Why Go Prepaid?

The main reason I chose a prepaid cellular provider like TracFone was that I only wanted to carry a cell phone for occasional use and for emergencies.  I wasn't planning on using my cell phone on a daily basis, and thus didn't want to get locked in to a long-term contract paying $30 or $40 every month.

That ability to budget your usage and only pay for the minutes you actually use was a big draw to me.  Another big plus for prepaid cellular is that along with no contracts and no monthly bills, there are no activation fees, no deposits, no credit checks, no age limits, and no extra hidden costs.

The deposits and activation fees had always turned me off with traditional cellular plans.  Who wants to pay $50 or $100 up front just for the privilege of signing a contract locking you into more fees every month?  You can avoid all of this with a prepaid cellular plan.

The fact that you control the costs makes a prepaid cellular phone an excellent choice for parents that are buying a phone for their children.  With a traditional cellular plan, if your teenager talks for hours with his or her friends, you get stuck with a huge bill at the end of the month. 

But with a prepaid plan, when their minutes run out, they quit talking!  If they want to talk more, let them go buy the extra minutes, which will go a long way towards teaching them financial responsibility and keep you from receiving such a shock at the end of the month.

The lack of long-term commitments and contracts makes a prepaid cellular plan perfect for those who need a cell phone for short term use.  Some people will buy a prepaid cell phone for extra security while they are driving on a long road-trip.  They just put minutes on the phone while they are on the road, and then put the phone in a drawer when they get home.  Only prepaid gives you this flexibility.

Prepaid cellular plans make a lot of sense for a lot of people.  If you plan on using your phone for day-to-day calls and using a lot of minutes every month, then prepaid may not be for you.  Don't just automatically dismiss prepaid, however, because their rates can be surprisingly low.

TracFone, for example, offers rates as low as 12.5 cents/minute, and unused minutes rollover from month to month as long as you keep your phone active.  If you're paying $40/month for a traditional cellular plan, you would have to talk 320 minutes every month to make you effective rate that cheap.  That's over 5 hours of talking!

I have been very happy with my TracFone, and I hope this page has given you some ideas of how a prepaid wireless plan might work for you.

Happy Shopping!