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Patch reliability is unclear. Unless you have an immediate, pressing need to install a specific patch, don't do it. |
Looking for non-smartphone, flip maybe, to throw in he glove compartment against a possible need to call for help in the middle of East Cupcake somewhere. This phone would act similarly to a spare tire, might be years before it’s needed. So far what I’m seeing are phones as cheap as $20, but then I would have to keep buying additional minutes every 90 days or so to keep the phone active.
Anyone know of a buy-it-and-forget-it-unless-needed option?
a possible need to call for help in the middle of East Cupcake somewhere.
You may not have a cellular connection middle of East Cupcake somewhere and that’s where non-burner iPhone 14.. with free satellite connection (2 years for now) can help.
I’m not a phone expert but I don’t know of any cell phone that’s truly buy-it-and-forget-it. Even if you keep the phone turned off you’ll need to recharge the battery every so often. You might be able to run the phone off a usb port in your car, but I would check to make sure that works with your vehicle, and it requires that your car battery isn’t dead – which perhaps is a situation you’d want the phone for.
FWIW I have a Tracfone flip phone that works well, but I do need to buy time once a year to keep the service with the same phone number going. Tracfone has a variety of “time plans” that seem to change a fair amount, but when I bought my current phone a couple years ago (I’ve had tracfones for about 20 years) one year of unlimited minutes was $99 and at the time the only way to get one year was to also get unlimited minutes. My unused minutes do rollover. I need the phone for more than just a glovebox phone, though, so I just buy unlimited minutes.
There are many other providers that work similarly to Tracfone. Straight Talk, etc. are similar; find them with an internet search. They might have time plans that better meet your needs.
It’s very rare for my phone to not have cell service because of location. It’s literally been just once or twice and those were places I probably shouldn’t have even tried to get to with my vehicle! If you need anywhere service get a satellite phone or look into @Alex5723’s suggestion. But neither will be cheap.
If you do a search for “best cell phones for seniors” you’ll get a fair number of flip phone suggestions. Jitterbug comes to mind and there are others as well. You might try going to a Best Buy or Target. The former often has a cell phone department with some knowledgeable sales people who can guide you through a bunch of phones. Target is more hit or miss for salespeople but they often have a fair number of phones. Believe it or not my local WalMart has some pretty sharp folks working the tech departments, and they have a lot of phones.
As @Bob99 says Tracfones are available at WalMart or the Tracfone website and probably a lot of other places as well. I’ve bought them from the website, WalMart and Target over the last 20 years.
As far as location tracking, I think flip phones are less likely to keep broadcasting your location than a smartphone is, but I’m not sure. Keeping your phone turned off should help. Of course, as soon as you make a call, the phone knows where you are or at least where the cell tower nearest you is.
You don’t have to ID yourself when you “buy” them at a retail store, but you will have to ID yourself to the carrier (i.e. name, address, DOB, etc.) to “activate” it and get a phone#. That’s an FCC requirement so there’s really no way around it.
You should also be aware that Phase 2 of the FCC’s E911 rules now require all cell phone carriers provide latitude and longitude coordinates (within 300m) to the PSAP (Public Safety Answering Point) that receives a 911 cell phone call so EMS will be able to locate the caller. That means any phone you buy, even a simply flip phone, will be sending location info to the carrier while powered on.
Regardless of how you pay for the phone and time, and how much or little personal info you give out to make the purchase, don’t be surprised if you get unsolicited texts and/or phone calls. Robo calls will dial every possible phone number they can hoping to make a “hit”; a brute force method. But that can happen on land lines as well. If you get a cell phone – smart or not – you can enter in names and phone numbers of people you are willing to take calls or texts from. Look for “Contacts” on your phone in order to do this. Then when you get a call or text the name will show up and you can decide to answer or respond. If just a number shows up it likely will not be one of your contacts that you entered in (unless one of your contct’s phone number has been spoofed), and you can ignore it or look it up later to see if it’s someone you know.
