So why don’t more people use them?
If you’re looking to cut down your cell phone bill, then it may behoove you to consider a prepaid cell phone plan.
One of the reasons prepaid cell phones still have not officially “caught on” with the mainstream is that most cell phone users do not know about the possible savings they can get with prepaid cellular service.
The reason people don’t know the facts about prepaid isn’t because only small companies offer this kind of service, because clearly the major carriers like Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Alltel offer prepaid services.
Smaller companies like Virgin Mobile (which uses the Sprint Network) and Tracfone (which operates on AT&T’s network) also offer competitive or better plans.
It’s just that the major carriers provide these services very quietly because their other services are so much more profitable, especially when considering the fact that many people locked into cell phone contracts don’t use all of their minutes each month. This seems to be changing as consumers are looking for creative ways to cut down on expenses. Paying for 500 minutes a month when you only use 200 could be one of the first effective cuts.
Prepaid cell phones are a good idea for people who use low levels of talk time. If you use around 100 minutes per month, you could be paying as little at $15 a month, instead of having to pay for a higher minimum of minutes with a contract cellphone plan. So why aren’t people lining up to prepay for their cell usage?
Again, most people just don’t know they have the option or aren’t familiar enough with the plans they can get. People I know just don’t want to spend the time to learn how prepaid plans work, or they think it sounds like too much work to manage their own minutes each month, or they want the free phone when they resign their wireless contract in two years.
So they continue to pay for minutes they don’t use. It’s really an issue of “not knowing” and being more familiar with the traditional plans we see advertised on tv or on websites.
We buy what is most heavily advertised to us—and prepaid is not it. The big companies push their large contract plans and the smaller companies like Tracfone and Cricket Cell Phones don’t have the same kind of ad budgets. But this is changing as the market gets more competitive and cell phone users get savvier about their options.
If you’ve been to Europe in the past several years, then you know that prepaid wireless isn’t the exception—it’s the rule. The U.S. is catching on—slowly—as many people realize that they are overpaying for the cell phone plans.
Here is a quick list of the benefits of prepaid cell phones.
- Save Money
- Control how many minutes you use (and pay for) each month.
- No termination fee.
- No contract.
- No commitment.
- No credit check.
- Free minutes – As a way for the smaller companies like Tracfone to compete, they often offer special promotions where you can win free talk time with a purchase.
These are some reasons why people don’t go prepaid.
- They don’t know the facts.
- They are caught in the “new every two” cycle, where they get a phone upgrade every two years if they re-sign their contract.
- They are more familiar with the heavily advertised contract plans from companies like T-Mobile and Verizon (which coincidentally also have prepaid plans—but you haven’t heard of them have you?)
- They don’t want to pay a termination fee.
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