Before you choose to go with prepaid cell phones, you should understand why they developed in the mobile phone industry and how cellular service providers treat the branding and service of the prepaid market.

What Is A Prepaid Cell Phone?

Simply put, prepaid cell phones are mobile phones where you buy the service for them before you use them. Essentially, you buy credit to use a provider’s network so you can avoid charges and recurring bills. Such a cheap cell phone plan are often defined as a “pay-as-you-go” service.

With most cellular service providers, you can add credit to your prepaid cellular phone account any time to top up your account. This can often be done by either purchasing a prepaid card in a retail store or using your credit card to buy the additional credit directly through your cell phone or cellular provider.

Note that most prepaid cell phone solutions utilize SS7 (signaling system seven) out-of-band signaling.

Origins of the Prepaid Mobile Plan

In examining cell phone history, one might trace the origin of this business approach to telephone billing to the decision to splinter AT&T’s monopoly in the early eighties. This opened up the primary telecommunications network to outside providers, which freed a number of smaller companies to initialize different payment systems.

The first large scale solution for prepaid mobile phone service occurred in the early nineties when the Houston Cellular Telephone Company devised a manner to offer service to customers who were otherwise denied cellular service because of a lack of credit history or a poor credit history.

Since then the concept has been adopted by almost every major cellular carrier in the world. While it is often considered the “cheap” approach to cell phone service, in some areas — such as Ireland — prepaid cell phone plans have become the standard.

Disadvantages of Cheap Prepaid Cell Phones

Because managing high priced phoned calls can be difficult for carriers, more costly services are often limited in a prepaid mobile plan. For example, customers in this pay-as-you-go type of system will often have more of their credit used up for SMS messages and international calls then the equivalent standard billing plan from the same provider. This is why it is important to consider your planned use of a cell phone before committing to such a service.

Advantages of Prepaid Cell Phones

In many cases, however, a pay-as-you-go will provide you less expensive service with fewer contractual limitations. It helps to keep spending down as you can only use what credit you have available, and you often can avoid common cellular service fees such as provider transfer fees and termination fees. It is also often the only service available to individuals without a phone number, address and credit card.

Pepaid Phone Plan Security Concerns

Because such pay-as-you-go services are often available to people without addresses or credit cards, they’ve become a point of alarm for security agencies around the world. Without an address or phone number associated with customers, these cell phone users could remain anonymous in a manner which could be appealing to those involved in criminal behavior.

Thus in recent years discussion has developed about developing a registration system for prepaid mobile phone users. Of course, then you open the problem of privacy, so this matter is still hotly contested.

I hope this provides you with a more grounded understanding of the prepaid cell phone phenomenon. Don’t just opt for prepaid cell phones just because the upfront price looks the best; be sure to examine the plan, its restrictions and its services as a whole before committing your money to what you think is the cheapest cell phone plan.

If you’re assembling information to determine the best possible cell phone plan for you and your loved ones, then you must certainly look into the increasingly popular and competitive family cellular plans.

Cell phone family plans empower multiple cell phone customers to utilize the same pool of air minutes within the same contract and billing cycle. This is a great way to save money and I suggest that even couples consider taking advantage of these cell phone family deals.

Just make sure you read the fine print on those cell phone family plans! In recent years cellular carriers have begun implementing all sorts of variations of the basic concept so you must carefully read all of an offered plan’s details.

Choose A Cell Phone Family Plan, Not A Brand

Like with prepaid cell phones, the popularity of these plans has led cell phone companies to brand family plan services separately from their standard offerings. Remember that there is usually no such thing as the overall cheapest cell phone family plans — it is all dependent on what you and your family need and making sure you pay for nothing extra for unnecessary cellular services or subscriptions.

These cheap cell phone family plans feature catchy monikers like FamilyTalk (AT&T, Cingular), Family Share (Verizon), FamilyTime (T-Mobile), Team Share (Nextel), and the Power Pack Family Plans (Sprint).

Mobile Family Plans

The Power Pack from Sprint provides unlimited weekends and nights, free long distance and no roaming charges. Additionally, most of Sprint’s family plans allow you to purchase add-on minutes. This helps you keep overage charges to a minimum. Sprint has the capacity to fully leverage its fiber optic network to unify family cell phones into what Sprint promotes as the Sprint PCS Fair and Flexible America for Families.

FamilyTime Plans from T-Mobile provide the most pure minutes to share. This means they provide more straight-up anytime minutes than other cell phone family plans. They also make phone calls between plan members free. T-Mobile also provides additional paid add-ons such as expanded roaming-free areas and unlimited T-Mobile to T-Mobile calling.

