Are pay-by-the-minute phone plans a thing of the past? (US)

Hmm... Last time I checked, though, they'll still withdraw from your balance every month whether you use it or not, though ... so it still amounts to a monthly payment.

It depends on the plan you get. Either you get pre-paid minutes (which can be bought with cash, which is another reason they are commonly used by drug dealers) or you pay month-to-month.

Jmp.chat

Available in the US and Canada.. Costs around $6 a month and you get 120 minutes per month. No data

Can pay with crypto

I've never heard of one of those with no recurring charges (typically you get a service plan that expires after 1 year), but yes, that type of phone is super cheap. Like here's two flip phones each with 1 year of service, $70 for both:

https://www.qvc.com/tracfone-blu-b300v-2-handsets-1200-talktextdata.product.E323463.html?sc=srch&sku=062

I think there's a way to do two sim activations on one phone, so you get two years of service. r/nocontract on spezzit would have more info about this.

QVC used to have tons of cheap Android phones (search "tracfone" with similar deals but they're all OOS now, I guess due to AI semiconductor shortages. No idea about Walmart. I haven't looked at ebay recently.

Here's a bunch of other links: https://old.reddit.com/r/NoContract/comments/1setzil/low_data_phone_plan/of1yxnz/

I think Helium Zero is long gone, and has to have been a privacy invasion scam or something. But other stuff starts at $2.40/month which most people can manage. Redpocket is fairly decent these days and they have a $30/year plan on ebay.

Here's some others: https://prepaidcompare.net/ But remember that "free" never really is.

Added: I can reasonably recommend this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/136840233242?

It's $30/year for unlimited voice and data plus 200MB/month of data, which is comfortably enough to check email and Lemmy now and then, though not enough for video watching or heavy web surfing. I'm on a $10/month T-mobile plan from them and it's mostly been ok.

Hmm, another idea might be a data-only plan plus your google voice number and a VOIP client. That's going to be pretty annoying though.

Added: I can reasonably recommend this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/136840233242?

It’s $30/year for unlimited voice and data plus 200MB/month of data, which is comfortably enough to check email and Lemmy now and then, though not enough for video watching or heavy web surfing. I’m on a $10/month T-mobile plan from them and it’s mostly been ok.

Strange... Why are $2.50/mo plans available on ebay, but not through Red Pocket's website? The lowest shown on their website is ~$10/mo.

IDK but they've done that for a very long time. I remember wondering if ebay had some exclusive deal with them for annual plans. For a while, the website only had monthly plans. Or maybe, they are adding some friction in the hopes of getting some less careful shoppers to pay more.