Comments on: Are Pay-As-You-Go Cell Phones Worth It?

By: cyndi

cyndi — Wed, 19 May 2010 18:20:55 +0000

I mean what else could you want besdies a .10 a minute calls and .03 texting – Theres nothing out there that can really beat Net10′s deal. The best thing about Net10 is the freedom to switch phones and minutes at will based on use without any penalties and secret charges that the cellphone company well sent you. I’m saving more than over 50 dollars a month with Net10. It totally helps me save and offers great coverage.

By: gianna

gianna — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 17:50:32 +0000

I think pay as you go is completely worth it. It just makes sense to not owe so much more money.
Net10 was the cheapest provider I could find for my moderate voice + text usage.
There were no daily fees or monthly fees like so many prepaid plans have.
I still recommend this to people as the cheapest prepay plan I know of. I used quite a few texts and a moderate amount of voice, and my bills averaged a lil over $30/month for the time I’ve had it. I really like it.

By: EClaire

EClaire — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 23:19:45 +0000

I have never heard of a post-paid plan costing less than $40 per month. As a matter of fact, I was on the most basic plan with Verizon a while back ($40 for 450 minutes) but I NEVER paid less than 50 bucks per month on it. All those fees and taxes added up! And if I went over my minutes I paid 45cents per minute on overages. Texting added onto that.
Now even if we ignore the fact that there are several unlimited prepaid offers now in the vicinity of $50, up to the 450 minute level you will probably be better off using prepaid. NET10 (one of my favorites) would cost me $45, it always being 10c per minute.
In reality I use far less than 450 minutes per month which means my spending is normally $30 spread over two months or $20 per month. No contract can give me that kind of low per-month rate.

By: PrepaidWirelessGuy

PrepaidWirelessGuy — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 17:31:41 +0000

That’s very interesting. I would have thought that the price of the plan (a bucket of minutes I presume), plus e911 fee, plus telco fees, plus sales tax, etc., that you’d be paying more than $40/month. If you’re not using your phone that much, then even one of the prepaid daily plans at $1/day would be $30/month. You’re saying that your postpaid plan, plus all of the associated fees and taxes, that you’re paying less than that…? Even a year ago I would not have thought you could get better value (particularly at the low volume you infer you’re using) on postpaid, but especially now, prepaid is extremely competitive. Anyway, to each their own, but I would be interested in understanding what postpaid plan you had, and what your usage was. Interesting discussion nonetheless!

By: Debbie

Debbie — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 13:48:03 +0000

Prepaid is almost always more expensive than paying a monthly plan, if you are someone who uses the phone frequently. I used a prepaid for awhile, and even though I don’t feel like I’m on the phone that often, I was easily spending $40 or $50 a month when I prepaid, which is quite a bit more than my monthly service plan ends up being.

By: PrepaidWirelessGuy

PrepaidWirelessGuy — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 22:51:12 +0000

Prepaid most definitely makes a lot of sense. The US and Canada are so far behind the rest of the world in terms of prepaid adoption, it’s kind of humorous to read about people analyzing whether prepaid is a viable option….heh.