Hi Shannen here, this is part 2 of the cheapest cell phone plans part 1 article.

How to get started: You will need to use a TracFone cell phone to obtain their cellular phone service. The cost starts at $20 for a phone starter package. If you are a careful shopper, you may find some really good deals on their website, like getting a free phone sometimes.

Recently, I upgraded my TracFone cell phone to a really stylish silver Motorola W376g blue-tooth ready camera flip phone. All I paid was $20 for 3 months of service. Not only did I get 3 months of service, the package also included a camera flip phone and Double Minutes for Life benefit.

Click here to visit the TracFone website. Enter a zip check and you will see all the starter kits for your area.

Reliability: TracFone's cellular phone service is hard to beat in terms of pricing. But are they reliable? The network coverage is solid - they use coverage from a number of major national networks including AT&T, Verzion Wireless and T-Mobile. In fact, many users have commented on how much better their cell phone reception has been since switching to TracFone from other big name companies. They are the largest prepaid cell phone company in the US, and have over 12 million subscribers. In my opinion, TracFone is one of the best if not the best prepaid cell phone plan available, based on value pricing, flexibility of buying more and less minutes as needed and reliability of connections all combined.

What I don't like about TracFone is that it is difficult for users to understand their pricing and discounts. For example, the $10 plan has 50 minutes included, but it really doubles to 100 minutes with a Double Minutes benefit. Now most of their starter phone packages, especially those listed directly on their website, already come with this Double Minutes benefit included free. But if you don't realize what the benefit is and did not start with that benefit included, then you end up paying an extra $25 to $50 down the road.

If you read the TracFone webpage for Value Plans, the information that 50 minutes actually doubles to 100 minutes, or 100 minutes doubling to 200 is not obvious. I had to check out the FAQ pages and then called customer support and spoke with Helen who verified my phone's serial number and Double Minutes benefit and confirmed it for me. It would be nice to more obviously include that information on their webpages. Plus it would certainly be to TracFone's benefit to let people know they can spend less and get more. Sometimes, we have to dig around for the facts.

Thanks for reading. If you are looking for the lowest cost cellular service plan, I hope you found some helpful information today. If there is something else that you like to know, drop me a comment.