Cheapest Cell Phone Plan
by Todd
Welcome to Cheapest Cell Phone Plan. This will be a consumer-oriented site devised to empower users to find and negotiate, you guessed it, the cheapest cell phone plan.
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 plan. But initially I want to provide a general tutorial for how to go about smartly determining the optimum mobile plan for your specific situation.
As people seek the cheapest cell phone plan, they frequently become overwhelmed with the various details and options. Will they need prepaid minutes or should they agree to a contract? 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 free mobiles may seem inviting, they don’t always represent the cheapest cell phone plans. For any single offer to claim it has the cheapest wirless 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 all this 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 and only you. 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.
Would A Prepaid Plan Be the Cheapest Cell Phone Plan For You?
When & Why the Cheapest Cell Phone Plan is the One Your Friends Are On
Family Cellular Plans Sometimes Improve Your Value
Current Cheapest 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.
Would A Prepaid Plan Be the Cheapest Cell Phone Plan For You?
For many wireless customers, prepaid cell phones will swiftly become quite a bit more costly than their equivalent in a contract.
However, prepaid cell phone plans can still be a fantastic option if you’re certain you won’t use the service much.
For example, 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) could be an excellent option for you. In most cases, it doesn’t cost much to add a useful chunk of minutes and you likely will not need to add to it for quite a while.
To determine the cheapest cell phone plan within a specific prepaid mobile program, the most important thing to determine is exactly how many minutes of call time you require. If you’re confident you will use very, very few minutes, you might try a plan like AT&T’s Pay As You Go prepaid plan. In this plan, you will currently pay 25 cents a minute yet you pay no daily access toll.
A common choice for people who utilize virtually no minutes per month but still want a mobile for emergencies and specific occasions is the Tracfone’s 50 minutes for $9.99 plan. One potential problem to consider with this program, however, is that if you don’t use your 50 minutes, you’ll lose them. This may be fine considering the minimal upfront cost compared to other programs.
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.
You should also determine what other needs you need to fulfill, such as access to texting and how much texting you might do, and also mobile web access.
Determine these before you examine different plans and contracts so you go into it not being sold something you don’t need but rather looking for exactly what you’ve already determined you really do need.
Then once you’ve found a contract plan that meets your requirements, divide the monthly cost of a contract by the number of minutes you’ll be using. This is how you can compare your cost per minute in prepaid plan versus a cell phone contract plan.
When & Why the Cheapest Cell Phone Plan is the One Your Friends Are On
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.
Thus 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 Sometimes Improve Your Value
Along the same lines as the last discussion, 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 to 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 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 seven — 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.
If that wasn’t enough, such cell phone family plans also include bonuses, such as unlimited minutes at night and/or on weekends.
Current Cheapest Cell Phone Plans
In most cases, the average cellphone user will obtain the greatest value through a contract rather than a prepaid cell phone plan. Besides the reward for commitment, these days you also get unlimited weekend and night minutes. Note these prices are subject to change. I will try to keep them up-to-date, but they could change and change back fairly often, so always check each carrier directly before making a decision.
Sprint’s Cheapest Cell Phone Plan
Sprint is currently promoting the following deals. For individuals who rarely call out yet very frequently receive calls, the Free Incoming Plans offered by Sprint could be the right cell phone plan. $49.99 provides you with 300 anytime minutes — which doesn’t like a great deal by itself — but remember the plan provides free, unlimited incoming calls, so it may work out to be the best cell phone plan for specific circumstances.
You could also go with Sprint-Nextel’s Basic Plan, which at only $29.99 a month provides you with 200 anytime minutes. If you nudge your cost up just a few bucks you can take advantage of weekend and night minutes even earlier.
Verizon’s Cheapest Cell Phone Plan
Some might say that Verizon’s Basic Plan is their cheapest cell phone plan. While 450 anytime minutes for $39.99 a month sounds good, that 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 may be your best bet. However, more people will find better value in their 1350 minutes for $79.99 and 900 minutes for $59.99 packages.
Cricket’s Cheapest Cell Phone Plan
Currently, some might consider the cheapest cell phone plan to be the one advertised at MyCricket.Com for as low as $30 per month. This particular Cricket plan provides you with unlimited local calling along with unlimited texts with the U.S. and to Mexico. For individuals who are confident they will rarely call long distance, this may be the cheapest cell phone plan for you. And if you nudge your payment up to $40 a month, you incorporate the freedom to phone anywhere in the U.S. (aside from Alaska). This extra little bit of money will also provide you with free picture and text messages.
Currently researching and updating: More information coming soon!