Cheapest Cell Phone Plans
by Todd
Welcome to Cheapest Cell Phone Plans. This will be a consumer-oriented site devised to empower users to find and negotiate, you guessed it, the cheapest cell phone plans.
Eventually I will provide region and carrier specific tutorials and a regularly updated section to keep tabs on the best deals to help you find the cheapest cell phone plans. But initially I want to provide a general tutorial for how to go about finding the optimum yet cheapest mobile plan for your specific situation.
As people seek cheap cell phone plans, they frequently become overwhelmed with the various details and options. Should they use a prepaid cell phone plan or should they agree to a contract plan? And what about all those options and extras? Do offers involving free cell phones or cheap mobile phones really provide the best value?
While lower rate plans and offers of cheap or free mobile phones may seem inviting, they don’t always represent the cheapest cell phone plan. For any single offer to claim it has the cheapest wireless plan means that vendor also happens to know the nuances of your particular usage habits. Unlikely, isn’t it? It is important for you to realize that there is a lot more to finding the cheapest mobile phone plan than just an advertised cost per minute.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, you’re not alone. It isn’t easy to sort it all out. This site will help educate you so you can work out exactly what the cheapest cell phone plan will be for you, whether that means the cheapest prepaid cell plan available or a family cell phone plan. Use the following index to click on a section header and take you to the part you most want to read now or read straight down.
Is A Prepaid Plan The Cheapest Cell Phone Plan For You?
The Cheapest Cell Phone Plan May Be Your Friends Plan
Family Cellular Plans May Improve Your Value
Current Cheap Cell Phone Plans
Put in the simplest terms possible, the cheapest cell phone plan is the cell phone plan with the lightest load on your bill at the end of each month. Unfortunately, you can’t just use the promoted terms and conditions to define this bottom line.
Is A Prepaid Plan The Cheapest Cell Phone Plan For You?
At one time, prepaid cell phones were thought to be more costly than an equivalent in a contract plan. However, prepaid cell phone plans have evolved. There are a lot more options available now than there were even a few years ago and they now fit a variety of needs and budgets, even if you want unlimited calling or a smartphone. To find the best fit for your needs make a quick chart to compare prepaid plans.
If you only use your mobile for emergencies or for the couple of times you travel during the year, then a prepaid cell phone plan (also known as a pay as you go cell phone plan or a no contract cell phone plan) could be an excellent option for you. In most cases, it doesn’t cost much to add a useful chunk of minutes.
To determine the cheapest cell phone plan within a specific prepaid mobile program, determine exactly how many minutes of call time you need. If don’t think you will use that many minutes, you might try an annual prepaid plan offered by companies like T-Mobile or Tracfone, where you pay a set amount (usually around $100) for a year’s worth of service and a set number of minutes (usually around 1,000); you can add more minutes if you need to during the year. Another decent option for people who don’t use that many minutes per month but still want a mobile for emergencies and specific occasions is the Tracfone’s 50 minutes for $9.99 plan.
If you’re a low-use cell phone customer, determining the right prepaid plan for you can be a little easier than for many other users. Determine how many minutes you will use in a month (and be careful not to underestimate), then multiply those minutes by a program’s advertised cost per minute.
When searching for cheap cell phones without plans you should also determine what other needs you want to fulfill, such as access to texting and how much texting you might do, as well as mobile web access.
Determine these things before you examine different plans and contracts so you aren’t sold something you don’t need; instead you’ll be able to look for exactly what you’ve already determined you need. This also applies when you are looking for cheap cell phone accessories.
To compare your cost per minute for a prepaid plan versus a cell phone contract plan divide the monthly cost of a contract by the number of minutes you’ll be using. Doing a good cell phone plan comparison can help you see how much you will pay for what you will actually get.
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The Cheapest Cell Phone Plan May Be Your Friends Plan
While it might be nice to do your own research and simply determine what is best for you individually, you should really consider the networks and services your family and your friends use. In recent years it has become more and more common for cell phone vendors to provide free mobile-to-mobile minutes to customers using the same network and plan.
This way you’ll require fewer anytime minutes and pay less overall. Cooperating with friends and family is often one of the best strategies for landing yourself the cheapest cell phone plan.
Family Cellular Plans May Improve Your Value
Family cellular plans empower you to share a common quota of minutes with multiple cell phones in the same family. Most will find this to be a great way to save money and often such plans even provide free calls among family phones. But don’t just assume that such family cellular plans aren’t for you just because you don’t have kids or kids old enough to carry cell phones. Often times these family cell phone plans provide great deals and opportunities making them the best cell phone plan for couples as well.
When you have several cell phones in the family, you’ll discover that the finding the cheapest cell phone plan often starts with putting everyone in the family on the same plan. In almost all cases you’ll have discounts like a much lower activation fee — thus incurring much less expense up front — and second phones in these plans are often much cheaper.
Currently , the AT&T (Cingular) family plan with two phones offers 1400 minutes for $89.99. Each additional line — up to five — is only $9.99 each. All lines share the same minutes. Now look at two separate cell phone plans with 450 minutes under the same carrier: $39.99 each! That’s a hair shy of $80 without nearly as many minutes. Then when you include a third line, you’ve nearly topped out $120 and you’re still shy of the total minutes available in the same carrier’s family cellular plan.
To sweeten the deal, many cell phone family plans also include bonuses, such as unlimited minutes at night and/or on weekends or free calling to family members or a chosen network of numbers.
