By Daymon Hoag
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.
Daymon Hoag is the founder of Phone TV Internet where you can shop for prepaid cell phone service.
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