I can't advise on Vonage or Magic Jack.

I have used AT&T/Cingular for about 15 years. I currently have an AT&T Go Phone (pay-as-you-go) that I am very satisifed with. I have had this particular phone for about 4 years. It has voice mail, call waiting and caller ID. Also has texting available. I had that feature disabled since the only texts we received were marketing messages.

I pay in advance $100 per year (under $9.00/month) so I don't have to worry about minutes expiring for a full year.

With the plan I have, usage is $1.00 per day of use (no charge if no calls that day) plus 10 cents per minute. Since we only use it for emergencies or when traveling, this works very well for us. Almost too well since we are starting to max out on credits after 4 years.

They also have a straight 25 cents per minute plan which would cost about $180/year ($15/month).

Terri

Ladywingr,

Thank you very much for this helpful advice. We have gone with the ten cent program and bought a very basic phone.

Veronica