I was just playing around with my cell phone and managed to lock on to a signal that took me to my account where I could check the balance. I was curious to see if I would still have 100$ on it, or if I would have been dinged for some unexpected tiny print charges.

Neither.

While all the other cell companies charge you 25$ or so to activate your phone, Virgin Mobile pays YOU money to activate your phone! They gave me a 15$ credit for activating on line!

Even at 30 cents per minute for local calls, 115$ is going to last a long time!

This reminds me of ten years ago, when I bought a £5 phone card for my month in Scotland and got a ludicrously generous £3 bonus. I still had so much money left on the card at the end of the month it was worth giving it to another traveler!