Get the GUARANTEED lowest price on Internet service.
How to Buy Cheap Prepaid Cell Phones
Prepaid cell phones are gaining a lot of popularity. They’re a viable option for those who do not want to be tied up in a two year contract. With prepaid cell phones, you are free to switch networks at any time, the only obligation being the amount of credit you have bought. They are great for casual or emergency use.
Prepaid phones work exactly like their “contractual” counterparts. In fact, they all run on the same networks, functioning the same as any ordinary cell phone. It’s only the billing and promotional part of the phone that changes.
Cheap prepaid mobile phones can be found almost everywhere you look. A few of the best places to look are:
- Large retail chains (Wal-Mart, Target, etc.)
- Mobile phone shops
- Convenience stores
- Vending machines (airport university hotel)
- Online Market
- Offline Market
- Your closet
Shopping at Retail Chains
The major retail chains are bound to carry at least a dozen prepaid cell phone options from all the major networks. Places like Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy, and even Fry’s Electronics carry starter kits with everything you need to get connected–a phone, wall charger, SIM card, cell phone manual, and a few dollars of airtime credit to get you going. Most basic kits start around thirty dollars or so, but if you look carefully the closeout models can go for as low as ten dollars.
Prepaid Cell Phones at the Local Cell Phone Shop
Mobile phone shops, keen to pick up new customers who are either wary of contractual obligations or cannot qualify for a contract-based plan, are starting to offer prepaid cell phones too. Any AT&T, T-Mobile, or Verizon cell phone shop is bound to carry at least three or phone phones that are geared towards prepaid plans. Independent cell phone shops will most likely carry all three, as well as cell phones from other providers like Virgin or Boost.
Grab a Big Gulp and Cell Phone to Go
Convenience stores are easy places to pick up a prepaid cell phone. Stores like 7-Eleven and Circle-K are good choices for prepaid cell phone shopping, even in the wee hours of the night. Don’t expect a wide variety though, as most convenience stores have a limited selection of only the most basic cell phones.
Vending Machines without Snacks
Vending machines just aren’t what they used to. These days, believe it or not, you can actually buy a cell phone from a vending machine. Airports, hotel lobbies, and university break rooms are likely to carry prepaid cell phones–exactly the places you need one the most. If your primary cell phone takes a dump just before you are heading out of the hotel or boarding a plane, you can still make that last-minute call with a prepaid cell phone.
Online Market
Naturally if it’s an electronic gadget that runs on batteries it can be found online. Ebay and Craigslist are great places to look for prepaid cell phones. You can often find new and used deals for a fraction of what they cost in the stores. It’s even possible to pick up “top up” credit online at a discount.
Offline Secondhand Market, Your Closet, and Beyond
There is nothing special about prepaid cell phones. The only real difference is in the SIM card. The SIM card you insert into a phone is what tells the cell phone carrier you have a prepaid account.
It’s perfectly acceptable to pick up a good secondhand phone and use a prepaid SIM card with it. A typical prepaid SIM card is only ten dollars. So if you find a good cellphone at a swap meet, garage sale, or already have a cell phone you like stashed deep within bowels of your closet, go ahead and use it.
A few years ago the networks were only offering basic phones which were only good for basic phone calls and limited text messaging. Now most networks offer at least three or four options. The selection of prepaid cell phones that come in a purpose-made prepaid cell phone package is still limited though. These phones rarely come with all the features you expect, so don’t expect to get the latest iPhone in one of these prepaid cell phone bundles.
But let’s face it, cell phones are disposable these days. Mobile phone networks are in a fierce competition to win over customers, so employing the age-old “give away the razor, sell the blades” strategy works out pretty well as cell phones get cheaper to manufacture. Locking a phone to a particular network helps a lot, as the typical consumer isn’t going to both spending the time and money to unlock a phone just to switch over to a competing network. Most cell phones that are “given away” in prepaid promotional packages aren’t worth the money to unlock anyway.
Prepaid cell phones can be found almost anywhere. Even if you are stuck in an emergency, prepaid cell phones can be bought almost everywhere when you need them the most. Although options for new phones are limited, any regular mobile phone can be converted to prepaid through the purchase of a prepaid SIM card. Buying a prepaid cell phone makes sense both for primary and second uses.
See also:
This entry was posted on Thursday, January 14th, 2010 at 5:30 am and is filed under Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
[...] How to Buy Cheap Prepaid Cell Phones [...]
This is a great article about prepaid cell phones so can a small business owner start a business selling prepaid phones? What about buying several prepaid vending machines?