I feel compelled to make a few disclaimers at the beginning of this review:

a) My husband works for Verizon, but not the wireless division. This has not influenced my review in any way because his employment is not in the wireless department, and we do not receive any special discounts or services for the plan that I have.
b) I use a prepaid Verizon plan called FreeUp. I live in the Philadelphia area, but my plan works nationwide.

My 14 year old daughter has been nagging for a cell phone for a while now. However, I could never justify the expense, and my credit isn't the best. Therefore, I refused her pleas, and was forced to endure more whining and begging. Then I made the mistake of taking her to Radio Shack with me to pick up a universal remote. The second she stepped in the store, my daughter redoubled her efforts to get a cell phone. I was doing pretty good at ignoring her pleading until the salesman (on commission, of course) got involved.

He whipped out a brochure about Verizon's prepaid cellular plan called FreeUp. I had priced pre-paid plans before and was not impressed. 10 minute prepaid cards sold for as much as $7.95 in some stores. When I told the salesman my thoughts about the exhorbitant prices of pre-paid cell phones, he told me that this plan was different. With the Verizon pre-paid plan, I could spend as little as 10 cents a minute for evening and weekend calls. Daytime calls were 30 cents a minute. The same rates applied for both local and long distance calls. Much to my daughter's disgust, I bought the Nokia phone that the salesman dangled in front of me, and $50 worth of talk time. Verizon graciously threw in 200 free night and weekend minutes, and does so every time I purchase at least $50 worth of time. Why was my daughter disgusted? Because I bought the phone for ME and not her.

There are many things that I do not like about my Verizon service. For some reason, reception in my house in horrible. In addition, I can have reasonable reception in one part of the house, and then 5 minutes later there is no reception in the exact same spot. It is exasperating to say the least. I realize that cell phone reception depends a lot on the geography and other factors. However, I wish that Verizon guy would call ME and ask me if I could hear him now.

My main complaint is that Verizon does not offer local phone numbers for the Reading area. I am forced to deal with a long distance number using the Valley Forge area code. Therefore, all calls to my cell from my house are toll calls. Verizon offers local numbers in Reading for their other wireless services. It is just the FreeUp customers who are forced to deal with the non-local number issue.

There is a strange new quirk with my service that had me in a panic today. For some unknown reason, my phone reports that I only have 4 minutes of time available, when I have over 100. The web site and customer service representative both agree that I have 100+ minutes, but when I place a call, the system still reports 4 minutes available. I resolved the issue by turning off the message on the phone that reports available time. I will now rely on the web site for my account balance.

Finally, the ReUp time is only good for 60 days (30 if fewer minutes are purchased). This means that unless I buy more minutes before my time expires, I will lose both my remaining time, and my phone number. If I buy more minutes before the old ones expire, my old minutes carry over, and my phone number stays the same. I would love this phone if I could fill it up with time, and then stick it in my purse for emergencies. I could make $50 last a very long time that way. With an expiration date, I use my phone to make my long distance calls. No sense in letting the minutes go to waste.

There are good things about this service too. The major one is that there is no credit check required, and no monthly bill. I love being able to have a cell phone like my more solvent friends, and unless I tell them nobody can tell it's a pre-paid service.

Customer service has always been friendly and helpful. When I first got the phone, I called for help to figure out why all calls to the cell phone were going directly to my voice mail even when the phone was on. (Thank the rotten reception in my house for that one.) The Verizon representative was courteous and knowledgeable. Likewise, when I called to purchase more minutes, I received great service. My call for help regarding the 4 minutes of remaining time issue was handled politely, but nothing was really solved from my call.

There is a web site available where I can check my account balance, set up preferences, view call logs, and activate text messaging. I am unable to purchase more minutes via the web site though, and that is a major deficit. I do not use text messaging because I can't see the sense of paying for it. I have email and icq for that. If I am going to pay to talk to my friends, I would rather do it orally.

My daughter does get to use the phone sometimes. I realized that if she had the cell phone when I was at work, I could call her in emergencies and ask her to pick up her baby sisters from daycare for me. Somehow, the cell phone lost a lot of its magic when I started doing that. However, I love the fact that I can give it to my daughter when she goes out to a school dance, or out with her friends. I don't have to worry that she is going to talk me into the poor house, and yet I can reach her if I need to. I just might buy her her own phone yet.


Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 50