Current Cheap Cell Phone Plans
When searching for cheap cell phone plans look at all of your options and always read the fine print. For some cellphone users contract or unlimited cell phone plans will be best, but for others prepaid or pay as you go cell phone plans will be best. The options are always changing, for example pay as you go plans have improved in recent years. But with contract plans you may be rewarded for commitment; many of these plans offer unlimited night and weekend minutes and some offer unlimited to calls to others in your network. The cell phone itself is another important consideration that will impact the overall price of the plan you choose.
Always look at the network coverage to make sure it fits your needs before you select a plan.
Note: These prices are subject to change. I will try to keep them up-to-date, but they could change often, so always check each carrier directly before making a decision. Keep in mind there are also additional fees including activation fees, taxes and other fees that will be added to the final price.
Cricket’s Cheapest Cell Phone Plans
Currently, some might consider the cheapest cell phone plan to be the one advertised at MyCricket.Com for as low as $35 per month. This particular Cricket plan provides you with unlimited calling and unlimited texts within the U.S. And if you nudge your payment up to $45 a month, you will incorporate features like call waiting, video and picture messaging as well as other features. Cricket only offers monthly no contract cell phone plans.
Net10′s Cheapest Cell Phone Plans
Net10, a division of TracFone, only offers prepaid service, specifically offering cheap prepaid cell phone plans. The name stems from their 10 cents per minute nationwide call rate, although they offer some options that are less than 10 cents per minute. They offer handsets ranging from cheap phones starting at $19.99 up to a couple of smartphones.
They offer two types of plans, a monthly plan that doesn’t offer carryover minutes and prepaid minutes that offer a set number of minutes and service days which carryover if you keep the account active. All of their plans offer talk, text and web/email service. Their cheapest plan is 200 minutes, 30 days of service for $20, the best deal on this prepaid plan option is 900 minutes, 90 days of service for $60. Their monthly, no carryover plans include an unlimited plan for $50 per month or a 750 minute plan for $25 per month.
Sprint’s Cheapest Cell Phone Plans
Sprint-Nextel’s Basic Plan, for $29.99 a month, provides you with 200 anytime minutes, unlimited weekend and night time calling starts at 9 pm, but this plan doesn’t include messaging. For $5 dollars per month you get up to 300 messages. If you simply need a basic voice plan and you don’t need many minutes per month this may be the best cell phone plan for your specific circumstances. If you bump the cost up to $49.99 you get 450 anytime minutes and unlimited messaging.
Straight Talk’s Cheapest Cell Phone Plans
Straight Talk, also a division of TracFone, is definitely an option worth considering when evaluating the cheapest cellular plans. Straight Talk only offers no contract cell plans; you can purchase service for 1 month, 3 months, 6 months or 1 year at a time. Their cheapest cell plan offers 1,000 minutes and texts for $30 a month with 30 MB of mobile web access. They also offer an unlimited plan for only $45 per month for talk, text and web.
They also have some cheap cell phones available, which is sometimes difficult to find with no contract cell phone plans. It is important to note that some of the phones are refurbished and some only work with their $45 unlimited plan. Phones and plans are available at Walmart or online at StraightTalk.com.
T-Mobile’s Cheapest Cell Phone Plans
If you are looking for cheap prepaid cell phone plans, no-contract plans or pay as you go plans T-Mobile has some good options. Their best deal is $100 for 1,000 minutes that are active for one year; this is perfect for an emergency or occasional use phone. You can add minutes during the year if you need to.
Their cheapest contract plans include 500 anytime voice only minutes for $34.99, with unlimited text it’s $39.99 — these plans include unlimited night and weekend minutes with night minutes starting after 9 pm and unlimited T-Mobile to T-Mobile minutes. For $49.99 you get unlimited talk and text. You can add some limited data service (for social networking) to the unlimited talk and text starting at $59.99 per month; better data plans are available for a higher price.
TracFone’s Cheapest Cell Phone Plans
TracFone is a worthy competitor to consider when looking for affordable cell phone plans. They generally rate pretty well as far as value and network coverage area and like StraightTalk they offer affordable cell phones too. They only offer prepaid or pay as you go cell phone plans, no contracts.
TracFone’s cheapest cell phone plan is the lowest level of their Individual Value Plans, costing $9.99 per month for 50 minutes; the next step up is $19.99 per month for 125 minutes. All of their Individual Value Plans include talk, text, email and web, so you get everything for one price. The minutes rollover if you don’t use them as long as you keep your account active, and if you need more minutes you can buy them at any time.
If you’re looking for the best value you may want to consider their cheap prepaid annual cell plan options. Their best value plan offers 1,500 minutes for $199.99 for a year of service. You can buy additional minutes during the year if you need to.
Verizon’s Cheapest Cell Phone Plans
Verizon Wireless is known for their strong network, but not as much for offering the cheapest cell phone plans. That said Verizon’s Basic Plan is their cheapest cell phone plan available. They offer 450 anytime minutes for $39.99 a month, but this basic plan does not provide data transfer or texting without incurring greater cost. If you don’t use your cell phone for data transfer or texting, this is a decent plan with a strong network. However, some people will find better value in their unlimited voice plan for $69.99 per month.
Messaging can be added to any plan. Options start at twenty cents per text or $5 for 250 texts and they step up from there up to $20 per month for unlimited texts.
When searching for the cheapest cell phone plan make sure you choose one with a network that suits your needs. A cheap cell phone plan will be worthless if it you don’t have service in the areas you need it.
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