Many of you know that you can be saving some serious money with prepaid phones.  According to a recent survey by JD and Associates that ranked prepaid wireless providers from best to worst, it was reported that Prepaid monthly users spent $56 a month, compared to $81 for contract users.

That’s some good savings.

The JD Power prepaid rankings of 2009 are based on overall customer satisfaction, performance and reliability, cost of service, and account management.

Net10 finished at number one on the list, scoring five points in three categories.  Tracfone came in a close second, only one point lower than net10 in the performance and reliability section.  Third was Boost Mobile, which has been bolstered of late by its unlimited monthly plan.

Learn more about Net10’s Prepaid plans at www.net10.com

The rest of the ranking are as follows:

Virgin Mobile

Alltel

T-Mobile

Verizon Wireless

AT&T GoPhone

Cricket

And the dead last position was awarded to MetroPCS.  This is a little bit surprising, but MetroPCs is doing some serious work turning its fortunes around.  The new MetroPCS $40 Unlimited plan looks quite attractive and will probably gain the regional wireless provider some new customers and some positive press.

Things change so fast in the wireless world, especially in the prepaid segment that you can’t only judge a company on its past performance.  If you look at the end of last year and compare it to the present, you will see drastic changes in prepaid offers, cheap prepaid phones, and the recent rash of unlimited plans.

Find the best deals on Straight Talk phones and plans at Wal-Mart.com