Prepaid Phone services are getting very popular these days. Many people now prefer Prepaid services since they offer a variety of advantages related to lifestyle and cost control that simply are not available through post-paid contract based services.

Prepaid cell phones have a distinct advantage over regular subscriptions. They offer cost control with a fixed price per Minute, control over costs with cell phones distributed by parents, no credit check and increased anonymity.

The Best Prepaid Cell Phone Plans Available in 2018

Lycamobile

Lycamobile uses T-Mobile’s network. Their $29 plan is similar to Ultra Mobile’s unlimited talk and text, unlimited data with 500 MB at 4G LTE speed, unlimited calling to 55 countries, and 1,000 international minutes for use with 11 other countries. That said, the international calling features are only good for the first 10 international numbers dialed. The international coverage and 4G LTE data aren’t as good as Ultra Mobile’s plan, but Lycamobile has unlimited slower data in its corner. However, you’ll need to stay on T-Mobile’s network to use the service no domestic roaming.

Check out Lycamobile for all the details!

Tracfone

TracFone is one of the largest prepaid carriers in the nation, especially since it owns a large number of subsidiary MVNOs like Straight Talk and Net10.

TracFone offers two types of plans – monthly value plans and pay-as-you-go plans. TracFone’s individual value plans range from 50 minutes to 200 minutes, which are rather pricey in comparison to quite a few other carriers. Not only do the plans include nationwide coverage but also a carryover function.

Then we have pay-as-you-go, which is a perfect option if you’re traveling and don’t rely on your mobile device often. The basic phone plans range between 60 minutes for 30 service days to 3000 minutes for 365 service days. However, as far as smartphone pay-as-you-go phone plans go, your selection ranges from the 30-day plan that includes 200 minutes 500 texts, and 200MB of data to the yearly plan that includes 1500 minutes, 1500 texts, and 1.5GB of data.

Simple Mobile

Simple Mobile is a T-Mobile MVNO offering 30-day plans with no contract, credit check, or hidden fees. They have unlimited plans that include unlimited nationwide talk and text, unlimited international text, and unlimited international calling to certain countries plus the amount of data you need. Prices differ simply depending on how much data you need and whether you want to sign up for auto re-up.

AT&T

AT&T Prepaid offers the GoPhone Prepaid plans which the company is proud to say will liberate subscribers from hidden charges. This prepaid plan comes in two ways – Pay As You Go Plan and the GoPhone plan.

Sprint Prepaid is a bit more generous with high-speed data, allowing 1GB for $35 per month, 3GB for $45, and 6GB for $55. All these plans include unlimited talk, text, and 2G data. The catch is, you must buy a Sprint Prepaid phone to take advantage of these rates.

Other Prepaid Carriers

Straight Talk’s unlimited prepaid cell phone plan is $45. It’s one of the cheapest unlimited prepaid plans in the country. While it is slightly more expensive than MetroPCS, the coverage is far superior. Straight Talk uses the Verizon network which has the best coverage of any cell phone network in the country. Your Straight Talk phone will work virtually everywhere. If you plan to use your phone in rural areas then Straight Talk’s unlimited plan is the best for you.

T-Mobile: There are different prepaid plans offered by T-Mobile Prepaid. The pay as you go plan which offers unlimited talk and text for only an additional of $2.00 per day. The Prepaid plan is applicable for data usage. You get unlimited talk, text with different amount of data.

Virgin Mobile is a prepaid cellular service provider that is powered by the Sprint 4G LTE network. Virgin Mobile has no contracts, activation fees, or overage charges. Each plan includes unlimited talk and text, however, data amounts will vary. Customers can enjoy unlimited music streaming from iHeartRadio, Pandora, Slacker Radio, 8tracks and Samsung Milk Music without sacrificing their monthly data allocation.

Boost Mobile is a prepaid service provider that appeals to the young and hip target market. Their coverage is provided by Sprint and based in California. Boost Mobile provide an unlimited data plan, however, their cost size is multi-layered and as soon as you attain an unlimited data it will be prohibitively high-priced in comparison with the competitors.

Page Plus Cellular is one of the greatest prepaid cell phone plan provider and is particularly popular along with former Verizon users. because they let you keep the same number, your current phone, and keep the same coverage you had with Verizon. you can choose to pay $80 a year or $12 a month for 2000 minutes, has also a negative side which is 4G is not yet supported and no unlimited data plans.

Increasing consumer demand for prepaid cellular phones

Prepaid phone services are currently the fastest-growing segment of the wireless phone market, perhaps because wireless service can be started up with no subscription fee for well under $100. More and more people are using this service to control spending than to get around credit problems.

In Europe, already more than 60 % of subscribers are on a prepaid wireless plan, while in the United States, only 8 to 10 percent of users have chosen that system. But it’s growing fast: in Canada, for example, some providers see their prepaid subscribers base increased 50% faster than those of an ordinary monthly billed service.

