Faithful readers may be familiar with rancho indebto’s family cellphone saga … lost on the beach, run through the washing machine, $150 in IM charges … we’ve been through it all. After running without a single cellphone for months now, the pressure’s on to jump back on the wagon. I might roll the dice on another pre-paid cellphone after reading this letter from a thoughtful Gnomie …

Gnomie Tia wrote:

After having this problem with my teenage stepdaughter, I believe that pre-paid is the only way to go. It’s not really that much more per minute, given that taxes, etc., are added into the per minute charge. We used TracFone, and found that they only charged 1/2 a unit (a minute) for text messaging, so that was great for her.

We signed her up for a year’s service and got the phone for her (there was a package deal on the website).

Since part of the reason for her having the cell phone was to stay in touch with us, we agreed to provide her with a certain amount of minutes a month, and we would buy them online each month. If she still had minutes left, we added to them, if she was out, she got just what we added and no more. If she wanted more, she had to add them herself, using her own money.

We often included some minutes as birthday and Christmas presents, so there were times she got extra from us.

We had a regular monthly charge, and she had the responsibility to use it well. Part of that responsibility was to make sure she had minutes so we could contact her if we needed to.

She learned quickly how to use the minutes to the best advantage. She was amazed at how easy it was to use the minutes, and how much it cost to add more.

She wasn’t crazy about the basic TracFone model, but at least she had a cell phone, and so the coolness quotient was only dented, not destroyed.

I think every parent thinking of getting their kids a cell phone should do this. Not only to help reduce overages, but to help teach their kids in a safe way some real life lessons.

I’m all for that.

But after spending some time perusing the raft of snappy pre-paid cellphone displays at a local big box electronics store yesterday, I left befuddled. Call me old-fashioned, easily distracted, or anything but late for dinner. I just need to sit down and look at (or better yet, compile) an up-to-date and comprehensive chart that compares the all the costs and most important policies of each mobile provider before I roll those dice again …