Virgin Mobile has a great new UNLIMITED plan called TEXTER'S DELIGHT. You get unlimited text/im/pic/video messaging and email for 19.99 a month plus tax. Any additonal voice minutes are 10 cents a minute all the time. You don't need to buy a voice/talk package then add on a text package, Texter's Delight is the first texting only package where you add on minutes, not the traditional voice package where you add text that everyone else uses.
Virgin Mobile Wild Card is an okay phone. I don't know how you found it for but the newer/ cooler XTC is even better and has a much larger screen and on Virgin Mobile's website, only $10 more. You can also find them at Walmart, Kmart, Target, Radio Shack, Best Buy and other places. You can buy airtime topup cards there too in amounts of $20, 30 and 50. The Wildcard has a small minority (about 10 percent ) of them having a reputation for freezing up sometimes though. I don't like that part about it at all.
If you do choose Virgin Mobile and sign up as a new user, activate online because it is free. If you call their live advisor, they will charge you $10 activation fee. Pay online with a topup of at least $20 (if you get Texter's Delight Unlimited, I recommend 30 to cover overages and taxes/service fees.) During registration/activation/topup you will see a Kickbacks code box , if you want 60 free minutes when you topup, cut and past this code bOJUQIop into that box. If done right , after activation you will receive a free hour of talktime.
After that, you can apply for your own Kickback Code at your account/bonuses. If your friends become Virgin Mobile users and start new accounts, you give them your code, you will BOTH get 60 free minutes if they top up the first time with at least 20 dollars during activation. You can refer your code up to 100 times a year for a potential maximum of 6000 talk minutes a year. Do that and you will save a lot of money on minutes.
There's also Sugar Mama which is a program you can get up to 75 free minutes a month onine, via text on via Facebook Fund my phone.
Two words to the wise. Never buy /pay for your plans on Virgin Mobile website with charge card because they can overcharge you. Same goes for Paypal. Use topup cards . When you order your plans, make sure you punch in exactly what you want or Virgin Mobile will charge you the higher non plan talk/text and web rates instead of the cheaper ones in the plans.
Good luck.