My Experience with Pay-As-You-Go Cell Phones

I first stared using pay-as-you-go phones when I went to college. It was 2002 and I didn't want to get a cell phone. I was annoyed by the lack of phone etiquette">cell phone etiquette people had and I didn't want to be viewed as an annoying person with their cell phone strapped to their ear. My family was outraged by my decision not to get one, but they did persuade me to get a pay-as-you-go phone to keep in touch.

I used a pretty basic model from Verizon Wireless's INpulse plan, but their plan has greatly improved over the past six years. Calls are $.10 cents per minute and there is a $.99 access charge per day, but only on days the phone is used. They also offer free nights and weekends and unlimited calls to other Verizon callers. There are many more plans and models to choose from these days.

My sister is in middle school and she uses Tracfone. She has a really nice Motorola phone that has games, takes pictures and videos. Her plan requires her to buy preloaded cards full of minutes that she adds to the phone. The cards vary from $9.99 to $116.99. The number of minutes is on the display screen in units. Each minutes uses a unit and each text message uses half of a unit.

This is a great option if you don't want any sneaky hidden fees. If you run out of units then you can't make any calls and aren't overcharged. Tracfone also offers a monthly plan of $9.99 for 50 minutes. Net10 is another prepaid provider that uses the same system as Tracfone, but they offer better customer service and support. Their rate is $.10 per minutes and you can refill in increments of $30, $445, $60 or $100.

AT&T's GoPhone offers a flexible prepaid plan and a great phone selection. You can choose from Nokia to sleek Sony Ericson phones. Calls are billed at $.25 per minute, but you can lower it to $.10 a minute if you pay a dollar daily fee like the Verizon plan. This plan is ideally for someone who wants more high-tech phones than most standard pay-as-you-go plans.