Lower cost. Flexible plans. No credit check. No contract.
There are a lot of reasons to consider a prepaid phone plan. There are also a lot of plans to consider, should you choose to do so: plans that let you pay as you go; plans that let you pay monthly for unlimited talk and text and a few gigabytes of data; plans that let you split the cost with family and friends.
Do those last two sound familiar? If you have a traditional plan, they should. Prepaid phone plans are starting to mimic the traditional plans offered by major carriers such as Sprint, Verizon and AT&T, minus the contract, credit check and expensive plan. And many prepaid providers are owned by those big-name carriers.
Sprint owns Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile. AT&T owns Cricket Wireless. T-Mobile owns MetroPCS. And each of the major carriers also offers its own prepaid plans.
There are some trade-offs with prepaid service, though. You pay full price for a new phone, rather than spreading the payments out over 24 months. This means that the iPhone 6S you’re eyeing will set you back about $650 upfront, instead of around $27 per month. And some prepaid carriers don’t carry the newest, most popular smartphones. But they almost all have inexpensive phones — as low as $1 in some cases — and some prepaid providers will let you bring your own phone.
If you’re still considering a prepaid plan, but don’t know where to start, keep reading. We evaluated the prepaid plans offered by more than a dozen wireless carriers, including Tracfone, Consumer Cellular, Verizon and AT&T’s GoPhone, to find the best prepaid plans out there.
Before choosing a prepaid cell phone plan — or any cell phone plan, really — take stock of how you use your phone. If you regularly check email and Instagram, a pay-as-you go plan is not for you. If you go weeks or months without using your phone, though, pay-as-you-go is a great option.
» COMPARE: Prepaid plans by price and features
Best prepaid phone plans
Virgin Mobile and Cricket Wireless hit a sweet spot for most smartphone owners, who use an average of 2GB to 3GB of data each month. Virgin uses Sprint’s nationwide network, and customers can get 4GB of data, plus unlimited minutes and messages, for $40 per month. That’s $5 less than Sprint’s own 3GB prepaid plan.
Cricket’s plan includes slightly less data, but customers have the option to bring their own phone if it’s compatible. They can also save $5 each month if they enroll in autopay. Cricket runs on AT&T’s network, but it offers a more affordable prepaid plan than its parent company.
- Virgin Mobile Unlimited Plan
- At a glance: Unlimited talk and text with 4GB of data.
- Price (monthly): $40.
- Activation fee: $0.
- Why we like it: Good chunk of data for inexpensive price.
- Cricket Wireless Basic
- At a glance: Unlimited talk and text with 2.5GB of data.
- Price (monthly): $40.
- Activation fee: New customers could pay a $25 in-store activation fee.
- Why we like it: Hits the sweet spot on monthly data for most users.
things to know
- Virgin: If you want to switch over to Virgin Mobile, you have to buy a Virgin handset. No other phones are allowed on its network.
- Cricket: LTE data speeds for Cricket customers are capped at 8Mbps, much slower than the 20+Mbps that LTE is capable of. The cap shouldn’t interfere with most web and data activities, with the possible exception of high-bandwidth usage, like streaming HD video. Name-brand AT&T customers don’t have this cap.
how others compare
- Verizon prepaid: $45 for unlimited talk and text with 2GB of data.
- Republic Wireless: $40 for unlimited talk and text with 2GB of data.
Best no-data prepaid plans
You don’t want data, but you don’t want to be limited to a 30-minute phone call each month, either. Enter Republic Wireless. This carrier lets customers call and text to their heart’s desire for just $10 per month, plus some taxes and fees. Any data you use is charged at a flat rate of $15 per GB, but you don’t have to pay for it upfront. If you don’t use any data in the month, you won’t pay anything for it.
Verizon’s Basic Prepaid plan is another great option for those looking for a prepaid plan without full data access. Customers have a few more phone options — all non-smartphones — with Verizon, most of which are priced below $100. The $15 monthly charge includes taxes and fees.
- Republic Wireless Unlimited Talk + Text XXS
- At a glance: Unlimited talk and text with pay-as-you-go data.
- Price (monthly): $10, plus $15 per GB data rate.
- Activation fee: $0.
- Why we like it: Inexpensive unlimited plan within which you’ll never be forced to overpay for data.
- Verizon Wireless Basic Phone Plan
- At a glance: 300 minutes, text messages and picture messages used in any combination.
