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This is a true story about a family that had two wireless phones with a full-service carrier.

The family became convinced that they shouldn't use the phones while driving, but did want to keep both phones for emergency use and occasional "Come pick me up" messages.

The family cancelled one of its full-service contracts and bought a Tracfone at Wal-Mart. It was a little tricky to program the phone, but the directions at www.tracfone.com worked, if followed step-by-step. By buying a one-year card, the family cut its expense on that phone to less than half its full-service contract price.

The family later got another Tracfone, cancelled its other full-service contract, and is now getting cellular service on two phones for less than $17 per month.

Some additional notes about this:

1. Recently a number of prepaid wireless competitors have sprung up. Check the reviews at www.letstalk.com to see if there's a phone and prepaid plan that would work better for you than Tracfone.

2. There are, naturally enough, some bad stories about prepaid wireless service. However, with a little effort you should be able to get your phone up and working. The plans are so inexpensive per month that there's little to lose by giving it a try.

3. If you miscalculate and start talking for a lot of minutes on a prepaid contract, it will cost you more than a regular wireless contract. At that point you might want to reconsider going prepaid.

Still, thousands of customers have cut their wireless bill to less than half and simplified things with prepaid wireless.

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