Mobile Phone Payment Strategy

[buadhai]

I don't use my mobile phone much. (I never did like talking on the telephone.) But, I want to keep one for emergencies and other situations where communication is essential.

I have been just using DTAC prepaid cards. But, since DTAC reduced the amount of time by which each load extends the life of your credit (one day per ten baht), this doesn't seem so smart. I have to spend ten baht a day just to keep my phone alive. And, if I leave the country for a while and take the phone with me I have to buy a whole lot of time I'll lose just to keep it alive.

Right now I have about 450 baht of credit that will expire on August 18th. I had to add 200 today because the 250 that was in there was set to expire tomorrow!

I wonder if the cheapest postpaid account (299 baht per month), wouldn't be easier for me. It would cost almost exactly the same as buying prepaid cards and would end the inconvenience of having to buy cards and the hassle caused by being out of the country for a while.

Thoughts, anyone?

[autonomous_unit]

Have they removed the progressive scale? I had a DTAC card for a while and you could buy 1000 baht updates at counter-service and the expiration time got pushed out quite a bit. I think it was a year out after a few times, but I was actually using up the time on GPRS and interational calls back then...

I think pre-paid still tends to be the cheapest to maintain on a per-month or per-year basis if you don't use it. You just have to look ahead and think about it as buying months on standby instead of minutes of talk time. I keep a US pre-paid card the same way, and it comes out to almost the same price you quoted... about $8 US per month which so far I buy in $25 lumps when I am passing through.

[OlRedEyes]

I don't use my mobile phone much. (I never did like talking on the telephone.) But, I want to keep one for emergencies and other situations where communication is essential.

I have been just using DTAC prepaid cards. But, since DTAC reduced the amount of time by which each load extends the life of your credit (one day per ten baht), this doesn't seem so smart. I have to spend ten baht a day just to keep my phone alive. And, if I leave the country for a while and take the phone with me I have to buy a whole lot of time I'll lose just to keep it alive.

Right now I have about 450 baht of credit that will expire on August 18th. I had to add 200 today because the 250 that was in there was set to expire tomorrow!

I wonder if the cheapest postpaid account (299 baht per month), wouldn't be easier for me. It would cost almost exactly the same as buying prepaid cards and would end the inconvenience of having to buy cards and the hassle caused by being out of the country for a while.

Thoughts, anyone?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Just finished fuming about the same problem a few weeks ago. I mailed them, and they told me in effect to like it or lump it, thats all they got.

But if you look at their site they have a thing called a baby sim. Gives you 90 days,i think, on 300bht. 5bht/min for calls. Easy to switch, instructions on the (rather confusing) site.

[MattFS218]

DTAC's postpaid ZAD plan carrys over used Baht. So if you signup for their 299 baht/month plan and do not use any of the 299 baht call allowance they will CREDIT it for next month...so you can effectivly make 598 baht worth of calls and only pay the 299/month.

299/month is just the minimum you must pay every month.

They have free Intl Roaming available as a promotion now also. Butyou need a Work Permit to make a post paid account.

Matt