Why You Might Want to Choose Some Prepaid Carriers

No monthly fee. Wide selection of low cost handsets. Monthly minimum of as low as 83¢/month. Per minute rate as low as 10¢ per month. Texting is pretty cheap at 10¢ send/5¢ receive. Expirations of as long as 365 days. Quite a bit of roaming is included. On the minus side, no data option and coverage isn't as good as some CDMA plans on Verizon's network. For heavy users even 10¢ per minute is rather high.

While this plan has been worsened recently, it still has the advantage of using the AT&T GSM network. Any AT&T phone can be used though to start service you must buy a phone at 7-11. Up to 365 day expiration ($50 cards and higher). On the minus side, they charge a hefty $2.14/month service charge, and per minute cost is rather high. It's a good "glove box" phone for $50 a year, with no worries about it expiring.

PagePlus offers extremely good coverage on Verizon, with roaming available at extra cost. Minutes cost as low as 5.3¢ each. Texting is pretty cheap at 8¢ send/8¢ receive. Monthly minimum is as low as $2.30/month. Add time every four months. On the minus side, there is no 365 day expiration available, there is a 50¢ per month monthly fee, and you need to be certain to not forget to add airtime every 120 days. Also, be certain that Verizon has native coverage in both your home area and the areas that you go to the most, so you don't get stuck with roaming charges.

PagePlus also offers an incredibly inexpensive unlimited plan. For under $33/month you can get unlimited voice minutes, unlimited texting, and 20MB of data.

Why You Might Want to Avoid Some Prepaid Carriers

Net10 has a high minimum monthly cost of $15. Minutes aren't outrageously priced at a flat 10¢ each, but are no bargain either. You must use a Net10 handset because they use custom handsets that retain the account balance in the phone. On the plus side, coverage is good on the AT&T and other GSM networks, and texting is a steal at 5¢ send/5¢ receive.

Tracfone is by far the most popular prepaid service, heavily advertised and widely distributed.You must use a Tracfone handset because they use custom handsets that retain the account balance in the phone. Even if you buy the largest value card (400 minutes) at a discount, and double the airtime by purchasing the "double minutes for life" card for $50, the minutes are rather pricey at 11.5¢ per minute. On the plus side, coverage is good, both on GSM and CDMA.

 Tracfones, roaming is allowed, and there's an option for keeping your account open automatically.

Oh my goodness, talk about taking advantage of naive seniors! Extremely high per minute rates except on the $40-$80/month plans. High monthly minimum. No texting. Voice mail is $3/month extra. Monthly minutes expire after 90 days, Handsets are extremely expensive and very limited. On the plus side, some technophobes may appreciate the very simple handsets and the operator assistance. Roaming off of Verizon is included.

Poor Coverage. No roaming. Extremely high per minute rates. High monthly minimum.

It's hard to imagine why anyone would choose Verizon InPulse versus PagePlus. Both use the Verizon network. InPulse is extremely expensive, PagePlus is extremely cheap. The one upside of InPulse is that flat rate data is only 99¢/day.

Typical AT&T. The no-daily access fee plan charges 25¢/minute, but even the $1 per day plan is a high 10¢/minute. Texting is cheap but you have to buy 200 texts for $5, you can't buy them individually.

Boost's advertised plans use the abysmal Nextel iDEN network, but they do offer unpublicized CDMA plans on Sprint as well. On the plus side, Wireless web available for 35¢/day, an incredible deal. Per minute rate is fairly low for a monthly minimum of only $6.67. Unlimited voice/text/data available for $50/month (but go to a Sprint store and get the CDMA unlimited plan, not the iDEN unlimited plan).

Much of the coverage is high-cost roaming according to their maps. High per call cost. High monthly minimum. Daily fee.

Extremely limited coverage. Even geographic areas with MetroPCS coverage have poor coverage.

Extremely limited coverage. More expensive than PagePlus unlimited.

Airvoice CDMA uses Verizon's network, just like PagePlus, but it's significantly more expensive and lacks some features of PagePlus. It's hard to understand why anyone would choose Airvoice over PagePlus. Airvoice also offers a bad deal on GSM service--if you made or received one call per day you'd have a $7/month service fee! Their GSM service is on AT&T, but no roaming is permitted, even at extra cost.

The only redeeming feature of Airvoice is that they offer 365 day expiration on their most expensive refills.