There are more no-contract options than ever before: You can prepay your bill or pay as you go, and, if you decide you don’t like the phone or the payment terms, you can walk away with no termination fees—which might cost you over $300 if you were locked into a wireless provider contract.
Whether a no-contract phone is right for you, and if so, what kind of no-contract phone is right for you, depends on how you’d use your phone—and how disciplined (or not) you are with usage. A NY Times story does a good job of laying out the no-contract possibilities, which are numerous and complicated.
One fact that may seem surprising to folks who’ve never looked into prepaid phones is that unlimited usage is not only possible, it also does not have to equal expensive. On the cheaper end of the unlimited-use, no-contract plan spectrum:
Straight Talk (straighttalk.com) offers unlimited talk, text messaging and Web access for $45 a month. Boost Mobile offers unlimited talk, text and Web for $50. Compare those to T-Mobile’s Even More plan with a two-year contract and unlimited talk and text for $69.99 a month.
From Cricket Wireless (mycricket.com), a basic unlimited plan for $35 a month includes unlimited talk and text messaging, though not other features like data, call waiting, three-way calling and 411 calls.
Of course, you’d save even more if you used your phone less and opted for a limited, pay-as-you-go plan. For example:
Virgin Mobile’s new PayLo plan offers a refill of $20 that gets 400 minutes of talk, a lower rate of 5 cents a minute. But if you are averaging 100 minutes a month, it is not a good fit because the minutes expire in a month. Ask if unused minutes are rolled forward.
And if you are already locked into a long-term contract that comes with an early termination fee, ask your provider when that penalty expires. When the time comes, you might want to look into a no-contract phone, rather than re-upping for another two years of lockdown.
Related:
Cell Phones: You’re Probably Paying Too Much for a Plan You Don’t Need
Cell Phone News: Prepaid Phones Are Hot, Actual Calls on Cell Phones Are Not