I am in a situation where I may need to travel and do not want to use my regular phone for my out of area assinment(disaster response)
I was thinking of buying a tripple minute phone and stocking up on minute cards until I need them. I have no issue with activating the phone, I just don't want to use all the cards during say one year if I did not need to.

Also, as having a new number is not a issue, could i activate the phone, use it when I need to and let it lapse until I needed it again and use one of my minute cards to start the process all over again?