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Prepaid Mobile Phone Comparison Chart

Posted May 12th, 2010 by UCAN

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Save money on phone service by switching to prepaid. Compare providers with this useful chart.

Prepaid Wireless Comparison Chart

UPDATED: 08/22/2011

Provider Set-up Cost to Talk Long Distance  International Coverage The catch Comments
payLo by Virgin Mobile Cost of Phone
(Starting at $9.99)

$20 - $0.20/min, $0.15/mess, $1.50/MB. Expires in 90 days

$20 - 400 min, $0.15/mess, $1.50/MB. Expires in one month.

$30 - 1500 min, 1500 mess, 30MB.  Expires in one month. 

 Yes
US, PR, and USVI		 See Rates Check Coverage Need to top up every month to get $30 plan.  Simple plan for no frills user. If you want a smart phone, check out Virgin's Beyond Talk below.
Virgin Mobile Beyond Talk Cost of Phone
(Starting at $89.99)		 $35/month for Unlimited Text, E-mail, Data, Web, and 300 Anytime Minutes
$45/month for Unlimited Text, E-mail, Data, Web, and 1200 Anytime Minutes
$55/month for Unlimited Text, E-mail, Data, Web, and Anytime Minutes		 Yes
US, PR, and USVI		 See Rates Check Coverage Monthly minutes expire if they are not used. No night and weekend minutes Pretty good deal with no annual plan. No longer a premium for Android or Blackberries b/c built into cost. Decent selection of prepaid Android phones. 
Tracfone Cost of Phone
(Starting at $9.99)		 $0.17-$0.33 per minute  Yes
US, PR, and USVI		 Many international calls are charged at the same rate as domestic.   See included countries. Check Coverage You have to top up every so often to keep your account current.  Rates can be high.   No contracts and local rates to many international destinations.  Free nights and weekends.
Tracfone Cost of Phone
(Starting at $9.99)		 $0.25 per minute
Double Minutes For Life Card ($19.99) halves the minute price		 Yes
US, PR, and USVI		 Many international calls are charged at the same rate as domestic.   See included countries. Check Coverage You have to top up every so often to keep your account current.   No contracts and local rates to many international destinations.  Free nights and weekends.
Verizon Prepaid $25+ Cost of Phone
(Starting at $19.99 with $10.00 worth of airtime.)		 Basic:
$0.25 p/m, $0.20 p/text
Core:
$0.99 on days you use
$0.10 p/m, $0.10 p/t
Plus:
$1.99 on days you use
$0.05 p/m, $0.5 p/t, unlimited Mobile to Mobile and Night & Weekend
Unlimited:
$3.99 on days you use
Unlimited talk, $0.01 p/t		 Yes
US and PR		 See Rates Check Coverage Most plans don't have free nights/weekends.  Activation fee.   Kind of different that you pay only on the days you talk.  No long-term contract.
AT&T GoPhone Cost of Phone
(Starting at $9.99)		 Pay as you go:
$0.25 p/m
Pay as you go unlimited talk:
$1.00 on days you use
$0.10 p/m; $3.00 per day unlimited talk
$60/month Unlimited Talk and Text		 Yes
US, PR, Guam and USVI		 See Rates Check Coverage Top up cards for <$100 expire in 30-90 days. Pay only on days you talk.  No long-term contract.

T-Mobile

Pay as you Go

 Cost of Phone
(Starting at $19.99)		 $10 card = 30 minutes
($0.333 p/m)
$25 card = 130 minutes
($0.192 p/m)
$50 card = 400 minutes
($0.125 p/m)
$100 card = 1000 minutes
($0.10 p/m)

$0.10 p/text (to send)
$0.05 p/text (to receive)

 Yes See Rates Check Coverage Top up cards for <$100 expire in 30-90 days.  
Whatever you do, don't call Vanuatu or Tuvalu ($5.10 p/m)		 $100 cards are best value
T-Mobile--Prepaid Cost of Phone
(Starting at $19.99)		 $1 on days you use
$0.10 p/m

$0.10 p/text (to send)
$0.05 p/text (to receive)

 Yes See Rates Check Coverage Calls to voicemail will count as a call.  You will be charged.  You will be charged for any data sent to your phone whether you want it or not Unlimited nationwide calling from 7pm to 7am to any T-mobile number.
T-Mobile Prepaid Cost of Phone $50/month for unlimited talk and text Yes " "    
T-Mobile Prepaid Cost of Phone $15/month for unlimited text, 10 cents/min for talk " " "    
Net10 Cost of Phone
(Starting at $29.99)
NOTE:You get 300 minutes worth of calling when you buy a new phone ($30 value).		 $0.10 p/m
$0.05 p/text		 Yes See Rates(Calls to included countries are $0.05 p/m + airtime ($0.10).  So $0.15) Check Coverage Top up cards for <$200 expire in 30-180 days. Very good deal.  Stripped down, not trying to sell you bells and whistles.  Just cheap calling/texting.

