About Sprint's Prepaid Cell Phones

Millions of people across the globe own a cell phone. Cell phones are used for business and personal conversations, and the number of plans make it easy to customize the service for your needs. Prepaid plans are one of the best options on the market.

Benefits

Prepaid plans offer cell phone users an option other than the traditional plan. While most who choose prepaid plans do so because of a poor credit history that requires a high deposit to obtain service, they are not the only people who choose prepaid plans. Prepaid plans allow those who only use their cell phones on occasion to avoid high monthly charges for minutes they will never use. Prepaid plans are also popular among first-time users, and many parents buy them for their teens. Purchasing a prepaid plan for a teen is a smart option because there is no chance the user will go over their allotment of minutes and rack up a large bill.

Types

Most of the large cell phone providers offer at least one option for prepaid service. The two most popular types of service are pay as you go and pick your plan. With the pay-as-you-go option the user purchases a card for a certain dollar amount and then uploads the minutes to their phone. Each minute used deducts a certain amount of money off the card, and once the money is gone the user must purchase another prepaid card. The pick-your-plan option is similar to a traditional plan, though with the pick-a-plan option, the user can't go over the monthly allotment of minutes and there are no credit checks to obtain service. Providers such as AT&T and Verizon offer these types of plans, although Sprint, another of the big companies, does not have a prepaid option.

Features

While Sprint does not offer a prepaid plan, it still has options to keep users from running up high bills. The Sprint Spending Limit plan is generally added to the traditional plan of users who have poor credit scores. The spending limit resets each month, and the amount of the limit varies from customer to customer. Once the customer meets her spending limit, her service will be suspended until she pays down the balance. Users with a Sprint plan that has a spending limit can have an individual account or a family plan.

Warning

Even if a user has a high spending limit, he can still get close to meeting it each month. The spending limit takes into account the rate of the basic monthly plan when calculating the charges. Additional features such as text messaging, mobile television and data packages are also calculated. When adding additional packages for data to a plan with spending limits, take the time to make sure the additional services are needed. Adding these services could cause your plan to go over the spending limit, which would interrupt your service.

Misconceptions

Many of those who have prepaid plans assume that text messaging and other features are automatically included. Most plans do allow for the basics such as voice mail and Caller ID but still charge additional fees for text messaging and data usage. Some prepaid plans also charge a daily usage fee of $1 per each day the phone is used in addition to the per-minute rate. It's important to explore all of your options before deciding on a prepaid plan.

Resources

• Sprint
• AT&T Wireless