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Pay-As-You-Go Prepaid Wireless Plans
Pay-As-You-Go
(PAYG) is the classic prepaid wireless plan. It's really the
plan type that started it all! Basically, you
only
pay for what you use, and you're only charged at the time you use it on
a per minute basis. It's simple, straightforward, and
uncomplicated, and in the early days, only the per minute rate changed
from provider to provider. The rate used to be extremely
high, in the $0.40 per minute range and even higher. Pay As
You Go was essentially only for what we now call "glove box users".
These are people who want a cell phone for emergencies or
extremely brief conversations only. In other words, you
wouldn't walk around with your phone in your pocket or bag, but rather
keep it in the glove box of your car.
While there are still people with this need, it's a much smaller part
of the industry. The price per minute has come down so much
(as low as $0.05-$0.10 per minute) that it's entirely affordable to use
a PAYG plan on a semi-regular basis.
Here are some common features of of Pay-As-You-Go
plans to look out for:
- The
price per minute can change at different times of the day, usually a
daytime and nighttime/weekends rate. Look for the rate
changing
between 7-9pm and again at 7-8am.
- Mobile-to-mobile may or may
not be included or have a different rate. (Mobile-to-mobile
is when
you call a customer that's on the same network as you; ex. you're both
on Verizon. It sometimes includes only prepaid-to-prepaid,
however, sometimes it also includes ANY customer on the carrier's
network.)
- Voicemail is typically charged as a regular call,
however, sometimes it can be included. If you use a lot of
voicemail,
you may want to pay special attention to this feature.
- Some services
are actually charged on a daily basis (if you opt-in), whether or not
you use the particular feature. This is definitely strange
considering that it
doesn't sound like pay per use, but it's quite common. For
example,
you might be charged $0.35 per day for wireless Web even if you don't
use it. Be sure to ask about these types of charges, and pay
attention
to what services you select when you activate your phone to ensure that
you're not surprised later by these charges, as they can slowly eat
away at your prepaid account balance!
- One
of the most important pieces to many of us is how long before your
dollars (or minutes) expire. Depending on the wireless
provider,
and the amount of money you add to your account, it may expire between
30-90 days. Some carriers will give you a longer expiration
date
if you add more money. For example, you might see offers for
a
365 day expiration if you add $100 or more to your account.
This is
extremely important to look out for, because you definitely don't want
to lose money before you have a chance to use it, and a lot of
companies don't send out reminders to let you know that your funds are
about to expire.
Overall, pay as you go plans are a lot less common these days, however,
they still have a use in the industry, and can come in handy,
particularly if your prepaid carrier allows you to easily switch
between plans. For example, if you're on a Monthly
Plan or an Unlimited
Wireless plan, but go out of the country for awhile, or get a
free phone from a new job and don't need to use your personal phone as
frequently, you could switch to a PAYG plan as needed.
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