Virgin Mobile cell phone service

As in the summer of 2006, I am using a prepaid phone service from Virgin Mobile. I originally used this just to save money, as they got the cheapest phone ($20) back then. And although $0.18/minute was a little high, but considering that I don't talk much and I could never use up all my minutes, the $20 per 90 days limit was much cheaper then any other plan that I know of.

Originally, I planned to switch to T-mobile or AT&T once I got a job or went to grad school, since they use the GSM system, and thus I could use a Taiwanese phone with support for Chinese phone books. And also, phones bought in Taiwan are much better then the carrier locked up phones here. And most of all, once I have a greater number of friends here, prepaid phones won't seem that reasonable anymore.

Yet, I am getting more and more satisfied with Virgin Mobile USA. I didn't like them last year as it seems to be a carrier aimed at kids. "My phone has a built-in flash light..." you call that cool? Even worse, the automated customer service system had this semi-hip-hop style recording greeting you: "Hay, what's up?" I am no-longer a kid, and I never liked that style, especially when phone customer service comes in that flavor.

But then, here comes the good part.
1. On the customer service, once you get the retarded automated
voice system to connect you to a real human service rep,
you well get very nice service that'll make you smile.
2. It you set up your credit card to pay automatically every 90 days, that payment limit drops to $15! Yeah, more savings!
3. $15 per month not enough for talking? No problem, if you go to the Virgin Mobile website and opt in to watch video ads, you get a free minute for every ad you watch. (Well, limit to 5/day, though...)

So, if I could get good service with only $15 every 3 months, why sign up for a plan for at least $30/month? As I am accustomed to paying only $4 per month back in Taiwan, with heavy talking, I see no point in a $30 per month charge. To me, all 3 major carriers in the US are heavily over charging.

Although Virgin phones all suck in functionality, at least it makes calls well. Compare that to the expensive smart phones and feature phones that crashes once in a while. I have a phone that only makes calls, and a Clie PDA that does everything else, and both are stable.