Ask HN: Prepaid flip phone that works out of the box to send to relative in need
I've got an adult sibling that lives across the country from me. They have mental health problems, and (after failing at extended negotiations trying to move them closer to me) I sent them an iPhone last year so we could at least keep in touch.
Now they've lost the iPhone, and I need to send a cheap flip phone with prepaid minutes to communicate while I arrange a replacement iPhone. Ideally, it would work out of the box (meaning, no complex sim-card activation, no visiting a phone store to negotiate activation or plans).
Do any of you have recommendations for such a phone? The various options seem like they would be difficult to activate and/or are prohibitively expensive. This thing only has to work for a month or so and then it can be discarded.
I'm looking at Tracfones, but they require sending three different pieces (phone, SIM card, minutes) and I'm worried about how difficult the activation process will be. On Amazon I see something called 'Easyfone' that works with Mint Mobile, but the instructions say you should activate the sim on a feature-phone and then move the sim back into the Easyfone, and that also seems difficult.
The requirements:
- Super easy setup
- Cheap (~ $50-$75)
- Makes calls
- Receives calls
- Prepaid plan
- Ships relatively quickly