[PCWorld]

Post your comments for The Case for Prepaid Smartphones: How to Cut the Contract and Save here

[GraysonPeddie]

Right and I'm hearing impaired, so prepaid is a nice option for me.

Also, you can go for $3/24 hour plan. Just make sure you put your phone in airplane mode before you get charged another $3 for another 24 hours of use. This is useful for those who don't travel a lot. You get unlimited minutes and texting, but only 200 MB of 4G data, which doesn't make sense for a hearing impaired like me to have unlimited minutes, but I care about texting and data usage. I'll just make use of Wi-Fi where available.

So anyway, I'm going to be getting a Samsung Exhibit II 4G probably today. I ordered it for $169 from Amazon and will be making monthly payments.

[SDW]

OK, here's my deal. I don't need to talk on a cell phone every time i leave the house. I use it for emergency's only. I've been using Tacfone for 10 years. I pay a one year activation fee of 100 bucks, and they give me 200 minutes with that. and on top of that they always have a bonus code for another 200 minutes.
At the end of the year when i pay for the next year, they roll over any mins i have left. NOw unlike 99% of you out there. i don't talk on a cell phone but maybe 5 mins a month. Over the years i've gain mins. each year, and now have 3014 mins to use when ever i want and it just keep going up. I have the cheapest cell phone bill in the world and my wife also has 2650 mins on her's. 200 a year for both. But i do pay for a basic land line. But then, i'm not so insecure that i have to be talking to or telling somebody something every 5 mins of everyday.

[WallyDuke]

I currently have an LG Optimus V and love it but that T-Mobile $30/month plan looks pretty sweet. All 5GB are at up to 4G speed according to T-Mobile's site, I was under the impression that they throttle the speeds well before 5GB.

[kurkosdr]

Problem is that modern smartphone take internet connection as a given. Even if you install 3G watchdog, you lose much of the functionality, IMO. So if none of the carriers in your country have prepaid packages with enough MBs, you are better of with a contract.

[MrMojo]

kurkosdr, on 13 April 2012 - 07:31 AM, said:

Problem is that modern smartphone take internet connection as a given. Even if you install 3G watchdog, you lose much of the functionality, IMO. So if none of the carriers in your country have prepaid packages with enough MBs, you are better of with a contract.

If you don't use data much, just use Wifi where or when available.
The prepaid packages are great for those that don't "need" to talk much hence "pay as you go".
A problem with the phones is whether or not it's compatible with the data networks with the phone carriers of a particular country.

You can use a phone on ATT's 3G network but it may Not be compatible with Tmobile's 3G network which uses a different dual frequency.
But you can still use that phone internationally in various countries so the phone will work. Many phones will work in many countries for telephony but data access may be limited.

[JimH443]

I'm with MetroPCS. $50/mo unlimited everything at 4G speed. Coverage is provided by Verizon cell towers. In other words, I'm getting Verion contract quality service at prepaid rates. I,m using a nice Samsung 4G LTE phone with slide-out KB that cost only $300 at the time (less than that now). I'll never sign a contract ever again.

[TPBGirl]

NET10 has the best deals, funny how they were left out of this article.

[MLStrand56]

All cellphones where I live, are prepaid. My wife can put a 50 cent load in her phone that is good for 24 hrs. of unlimited txt'ing.

MLStrand56

[hawaiiinsomniac]

SIMPLE MOBILE - $40

UNLIMITED MINUTES, WEB, TEXT AND 3G INTERNET (PLUS FREE INTERNATIONAL TEXT MESSAGING)

[jdelaro19]

Good article and this stuff needs to be out there more so the major carriers quit taking advantage of consumers.
One thing that would help a lot is letting people know about some of the best prepaid options out there were not mentioned. One person put in Simple mobile which lets you use any unlocked GSM phone. But the article only has companies that are MVNO's of the major carriers which Simple mobile is not and then there's Page Plus which let's you use most any Verizon phone (4g excluded for now) and also a private company with great prices and plans. No one let's you use an iPhone, but who cares

You also only mentioned T-mobiles $30 unlimited data plan with 100 minutes. They also have a 1500 min/txt plan with 30mb of data for people who mostly use their phone for talking also for $30.
I will agree if you have family plans that the major carriers can be ok but that's with 3 or more people on your plan. At the very least the major carriers will have to start shared data plans or they will start to lose even more customers.
You definitely need to do your homework to make sure you can at least get 3g data with the prepaids. Simple mobile uses T-mobile frequencies so you need to use a T-mobile phone or if you live in a place like I live and don't have 3g anyway you can use any GSM phone and WiFi.

One of the main reasons I hated the major carriers is that they made you get a data plan for an extra $30 and there was no 3g so what would I want that for? I have not had a contract for 6 years and have been using smartphones for all those years without data with every carrier there is except Verizon because there was no way around their data plan. I now use PagePlus with a Verizon Droid Incredible and get 3g data and use their $12 plan which comes with a small amount of data included and 250min and 250txt so now I know prepaid plans are much better than they used to be and pretty much hassle free. Cheers.

[VeraAnjirovjib]

Prepaid my smartphone

[karthiq]

In countries like india,its the opposite.90% of users are on prepaid.Every phone works on every network.

In US phones being carrier specific working,is part of the
problem.

In addition to prepaid, shorter ''one year'' contracts could also ease the pain to some extent

[YellowEagle]

Contract Services are just Con artists and Crooks!

