A Surefire Way to Save Big on Your Cellphone Plan

This post comes from partner site WhistleOut.com.

It may be tempting to choose one of the big four carriers when picking a cellphone plan. After all, you want the best network with the best coverage and data speed right? Well, did you know that the prepaid carriers all operate on the same networks, so you can experience the same great coverage but at a lower price? Read on to learn how choosing a prepaid carrier can save you hundreds of dollars.

Savings, savings, savings

If you do a quick search on the cheapest cellphone plans available now, you’re going to find that prepaid carriers dominate the budget-friendly landscape. Apart from Sprint’s limited-time offer on the Unlimited Plan making it free for a year, you’re going to be scrolling for a while before you see a plan from T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T or Sprint at the regular price. What you will see, however, are some lesser-known prepaid carriers, including:

• Unreal Mobile
• Red Pocket Mobile
• Mint Mobile
• Tello
• Twigby
• Gen Mobile

The truth is, prepaid carriers (or MVNOs) are much cheaper than plans from the big four carriers. And I’m talking MUCH cheaper, especially if you don’t need unlimited data. If you only need about 5GB of mobile data a month, then you can pay around $20 to $30 a month for a great plan.

If you want to go with a postpaid plan, the cheapest you’ll find (not including special deals or military and senior discounts) is T-Mobile’s Essentials plan for $60 per month. Yes, you’ll have unlimited data, but if you don’t need that much data, you’re definitely overpaying for a cellphone plan.

By choosing a prepaid plan, you could be saving yourself over $400 a year!

Benefits of prepaid plans

Many people don’t realize how cellphone plans have changed over the years and how similar prepaid and postpaid plans now are. Here are the benefits of how prepaid plans work:

• Cheaper: The amount of savings you’ll make by choosing a prepaid carrier is mind-blowing.
• No credit checks: Postpaid plans usually require that you pass a credit check before you can sign up for a plan. Prepaid plans typically do not.
• No data overages or lockouts: Back in the day, if you went over your data cap for the month, you would either get charged for extra data (postpaid plans) or your data would just get suspended until your month resets. Those days are long gone. Instead, most prepaid carriers will simply slow your data down until the next billing period.
• Get the same coverage: If you’re on a prepaid plan from a carrier other than the big four, you can rest easy knowing that you’re still using their networks. MVNOs use one or more of the big four networks to power their services, but they charge a lower monthly fee.
• No contracts: You can cancel your service at any time with these prepaid carriers. You can switch whenever you like without having to pay any early termination fees or cancellation fees.

More from WhistleOut.com:

• “These Secret Cellphone Plans Can Save You Hundreds”
• “The Best Times to Save on a New Cellphone”
• “Save on the Best TV Shows With These Cellphone Plans”