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cell plans can be confining | | |
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"You generally pay more for the prepaid option
in terms of their cost per minute and, generally, you are required
to pay for the telephone itself unless there's some special deal,"
he says. Prepaid cell phones range in price from $39 to $249. "But
in prepaid you have a great deal more flexibility in determining
how much you're going to spend on your phone service and, most importantly,
your hands aren't tied by a contract."
"The prepaid cellular market
is also interesting right now because it is going through a giant
transition, moving from being an afterthought to becoming a main
event," says Clark Howard, author of "Clark Smart Parents,
Clark Smart Kids." "People are about as unsatisfied with
their cell-phone company as they are with their cable company, so
they're seriously looking at other options. And if you don't use
your phone very much, yet you pay $30 or $40 a month, a pay-as-you-go
plan might work great for you."
The
broad cell market
Companies offering pay-as-you-go plans include Boost Mobile, Cingular,
NET10, Speak Out Wireless, T-Mobile, TracFone, Verizon Wireless
and Virgin Mobile. With average costs well under $20 per month,
these services appeal to anyone who's thrifty, who limits cell usage
only to important calls or who just wants to have the convenience
and comfort of a wireless phone for use in emergencies.
In addition, there are new services, such as Firefly
Mobile and TicTalk, offering affordable prepaid services with flexible
parental controls aimed specifically at young children. They can
save moms and dads untold arguments, as well as teach cell-phone
responsibility and time management to talkative offspring.
Because service is prepaid -- meaning that you pay
for airtime in set minute blocks good for 30 to 365 days -- you
don't get monthly bills that are loaded with expensive overages,
roaming charges or other junk-fees. There's also no credit check
required to get a phone. To get service, you simply buy a phone
at a Web site or at any number of retailers, along with a package
of calling minutes, ranging from 30 to 1,000.
But this freedom from commitment and long-term contracts
carries a price: You generally wind up paying more money per minute. Prepaid service
providers generally charge from 10 to 60 cents per minute of airtime. Garrulous
consumers who rely on the phone extensively for business and pleasure would fare
much better with a traditional carrier, contract and all. Fewer
frills with prepaid plans
Potential switchers, says Howard, should realize that prepaid cell
services excel in providing very good but basic, time-limited phone
and text services. Consumers accustomed to using the latest and
greatest "gee-whiz" Web-enabled camera phones, with built-in
audio-video capabilities, will likely find the selection of basic
prepaid hardware disappointing.
Lately, many prepaid carriers have begun offering
customers more service choices and the sorts of features that traditional
providers have long offered such as text messaging, ring-tone and
gaming downloads and Web browsing. Howard advises potential customers
to study
all plans and plan requirements carefully before selecting a
prepaid provider.
"Typically,
people get excited about a certain phone being offered, so they jump into a plan,"
he says. "But what you want to look for is a plan that makes sense financially."
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