Yes, once computer dialing apps came along, the spammers could light off the system and sit back until a vict…er, customer answers. Operators are standing by!
One other thing about flip phones. Some of them have a second smaller screen on the outside of the phone that will display an incoming phone number or name. Some don’t, though, and the only way to see who’s calling is to open the phone. Unfortunately, some phones answer the call as soon as the phone is opened. But there should be an option to prevent that in the Settings (probably something like Call Settings or Answering Options), and to let you open the phone while its ringing so you can see who’s calling, and then press any key (or maybe a specific key) to actually answer the phone; simply close the phone if you don’t want to answer.
In typical driving, if you have a breakdown or accident, in the next half hour many cars will pass you and one or more of them will call 911. Leave your hood up and hang a piece of clothing out the window to indicate breakdown, and turn on emergency flashers.
For extra peace of mind, there is no continuing additional cost to keep a charged, deactivated, turned off cell phone with you. For this intended use, a used one is fine. I would get a brand name like Samsung since many cheap phones I have used seem to fail permanently when the battery is allowed to get low.  A Samsung may fail in this way also so make sure to charge it whenever the battery is low, this could be as often as every other day. For better chance of connecting to towers I would get one new enough to have 4G, I believe the benefits of 5G would be minimal.
A breakdown is close enough to a real emergency that calling 911 I don’t think will get you in trouble. However I think it is likely the response you will get will be police, and their tow truck, not the private party you might choose. Tow charges if not covered are pretty expensive, easily $200.
A yearly card with few minutes (400) from Tracfone is around $100-$120, this will allow you to call other services and when calling 911 they will be able to call you back if disconnected and will more quickly see your full name, registered address and location. The other cheapest cellular services like Tello (coverage may not be good enough if T-Mobile coverage is poor in your area) are around around $10 a month or $120 a year. If this allows you to call AAA instead of Police it could easily pay for itself, however you may never need it.
Many people qualify for Government provided cellular phones, the warning with these other than the tracking and paperwork is that the phone must make a call or text every 30 days or they will deactivate it.
Sounds like a good idea, BUT the FAQs in your link say that with Live Voicemail turned on, the iPhone actually answers the call and “speaks” to the “caller” giving it instructions. That tells the “caller” they’ve called a working functioning phone, and there’s then every reason to think they’ll try calling that number again, and again, and again, and… hoping the phone’s owner has turned Live Voicemail off.
they’ll try calling that number again, and again, and again, and… hoping the phone’s owner has turned Live Voicemail off.
You just block the caller if its spam call.
That will also tell the spammer that they’ve called a live number. There is no ideal solution except possibly an enforceable law that is actually enforced. I’m just pointing out some of the possible things that can happen.
Just having the phone ring instead of having a recording saying that the number has been disconnected or is no longer in service lets the caller know they have a live number. Cellular providers will also usually intervene after a number of rings and attempt to route the call to voicemail. I never set mine up on any phone, so it would tell the caller “this wireless customer has not set up voicemail” and hang up.
I would block the unwanted numbers as well. I have that on my landline, where I have a few hundred numbers blocked, I think. I never give out the cell number, so it is relatively spam free.
Dell XPS 13/9310, i5-1135G7/16GB, KDE Neon
XPG Xenia 15, i7-9750H/32GB & GTX1660ti, KDE Neon
Acer Swift Go 14, i5-1335U/16GB, KDE Neon (and Win 11)
Our landline/ internet service is Verizon. Some time back they deployed a countermeasure to robocalls, not sure now of the details, but we were advised to let the landlines ring once, and if it’s computer dialed, it’s disconnected. Of course, that doesn’t pick up those desperadoes who have to dial manually to harass us, but it helps. In any case, we usually don’t answer the phones. If I recognize the caller or number, I answer, but there are no vinyl siding salesmen on my favored caller list.
Thanks to all who posted on this thread; as it turns out, the immediate need for a cell has passed, but that gives me a chance to cruise the field, armed with the info presented here. Will post back when I break down and buy something.
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