Looking for the cheapest prepaid option. Phone would only be used for emergencies, so I don't need minutes per month, just the lowest price per minute.

Here's what I've looked at and decided on:

Tmobile prepaid: Cheapest option is $10 for 30 minutes and minutes expire after 30 days. If you want 10¢/minute, you need to add $100 and these expire in a year. (Really don't want to invest $100 when phone is barely going to be used)

Net10: 200 minutes for $20, but minutes expire monthly.

Pageplus: 100 minutes for $10, but minutes expire after 120 days.

AT&T - pay as you go so minutes don't expire. Pay per minute at 10 cents per minute

TL;DR - is AT&T pay as you go my best option at 10¢/min? (Plan on using 50 minutes at the most per month.) Is there any plan I missed?

Edit: Looks like At&t forces you to buy refill cards as well. Best is a $25 card that expires in 3 months. Still seems like my best option =/

After writing this, I feel like I've answered my own question but want to be sure before I go ahead and purchase

Thanks

Page Plus 2000 minutes for $80, $75 on sale, good for a year. The next year, add a $10/100-minute card every four months. Monthly cost after two years is about five bucks plus cost of the phone and has Verizon prepaid network coverage AND roaming. You pay more up front but have a lot more minutes on tap. If this is only intended to be a temporary emergency phone, then maybe you won't need the minutes. Either way, that or just doing $10/100m every four months it's a better deal than the AT&T one you mentioned.

Bonus points for being able to use almost any Verizon phone you want. Want a touchscreen phone with Wi-Fi for whatever reason? There you go.

Be careful with certain providers who give lousy coverage on their prepaid plans and sometimes you can't even roam and thus have NO reception at all. lame!

Another alternative is Tracfone for about $100 a year and 1000+ minutes and includes (generally boring but works) phone. You can get a CDMA or GSM phone depending on what's best for your area.

Also look at PlatinumTel. The site says $10 for 90 days. Page Plus is still better unless coverage is a problem. And I think the Ptel minutes cannot be carried over after 90 days but am not sure.

Boost Mobile. Besides the cost of the phone, the cost is approximately $10 every three months. Basically you have to add minutes every so often to keep the account "active" and the cheapest number of minutes you can purchase is $10 worth. As long as your account is active, you keep your minutes. Boost runs on Sprint's network so coverage is fairly good. :cool:

Spot Mobile (http://spotmobile.com/). 10 cents per minute, $5 minimum every THREE months. Total cost $20 per year. You can use ANY unlocked GSM phone too.

Trac Fone -- get a double minutes for life phone and when ever you add time/days look online for a free minutes code.

$20 for 90 days of service and 60 minutes of talk time -- with DMFL phone it's 120 minutes and I can almost always find a 30 minute bonus card so I usually end up with 90 days of service and 150 minutes for $20.

One warning -- if you let your phone run out of days you will lose your minutes; otherwise, they carry over forever.

Spot Mobile (http://spotmobile.com/). 10 cents per minute, $5 minimum every THREE months. Total cost $20 per year. You can use ANY unlocked GSM phone too.
I remember a thread about them. Sounded good, but I don't think anyone could come up with a coverage map, which made being a guinea pig annoying. If anyone finds a map link, post it up.

Boost Mobile. Besides the cost of the phone, the cost is approximately $10 every three months. Basically you have to add minutes every so often to keep the account "active" and the cheapest number of minutes you can purchase is $10 worth. As long as your account is active, you keep your minutes. Boost runs on Sprint's network so coverage is fairly good. :cool:

Didn't know boost did prepaid, thanks! Checked online and and pay as you go is 20 ¢/min which isn't bad but the cheapest phone online is $100 =/

Spot Mobile (http://spotmobile.com/). 10 cents per minute, $5 minimum every THREE months. Total cost $20 per year. You can use ANY unlocked GSM phone too.

This is EXACTLY what I've been looking for. I already have a gsm phone that I can unlock so I only need their sim and I should be set. Just trying to find their network coverage area to finalize.

thank you thank you thank you (and to everyone else who posted!)

Edit: looks like the only expensive part is buying the sim. Cheapest is $20 w/ airtime