Low Cost Prepaid Cellular

Light to moderate users of cellular can save a lot of money by dumping their postpaid carrier and moving to prepaid. Prepaid is also good for responsible teenagers that need phones mainly for things like calling parents for rides home, or that need phones so parents can contact them, and that aren't going to get into gabfests with their friends, or send thousands of texts per month.

Very Inexpensive Prepaid Cellular
There are two very inexpensive prepaid cellular plans, in terms of lowest monthly cost. These are: T-Mobile Prepaid (83¢/month after the first year) and PagePlus ($2.31/month). Sadly, 7-11 SpeakOut recently significantly worsened their plans and even though  $4.17/month is not all that bad, $2.14 of that is taken away in monthly fees, so that $4.17 buys only 13 minutes a month. Each service has pros and cons, which I have outlined below. There are many other prepaid plans available from various MVNOs (Mobile Virtual Network Operators) but they all have issues that make them undesirable. I have not attempted to evaluate all the plans. You can see a comparison that includes all the poorer plans at http://www.cellguru.net/prepaid_compare.htm.

Overview
You can keep an account active on T-Mobile for $10/year (after spending an initial $100) so 83¢/month isn't bad Minutes are 10-33¢ each. PagePlus is much better in terms of coverage and would cost $28/year minimum ($2.31/month). Minutes are 5.4-12¢ each. 7-11 SpeakOut would cost $50/year minimum ($4.17/month) and uses AT&T's GSM network which is better than T-Mobile's network but poorer than Verizon's network. Minutes are 14.3-29¢ each. The table below provides a comparison of each service, then below the table I have a longer explanation of each provider's attributes. I've included American Roaming Network in the table.

Daily or monthly fees can use up a lot of money on an account. For example, 7-11 SpeakOut now charges $2.14/month even if you make no calls. PagePlus charges 50¢/month which isn't bad. T-Mobile has no monthly fee, but charges a lot more per minute that PagePlus.

Note that with T-Mobile and PagePlus, it is often a good idea to buy the large value card in order to get the lowest price per minute, then by the lower value cards to keep the line active as you use up the minutes from the large value card.

I've also included an example of some of the poorer prepaid plans, Tracfone, Net10 (part of Tracfone), Virgin Mobile, Verizon InPulse, AT&T Go Phone, Only1 Mobile, Boost Mobile, and Jitterbug (which tries to take advantage of seniors). Tracfone is the most widely known prepaid service, but as with many heavily advertised products they aren't by any means the best quality or least expensive product in the category. Net10 has both a high monthly minimum, plus a relatively high per minute cost. Jitterbug charges outrageous prices for handsets, they charge 20-50¢ per minute on their $15, $20, and $30 plans, unused minutes expire, they charge $3 extra for voicemail, the coverage is poor, and there is no texting. Grandma and grandpa would be much better off with a PagePlus or T-Mobile account. Virgin Mobile probably has the most misleading web site and the most confusing pricing in the MVNO industry. They recently raised their regular rate from an already high 18¢ per minute to 20¢ per minute. They now offer 30 day expiration packs of lower-priced minutes, but it means spending at least $20 per month (the minutes roll over if you keep buying the 30 day expiration packs, otherwise you lose them). On Virgin Mobile, when you get to $50 per month, you're getting 5¢ minutes and you're down to the per-minute cost of PagePlus, but with poorer coverage and a $20/month commitment to keep those minutes from expiring. Virgin Mobile markets mainly to kids and young adults who have not yet gained critical thinking skills. Verizon InPulse is an unbelievably bad deal, with their minimum $0.99 daily access fee every day the phone is used.

Not on the Jitterbug web site are the costs per minute for their "SOS" plan, or their costs for extra minutes. These are as follows: SOS Service is 35¢ per minute. On all plans, extra minutes are 100 for $25, 500 for $100, 1000 for $150. These minutes are good for 1 year, but you still have to pay the monthly minimum of $10. Remember, it's morally wrong to allow a sucker to keep his money!

Cost Comparison Chart