Prepaid cell phones are a great way to get your hands on all the benefits of a cell phone without the hassle of a long-term contract.
In essence, you buy your phone, and then purchase a card with minutes or specific types of service. As long as your phone matches the carrier, you can turn that service on, for the most part, as you please. Different prepaid carriers offer different services, from a month of unlimited minutes and data to years worth of set minutes and data. Here’s a look at the perks of going prepaid and a look at your options.
Perks of Prepaid Cell Phones
When you get a cell phone through a contract, there are a lot of hoops to jump through. Even if your credit is good enough for the carrier company, you may still have to put a few hundred dollar payment as a show of good faith. Additionally, you are stuck with that carrier until the contract is up, which generally lasts a minimum of a year or two, and in many cases you have to purchase your phone through that carrier as well (although not always).
Prepaid cell phones offer a lot more freedom. Rather than paying according to a monthly contractual obligation, you essentially pay for the service of your choice each month, group of months, or year. A contract for two years of unlimited service might seem like a great bargain, but if you only send a handful of texts each month and only keep your phone for emergency calls, you are paying for significantly more than you are actually using. What’s more, you are not required to keep your cell phone going for the length of any contract. If you want a cell phone for a month, you can turn it on. Next month, if you don’t have the money or inclination to keep it going, there’s no penalty not to buy more minutes.
Prepaid Carriers
There are more than a dozen different carriers that offer prepaid services; some of these offer only prepaid services, some also offer contractual services. Which carrier is best for you depends largely on what plan you are looking for; the carriers common in your area; the type of phone you have or would like; and which carriers have constant, steady service in your geographical region.
Among the carriers who provide prepaid plans are:
- Total Wireless
- Vonage Prepaid Cell Phones
- Straight Talk
- WalMart Family Mobile
- AT&T
- Verizon
- TMobile and Univision Mobile
- Cricket Wireless
- Virgin Mobile
- Boost Mobile
- TracPhone Wireless, Inc
- Net10 Wireless
- TelCel
- Simple Mobile
Prepaid programs will offer a variety of different features, so be sure to read up on the ones you're most interested in. For example, Vonage prepaid cell phones offer discounts for select plans if you pay the full month upfront. The discount depends on the plan, but you could save somewhere around 10%. Be sure to read up on plans before choosing. Vonage prepaid cell phones may sound like a great deal until you figure out that another company has a better discount or better coverage.
Plan Options
Prepaid plans vary widely, depending on what you are looking for and your carrier of choice. Most plans are a variation of unlimited minutes and text messages, with a variety of data amounts. You can purchase service a month at a time, or you can buy a year’s worth at once. You might have a specific amount of minutes and data, or you can pay for a set amount of months with a set amount of minutes.
For the most part, calls are unlimited, and the monthly rate increases based on data usage for smartphones. Because some cell phones only work on specific carriers (for example, a phone made for Verizon will not work with AT&T service), it is important to make sure your phone will work with your carrier before you purchase your plan.
