Archive for the ‘phones’ tag
compare pre paid cell phones
compare pre paid cell phones
Is there any difference between pre-paid cell phones and contract cell phone service?
My husband and I have always had contract service with a local provider, but we don’t use all of the services (yet we pay for them). We are considering pre-paid for us and our kids. Are they reliable phones and how do they compare in cost to contract phone service?
The difference between pre-paid and contract is that with pre-paid you don’t sign up for anything and there is no account or bill that you have to pay every month. Contract is that you pay for a certain amount of minutes and services that you may or may not use every month and that bill comes every month.
As far as costs go, there isn’t a big difference from what I’ve seen. To make sure you get the best rate, you really need to shop around and check out what people are selling…it all boils down to how many cents per minute you’re going to be paying.
My recommendation is for you and your husband to get a contract so that if you ever need it, you won’t have to worry about running out of minutes at an inopportune time. For the kids, I would recommend pre-paid. This is because, its been my expereince (I’m a teacher and I hear lots of stories) that most kids use their phones a lot either calling or text-messaging. This can run up an extremely high cell phone bill that you’ll be stuck with. The worst story I ever heard was one of my students running up an $800 bill in one month from overage charges.
Also, before you do anything, check with your current cell phone provider and find out if you’re under contract and if so what the early termination fee is (usually $150). This might make you’re decision easier for now. As for pre-paid companies, I have heard that Boost and Virgin are pretty good companies.