I have had a great pay as you use plan that came with my job that is now expiring.AT&T/Cingular. Is there one plan that someone might recommend. I've heard Tracfone is pretty good. What about Virgin Media, AT&T, Cingualar, or any others?

Thanks for your advice. Do these companys have pay as you go plans? I know Cingular does. 25 cents per minute. Not sure of a contract. Don't need a cell that much, so I don't need a monthly charge, and I don't want a contract.

I had a pay as you go phone a few years ago from Cingular. There was no contract. The rates were about $20 for 120 minutes, and text messages took up 1 minute either sending or receiving. Those were from a few years ago, so they might have changed a bit. One thing I didn't like was that if you let your minutes run up and didn't get a new minutes card for a few weeks, you had to pay a $60 re-activation charge. I haven't used any other carriers so I can't help you there!

I like TMobile, have both prepaid and two billed phones on one billing, 3 total phones.
The prepaid is more expensive to use, therefore, don't use it much, $100 in minutes will last me 6 months. The two billed phones allow 3000 anytime minutes per phone for $ 50. Per mo per phone, almost never lose a signal on any of the three in bldg or not.

I had a Tracphone and the area coverage was extremely limited, although I have heard that Tracphone has improved over the past few years. Don't use mine anymore, but do keep it for traveling, to call 911.

Just to let you know: as said earlier t mobile and cingular do use the same towers and virgin mobile uses sprint towers. The best phone for you is always going to be the one that works where you need it. What good will a cheap phone bill do you if the phone never works when needed. Tracphone uses alltel and verizon towers and piggybacks sprint in some areas(very limited). Although tracfone does offer a year subscription that is pretty reasonable. Hope that helps.

Thanks Shack and others. I appreciate the info. I'll compare my needs with different plans.

Cingular/AT&T would be your best bet because they have the "dollar a day" plan. The first phone call of the day you make they take a dollar out. After that, you can talk free to any cingular customer all day long, and anyone non cingular is only 10 cents a minute. Also, if you have a checking account or credit card, you can sign up for the pick your plan option, and they don't even run a credit check on you.

I have alltel's pay per day .15 per min and .10 per text

It really depends on how much you use your phone. I had the original Cingular plan that was $.35/minute peak and $.10 off peak. Unfortunately they killed that plan and now offer two plans, $.25/min all the time or $.10/min plus a $1/day access charge. Since I rarely make more the 3 minutes of calls per day, the access charge deal was not worth it.

Many other companies use the access charge type deal.