Contract for someone who sms's overseas a lot?

[Genesistt]

Hi guys

Ok, so here's my dilemma. I've never had a cell phone contract. Ever. Always been on prepaid, because it served me the best. But buying new phones cash is a VERY pricy exercise, so now I've been contemplating getting a contract so that I can get me a new phone without having to shell out R6000 - R7000 on the spot.

But I have a problem. I don't really phone people a lot and I hardly ever sms people within the borders of South Africa. I mostly sms my friends and family overseas. Now what?

What kind of contract won't end up costing me a fortune in extra charges for overseas sms's and a waste of local sms's and call minutes I don't use?

Any suggestions? I'm open to any network, but I would prefer to not go MTN. Don't like MTN.

Oh, and they have to be able to migrate my current prepaid number to the contract too. Who wants to go through the hassle of having to change their number with anyone who's ever contacted them?

[Chevron]

Virgin is probably best for that. Or Cellc. Just check if they price overseas smses differently.

[chrisc4290]

CellC. My daughter uses this a lot and she did her homework beforehand.

[ajax]

Take something with inclusive airtime so that the smss come off that and not billed extra.

[HapticSimian]

Get your friends and family to migrate to something like Whatsapp, where each message costs a fraction of what an SMS does regardless of its destination.

[isie]

Get your friends and family to migrate to something like Whatsapp, where each message costs a fraction of what an SMS does regardless of its destination.

best advise ever! Thanks to Whatsapp we save tons of cash.

what ever network you go, take out the top up option so even if you do go over you wont get scary monthly bill you just need to buy airtime.

Also no mater what network you go to you can keep your current number, since its already prepaid it will be easy to port to any network.

[SCHUMI-4-EVA]

Take something with inclusive airtime so that the smss come off that and not billed extra.

I really wish people would stop referring to their pre-paid balance as airtime. Airtime was the window you had till your contract/SIM card expired. Or at best it's how many voice minutes you have left. Not what the balance is on your TopUp Contract or Prepaid SIM.

So to be clear this would only work on a contract that assigns a monetary value to your account ever month. Normal voice contract minutes do not convert to cover SMSs.

Get your friends and family to migrate to something like Whatsapp, where each message costs a fraction of what an SMS does regardless of its destination.

This is without a doubt your best solution.