Formerly Cingular plans, AT&T’s FamilyTalk Plans leverage the largest cellular network in the United States to include free calls within network. The FamilyTalk plan may provide one of the most compelling features in its Rollover Minutes. This allows you to roll over unused minutes from billing period to billing period and spread them among plan members. You can also opt-in to unlimited AT&T moble to mobile minutes. Sometimes finding the cheapest cell phone plan just means finding the most flexible cell phone plan.

Verizon’s advertising has become tightly integrated with contemporary pop culture (yes, we can hear you now), so you’re more likely to know their cellular phone family plans already. Verizon Wireless offers the Family Share plan, which in addition to their standard (and generous) free unlimited Verizon-network calling, also provides family discounts and shared minutes. Additionally, Verizon has recently introduced the ability to keep calls between mobiles within the same exchange — your particular area of your area code — free from charges. They call this Local IN Calling Minutes. This is one of the more popular wireless family plans.

Depending on your area, different networks may have superior coverage and thus be able to offer you the most flexible cell phone family plan. AT&T’s FamilyTalk plans may be the most forward-thinking of the mobile family plans right now, and they’re built on the nation’s largest and most established cell phone network. However, this doesn’t guarantee that they have the best coverage in the areas where you’ll be calling, and it doesn’t necessarily match the best with the you and your family’s particular usage habits.

Sometimes prepaid cell phone family plans may be your best bet, but not always. You need to monitor and measure your usage before you can determine whether such a family cellular plan would bet the best of cell phone family plans for you.

So be sure to weigh all these described variables when determining the best family cell phone plans for you and yours.

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!

Once you find yourself the cheapest cell phone plan for your particular situation, you’ll likely be looking for cheap cell phone accessories as well. While a modern mobile phone offers default accessories such as pretty displays, theft deterent locks, web capability & web access and databases for storing phone numbers and addresses, selecting among additional features can almost be more confusing than selecting the original wireless phone in the first place.

Be Deliberate In Your Choice of Cell Phone Accessories

Some accessories are imposed on you. For example, hands-free kits are required in many states because laws enforce their use during driving. But most accessories are optional, and while you might be tempted to just brush them off, some of them could really make your cell phone use far more efficient and functional.

Be reasonable, though. The mobile phone accessory market is booming, so companies will try to sell you everything under the sun. I suggest you sit down away from any ads or any salesman, and write a list of everything you really need. Try to envision the different ways you will actually use your new cell phone.

A quick example is texting. Will you either be texting or sending email frequently with your new cell phone? If so, a keyboard might be a worthwhile accessory. But if you think you’ll mostly just use voice, then don’t waste your money.

Really, the secret to cheap cell phone accessories is defining and purchasing exactly what you need and not getting trapped into buying more.

Cheap Cell Phone Accessories

To help you brainstorm purposes for your cell phone, here is a list of common but generally inexpensive cell phone accessories: belt clip or holster, extra cell phone batteries, leather or vinyl cases, faceplates, data cables, memory cards, antennas or signal boosters, ac chargers, car chargers, hands-free kits for cars and hands-free kits for general use.

Another key to finding cheap cell phone accessories is to not buy from your mobile phone manufacturer or cellular service retail outlet. Once you’ve committed to a phone they treat you like a captive audience; they strongly overcharge. While you might find some used accessories or discount mobile phone accessories worth considering, for the most part you’ll be better off looking elsewhere for the best deal on your cell phone supplies.

It’s quite possible you found your cheapest cell phone plan online. So brace yourself and wade back out into the world wide web to bargain hunt and find your best mobile accessory deals. So here are some pointers to avoid getting ripped off.

Save Money On Mobile Phone Expenses

• Be certain any site you choose to buy from is a certified reseller for the manufacturer of your particular cell phone. This greatly improves the likelihood of compatibility and helps you avoid scams.
• Be certain your chosen cell phone accessory site provides a secure means for processing your payment. You should look for signs like authentic Verisign emblems. Also look to make sure when you engage in the transaction the site web address changes to https (notice the S!) not just http. This indicates your data is encrypted when you send it across the Internet.
• Be certain the website provides complete and genuine contact information. Never buy from a site which doesn’t provide a real and verifiable phone number and street address.
• While I did say phone manufacturers will overcharge you, sometimes it is the most secure and reliable way to accessorize your inexpensive new cell phone. Sometimes security and reliability translates to affordability in the long run.

As I implied earlier, the cell phone accessory market is an exploding industry in its own right, so be wary of deals that are too good to be true. But don’t hesitate to at least try your luck at searching the Internet for the best deal on mobile accessories before you go the secure, expensive route.

If you found yourself or your family cell phones without plans online, than you shouldn’t feel too intimidated to find some cheap cell phone accessories online. Be smart and detailed and you’ll be fine.

