Unlike a lot of people here, I don’t fetishize my cellphone. I also don’t need anything but the most basic of features – that is, making and receiving phone calls. Speakerphone and Bluetooth support are nice.
Anyway. So my phone broke a couple of weeks ago, and I went to the AT&T store to see if I was eligible for a plan-related discount on a new phone. I am not, and the cheapest, most bargain-basement phones are well over $100. I expressed dismay to the sales guy, and he told me that, confidentially, you can put a standard AT&T sim card into a GoPhone, and it works just fine.
Perhaps everybody else already knows this, but I did not.
I headed to Walmart, and bought a new phone for $9. It feels really low quality and has neither bluetooth nor speakerphone, but it works just fine, and at that price point, you can buy a new one every month and still more than break even. About 3 weeks in, I have no complaints.
I was poking around on the AT&T Wireless website a minute ago, and they sell a wide range of refurbished GoPhones, also. There were 6 or 8 refurb phones with Bluetooth, mp3 playback, cameras, and that sort of thing for $19.99 to $29.99 with no contract required. They have a 90 day warranty and, once again, even if you bought a new one every 3 months, it would be cheaper than buying a single non-GoPhone.
I thought there might be some other cheapskates out there that would find this useful.