tmobile to go or virgin mobile?

im buying a prepaid GSM sim card for my unlocked cellphone, they both have good coverage in my area, and they both have free incoming text messaging, so their pretty much balanced, i just want to know, what is the difference in terms customer satisfaction?, which has better rates, i have a cingular plan with my phone, just want to use my other phone as a home cellphone. thanx. I live in Florida

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› See More: tmobile to go or virgin mobile?

Virgin mobile is CDMA in the US and doesn't use SIM cards Virgin runs in Sprints native network. The two main networks that use GSM and SIM cards in the US are Tmobile and Cingular. If your cingular, or any GSM phone is unlocked then a tmobile SIM will work in it. But make sure it uses both GSM 850 and 1900 frequencies.

You'll find that overall the coverage for tmobile and Virgin Mobile are about the same. But virgin is really expensive.

Tmobile is about the cheapest prepaid out there. You can get a SIM for your GSM phone, and will come with starter minutes. My suggestion is to buy a $100 card right away. This will give you 10 cents/minute, 1000 min and a 1 year expiration. The $100 level also gives you "Gold Rewards", where all future refills give you extra minutes at purchase. They also roll over all your existing minut, and once GR all refills then have a 1 year expiration, even the $10 card.

If you need a new phone you can get one at Walmart or Target, etc for $40, and will come with starter time and a SIM.

But the absoute cheapest way to get started is to buy a SIM off ebay. You can buy a preactivated SIM. These are sold by Tmobile dealers that are trying to make there quotas. You can gat a SIM with $30 credt, 150 min with the 60 day expiration timer already started for $9 shipped. You will probably get the SIM with about 45 days left. No big deal because you want to add the $100 card right away. You can call 611 once you get the SIM and tmobile will charged the tel # to something local to you for free. When you add the $100 card all of the existing balance is converted to the new minute rate. Meaning your original $30 of 150 minutes is now worth 300 minutes, plus the 1000 minutes you get for the $100 refill. The cheapest place to get the $100 card is here Cheap International Prepaid Calling Cards
- Prepaid Mobile Refill Cards
When you buy from here you get an automatic 3% off, and no tax. When you go to checkout use the discount code "refill5" and get another 5% off. This will get you the $100 card for $93. They will email you a refill PIN that you can add to your tmobile accout, either online, calling tmobile on the phone, or on the phone via WAP. So for $102 (9+93) you get 1300 minutes, a SIM, and 1 year expiration. That's 7.8 cents/min. BTW that is the cheapest per minute rate and about the most generous expirations in the prepay business.
If you don't think you'll use 1300 min in a year add $10 and the balance will roll over for another year. Best part is you don't have to deal with remembering to refill every 30-90 days like most prepays.

All of the things I mentioned above I have done personally and have been very happy with. Also, tmobiles customer service has been very helpful and friendly.

If the coverage works for you, which you said it does, then tmobile togo is really hard to beat.

The only drawbacks may be 1. rural coverage. BTW, they now offer roaming on other carriers without extra charger. 2. Data. They only offer their very limited WAP deck. CNN, ESPN, ABC news, account info. But this is also free. They have no unlimited data with prepaid unless you want to go with the prepaid Sidekick plan.