What Is A Prepaid Phone Plan

What Is A Prepaid Phone Plan?

What are my phone plan options?

When purchasing a phone, you can choose between these three types of plans for your network; contract plans, prepaid plans, and postpaid plans.

When it comes to contract plans, you will sign a contract with a particular network. That will be your network up until the duration of the contract. After that, you will have a choice to either renew that contract, switch to a different network, or choose a non-contract plan (prepaid plans). 

However, contracts are long-term, meaning you are tied to one specific plan for a long time. 

So what if you do not want a long-term commitment to a network company? Well, consider non-contract plans, such as prepaid and postpaid plans. We will discuss prepaid plans below.

What is a prepaid phone plan?

Prepaid plans give you the essential services of regular phones. These services include text, calls, and mobile data. However, you do not need to commit to a long-term contract with a network. 

Thus, you can choose to switch to another network by the end of the month if you want to. And since you are not committed to a multi-year contract, you do not have to worry about expensive fees if you want out of the contract. 

Prepaid plans allow you to pay for your bills in advance each month. Prepaid cell phone plans can be easily found in retail outlets, electronics stores, and discount stores. However, major network companies such as Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile also offer prepaid plans, particularly through smaller subsidiaries. 

Nowadays, many network companies, particularly big network carriers offer unlimited data prepaid plans. 

Like all good things, prepaid cell phone plans also come with their own set of disadvantages. Let’s take a deeper look into some of them:

Disadvantages of a prepaid phone plan

In certain cases, prepaid plans can cause your phone to slow down, often if the cellular network is congested. When the LTE speeds are tested, many parent companies share the same speed with their smaller companies. 

And even though they are cheaper than contract plans, choosing a prepaid plan from the big  network carriers is more expensive compared to smaller companies. 

Moreover, because prepaid plans are less expensive compared to contract plans, there are fewer features. 

For example, they will likely not include internet access. And if you choose prepaid, your phone number will not be transferable. Meaning, once you switch to another carrier, you won’t be able to keep your current phone number. 

If you deactivate and later reactivate your prepaid cell phone, you will have to change numbers again.

Ultimately, the decision of choosing between a prepaid plan, a postpaid plan, or a contract plan is up to you and your needs. We recommend weighing out the pros and cons and choosing the best fit for you.