Prepaid Cell Phones: Monthly or Pay As You Go
If you are in the market for a prepaid cell phone plan, the tremendous assortment of plans could be completely confusing. Prepaid cellular phones offer a few obvious benefits over traditional contract programs. Prepaid wireless plans don’t require credit checks, you do not need to sign a contract, plus they are be significantly cheaper than standard cell phone plans. Unfortunately, because just about every prepaid cell phone company structures its rates in a different way, looking at prepaid cell phone plans is difficult.
When reviewing prepaid cell phones you’ll need to check at one thing – the activation period. The activation period is the amount of time that the minutes you get are useable. Your minutes end at the end of the service period.
If you take a step back from the specifics of all of these plans and look at the big picture, you’ll find that just about all prepaid cell phone plans fall into either of a couple of general groups: Pay As You Go plans, or Monthly plans. Pay as you go plans have ranging activation periods, while monthly plans end after a 30 day time period. When ever you read the reviews of prepaid cellular plans keep these two rate structures in mind.
Pay as you go plans offer you varying service periods. These could be the most flexible type plans, however unfortunately pay as you go plans might also be the most confusing for consumers. The basic principle is that a person purchase a phone card and you get to utilize the airtime for the amount of time associated to that card. The average activation period is 3 months, but it is possible to buy cards which have much more or less time. Minutes expire at the end of the activation period. If you use up the minutes before the activation period ends, you can just buy more minutes and your service period begins again. Many providers provide longer service periods if you purchase a large number of minutes.
The standard activation period is Ninety days, however quite a few providers provide more or even less time periods. Nearly all providers offer activation periods of thirty, sixty, ninety or one hundred and eighty days. A few providers even offer a daily plan, while a few providers provide a yearly activation period. TracFone offers a separate card (with out any minutes connected) which will extend your service period out 1 full calendar year.
Monthly is the easiest of alternatives. With monthly plans your minutes expire at the end of 1 month. You purchase a set amount of minutes and they expire thirty days from the moment you activate them. Needless to say you’re not locked into that 30 day period. If you use up your airtime just before the time period, simply charge your cellphone with another card. For example, if you purchased a monthly card that had A THOUSAND minutes, yet you used those minutes up in 20 days, simply just buy another card and charge your cell phone with those minutes. Your 1 month activation period resets when you charge your account with the fresh card.
Just like the pay as you go plans, you can buy minutes in varying quantities. Plans are typically offered in TWO HUNDRED, 500, and 1000 minute selections. A good number of providers also offer an unlimited monthly plan which typically provides you with unlimited text, unlimited talk, and unlimited web access. These kinds of unlimited plans are considerably cheaper in comparison with a contract plan.
Whether you choose a pay as you go option or a monthly plan, prepaid cellular phones offer you the versatility to tailor you cell phone spending budget to the quantity of minutes you utilize. It is possible to increase or decrease the amount of minutes you purchase depending on the number of minutes you really use.
So just what are the benefits of a pay as you go plan vs. a monthly plan? Both types of plans provide varying amounts of airtime from 60 up to 1000 minutes. The major distinction though is the time element – the service period. Monthly plans have a 30 day service period while pay as you go plans have activation periods anywhere from 30 to 365 days. So, knowing that, here are the benefits of each type of plan:
Pay As You Go: If you are an infrequent cellphone user, you can use the extended service periods of pay as you go plans to your benefit. Pay as you go plans make sense for people that use their mobile phones occasionally. When you require a cellphone for emergency use only, or if you go very long periods of time without using your cellphone, say a month or more, then pay as you go plans might make sense for you. By using a longer activation period, you’ll be able to keep your mobile phone activated between the times that you make use of it. You could theoretically use a monthly plan for the same purpose, but many cellphone companies will drop your phone number if you don’t keep your phone activated.
If you happen to use your cellular phone consistently month in and month out, then select a monthly plan. Even if you just use a small amount of minutes a month, if you are certain you’re going to use your cell phone, go with the monthly plan. Monthly plans are offered in varying minute packages so you can customize your budget to your usage. Also, if you use a great deal of minutes every month, then you will want to opt for an unlimited monthly plan. The unlimited plans offered by prepaid mobile phone companies are considerably cheaper than almost any contract plan.
Looking to find the best deal on a pay as you go phone, then visit this website to find the best advice on prepaid cell phones.
March 31, 2011 | Posted by Sarah Mitchel
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