Wife asked if people need good credit to get a ...

Some companies do require a credit check.  There are a few companies that do not require a credit check.  Tracfone is a prepay and seems to be pretty good on both local and long distance.   You will be apt to run out of useable minutes before the period to use them in (i.e. 60 minutes for 3 months).  Walmart & RadioShack sell the phones.  The cheapest place to buy minutes/time is online.  I don't know what area you are in but there is also MetroPCS that has a monthly fee for local and long distance calls.  From what I understand their phone won't send or receive calls  if it is taken out of its home area.  I would suggest checking online and look at the FAQ's for each website.   Good luck

Sorry, I forgot to actually answer the question...Yes you do need good credit for companies like Verizon but if you don't have it they require a deposit which is not cheep.

I don't understand your question.  You are asking us if your adult wife is ready for her own cell phone?  Is there an issue you haven't told us about?  Does she work?  Are you paying all her bills?  Are you worried that she won't be able to handle the monthly payments?  Are you worried that you won't know who she is calling?  We need some more info, please.

excuse my ignorance but i am from a country where if you don't have a cellphone it's either been stolen and you in the process of replacing it or you're really really  not capable of using  one or you can't be bothered not having one .. why can't she get one? if she can afford it and has a good credit record  why not ...

As I understand it, the two of you are separated and you're worried about this being a sign of her establishing a life of her own.

First, how do you know that there was a credit check done? Did you open mail addressed to her? Are you aware that doing so is of questionable legality?

Yes, if she had that done, she was almost certainly applying for her own account. There are places, as mentioned above, where she can get a phone no matter what her credit is like.

You don't say how long you've been separated, but cell phone accounts are frequently used by one party as a "leash" over the other, via threats of cutting off service, monitoring call activity, etc. It only makes sense for her to want a separate account if this is a serious separation. If you've done anything like I describe, you're acting very unloving and driving her away.