Everyone knows prepaid simply means you pay up front, or buy time or minutes in advance. What people generally get confused about is the difference between different types of prepaid cell phone plans, and I’m going to break it down for you. Since you’re looking for prepaid cellular I have to assume one of two things. You have bad or no credit, you’re on a strict budget, or both. Either way, prepaid doesn’t always mean cheaper. I’ll explain in a moment.
Two Types of Prepaid Cell Phone Service
When most people refer to prepaid in cellular, it is a fairly broad term, so to get the best plan for your situation it’s good to understand the two main plan setups. There are regular or monthly prepaid plans, and there are Pay as You Go prepaid plans. These are not the same, and the only real similarity between the two is the fact you do have to pay in advance, and they have no, or limited contracts. Let me explain.
Pay as You Go Cell Phone Plans
You’ll never see a contract for one of these plans. Not even a limited contract. That’s because you have to buy your own phone which can cost as little as ten dollars in some cases, and it works almost the same way as a long distance calling card you buy at the store, but you use it for your cell phone. These are commonly referred to as reload cards. They can range anywhere from ten dollars, to one hundred dollars. It just depends on how many minutes you want to add, and the minutes typically range from ten to twenty five cents per minute.
Regular Prepaid Cell Phone Service
These plans work almost the same way as a regular contracted cell phone plan, but you have to pay in advance for the month, and it is often slightly more expensive than a contracted plan. Again, you have to buy your cell phone, or get a used one from someone who no longer needs their phone, but used it on the same network you’re planning to use. These plans may have no contract, or sometimes a limited contract. One huge benefit to monthly prepaid plans are unlimited talk time, whether it be free nights and weekends, or in network calling, plus a provisioned amount of anytime minutes.
Which is cheapest?
Some people mistakenly think pay as you go is the cheapest prepaid plan, but it’s simply not true. Just because you can get talk time at ten cents per minute doesn’t mean it won’t cost you more in the long run. Pay as you go works best for people who will barely ever use their cell phone. If you want a cell phone just for security purposes, or to make the occasional quick call, this is the way to go.
If you like to talk a lot on your cell phone, a pay as you go plan could quickly add up. For example, in one month you buy a twenty five dollar air time card, run out of minutes and buy another, you just spent fifty dollars. What’s worse, you didn’t get any free talk time at all. You would be better off to take that fifty dollars and get a regular monthly prepaid plan. This way you get a few minutes you can use any time, and you may also get some goodies like free mobile to mobile in network calling, or a healthy amount of night and weekend minutes. This way you’ll talk more, and pay less.
Best Prepaid Mobile Phone Plans For All Finances
Let’s start with the best monthly prepaid cell phone plans. AT&T’s GoPhone Pick Your Plan is one of the best in the business for monthly prepaid. Refurbished GoPhone phones start at around $10.00 when you buy online.
Cell Phone Plans Choose the Best Deal
There are also cell phone plans for regional use. All of these have their own benefits although there are also their disadvantages. For prepaid cell phone plans, there are cell phone units that may not have the capability for this.
Prepaid cell phone advantages are that they are inexpensive without any contract, there is no need for credit checks, no monthly bill payment to be made and finally no service charges to the consumer.
Buying a new cell phone? Still deciding whether to get a prepaid phone? Here are some considerations you might want to think about before making a decision: How often do you talk on the phone? What features will you frequently use?
Author: Daymon Hoag
Daymon Hoag is the founder of Phone TV Internet where you can shop for prepaid cell phone service.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Daymon_Hoag
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Prepaid Cell Phones and You: Why They Work
In our fast paced world today, many people prefer to buy prepaid phones mainly because of the convenience factor and the fact that it comes pretty fast without having to complete a load of formalities. The prepaid service providers are not bothered about your credit record or whether you have ever defaulted in bill payments. You also have the option of discontinuing with the service once you have finished the minutes, or you may extend it further by putting more money into it. This way you can control your talk-time and know exactly how much you spend on each call that you make.
On the other hand, with
The challenge for me was comparing prepaid phone service plans, so I tackled it like I do all of my projects – I used my spreadsheet program. First I set up my spreadsheet with at least ten criteria for mobile phone service. Then I looked at a great many different plans and settled on about ten.
Making this decision comes with several benefits. After I conducted a lengthy review of
Prepaid cell phones are quite harder to get for free since using one does not require applications or contracts. In fact, prepaid plans are not really advised for those who would like fancy cellular phones. The selection of prepaid handsets are actually very limited ranging from the most basic units to only the moderately featured ones. Prepaid cell phones may be bought for as little as $40.00 to as much as $150.00. Nevertheless, users who prefer prepaid cell phone plans over postpaid plans but favor fancier phones may always get their cellular phones from other sources. But they have to check their supposed carriers if these companies can configure their cell phones to match their services.
Prepaid cell phone service offers quite a variety of plans from which to choose. For example, the Tracfone (which can be purchased at a variety of retail outlets as well as online) costs very little up front, and cards can be purchased for a certain number of minutes each (I believe they start at 120 minutes).
1) No Contract. You do not have to sign a contract with a prepaid wireless carrier. There is no commitment and you are free to leave at any time. The way you do this is you just use all your talk time or let your minutes expire. Many people like the fact that there is no termination fee associated with ending your service with prepaid cellular carriers. These fees can be in the range of a couple hundred dollars when you sign a contract.
The winds of innovation again blew in the industry with the release of the first prepaid cell phone in 2001. These phones function like calling cards. One can take one`s cell phone overseas with out incurring high roaming charges. One SIM Card is a prepaid international cell phone provider. This card can be recharged with an optimum calling plan. It provides the least expensive and easiest alternative to use international cell phone service available.
And, unfortunately, most countries use different types of international prepaid cell phone service, too. However, more countries are slowly switching to the GSM system. Make sure you check this when your thinking of getting a international prepaid cell phone.
What is the Best Value Tracfone Minute Card?
Cellular prepaid phones
Tracfone offers many of the name brand cell phones including flip phones from major companies such as Nokia, Motorola, and LG. You can take pictures on your phone; download music and ringtones as well as text messages.
The advantages of
When you decide to purchase a prepaid cell phone, consider your calling needs very carefully. A prepaid phone is excellent for occasional use. As an affordable cellular choice, prepaid cell phones cost less than $100 and come with rebates, either with a starter phone card, or other attractive offers. Some prepaid cell phones do not require credit checks or activation fees. For some other models, you don’t even have to give your full name. There are prepaid plans that allow the callers to purchase as much talk time as they want.
T-mobile also has a very good monthly prepaid plan with all the benefits of monthly post paid. With T-Mobile FlexPay , phones start at around $30.00, but currently free after a $30 mail in rebate. Plans start at $39.99 a month for 300 minutes, unlimited nights and weekends, plus unlimited calling to 5 numbers of your choice with MyFaves . Before signing up for a T-Mobile FlexPay plan you’ll need to purchase your phone.
Cell phones are standard accessories for a majority of people nowadays. There are varying categories of users. Some may make extensive numbers of calls, while others may not or may just use them for receiving incoming calls. Such customers can go in for prepaid, as it makes more sense to them. Service providers are targeting light users and teenagers, for they are ideally suited for prepaid wireless service plans. Prepaying up front for cell phone minutes, rather than getting billed every month, is a better option for light users.