3 Benefits to Gain from a Prepaid Cell Phone
A prepay or prepaid mobile phone is one where credit is purchased in advance of the use of the service and pays the provider when the service is consumed or accessed. Users can easily add to their time and minutes at any point using a variety of payment options.
There are advocates for both types of cell phones, but a prepaid one has some distinct advantages over a regular contract plan one.
1. Prepaid cell phones do not require a contract.
That means that you are not tied to any specific company and their monthly rate and are not made a “prisoner“ of their often lengthy and sometimes hard to understand contract and their strict rules and regulations. You are free to use the phone as much or as little as you want to in order to keep within your budget and keep in continuing close control of your spending habits, which is often a dominant need in your life when you have to closely watch every dollar.
If you don’t use your phone very much, going prepaid thus makes a lot of sense because you don’t have to pay a fixed amount for minutes every month. Therefore, a prepaid choice is more flexible and more affordable. There is also no requirement to pay a sometimes hefty early termination fee like there is when you want to get out of a contract with a regular cell phone provider.
2. Prepaid cell phones do not require a credit check or a deposit.
“It is so much easier to just buy a prepaid phone and begin using it and not have to go through the hassles of applying for a regular cell phone, waiting for a credit check that passes the multitude of requirements, and signing a bunch of paperwork that commits you to a contract for usually one or two years, if not longer,” said Prepaid Bill Inc. A prepaid phone also does not demand a deposit, often a hefty one, and a promise to work with just that one company for a length of time. You save money with free activation with a prepaid phone. Also, there is no “strong-arming” at various times for extending the contract with the lure of a newer and better phone.
3. Prepaid includes most of the desired features
Some of the many services that your prepaid phone includes are these:
- Voice Mail
- Data Alerts
- Caller ID and Caller ID Blocking
- Call Forwarding
- Call Waiting
- Three-Way Calling
Most contract cell phone plans do not roll over any unused minutes, so those minutes are wasted. That is usually not the case with prepaid cell phone plans where you pay for a set amount of time and minutes, and those minutes do roll over.
Conclusion
It appears that the prepaid cell phone is the better choice for the above many stress-free reasons. Check out the various plans that are available everywhere, including at specialty cell phone stores, big box retailers, drug stores, some department stores, and on websites.
You must determine what your individual needs are, how much you will use the phone, how many minutes you will likely need every month, the cost of the prepaid cell phones themselves as opposed to free phones with some of the contract plans, the cost of minutes, whether you are willing to settle for a less fancy phone with fewer features, and more.
You have to decide whether the freedom from contracts, a credit check, a deposit, and “forced” use of the phone to make the monthly charge worthwhile is your answer and makes you prefer a prepaid cell phone.