The company slogan is:
"No bills.  No contracts.  No overages.  No evil."
Cricket--Prepaid Mobile Plan  Cost of Phone
+$15 Activation Fee

$35/month - Unlimited Talk and Text

$45/month - Unlimited Talk, Text, and Web

 Yes See Rates Check Coverage High roaming charges ($0.25)
Limited coverage area		 No plan.

Cricket--Prepaid Smartphone Plan 

 Cost of Phone
+$15 Activation Fee		 $55/month - Unlimted Talk, Text, and Web (1GB 3G) Yes        
Cricket--muve music plan Cost of Phone
+$15 Activation Fee		 $55/month - Unlimited Talk, Text, Web, and Music Downloads Yes        
Boost--Daily Unlimited Cost of Phone
(Starting at $29.99)		 $2/day for unlimited talk, text, and web Yes See Rates Check Coverage Cheap talk/text rates if you are heavy user on some days (e.g. weekend) and not at all on other days (e.g. weekday)
Boost--Monthly Unlimited Cost of Phone
(Starting at $29.99)		 $50/month
Unlimited talk, text, web, and walkie-talkie.		 Yes See Rates  Check Coverage
Boost--Blackbery Monthly Unlimited  Cost of Phone
(Starting at $149.99)		 $60/month
Unlimited talk, text, and web.		 Yes See Rates Check Coverage    
STi Mobile $4.95 + Cost of Phone (starting at $36.99)
NOTE: New phones come with $20 worth of airtime		 Easy 7.9 plan:
$0.25 per day + 0.079 p/m
Easy 8.9 plan:
$0.09 per day + $0.089 p/m

Minutes don't expire
25 cent per day cost

 Yes See Rates Check Coverage Very stripped down. Another good option.  Non-expiring minutes and low rates.  Low international rates.
StraightTalk Cost of Phone (includes one month of service) $30/month – 1000 minutes, 1000 texts, 30MB data, 411

$45/month – Unlimited talk, text, web, 411

 Yes No Check Coverage Expensive and limited phones Supposedly on Verizon's network, might have access to 3G
Filed Under
Communications: Pre-Paid -

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Pre-Paid Wireless Plans

On May 29th, 2010 freddy77mac says:

None of these plans is as good as the one I have in Scotland. I keep a separate phone through one of the wireless companies over there. I do not use my cell much, either the phone here in the States or the one in Scotland. Here I use between 2-10 minutes a month when I'm home and maybe 10-30 minutes when I'm traveling to other parts of the U.S. I don't text or go on the internet from my phone. I still have to pay a monthly fee or lose the service. That's not inexpensive. For my phone in Scotland, I buy a Top-Up card for a certain amount, say £10.00. The cost to the U.S. is only 5p (about 7.5¢) a minute and 10p (about 15¢) a minute within the U.K. The card stays valid until the amount is used up. To make sure the card remains valid, my friend who keeps the phone for me calls from it once a year. Once the phone call is made, the card is noted as still active. In other words, last summer, when I came home from Scotland, I had about £20.00 left on the card. When I return this summer, the £20.00 will still be there, minus the amount for the call my friend made. I have never seen a system like that here. Does one like it exist in the U.S.? If it did I would certainly give it a try because it would save me a huge amount of money annually.

I'm sorry that you found my

On July 10th, 2010 freddy77mac says:

I'm sorry that you found my post useless, WhoCares. If you read the entire post then you should realize that the purpose was to a) show what is possible and 2) wonder whether or not anything like that was available here in the United States. Not everyone is glued to a cell phone and an inexpensive setup, as I described, could work for a lot of people.

Thanks for the USELESS

On July 10th, 2010 WhoCares (not verified) says:

Thanks for the USELESS information for us living in the US.

PagePlus left off chart

On July 12th, 2009 SMS Gator (not verified) says:

The best prepaid, by far, is from Verizon MVNO PagePlus. As little as 6 cents per minute, with 120 day expiration. You only have to add $10 every four months. Texts are 8 cents each. Data is $1.20/MB. They charge a 50 cents a month fee.

They also offer 1500 minutes/1500 texts for $40/month, but actually you can get this down to about $34/month. No extra taxes or fees.

Unlimited voice is $2.49/day, or about $75/month. No extra taxes or fees.

All Verizon back door voice mail numbers work with PagePlus, as does texting via e-mail using the Verizon format.

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