Prepaid Mobile Plans

Prepaid mobile plans are payment arrangements and packages designed to allow a customer to obtain mobile phone service without a contract or service agreement.  Prepaid plans can be used to contain cost, utilize a phone line for a shorter time than a regular contract term (one or two years), and provide a low-cost entry into mobile phone usage.  Customers with imperfect credit may find prepaid particularly attractive when contracted lines ("postpaid") require a service deposit.

All of the major carriers in the United States feature prepaid plans.  Additionally there are independant companies that sell prepaid service, usually over the networks of the major carriers.

Most plans work with a daily charge or a per-minute charge, and all have an expiration period on minutes purchased.

This Wiki summarizes the major prepaid options.  It focuses less on particular phones that may be bundled with service and more on the costs and network coverage of each.

T-Mobile

Pay By the Day

• Daily access cost: $1 on days where a call is placed
• Per-minute cost: $0.10 for all calls outside the times of of 7a-7p
• Unlimited nationwide calling from 7pm to 7am to other T-Mobile numbers
• Minutes Expiration: 90 days.  All leftover minutes re-adjust to 90 day expiration when a refill is applied

Pay As You Go

• Daily access cost: None
• Per-minute cost: tiered based on refill amount. $10 - 30 minutes @ $0.33, $25 - 130 minutes @ $0.19, $50 - 400 minutes @ $0.12, $100 - 1000 minutes @ $0.10
• Unlimited calling features: None
• Minutes Expiration: 90 days until a total of $100 has been applied to prepaid account over time, one year thereafter.  All leftover minutes re-adjust to in-effect expiration when a refill is applied

Verizon Wireless

• Daily access cost:
• Per-minute cost:
• Unlimited calling features:
• Minutes Expiration:

AT&T

GoPhone Pay As You Go Unlimited Talk

• Daily access cost: $1 on days where a call is placed
• Per-minute cost: $0.10
• Unlimited nationwide calling to other AT&T numbers
• Minutes Expiration: 30 days to a year depending on refill amount

GoPhone Pay As You Go Per Minute

• Daily access cost: None
• Per-minute cost: $0.25
• Unlimited calling features: None
• Minutes Expiration: 30 days to a year depending on refill amount

GoPhone Pick Your Plan

• Prepaid account with features similar to postpaid (minute allowances, mobile to mobile, etc) in a month-to-month arrangement instead of a contract term.

Sprint

• Daily access cost:
• Per-minute cost:
• Unlimited calling features:
• Minutes Expiration:

Page Plus

• Daily access cost:
• Per-minute cost:
• Unlimited calling features:
• Minutes Expiration:

Virgin Mobile

• Daily access cost:
• Per-minute cost:
• Unlimited calling features:
• Minutes Expiration:

TracFone

• Daily access cost:
• Per-minute cost:
• Unlimited calling features:
• Minutes Expiration: