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Pre-Paid Comparison Chart
| Provider | Set-up | Cost to Talk | Long Distance | International | Coverage | The catch | Comments | Beat the System |
| Virgin Mobile Pay As You Go |
Cost of Phone (Starting at $9.99) |
$0.20 pay as you talk
$20 for 200 anytime minutes $30 for 400 anytime minutes $50 for 1000 anytime minutes |
Yes US, PR, and USVI |
See Rates (You have to call Virgin to activate international dialing.) |
Check Coverage | You have to add $20 dollars to your account every 90 days to keep it active. | Pretty good deal with no annual plan. Nights and weekends free. | Buy 1,000 minutes for $50 every 3 months. Nights and weekends are free. 333 anytime minutes per month at $0.05 per minute. |
| Virgin Mobile Monthly Plans | Cost of Phone (Starting at $9.99) |
$49.99 Totally Unlimited $19.99 Texter's Delight (Unlimited text, $0.10 p/m talk) |
Yes US, PR, and USVI |
See Rates (You have to call Virgin to activate international dialing.) |
Check Coverage | You have to pay a fee to roll over your minutes, so if you lose what you don't use. If you go over, you revert to the paygo rate ($0.20) | Pretty good deal with no annual plan. Beware over/under buying minutes. Nights and weekends free. | Make a ton of calls or send a ton of texts. |
| 7-11-- Prepaid Cell Phone Cards |
Cost of Phone (Starting at $9.99) |
Cost of prepaid card depends on desired usage. Typically ends up $0.20 or less |
Yes US, PR, and USVI |
Don't call international with this card. If you want to call other countries, you can buy an international calling card from 7-11 too. | Depends on carrier | Convenient, but probably not the best deal. Also, some carriers, like AT&T, deduct monthly fees from the prepaid account. | 7-11 is basically the middleman for other providers. | Drink refills are only $0.99 at 7-11. Save your cup. |
| Tracfone-- No Contract Wireless |
Cost of Phone (Starting at $9.99) |
$0.17-$0.33 per minute Double Minutes Card ($49.99) halves the minute price for life |
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. | Check out some money-saving tricks you can do with your Tracfone. See above for more info. |
| Tracfone-- Value Plans |
Cost of Phone (Starting at $9.99) |
$0.20 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. | No contracts and local rates to many international destinations. Free nights and weekends. | Check out some money-saving tricks you can do with your Tracfone. See above for more info. |
| 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: $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. | The way it's structured invites you to try and game the system. Be creative. Basically, Verizon is hoping you don't have the discipline to stick to your plan. |
| AT&T GoPhone-- Pay As You Go |
$25 Card + Cost of Phone (You get $10 worth of airtime when signing up. Phones start at $9.99 if ordered on-line) |
Pay as you go: $0.25 p/m Pay as you go unlimited talk: $1.00 on days you use $0.10 p/m |
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. | Don't buy anything less than $100 cards |
| AT&T GoPhone--Pick Your Plan | Cost of Phone (Starting at $9.99) |
Pick your plan $29.99: 200 anytime ($0.15 p/m) Pick your plan $39.99: 300 anytime ($0.133 p/m) Pick your plan $49.99: 400 anytime ($0.125 p/m) Pick your plan $69.99: 650 anytime ($0.108 p/m) |
Yes US, PR, Guam and USVI |
See Rates | Check Coverage | It's hard to say exactly how much you'll use. | Night and weekend minutes are included on more expensive plans. | Only buy smaller plans with limited usage. If you are going to talk a lot, you can get more minutes for less money somewhere else. |
| 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) |
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 | Refill a $100 calling card and get 15% more minutes on all refills. $100 cards are also good for a year. |
| 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) |
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. | Disable your voicemail and use the phone as a pager. Call people back from a landline. |
| 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: |
In thoery, you could just keep buying new $29.99 phones and getting $30.00 worth of minutes. Do this about 500 million times and you'll be rich. Really, try it! (Not really) Net10 is part of Tracfone. Must be the "value" brand. |
| Cricket-- PayGo |
Cost of Phone | $1 on days you use Unlimited local $0.10 p/m long distance $2 on days you use $3 on days you use |
Some Plans | See Rates | Check Coverage | High roaming charges ($0.39) Limited coverage area |
No plan. | Don't go anywhere and only make local calls. |
| Cricket-- Prepaid |
Cost of Phone +$15 Activation Fee |
$30 per month | No | See Rates | Check Coverage | High roaming charges ($0.39) Limited coverage area |
No plan. | Bad, bad, bad. It's the $1 a day plan with an activation fee. |
| Boost-- Pay as you Go |
Cost of Phone (Starting at $49.99) |
$0.10 p/m $0.10 p/text $1 per day for walkie-talkie |
Yes | See Rates | An internet charge of $0.35 is charged every day whether you use it or not. You have to call to have it deactivated. | Cheap talk/text rates | Disable internet service immediately. | |
| Boost-- Prepaid |
Cost of Phone (Starting at $49.99) |
Monthly Unlimited: $50 per month "Unlimited talk, text, web, and walkie-talkie" |
Yes | See Rates | Advertised as "Unlimited talk, text, internet, and walkie-talkie"
Other documents say sending texts costs $0.10 per text and the available phones for the plan don't have the walkie-talkie function |
Whether or not this is a good deal depends on whether on page on the website is right or the other. | If it really is unlimited everything, have a ball. | |
| 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 |
Yes | See Rates | Check Coverage | Very stripped down. | Another good option. Non-expiring minutes and low rates. Low international rates. | If you talk more than 16 minutes per day, get the 7.9 plan. |
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PagePlus left off chart
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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