Shopper Bob, my cell phone costs me approx $10 a year, more if I actually use it. Check out prepaid phones (not prepaid plans) with T Mobile if they have service where you live. For the first year you can do a $25 card every three months and when you get to $100 spent your minutes last for a year. As long as you put in another cards worth before the quarter or year is over, and the least expensive is $10, then you can indefinitely extend your minutes. I bought a cheap Nokia at Target for under $20 and now renew once a year for $10. I have around 30 minutes (and actually used about 5 of them on my recent hotel shop since the room phone was 50 cents flat rate + an extra per minute rate). It took me years to use up the 130 minutes I racked up the first year in my quarterly payments. Anyway if you want to keep costs down do not tell anyone you know you have a cell and never give out your number...of course you will need to give it to this company. The cost per minute is around 25 cents. So this month when I finally turned my phone on I spent $1.25 from the hotel. Now it will be turned off until I take my next vacation.
I do not work for T Mobile but I think they are the best way to go to have an almost free cell phone if you just need it for emergencies and shopping companies that won't hire you otherwise.
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> Lisa,
>
> The company requires shoppers to have a cell
> phone. As I have no personal need, the cost and
> inconvenience of carrying the device is an
> unacceptable expense. If, though, there were a
> sufficient supply of jobs needing the service, I
> would quickly subscribe. As you mentioned in a
> letter last year, even with your willingness to
> travel, video has not been the "cash cow" you
> expected.