how can I keep my cell phone number cheaply while spending time abroad?
The Mr. and I went through this not too long ago. We solved the problem of keeping our numbers by switching to pre-paid (no contract) plans. The trick to keeping it cheap is to buy the largest denomination of minutes you can find at the deepest discount you can find. Then as long as you don’t talk more than 300 min./month, it’s cheaper than even the cheapest monthly plan out there. T-Mobile is the one we went with, and I believe it’s still the cheapest. It’s 10 cents a minute for domestic calls, with 0$/mo as long as you buy your minutes $100 (1000 min) at a time. You can sometimes find them online for $95, making it $9.5 cents a minute. The T-Mobile minutes last for a year when you buy them in bulk like that, even if you don’t actively use the phone. So if you’re gone for more than a year you may need to buy more minutes to keep the account active. (I don’t work for T-mobile, or get kick-backs of any kind from them.) You do still have to call and check your messages periodically, but
sharkfu: With Virgin Mobile, you can prepay for a text/voice/picture messaging plan. $5 gets you 200 messages a month, for example, and there are other options. Phones are cheap too. If you’re a new customer, you can order a $20 phone from their website, which will be shipped free, and get a $20 call credit right off.
