send up a flare.