Depending on where you are located, there are several options to choose from when it comes to selecting a cell phone provider and plan. The best cell phone plan for you will depend on a variety of factors including your budget, desired features and coverage needs. There are three basic types of cell phone plans to choose from.
Post-Paid Plans
The most popular type of cell phone plan is the post-paid plan, where you choose a plan with a pre-determined amount of minutes and extra services at a set price which is paid after the services are used each month. All of the major cell phone providers offer post-paid plans, which includes Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, and AT&T Wireless. The coverage area for all of these carrier covers a wide portion of the United States, which should make the coverage area not much of an issue for most customers.
The monthly costs of the various plans available can vary in price greatly, as most plans with 300 to 500 minutes average around $40 per month while plans with unlimited minutes can exceed $100 monthly. This type of cell phone plan offers the greatest value in terms of per-minute cost, and is a great choice if you are looking for additional features. Post-paid plans offer the most options, with all of the major carriers offering text messaging, multimedia messaging, mobile internet. A music download service and mobile TV is offered from Verizon.
Before considering a traditional post-paid plan, be aware that all potential customers must submit to a credit check and sign a 1 or 2 year contract. Based on the results of the credit check, some people are also required to pay an advance deposit of anywhere from $100 to $1000 in addition to the setup fee and the cost of a cell phone a. The contract also prevents anyone from abandoning the service, which would lead to an extra fee of up to $300 for early termination.
Prepaid Plans Prepaid cell phone plans have increased in popularity for their absence of commitment, eliminating the credit checks, deposits, and contracts that new customers of post-paid plans are subjected to. Instead of paying a set price each month for a pre-determined number of minutes and paying after the service is used, prepaid users simply buy prepaid refill cards for additional minutes as necessary, which are available in denominations ranging from $10 up to $100. Airtime is therefore paid in advance, and there are several prepaid carriers offering low-cost cellular service including T-Mobile To Go, TracFone, Boost Mobile, Verizon Prepaid, and AT&T goPhone in addition to other smaller mobile virtual network operators that use the networks of other providers.
Prepaid plans charge users on a per-minute basis, though the price per minute will depend on which carrier you choose, as well as what denomination of refill card you purchase. Some carriers charge a flat rate for all minutes used and for all text messages sent and received, while others provide lower per-minute costs for higher denomination refill cards. T-Mobile, for instance, provides 30 minutes of service from a $10 card at $0.33/minute, while a $100 card offers 1000 minutes at a cheaper rate of just $0.10/minute. T-Mobile even uses the Gold Rewards program for prepaid customers, which offers customers 15% more minutes with each refill purchase once they have purchase at least $100 in airtime.
Do not expect many extra features outside of calling and messaging with a prepaid phone, however. Boost is one of the only prepaid services to offer and extra feature with the "walkie-talkie" function of its phones.
Additionally, cell phone providers offer a smaller cell phone selection for their prepaid plans, and the phones are priced slightly higher since customers have no contract obligating them to continue service for an extended length of time.
Pay-As-You-Go Plans The pay-as-you-go plan terms vary from carrier to carrier, although most providers typically have a set price the customer pays each month for a certain number of minutes, similar to post-paid. On the other hand, pay-as-you-go plans are like prepaid plans, in that each month of service is paid for in advance, usually by an automatic payment from a debit card or through the purchase of prepaid refill cards. For instance, T-Mobile's pay-as-you-go plan is set up like a prepaid account with a prepaid amount of credit, but charges customers $1 per day for the plan (which includes unlimited mobile-to-mobile and free nights between 7 pm and 7 am) and then just $0.10 for all minutes. The account is then refilled through the purchase of refill cards in denominations of $10, $25, $50 or $100.
There are independent pay-as-you-go carriers around the United States, such as MetroPCS and Cricket, although their markets are much more limited than those of the major carriers. These cell phone providers offer excellent pricing for services (unlimited minutes and messaging for under $50), but the coverage areas are limited to their select major markets, making it difficult to receive service when traveling. If travel is not an issue however, and a cell phone provider such as Cricket or MetroPCS is available in your area, this type of plan can offer a great value.
As is the case with prepaid cell phone plans, pay-as-you-go plans do not require credit checks, contracts, or deposits. Some plans even offer additional features as well, such as text/multimedia messaging and mobile internet.
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