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As a very frugal person, I have a prepaid phone plan that costs $100 a year. For the past two years, I've spent roughly $50 of that each year. As long as I renew the plan with another $100 every year, I can carry over the unused balance.

But there's a hitch; if I only used half of the balance one year, I'm not likely to vary that dramatically. I was talking with a friend of mine who had a Virgin prepaid plan and lamented that he had accrued quite a balance this way over a few years and decided it was a ripoff. I understand the sunk costs fallacy, though maybe not why he decided it was enough to change providers.

I'm comfortable with writing off 50 dollars a year, but I'm wondering if there's any good way to cash my balance out, or at least put it to a better cause than T-Mobile's bottom line. I hear about some places using minutes as currency and I'm wondering: is there anything now or on the horizon in the US that might let me cash out the unused balance?

Dheer
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jldugger
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3 Answers3

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If you are using T-mobile you don't have to put $100 in each year to keep your minutes for a year. Once you spend $100 you get a year with any additional minutes you buy. Buying them $100 at a time is the cheapest way - but when you renew you can renew with only $50 or $30 and you have a year to use them from the last time you bought.

I did this this year - only put $50 on each phone because we don't use $100 worth in a year.

harmanjd
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I've found you can give the money to charity. If you text REDCROSS to 90999 for example you can give $10 to the redcross

James Risse
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I typically only purchase $10-$20 for each of our phones yearly as we do not use them very much. The first year, I purchased $100 for each, but after that, any amount will continue service for a year and you keep/roll over any unused minutes. Can't beat $$20-$60 per year for two phones...I just wish their coverage was much better in rural areas. I wish Verizon offered the same deal as their coverage is superior in Ohio.

Jfowler
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