Customers that need to control the cost of their cellular services use only their prepaid minutes and keep on track with budges. The ability to pay for the exact number of minutes used and no more appeals to everyone.

• up-front cost control
• no long-term contract
• life-saver for emergencies – accidents, breaking down on the road

Advantages of Prepaid Cell Phone Service:

• Provides lifestyle advantages: The abilities to limit calling expenditures, as well as service duration, are especially attractive to students, parents, young professionals, and businesses with contract employees.
• Young subscribers and their parents benefit because the possibility of receiving an unexpectedly large bill in the mail is eliminated.
• Allows people who may not have established credit histories to enjoy the wireless communication

With prepaid cell phones, you pay for what you expect to use upfront giving you total control of your cellular costs. Every time you use your cell phone, you buy some airtime. Just remember to top-up your account before you run out.

Prepaid minutes can be spread over several months, usually two or three, so if you only use your phone occasionally, it can be less expensive than paying every month for airtime that you won’t use.

No Contracts, No Credit Checks

Traditional cell phone plans charge you for minutes after you use them. This is why they require a credit check and they make you sign a contract – to ensure that you pay your bill. If you don’t pay your bill, then they can report you to the credit agencies and ruin your credit. Also, if you try to leave a traditional contract plan before the end of your contract, the cell phone company will charge you a huge termination fee, sometimes as high as $300. If
you don’t pay that then they report you to the credit agencies which will ruin your credit.

Why Prepaid Plans Are Better

The overall market situation cellular phones marketplace has changed by leaps and bounds since it was introduced in the 80′s. While the total cell phone market is growing rapidly, the early interest in traditional postpaid plans is starting to shrink in their market share. Postpaid plans with contacts are now being replaced by cheaper prepaid cell plans that come with cellular phones.

Prepaid Plans vs PostPaid Plans – A Look At The Difference

As we are aware the two main types of cellular plans are the postpaid plans and the prepaid plans. With postpaid plans, we sign up with a carrier and pay for minutes used at the end of each month. Normally, most cellular companies will require a credit check as well as a contract, usually for a 12 months period. At the end of the billing month, you will be sent a bill to indicate the minutes that you have incurred and you will be billed accordingly. As for prepaid plans, you will buy the minutes upfront and use them as you go, needing top them up only if you so required.

As a matter of statistics, prepaid phone plans have been used by two groups of people, young adults as well as people with bad credit. Because traditional postpaid plans normally need a credit check, many people with bad credit status have been unable to buy a traditional postpaid cellular phone plan. As such, this group of people makes up the bulk of prepaid plan users. The main disadvantage of the prepaid plans is that the call minute charges are more expensive than postpaid plans but things have changed recently as the prepaid plan call charges and the postpaid call charges are now almost on par with each other.

More Advantages

Most prepaid plans now come bundled with cellular phones. A wide selection of phones ranging from simple phones to sophisticated smartphones such as Androids or iPhones is now available with prepaid plans. Some prepaid plans also come with customer loyalty programs such as additional call minutes will be credited to users if they purchase a certain amount of prepaid minutes in a month. All these advantages have users now turning more to prepaid plans than postpaid plans.

Advantages of Prepaid phone plans

Prepaid Phone Plans costs lower and make it easier to manipulate in spending by limiting debt. It includes less contractual obligations, meaning no early termination fee/s, liberty to alter service providers, and can be used by those who cannot easily take out a contract.

• Prepaid cell phone service offers customers more flexibility, and the ability to pay upfront for their cellular service with no contracts, no credit checks, and no monthly bills.
• Prepaid cell phone service allows the customer to control their costs by giving them the freedom to purchase and redeem airtime on an as needed basis without contracts and commitments.
• For someone who doesn’t want to talk a lot — able to limit themselves. prepaid cell phones are more affordable than monthly contracts, with fewer hassles in starting or stopping service.
• Users enjoy the ability to control costs and retain privacy. They get the freedom and convenience of cell phone service with no deposit, credit check, contract or activation fee.

Disadvantages with Prepaid phone plans

Prepaid phone plans are known as “pay as you go” sometimes allows you to pay huge rates for calls and SMS messages. Others may give issues on calls to international or premium rate numbers might be blocked and the possibility that these may not be useful for roaming. Reasons for these are because of the difficulty of handling the credit systems on pricey calls.

Most cell phone companies that offer prepaid service give customers two options. Customers can pay a monthly fee for month-long service, or they can redeem a phone card for a specific amount of minutes. The monthly plans vary in the number of minutes they include, and every company has its own way of charging for text and data. The phone cards vary in price to purchase and price per minute and may be used to add minutes to an existing monthly plan.

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