Compare Wireless Plans - How To Choose?!

When you start to compare wireless plans, the real question then becomes - How to choose?!  There are just so many options!  So now that you're confident that you're sick of signing long term contracts, and understand that  prepaid wireless can actually be a better value, you're ready for the next step.  That is, figuring out what type of plan will best meet your needs, and what wireless providers offer what plan types.


There are numerous things that are important to different people, so the good news is that there's no one right answer.  However, the bad news is that it's going to take some work to figure it out!  The spirit of this site is to provide a free resource to help you through your research and selection process.  Everything you need to discover, digest, and  understand to ultimately make the best decision for you can be found on this site.  Below you will find some key selection criteria to consider as you think through and evaluate the available options.

1.    Determine how much you use your phone, and the payment flexibility that you want.

• Depending on your average voice call usage, and how much money you want to spend, and when you want to spend it, you'll be bound for one of the following plan categories.  Before you compare wireless plans, you'll want to see where your usage needs fit in terms of the plan type category.  Click on the link for each type to explore more details.

• PAYG (Pay-As-You-Go) Bound
• This is for people with only occasional usage, or frequent, but short calls.  This category typically provides the maximum payment flexibility in terms of allowing you to add as much or as little money to your prepaid account balance as you either need, or have available at a particular point in time.  This is the classic original prepaid wireless plan type.  It has a much less prominent presence in the prepaid space now, as it typically represents the lowest value customer for a prepaid wireless carrier.  However, there is still a place for it in terms of meeting certain people's needs.

• Monthly Bound
• This plan type is for people with a more frequent usage.  This plan type requires you to make a payment once per month on a particular date in order to maintain continuous service.  If you're late for a payment, some carriers require that you pay for any missed days, while others simply allow you to restart a new month on the day you are able to make your next payment.  This prepaid wireless plan type is quite popular, but certainly affords for much lower payment payment flexibility.  Of course, if you're using your phone regularly, while you won't have to sign a contract, you will have to mentally commit to making regular on-time payments to ensure that your phone is always active.

• Daily Bound
• This plan type is for people with more frequent usage than pay as you go customers.  For that more frequent usage you'll get a better value than paying per minute, but less value than a Monthly plan.  You'll also have decent payment flexibility that compares more to the PAYG plan type as you can add as much money as you need or have available at a given point in time.

• Unlimited Bound
• Obviously this plan type is for people who have very high usage.  But be careful!  Unless you truly have a lot of usage, the Monthly plan type can actually offer the best value, so don't automatically conclude that an unlimited prepaid wireless plan will be the best option for you.  Especially since prepaid carriers have to be careful with people using too many minutes, which can actually cause them to lose a lot of money, the Monthly plan type is becoming even more popular because it limits the company's exposure.  That said, an Unlimited no contract plan can be an amazing option for people with high usage.  It really all comes down to truly understanding how much you use your phone on a monthly basis.

    Read a quick note about automated Plan Selector services; don't let someone else compare wireless plans for you!

   
2.    Determine how important the phone is to you.

• Phone Preference is a very personal choice that can drive wireless provider, and even plan selection.  Especially now that higher end phones (ex. BlackBerries, Smartphones, Touchscreens) are available on prepaid wireless plans.  Thankfully, the variety of these phones now available is fantastic as can be seen in the Smartphone Comparison table.  You can compare wireless plans for smartphones there as well.

3.    Determine how important network quality is to you.

• Network Quality can severely impact the number of dropped calls and voice quality that you experience.  It can really make or break your opinion about the wireless service you're using, and affect your selection as you compare wireless plans.  Also, data speeds have become equally important as voice calls are going down, while data usage is continuing to increase for the average user.

4.    Determine how important network technology is to you.

• Wireless Network Technology is widely discussed and debated, and can be an important factor depending on your needs.  Thankfully, technology has been starting to converge into more universal standards, so hopefully over time this will become less of an issue that customers need to be thinking about.

If you're not yet convinced that prepaid wireless is the right choice for you, check out the Why Prepaid Wireless section, or learn more about different the different prepaid plan types at the Prepaid Wireless Plans page.

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