- Price (monthly): $15.
- Activation fee: $0.
- Why we like it: No frills and no surprises.
THINGS TO KNOW
- Republic: Its phones use a combination of Wi-Fi and Sprint’s cellular network for calls, texts and data. Due to the technology required to navigate the hand-off between these methods, Republic currently supports only two smartphones: the Moto E and the Moto G.
- Verizon: It advertises this plan as having “unlimited” data access, but that shouldn’t be taken literally. You’ll have very limited mobile web features.
HOW OTHERS COMPARE
- Project Fi: $20 per month for unlimited talk and text, pay-as-you-go data at $10 per GB.
- AT&T GoPhone: $30 unlimited talk and text.
Best pay-as-you-go plans
These two plans are about as bare bones as it gets and have price points to match; they’re also the only plans like this around.
You can get started with T-Mobile’s Pay As You Go Plan for as little as $23 ($20 for a SIM card and $3 for a month of service) if you have a compatible phone. If you need to purchase a phone, they start at around $60 and T-Mobile will waive the $20 SIM fee. The Pay As You Go plan gives you 30 minutes and texts per month in any combination; so if you send 20 texts, you’ll have 10 minutes left in that month before you go over.
AT&T GoPhone’s $2 Daily option is unique in that you pay the $2 fee only if you place or receive a call or send a text message. So if you don’t use the phone for three months, you pay nothing for that time. And, unlike other plans, there’s no need to count your minutes if you do use your phone. The $2 fee gives you unlimited minutes and text messages for that day.
- T-Mobile Prepaid Pay As You Go Plan
- At a glance: Includes any combination of 30 minutes or texts; 10 cents per minute or message over the limit.
- Price (monthly): $3.
- Activation fee: $20 “SIM Starter Kit” fee waived when you buy a phone.
- Why we like it: Bare bones plan with a price to match.
- AT&T GoPhone Daily Plan
- At a glance: Unlimited minutes and text messages. You pay nothing if you don’t use your phone that day.
- Price: $2 per day of use; data is 1 cent for every 5KB.
- Activation fee: No activation fee, but a $25 refill card may be added to online purchases. You can remove this item from the cart before checking out.
- Why we like it: You pay nothing on days you don’t use your phone.
things to know
- T-Mobile: Calls and texts beyond the 30 included in the plan are 10 cents each.
- AT&T: Keep in mind that checking your voicemail counts as using your phone for that day.
How others Compare
- Consumer Cellular — Talk plan: $10 per month and 25 cents per minute, no minutes or texts included.
- Republic Wireless — XXS: $10 per month for unlimited minutes and texts.
- Tracfone — Value Plan 50: $9.99 per month for 50 minutes.
Best prepaid family plans
A family of four can easily pay $140 or more each month, before taxes and fees, for cell phone service. Cricket Wireless’ Group Save discount brings the total cost down to $100 per month. No taxes. No fees.
Boost Mobile is another great prepaid option for families. The carrier gives users a total of 8GB — 2GB per line — for $100 per month. It’s less data for the same price as Cricket, but Boost’s unlimited music streaming perks might make up the difference. You can stream from Pandora, iHeartRadio, Slacker Radio, Milk Music and 8tracks without it counting against your monthly data.
- Cricket Wireless Basic
- At a glance: Unlimited talk and text, 2.5GB of data per line.
- Price (monthly, four lines): $100.
- Activation fee: Free online; $25 per line in-store.
- Why we like it: Cricket’s Group Save discount makes for 4 inexpensive lines with just the right amount of data.
- Boost Mobile 2GB
- At a glance: Unlimited talk and text with 2GB of data per line.
- Price (monthly, four lines): $100.
- Activation fee: $0.
- Why we like it: Includes some nice unlimited streaming features.
Things to know
- Cricket: As mentioned earlier, LTE data speeds for Cricket customers are capped at 8Mbps, much slower than the 20+Mbps that LTE is capable of.
How others compare
- MetroPCS: $100 for four lines with unlimited talk and text and 1GB of data per line.
This article was updated on June 8, 2016. It was originally published on May 27, 2016.
Kelsey Sheehy is a staff writer at NerdWallet, a personal finance website. Email: ksheehy@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @KelseyLSheehy. Stephen Layton of NerdWallet contributed to this article.
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