Use some common sense and caution and you may just find the cheap cell phone accessories you need online at just the right price.

If you’re looking for cell phones without plans, I have some interesting news and information for you. I’ll provide you some advice on how to go about buying a cell phone without committing yourself to a plan, but I’ll also discuss a coming technology that you might appeal to people in your situation: the disposable phone.

Wireless service providers often create new and unique packages to hype in an attempt to draw fresh customers. A typical approach for such a maneuver would be to offer a fantastic price on a cell phone when packaged with preloaded air time and a few other alluring features. The catch is, however, that when you’ve used the preloaded talk time (or it expires), you need to subscribe to one of their plans to keep the phone operational. Ultimately, they want to keep you away from cell phones without plans… or make you pay a steep price for one.

Disposable Cell Phones

I’ll discuss ways around this inconvenience soon, but first I thought I’d inform you about the coming of the disposable phone. In the simplest terms, these plan-free cell phones and subscription-free cell phones would take the place of the old fashioned telephone booth. The idea is to have vending machines with cheap cell phones available for just a couple bucks.

You drop in your coins, cash or slide through your credit card, then a small cell phone package drops just like a candy bar from a vending machine. The cell phone typically would be focused on local coverage and the talk time would vary depending on the amount you entered into the cell phone vending machine.

You could then just turn it on, walk off and talk. Of course, once you’ve used up your air time, the phone becomes useless and you’ll need to toss it. As you might imagine, that could get wasteful fast, so I sure hope they make this program recycle-friendly.

Operational cell phones of this nature have been patented and manufactured, but full production will only begin when there is a clearly defined demand for them. The current plan is to provide these phones in common public places such as airports and shopping malls as well as bus stations and train stations.

Cell Phones Without Plans

So you may be thinking, “Hey, neat! But what do I do right now if my family needs cell phones without plans?” Well one caveat: in most cases, it will be more expensive than if you’re willing to commit to one of the many offers cellular companies use to wrap you into their service.

If you currently have a cell phone already and you’ve been with the same carrier for a while, I suggest looking for customer loyalty rebates and bonuses from your cell phone company first. Like it or not, loyalty often leads to the cheapest cell phone plan. If they can’t offer you anything worth your while, proceed to the following methods for finding cell phones without plans.

• Again, if you’re currently with a wireless company, check one of their retail stores or their website. All the big players will happily sell you a phone without requiring you to buying into one of their cell phone plans. Can you stomach paying three times more the phone? Because that’s about what it will cost you. It’s a turn-off, yes, but it does ensure you that particular phone will be compatible with that cell phone carrier’s network. In many retail stores, you’ll find the plan-free price of a particular phone in small writing below the big advertised price.
• If you’re looking for a cell phone which is independent of any wireless carrier, you’ll require what is called an unlocked cell phone. An unlocked cell phone doesn’t have a SIM card (or a “subscriber identification module”). SIM cards are what associate specific phones with specific cell phone companies. Without a SIM card, a phone can be used on any network compatible with its features. When you join a company, that carrier will install their software and lock it. While an unlocked cell phone isn’t a necessity, it does give you a little more freedom when attempting to find the best opportunity for cell phone service without a contract.
• Scour the web for a selection of unlocked cell phones and cell phones without plans. Major sites such as eBay and Amazon often feature a wide range of auctions for unlocked phones. Don’t expect them to be cheap, but you might do better than the cell phones without plans you’ll find in retail outlets.
• Don’t hesitate to look through your local Craig’s List cell phone ads(craigslist.org), as you might find some great deals this way. However, please be aware that it isn’t unusual to find either malfunctioning phones or stolen phones through such channels. Just be cautious and use some common sense.
• And last but not least, don’t neglect to consider prepaid cell phones. They’re affordable phones with no contract; you just buy minutes from the wireless provider as you require them. Many of these phones provide all the capabilities of normal cell phones. The minutes will, on the whole, cost you more than the same number of minutes in a contract, but if you use very little, it can still be cost-effective way to use a cell phone without a plan.

So until the plan-free disposable cell phones catch on, you’ll enjoy some options to find yourself cell phones without plans. However, keep in mind these phones won’t be cheap in most cases. You’re paying for freedom. Cellular providers want you as a subscriber so you they offer deep discounts on their cell phones.

If your situation requires that freedom, I really hope the information I’ve provided here helps you find what you need.

Welcome to Cheapest Cell Phone Plan!

I’m still researching and writing the first real content for this site, but in the mean time, I suggest giving this video a watch:

Selecting a cell phone plan requires some patience and due diligence. It’s great to have organizations like Consumer Reports conducting these surveys to help inform us.

Thank you for visiting and I hope you return soon to see how I’ve grown my site.