Advice: Do Prepaid Phone Plans Save Money?

Saturday, 13 March 2010

Advice: Do Prepaid Phone Plans Save Money?

With the prices of the average cellphone plan seemingly increasing every year, more people are turning to prepaid phone plans to save money. But do they really cost less?
Omelettedufromage asks about this in a recent Advice post:
I was looking at the prepaid plans offered by popular cell phone companies and wondering whether it would save money to go this route. I hate being bound to a contract with my cell phone and I don't really use it that much. But the prepaid plans don't ever seem to have free nights and weekends or an other of those perks. Should I do this and which companies have the best plans?
Help out and leave your opinion on the Advice post or ask a question of your own!
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Comments (11)

I just switched to straight talk from Walmart & tracfone and I love it. It works off Verizon towers I guess so I have awesome service. I have the $30 plan which is 1000 min, 1000 txt's, 30 MB of data. For me personally its awesome because I don't use anywhere near that much in a month. I didn't think 30 MB would be enough but after a month of using the internet whenever I wanted to I still had 20 MB left. For people who use it more then me they have the unlimited option which is only $45 a month and gives you unlimited everything. I've had it for a month now and so far I love it, and I especially love not shelling out at least $60 to Verizon each month. So I think prepaid can be a good option for some ppl.
- 3/14/2010 10:51 AM
- itscatwithak@xanga (message)
- reply
Yay!

I'm a long time TracFone user. Years and years and I too love my prepaid plan. I just got rid of my landline last month and use TracFone exclusively which is working out even better than expected. And I only have to pay for minutes when I need them and they all rollover too.
- 3/14/2010 1:58 PM
- chickensrule4ever@xanga (message)
- reply
I spent more on prepaids than I do now with a monthly plan.
- 3/14/2010 2:53 PM
- Tiger11007@xanga (message)
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I just switched to using Skype which I top up with paysafecards (which are prepaid cards for online usage) - it's cheaper (since calls to other computers are free and the cost for calling other phones are really cheap too). I got some flatrate inet package for my iphone so I can also use skype whereever I am.
- 3/14/2010 4:07 PM
- Lilly
- reply
I think so. I have a basic Trac cell phone that's a few years old. I buy the minutes cards for it. I don't need anything fancy. I just need a phone to talk on. What a concept.
- 3/14/2010 7:13 PM
- lexacolton@xanga (message)
- reply
Yes, you will save a LOT of money if you go prepaid! Go with Net10---lovely phones, all with 300 free minutes to start, starting at $29.99 up to $79.99 for a qwerty keyboard! All your calls will cost you 10c per minute and all your texts 5c each. A recent survey showed that people on prepaid spend less time on the phone and consequently spend less and it's true! You get lots of warning if your time is running low and unused minutes roll over to the next month as long as you stay active!
- 3/17/2010 5:38 AM
- posh (message)
- reply
The phones are shittier but if you know a shady character that can flash or exchange the sims cards you can have whatever phone on the market working with your prepaid service.

I have virgin mobile and it fits my needs wonderfully. I pay less per month than my boyfriend does and he has a contract.
- 3/17/2010 7:05 PM
- Salivarysatisfaction@datingish (message)
- reply
For me, prepaid rules. I did a bit of research and discovered NET10 was the best for my purposes. I don’t use a lot of minutes — maybe 200 or so a month — and I’m not a mad texter or websurfer either, but 10¢ a minute for calls and 3¢ for texts is crazy good. And no fees per day or other bs.
I got a very nice Samsung phone with a slide-out qwerty keyboard and no one knows it’s prepaid. Costs me a big $30 a month for all my stuff.
- 3/20/2010 6:14 PM
- SamSoong (message)
- reply
Tracfone is by far the best. Their best deal is the online card on their website that gives you 3,000 minutes for only $200, and a whole year to use them. If you need more of anything, they have a card for it. Don't waste your money on anything else.
- 3/23/2010 9:55 PM
- Kirk
- reply
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