How to Know if a Prepaid Phone Will Work For You?

Answer 1

If you’re like a lot of people, you probably are getting concerned about your growing cell phone bills.

At one time, all the major providers offered virtually unlimited everything. With smartphones growing in popularity, it seemed as if the cellular companies couldn’t offer enough incentives to get us all signed up to watch movies, send videos, send photos to each other -- in other words, do everything our computers used to do.

Well, all good things come to an end. Now, unlimited packages are a thing of the past, and those good prices we used to get before are going higher all the time.

And then we start asking ourselves -- is there something else I can be doing with this money every month, but still keep a phone?

There is -- but you may not have considered it before. It’s called prepaid, and pre-paying for service is becoming more popular among people who for one reason or another don’t want to be tied down to a contract.

But is prepaid for you? Ask yourself this:

1. Do you want the newest top-of-the line smartphone? Will a lower-end smartphone suffice? Or if you do want that new iPhone, are you willing to pay around $500-$600 for it? Virgin Mobile offers it on its prepaid plans, but unlike with a cellular contract -- which subsidizes part of the costs of phones in exchange for you signing up for a two-year plan -- you’ll have to pay for the full cost of the phone.
2. Do you use a lot of data, such as videos, taking photos, or more? Are you online with your phone a lot? A prepaid data plan probably won’t help you. There are limits on most prepaid plans, and if you go over those limits, you’ll have no data plan until you spend some more money.
3. Are phones with apps important to you? If so, stick with your contract plan. Apps use data and data costs money -- and a prepaid plan will only allow you so much data. Plus, most of the smartphones on the prepaid plans are somewhat limited as to what they’ll do. And even the companies that advertise unlimited text, talk and web, which can be a great bargain, aren’t offering unlimited data as part of that package. If you want data, you’ll pay for it.

Prepaid phones can be great, though, for people who want to keep limits on how much they spend, and for people who either don’t want a contract or who can’t get one because of credit problems. And with all the options that are out there for prepaid, it makes sense to research some plans -- as long as you’re not still tied down in a contract with your current provider.