Well we have a AT&T plan and personally they see you coming long before you even come in the door.

We have 2 World phones one has only nation wide calling, nothing else the other has limited texting and Nation wide calling. This is $80.00 dollars a month then they tacked onto the bill 5 different types of tax's and many other charges, they can't explain even when you call the main AT&T offices, The bill every month went from $80.00 to $148.00 and we are stuck in a 2 year contract, getting out of the contract costs as much as paying for it for a year.

And we are suppose to have good solid signal coverage in our area. you have to stand next to a window in our house or go outside to even get a signal. And we have cell towers around us in every direction, you step outside and can visually see them. And yes all the problems have been addressed with the main store, No help.

We can get out of the contract if we pay about a years worth of the contract. T-Mobile is even worse in our area. And no these aren't 4g phones either.

The Contract came up again in December, we had it setup to not renew, they renewed it anyway, and when we found out by getting another bill, we found out we can't get out of it. If i wasn't on a fixed income i could fight this. But it's beyond our means at the moment.

Prepaid is were i want to go as most of these contract company's are just crooks, and they don't disclose all the facts, when you buy or set something up with them.

Most of their stores don't even know what some of the charges are that you will get either. The Mrs phone quit, and yes she is a Text Queen, though we have over 9,000 min's rolled over now. That's just useless to me. she now has my phone as it will cost a lot to have the other one replaced.

And yes we had a full warranty on the phone's. We paid extra for that. It's useless they see you coming and then Con you.

[JeffreyClinard]

I've had a Tracfone for over eight years, and I love it. I only recently upgraded the phone to one with internet and text capability. I keep the phone for emergencies, rare calls, and long distance. I have a landline at home for other calls.

Once a year a buy another year's worth of service with the allocated minutes. I've never run out and have more than I know what to do with.

I'm not low-income; I'm value-oriented. I have better things to do with my time than talk about nothing with people all day.

[HeyBob]

My #14.95 TracFone with many applications, texting, etc gives me full service and 1000 minutes annually for just $99.95 which is more than enough for my long distance and use with my volunteer work. My land line at $18 mo (includes all taxes and fees) is for local calls only.

[ArmandoRodriguez]

JimH443, on 13 April 2012 - 12:20 PM, said:

I'm with MetroPCS. $50/mo unlimited everything at 4G speed. Coverage is provided by Verizon cell towers. In other words, I'm getting Verion contract quality service at prepaid rates. I,m using a nice Samsung 4G LTE phone with slide-out KB that cost only $300 at the time (less than that now). I'll never sign a contract ever again.

Actually in the case of MetroPCS' LTE network, MetroPCS built its own LTE network. The speeds aren't as fast as Verizon's, but they are about equal to what you would get out of T-Mobile's 4G network.

[mjbr5531]

I understand that current contracts are driven by the supplying of cutting edge phones and recouping the cost over the life of the contract. Okay, why is there not a decrease in your monthly bill once the contract is up and you go month to month with the same phone? If the contract price is sky high because it includes the leading edge phone, then out of contract monthly fees must be a fraud. Why has the FCC or a state PUC not gone after this. Maybe we once again need the dreaded class action attorneys.

[NaughtyNunnu]

Funny how we tend to avoid technology advice from seniors; it was my parents who eventually made me aware of the benefits of prepaid. They've been using Tracfone's senior offering (Senior Value Cellphone) for some time now, and have been telling us regularly about how simple and affordable a phone and plan it is. I brushed the info aside initially, but after my employment situation turned for the worse, I was forced to look at other options and was pleasantly surprised at the changes that have occurred in the last few years on the prepaid front. While the simplicity of the SVC is great for them, I obviously went for something with more data options (ST is a good all-rounder), but ultimately the prepaid suggestion from them proved to be invaluable in my situation.

[nvhorseman]

So now most of you are finding out just how crooked the 4 remaining big telecom providers are with their post-paid contract monopoly. As you get older it will get worse (or better depending on the action you take). Older people usually take trips to foreign countries (cruises, to visit family, vacations, business, etc.) If you are on contract, you can't use your AT$T phone sim card. You have to buy an international sim card, which is over priced for the small amount of time you use it. To get to the real point, ALL of this telecom companies advantage over the consumer was made possible by big lawsuits in the old times when the government settled with the likes of ATT, Google, Microsoft etc. and let them all off with an hand slap in exchange for the ability to track your movement, your buying habits, your contact information AND your telephone conversations as part of hocus-pocus homeland security. In exchange the telecoms got about $4 per subscriber to ungrade the telecom industries service to the customer. Do you realize that in the U.S. we have only one third of the access to broadband that they do in Europe or Australia or even Asia and Africa? Just do a Google speed search for your phone and look at how you compare to the AVERAGE around the world. So the telecoms make an additional $4 per person every month and do nothing for it. Multiply that times a million or 10M subscribers and you have a nice piece of change that goes directly to the bottom line. And you got NOTHING. So the next time you feel like NOT getting screwed, go into your local telecom office's retail shop with a notarized notice giving the telecom company the finger with you canceling your contract with them and in a loud audible voice with a friend by your side who signed the notary as a witness, proclaim to the customers just how they will be screwed by this telecom company. Sound extreme? Yes, that is the status of being a citizen in what was once the land of the free. There are not many in THIS home that are brave enough to stand up and protest when they are getting raped by the telecoms...or anybody else for that matter.