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Monthly Plans
Monthly plans are
also known as Bucket or Hybrid prepaid wireless plans. These
plans were introduced to offer greater value to prepaid wireless
customers. The term "hybrid" is often used because it's a
cross
between monthly postpaid plans and prepaid plans. If you're
willing to
prepay a larger amount each month (for example $30 to $50 minimum),
carriers are prepared to give you a better value for your dollar than
if you simply pay-as-you-go (described above). Basically, you
get a
certain number of minutes per month, and some included or unlimited
services. Here are some common features of these plans to
look out for:
- Number
of monthly minutes included. They typically don't rollover to
the next
month, but look out for that feature just in case.
- After you
run out of your included minutes, you'll be charged a per minute rate.
If you think that you may go over your minutes, be sure to
understand
how much it will cost you after that.
- Mobile-to-mobile is
sometimes included, which means that you won't use up your bucket of
minutes when calling people that are on the same network.
- Richer plans will also include
unlimited services such as:
- Unlimited
nights and weekends
- Unlimited text messaging
- Unlimited wireless web
- You'll
typically get shut off (i.e. you won't be able to use your phone) if
you miss your monthly payment. So make sure you understand
the rules
around what happens when you miss your payment date so you're not
surprised, left paying extra fees, or having your service completely
cancelled such that you lose your phone number.
Return from Monthly Plans to Prepaid Wireless Plans
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