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Prepaid Mobile Phone Comparison Chart
UCAN News
Save money on phone service by switching to prepaid. Compare providers with this useful chart.
Prepaid Wireless Comparison Chart
UPDATED: 05/17/2010
| Provider | Set-up | Cost to Talk | Long Distance | International | Coverage | The catch | Comments | Beat the System |
| Virgin Mobile Basic Talk | 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 Beyond Talk | Cost of Phone (Starting at $9.99) |
$25/month for Unlimited Text, E-mail, Data, Web, and 300 Anytime Minutes $40/month for Unlimited Text, E-mail, Data, Web, and 1200 Anytime Minutes $60/month for Unlimited Text, E-mail, Data, Web, and 300 Anytime Minutes Add $10 a month for Beyond Talk Blackberry plans |
Yes US, PR, and USVI |
See Rates(You have to call Virgin to activate international dialing.) | Check Coverage | Monthly minutes expire if they are not used. No night and weekend minutes | Pretty good deal with no annual plan. | 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 | 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. | Check out some money-saving tricks you can do with your Tracfone.See above for more info. |
| 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. | 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 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. | 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 | 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. | Don't buy anything less than $100 cards |
| 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 (Gold Rewards Card). $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. |
| 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: |
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 ($0.25) Limited coverage area |
No plan. | Don't go anywhere and only make local calls. |
| Cricket--Prepaid | Cost of Phone +$15 Activation Fee |
$30/month - Unlimited Talk $40/month - Unlimited Talk, Text, & Mobile Web $50/month - $40 plan plus international and navigation $60/month - $50 plan plus mobile video entertainment and roaming (100 min) |
No | See Rates | Check Coverage | High roaming charges ($0.25) Limited coverage area |
No plan. | Cricket's plans are getting better, but the more expensive plans do not add many useful features |
| 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 | Check Coverage | 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 | Check Coverage | 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. |
| 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 | Cheap way to access Verizon's 3G network (if it does use Verizon's network) |
| CommonCents Mobile | Cost of Phone (as low as $19.77) |
7 cents per minute and per text $20 card expires in 30 days $30 card expires in 60 days |
Yes | Check Coverage | Expensive data ($1/MB per day). If you phone is inactive for 30 days, you use your balance. | Cheapest per minute prepaid rate available. First prepaid to "round down" minutes: a 1 minute, 45 second call only uses 1 minute from your pool. | Best for light but frequent talkers and texters who don't use any data. |
Communications: Pre-Paid -
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Pre-Paid Wireless Plans
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
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
Thanks for the USELESS information for us living in the US.
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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