Defining Prepaid Wireless Phone Service:

With prepaid wireless phone service consumers pay for a certain number of minutes upfront, at a fixed rate per minute. When minutes are exhausted, users need to buy more.

Comparing Prepaid Wireless Phone Plans:

Common Cents a new prepaid wireless phone service plan that employs Sprint network. The minutes cost $0.07 cents each, and unlike other carriers, it rounds off to the next lowest minute, after the first minute of a call.

For instance, a call exhausted for 1.45 minutes, charged for only one minute. Sounds good?

The plans offered by Common Cents include minutes worth $20, $30 and $150 and they expire in 30, 60 and 365 days, respectively. Additionally, Text messages, IM messages and picture messages are charged $0.07 cents per piece, alternatively “go unlimited” for $20/month.

Net10 offers prepaid wireless phone service plans worth $15, $25 and $40/monthly, and they expire in 30 days. Hence, subscribers need to renew their plans every month, irrespective of the usage levels.

Tracfone offers wireless phone service plans worth $10 for 50 minute, $20 for 100 minutes and $30 for 150 minutes.

AT&T prepaid wireless phone service plan is offered under the brand name GoPhone. To know how much the plan would cost, users need to enter their ZIP code that certainly makes it difficult to comprehend and consequently discourages people from buying.

Verizon falls along the same lines of AT&T, however, Verizon sell days of unlimited minutes, that makes the plans less complicated. For $0.99 cents, users can buy unlimited minutes per day.

Thus, if you don't use your phone on Monday, you don't pay for Monday. Expiration dates and accepted calls are important aspects that need to be thought over, prior trying it.

How good are No-Contract Prepaid Wireless Phone Service Plans?

Some of us may forgo the complexity of wireless phone service plans and opt for simpler no-contract prepaid wireless phone service plans. Let us analyze some good options under this segment.

Cricket Wireless offers $30/month plan with no-contract that allows subscribers to use unlimited voice minutes, text, and voicemail to any phone within USA. For add on services like caller ID, web browsing and picture messaging you need to shell out another $10.

Simple enough? However, the signal quality of Cricket is poor as compared to Verizon and AT&T. Thus, if you are travelling on the road you may end up paying hefty roaming charges. Additionally, your ZIP code may not authorize you to purchase Cricket wireless phone service plans.

Conclusion:

It seems no wireless phone service plan offers consumers a complete solution. Rather, the number of minutes exhausted per month dominates the purchasing decision. On one hand, Common Cents might be the cheapest option currently in the market and Cricket for consumers who prefer simpler offers.

Even though each provider offers interactive coverage map on his or her website, but talking to neighbours regarding the call and service quality might give a better indication.

Whether you prefer unlimited or limited wireless phone service plan ensure your service offers a good coverage in your locale.