US Cellular vs. no contract phone?

the only kind of cell phone i have ever had is one you have to buy minutes, i have never had a bit of problem w/it. one of my sons gave it to me for christmas a few years back.

I have only have experience with prepaid. I have Virgin Mobile, I was warned before by Virgin Mobile that I would not have complete coverage all the time everywhere I live, they did not lie to me. With the exception for a few dropped calls (mostly at home, of all places) I am ok with the service as I text more than call. I have a prepaid plan with them and this is what it gets me: For 35.90 I get 200 anytime minutes (plus 105 free minutes if I used a credit card or paypal to pay for my prepaid plan vs cash) I get 500 nights/weekends starting at 7:00 p.m I get unlimited texting. For virgin mobile and to me this is their best value considering the same company has 200 minutes (roll over-prepaid plan does not have rollover) for 20 And unlimited for 20 as well. I get with the prepaid plan at 24.99 plus unlimited text for 10 saving me money plus the bonus of having 500 minutes for weekends and nights. Now with the way I used the cell phone and how my credit is this is my best plan to me. I will recommend Virgin Mobile for prepaid also minute by minute, at 20 cents per minute (included voicemail, call waiting, caller id) that is all you will pay, if your usage is small it will not break the bank. Verizon has prepaid with free weekends and nights, several neat packages but you must pay minute by minute and an extra on the days you use it anytime (it can be 99 and up, depending on this, it is how many services you will get)

I've always used a Pay as you Go phone, and there are no hidden costs unless you put them on there yourself, like news on your local football team, ringtone downloads, etc etc. These are special services which you have to pay for but are not really required. Anything else is charged at the normal rate. I even got free weekend texts on mine, all month, just for topping it up by £10! I don't think you can grumble at that, huh? Brightest Blessings, my friend.

I get the same reception. I buy minutes for my phones. My phone at home cost more per minute by buying them, but I hardly use it and don't want a contract. My American phone costs $1 a day if I use the phone. That's $30 a month if I were to talk every day. That would be a huge hidden cost. But since I know about it and choose it, I don't mind. I am only in the States a few weeks a year, so it works out to be the cheapest. My parents are thinking of changing their cell phones to something called Jingle. It's a bare bones package that you can only make and receive calls. No texting, cool ring tones or other things they don't use anyway. If that was available here I might consider it.