Choosing The Right Prepaid Mobile Plan
How do you select what is best for you in the jungle of prepaid mobile offers and plans? Read this guide – regardless of where you live in the world, it will help you to choose the plan that will make you spend less.
To start, bear in mind that not all prepaid mobile plans are created equal. There are usually big differences, mostly based on the kind of use that you are expecting to put your mobile phone through, e.g. heavy texting versus calling a few numbers regularly, et cetera.
When choosing the phone itself, you can go for a basic model, or for a high-end multimedia or business handset, depending on your needs. The main drawback of prepaid mobile contracts is that you will have to fund the handset yourself upfront, the operator will not give you any discounts. But even taking the price of an expensive phone in account, in the end you will spend less.
With prepaid mobiles, you need to top up your credit regularly. Generally speaking, the higher the top-up, the more benefits it will bring and the cheaper will your calls be in the end. Always prefer few but sizeable top-ups to a lot of small ones, if you can.
An important thing to do is to check on your prepaid mobile price plan is credit rollover and duration. All prepaid credit expires, but will your credit last for a week, or for several months? As for rollover, this means whether recharging your credit will also lengthen the duration of any remaining credit, or not.
Another great perk is off peak time. With some prepaid plan, calls are cheaper at night and on weekends. If you spend most of the daytime at home, in the office or at school, this is a great bonus.
Depending on whether you call a lot over long distances, reduced rate international calls (or, in the US, interstate calls) could also be convenient. You may have to pay an extra fee for this, but it may work out. If your prepaid mobile operator’s long distance prices are high, get an extra phone card from a specialized operator.
There are several other points that you may want to check out in the fine print, depending on your usage pattern, such as internet connection price of voicemail calls, or cost of prepaid mobile content such as ringtones and music videos.
The main lessons to bear in mind are that you need to know your expected type of prepaid mobile usage to be able to save, and that comparing and contrasting offers will allow you to find the most appropriate prepaid mobile for you.
