Pre Paid Phones

This Phone At A Glance:

(If you are looking for pre paid phone cards go here)

Pre paid phones allow you more flexibility with how you spend your money. In contrast to a monthly cap or plan, pre paid allows you to only spend your credit when you actually need it. The main benefits of being a "pre paid" cell phone user are:

No contract
No credit checks on sign up
No deposits
Helps you to budget

Pretty much all of the carriers allow you to "roll over" your credit, if you purchase more credit before the expiry period ends. For example, on Verizon, the $29.99 credit has an expiry time of 30 days. So as long as you get more credit (recharge) within 30 days from when you activated your initial credit, your balance will accumulate. Once you find the right recharge amount for you, this is a nice way to get the most value out of each recharge.

The key to saving money with pre paid credit is to find a carrier that gives the best expiry time on the credit. The reason for this is, if the expiry time is, say, 60 days instead of 30, then you don't have to outlay more money for credit until much later. This allows you to spread out your costs more.

Pre paid plans are best for people who don't use their phone that much, or receive calls mainly. People who do a lot of calling should really consider a cap, because then they won't get any nasty surprises on their bill, or use up their credit too fast. The best thing to do is to monitor your spending for 2 months, and work out your monthly average. Then, if your average spend is more than an affordable cap, you should go for the cap, otherwise prepaid is your answer.

There are some interesting prepaid plans out there. For example, AT&T's GoPhone currently has several options: pay on the days you use, pay per minute, or pre pay for an unlimited cap.

As always, feel free to contact us if you need help or more information.