Which Is Cheaper: Contract Or Prepaid Cell Phone Plans?
Most people these days have a cell phone, but the once popular two year contract is becoming too financially burdensome for some people. With the decline in the economy more people need to find ways to cut costs and some are opting to cut their cell phone bill. Some are looking for cheap phones without plans, or contracts, and others are simply looking for cheaper contract plans.
Affordable Plans
In some cases the most affordable plan will be a lower cost unlimited cell phone plan. You can find unlimited options in either contract or no contract plans. Boost, Virgin Mobile and StraightTalk offer reasonable prepaid unlimited plans. If you are looking for unlimited contract plans companies like T-Moblie and Verizon offer some affordable unlimited contract plans for voice and texting.
If you don’t need an unlimited plan, or if you only use your phone occasionally, there are a few other good prepaid options under companies like TracFone, NET10 and even T-Mobile. They offer either pay as you go where you buy a certain amount of minutes, or you can get monthly prepaid plans with a set number of minutes per month. There are a number of other less known prepaid cell phone companies that have some good offerings as well, but they vary per region. It’s worth checking out the less advertised options in your area.
Features
No matter what plan or prepaid service you choose you will get a number of basic features like caller id, voice mail, call waiting, ring tones and often conference calling. If you need to make international calls occasionally make sure you choose a service that provides this service as well at a reasonable cost. These kinds of services can add up with some providers so be sure to read the fine print regarding the features you want or need.
Headsets
The newest and most wanted cell phones are usually tied to contract plans. The best way to lower your costs is to settle for a phone that isn’t the latest or greatest new device. The cheapest cell phone plan often doesn’t come with the hottest new phone. But there are still plenty of good options that come with lower cost plans. You can even find prepaid smartphone plans if you want an feature-rich phone without being tied to a contract. Or if you are looking for a budget cell phone to go with your plan, many of the prepaid service providers offer cheap cell phones; some of them are new and some are refurbished.
Contract plans with big carriers have their advantages, but don’t discount prepaid plans as they have been improving and they are now more competitive. One big benefit of prepaid options is that they don’t come with overage charges. As far as which type of plan is cheaper, contract or no contract, that will depend on where you live, how you use your phone and whether or not you need a family plan. Unfortunately there isn’t a simple answer to this question.
For more information on specific plan details and to see how plans compare to each other use Todd’s comprehensive online cell phone guide: Cheap Cell Phone Plans
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