These days many people are choosing prepaid cell phone plans over the seemingly standard two year contract plans that are out there. Here is some of the reasoning behind this shift in consumer sentiment.
1) Many people want to pay for the minutes they use–and ONLY the minutes they use. They don’t want to have to pay a blanket charge for, say, 700 minutes a month, when they only use 400 in a certain month. However, these people may go on to use 800 minutes in the next month. On the flip side, these people want to pay only for the minutes they use, not high-priced overage minutes.
2) Some people have credit issues and won’t qualify for a contract with a company like Verizon or T-Mobile. Or, they simply don’t want to have a credit check run for them. For this group of people the only option may be prepaid cell phones.
3) Most people (myself included) don’t like to sign a multi-year contract with a cell phone simply for the right to use the company’s service. The real kicker here is the cancellation fee that you have to pay when you terminate service. Sure, the Verizon or Cingular may give you a very cheap, good quality phone, but you’re going to pay for it by being under contract. So, it’s definitely a trade-off.
The most important thing to do is find a plan that works for you. Whether it’s a pay as you go plan or a contract service, you need to figure out how many minutes you need per month, what bells and whistles you require, and what kind of phone you want to use. Certain phones, like Blackberries, you can’t use on a pay as you go or prepaid plan. So if you’re looking for a high-tech PDA type phone, then you’re out of luck.
Also, consider things like your personal cell phone usage during different times of the year. Is there a busy work season in which you use your cell phone more often than you do at other times? Or do you tend to use the a similar amount of minutes each month. If you are very busy for the first half of the year because that’s when your business is booming and you use your cell phone a lot, but not so during Summer, then pay as you go might be your best option. If you are consistent in usage from month to month, then a contract plan may possibly be a better option.
The best thing to do is pull out your cell phone bills for the last year (you may be able to find this information on your wireless provider’s website in your account page) and see how many minutes you used, how many overage charges you had, how many minutes you carried over, and any other charges.
Once you do this, you will have a better gauge of exactly what kind of plan you want. This will make it easier for you to make a decision when you decide between prepaid cell phones and monthly contracts.
Read about some of the top prepaid plans on the market today:
Straight Talk Wireless, Net10 Wireless, and Boost Mobile
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Great post; couldn’t agree more. Prepaid daily plans have become very competitive and offer great value. There are also monthly plans and unlimited plans available. Customers no longer have to forgo value for the freedom of prepaid plans!
You can check out the different plan types and compare providers here:
prepaid-wireless-guide.com/compare-prepaid-plans.html
the thing i like about prepaid phones is there is no contract. i’ve had like three different phones from different companies like metro pcs and tracfone. they are pretty good and help you save money. my family is pretty big on the t-mobile phones but i think they cost a little too much. i’m now looking at net10 phones as my prepaid option.
I was thinking that a contract phone was the best option for me, but I just got tired of dealing with Verizon contracts constantly and being stuck in the cycle of new phones every two years. I wanted freedom, so I started to look at prepaid phones–particularly TracFone, T-Mobile, Virgin, and MetroPCS.
I also recently noticed Straight Talk phones and they look pretty good as well. I want to find the best deal possible, so I’m going to examine all these plans and see which one fits my cell phone habits the best. I am leaning toward TracFone and ST though I think. I would like a smartphone, but I don’t know if it’s the most economical thing for me at the moment.