I Am Now A Home Shopping Network Aficionado

[RSteve]

Last night, I had childcare duty for my three young grandchildren. It was my daughter's birthday and she and her husband went out to dinner, then took in the MN Twins baseball game. After the kids were put to bed, I realized I'd left my cellphone at home. My daughter has no hardlined home phone, so, there I was, with no way to make a call if there was an emergency. Fortunately, the evening was uneventful, save for their two cats chasing each other around the house as soon it was dark. They got home about 11:20. It was dark and I had a 20 mile freeway drive home. I never drive without a phone with me. I'm in no shape to change a flat tire and even if I were, there is no spare.
I have two cellphones. One is kept in a fixed spot and used to locate my regular phone. I use it to call the other phone and listen for where it's ringing. I have a 4-phone plan that I share with my older daughter and her husband.
I needed a solution! It's not the first time I've forgotten my phone.
This morning on the Ben's Bargains website I saw below. With the HSN code, $40.00 for the year. It'll go in my car and stay there. I hope I never have to use it, but I'm actually quite prone to leaving my house without a phone. I figure for 11 cents a day, it'll give me some peace of mind.
https://www.hsn.com/products/motoro...cEVlpy94yA0&utm_content=10078-565524-Content#

Motorola Moto E 32GB Prepaid 6.2" Phone (2020) + 1-Year Service $60 at HSN​

HSN has the Motorola Moto E (XT2052D) 32GB Tracfone Prepaid 6.2" Smartphone (2020 model) + 1 Year of Service with 1500 Minutes / 1500 Texts / 1.5GB Data ($125 value) for $60 with free shipping. Includes free case and car charger. New accounts can get an extra $20 off with code HSN2021 [Exp 12/31].

For $5.00 I added:TracFone Smartphone Only Plan - 1,000 Add-On Text Only 616960107019 | eBay

 

[Niblick]

With my calculations this phone would last me 6.1 years with 1500 minutes. My conversations at work and on the way home with my wife last less than 30 seconds each for 1 minute each day. A great inexpensive workaround for you.

 

[RSteve]

The absolutely crazy thing is the cost of buying additional talk minutes is higher than the cost of the phone+1500 talk minutes from HSN. Every year when the year of service concludes, it's cheaper considerably to buy the HSN deal again. I'm thinking that for each purchase of the phone+minutes, you may have to get a new phone number, which will dissuade most people from just not paying the extra money for adding minutes. Because, for me, this is just an emergency phone that will live in my car, I don't care if the phone number changes annually. 99 times out of a 100, I have my regular cell phone with me.

Added: I just noticed that the phone comes with a car charger, as well as the AC charger.

 

[RSteve]

Going through the process of activating the phone seemed very confusing, so to simplify things, I gave to my older daughter to set it up for me, which she did. What I really like about this phone is that it operates off the Verizon towers. My regular cell is T-Mobile and it has some dead spots in rural areas.

I just saw the price dropped another $10.00 to $50.00, minus the new customer discount, $30.00 for a year.I may buy another one to activate next year. Of course, I'll register with another email address to get the new customer discount.

Added Friday: I did buy another one. Used last name first, slightly misspelled my street name (reversed two vowels), secondary email address, and charged to a credit card that also has my late wife's name. So, I got the $20 off discount. $30.00 TL for the phone, two chargers, 1500 minutes talk, 1500 texts. I'll activate it July 10, 2022.

 

[Niblick]

Now you really have me considering purchasing one of these if my phone doesn't work in a dead spot maybe this one would. I'm with AT&T and my monthly drive from Mobile Al to Hattiesburgh MS has many dead spots.

 

[RSteve]

Now you really have me considering purchasing one of these if my phone doesn't work in a dead spot maybe this one would. I'm with AT&T and my monthly drive from Mobile Al to Hattiesburgh MS has many dead spots.

It's easy to use up 1500 talk minutes. The 1500 texts are probably be what I'll be using, then adding 1000 more texts for $5.00.

Before I went with the T-Mobile Veterans Plan, 4 lines unlimited for $100.00, I had Straight Talk with a phone that used the Verizon towers. Everywhere I went I had service.

 

[RSteve]

I used the Tracfone today, so happy I had it in the car. I was headed across St. Paul and got 3/4 of the way to my destination and realized I'd forgotten my regular cellphone. I took out the "burner" and texted both daughters that I was fine, but had forgotten my regular phone at home.