There's more than one way to save money on your mobile plan. Check out any or all these prepaid plan providers.
These providers are often MVNO's (mobile virtual network operators): like many of the major providers, they rely on the network of companies like Sprint, AT&T etc.
Airvoice Wireless |
Amp'd Mobile
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Airvoice Wireless provides good rates and offers both CDMA and GSM phones. The phones are available only through local dealers, but you can buy airtime refills online. |
Ampd Mobile had an interesting package of services targeted at young hipsters. It was quite popular, but apparently their customers didn't pay their bills. |
AT&T GoPhone
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Beyond Wireless (GSM)
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GoPhone is so well-known, it has practically entered the lexicon as a word. Their plans cover the full range of options and are updated fairly frequently. |
Beyond Wireless has a basic rate of 15 cents per minute plus different bonuses for buying different denominations of airtime cards. These bonuses can lower the rate down to about 9 cents per minute. |
Boost Mobile
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Centennial Wireless
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Boost Mobile focuses on their unlimited plans and lowers your bill if you stay with them. |
Are you from Michigan, Indiana or Ohio, or from Mississippi, Louisiana or Texas? If so, then you may be able to choose Centennial Wireless as your prepaid provider. It is a regional cell phone company with a basic prepaid option. |
Consumer Cellular
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Cricket Phone
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Consumer Cellular provides simple no-contract plans and reasonably priced high-quality phones for seniors. They even offer a no-contract iPhone. |
Do you use your cell phone a lot, but don’t want or don’t qualify for a standard cell phone contract? Cricket Cell Phone Plans offers several no-contract options ranging from $30 per month up to $60 per month. |
Fit Wireless
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Giv Mobile
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Fit Wireless offers a free Android smartphone and 39.99 per month unlimited plan on Sprint network in exchange for taking short surveys a few times a week. There is a one-year contract. |
Giv Mobile lets you donate eight percent of your plan cost to charity. |
GreatCall Jitterbug
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i-Wireless |
GreatCall sells the large button Jitterbug cell phone for seniors. A well-thought out
phone and service incorporates advanced features in a familiar design. |
i-Wireless prepaid cell phones are available at Kroger supermarkets throughout the US. Each phone costs between $30 and $70 and comes with monthly no-contract plans for individuals and families. |
Jolt Prepaid Wireless |
Jump Mobile
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With a claimed airtime rate as low as 7 cents a minute, it's worth taking a good look at Jolt Prepaid Wireless. |
This provider has two especially attractive features. You can get free incoming calls and free incoming and outgoing text messages on Jump Mobile as long as you're not roaming. |
Liberty Wireless
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Mingo Wireless
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Liberty Wireless plans start at $30 a month for 300 minutes and a flat 10 cents/minute for any minutes over 300. |
Out of Business. Mingo Wireless was a new no-contract/prepaid provider whose goal was to be community-oriented and provide excellent customer service. They even had a free plan that gave you 20 airtime minutes per month. |
Mojo Mobile |
NET10 |
Mojo Mobile is a new and relatively expensive prepaid cell phone plan which offers free unlimited night and weekend minutes as long as you’re willing to spend at least thirty dollars a month. |
NET10 features both a pay as you go plan with minutes that rollover as well as monthly no-contract plans with either 750 or unlimited minutes. Their smartphones require the unlimited plans. |
Omni Prepaid
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Page Plus Cellular
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Omni Prepaid offers a single prepaid plan which offers service at a cost of 14 cents per minute. |
Page Plus Cellular used to be just a regional provider, but they've now expanded to cover most of the US with just a few pockets of roaming left. Their standard plans offer prepaid airtimes rates from 6 to 12 cents per minute. Airtime expires after 120 days. |
PlatinumTel |
Red Pocket Mobile
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PlatinumTel offers 5 cents per minute voice calls and other low rates on texting and mobile web data. They also have nights and weekends and unlimited and Android plans. |
Red Pocket Mobile offers good rates to China and other Asian countries. Their unique feature is Chinese character text messages. Their unlocked Razr phone is a good deal. |
Republic Wireless
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Revol Wireless
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Republic Wireless offers low-cost plans that include unlimited Data, Talk & Text. They use a new approach that combines phone and WiFi calling to keep rates low. |
Revol Wireless offers unlimited monthly no-contract service for customers based in Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Similar to Cricket, its plans start at $35 a month for unlimited talk and text. |
Simple Mobile
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Southernlinc |
Simple Mobile offers SIM cards and monthly plans for unlocked GSM phones. |
Southernlinc is a niche wireless provider with a 127,000 square-mile coverage area that includes Georgia, Alabama, southeast Mississippi and northeast Florida. It has two prepaid plans which are described in the review. |
STi Mobile
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Straight Talk
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The best (or worst) thing about STi Mobile is that it’s focused on talking (and texting) as opposed to downloading ringtones, music or games. |
Straight Talk feature monthly no-contract plans from $30 a month. Like most plans, their smart phones require one of their unlimited plans. |
Suncom Goodcall
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T-Mobile |
Suncom Goodcall was a regional provider with a good 10 cents per minute prepaid wireless plan. You had the option of paying for a few extra features if you needed them. The plan served North Carolina, South Carolina, and portions of Tennessee and Georgia. They were bought by T-Mobile. The review was written when they were still independent. |
Yes, T-Mobile also has its own prepaid unit with a Gold Rewards program. |
Total Call Mobile |
Tracfone |
Total Call Mobile used to offer customer service in Spanish, Vietnamese, Korean and Tagalog. Their plans cost 10 cents a minute. |
Tracfone, along with GoPhone, is probably the most recognized name in prepaid phones. You can spend as little as $7 a month. |
Trumpet Mobile
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Tuyo Mobile
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You can make a Western Union money transfer directly from your Trumpet Mobile phone. If you transfer money frequently, then this is a useful (if somewhat expensive) feature. |
Tuyo Mobile is a prepaid cell phone service from IDT targeted at Hispanics in the U.S. The phones and airtime cards are sold online and at over 300,000 "bodegas" (small shops). Tuyo Mobile offers a combination of low domestic rates, international calling add-ons, and "culturally relevant content customized for 16 Latin American countries". |
US Cellular
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Verizon |
If you’re looking for a company that keeps its customers, then you may want to consider a US Cellular prepaid plan. They have a variety of plans, but their realistic plans start at $45 per month, for which you get some unlimited minutes. |
Verizon has recently started to pay more attention to their prepaid customers by introducing better phones and plans. |
Vingo Wireless
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Virgin Mobile USA
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Note: Site is down on 12/31/2011 thru 4/17/2012. Vingo Wireless offered no-contract unlimited plans starting at $29.99 per month. They had an interesting set of CDMA phones, so they were probably using Sprint's network. I had planned a review, but their site has been down. In fact, from what I can tell from their error page, they were using Weebly to publish their site! |
Now owned by Sprint, Virgin Mobile offers phones and plans for the younger crowd. |
Xe Mobile | |
Xe Mobile was a pretty good prepaid provider that has now gone out of business. |
Okay, so since this page lists all the plans, pretty much any page on this site will be related to this page. Still there are a few related things that might interest you.
So instead, here are a few pages that are organized around phones rather than plans.
Several Samsung handsets with QWERTY keyboards are available for Tracfone. You can also get a couple of flip phones and open-face simple phones.
The LG devices include a couple of touchscreens, a couple of QWERTY keyboard phones and a couple of flip phones.
You have a wide range of smart phones available for the Straight Talk and NET10 plans. These include basic smart phones for under $100 as well as more recent models from Samsung, Apple and Nokia.
Kajeet offers a selection of Android phones for kids with parental controls