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Prepaid Price Chart Comparison
of the Top budget Prepaid wireless plans
showing costs and features. The average wireless customer uses
5 to 10Gb of Data per month, so we compare Prepaid plans with 10 Gb or
more, for $25 per
month or less.
There's no reason to pay more! Most
plans require Auto-Refill. Introductory offers and additional
discounts are
available. Carriers are listed alphabetically. Prices are
rounded to the nearest dollar. Updated October, 2024.
All Plans Include:
►
Unlimited Talk & Text► High Speed Data of 10Gb or more ► Maximum Price $25/month ► Slows to 2G if your Data is used up ► Nationwide coverage, 5G where available ► Auto-Pay required or available ► Keep your number ► NO contract
*
Taxes and Fees are included
** Minimum 3 Month payment *** Minimum 1 Year payment # Special restrictions & features NETWORKS: A - AT&T D - Dish Wireless T - T-Mobile V - Verizon |
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We
also reviewed plans with 1Gb of data and here are
the best of those plans
based on which major network you want to use, all with 1Gb or
more of High Speed Data:
► Cheapest Prepaid that uses the AT&T network, $10 per month (+ tax): Red Pocket. ► Cheapest Prepaid that uses the Dish Wireless network (+2 others), $10 per month (+ tax): Gen Mobile. ► Cheapest Prepaid that uses the T-Mobile network, $9 per month (+ tax): Tello. ► Cheapest Prepaid that uses the Verizon network (w/2Gb), $15 per month (+ tax): Twigby  Prepaid carriers use the same wireless networks as the major carriers, but at a lower price. It's your way to use, say, Verizon cell sites, without paying Verizon's prices. You can choose your favorite Prepaid carrier and see what network they use, or you can choose the network and see what carriers operate on that network, for less. You get your phone, plan and customer service from these Prepaid companies instead of the underlying carrier. Some use more than one network and some allow you to choose your network. Some prepaid carriers cap your Data amount and when you exceed that amount, your internet and email just stop working unless you purchase more Data. What is Dish Wireless? Dish has their own 5G wireless network now operating in many cities across the US. If you lose the Dish Wireless signal, your phone will access one of their roaming partners, AT&T or T-Mobile.  Your Prepaid plan comes with a certain amount of Data each month and when you use up that Data, your download speed is reduced to "2G" speeds (128 kb) until the end of your billing month. With slowed Data you can normally purchase additional High-Speed Data that gets you through to the end of your billing month, however many wireless users don't notice the difference. Some carriers also enforce a "hard" Data limit which means your data will stop working or will incur a charge or change in plan.  Each carrier that offers "Unlimited" Data actually enforces some kind of Data limit to prevent abuse, anywhere from 25 to 60 Gb. If you exceed that limit, your Data availability is still Unlimited but is slowed to 2G speeds (about 128kb). There are now a few "Truly Unlimited" offers that do not have any Data caps.  Our universe of Reviewed Prepaids are based on the following criteria: Popular: The prepaids with the largest number of subscribers. Major Carriers: Prepaids from the major (Top 4) carriers regardless of popularity Price: Some prepaids are great values and we've included them for their special characteristics or substantially low prices.  The Top Price is the maximum you should pay for a plan. There are so many plans at this price, there's no reason to pay more! As Prepaids lower prices or increase Data, the Top Price is reduced as well. If we drop the current Top Price by, say, $1, several carriers will be deleted from the list, still leaving many with more than adequate Data and features at the lower price. ► Most of the carriers shown in the chart also have cheaper plans if you can use a little less cellular Data. ► There is a wide variety of 'introductory' offers with free service, phone discounts, FREE SIM's, or bonus features. ► A few Prepaids have their own stores that may offer different, and maybe cheaper, plans and phone deals. ► Turn on Wi-Fi and your phone will use less Cellular Data. ► Look for savings with plans that are paid for more than one month at a time. ► Some Prepaids have savings for "Family" or Shared Data plans. ► Taxes are determined locally and could be as high as 40%. If yours is too high, choose a Prepaid with "Taxes & Fees Included." ► Avoid Prepaids that charge activation fees. ► Check for "Auto-Pay" discounts. ► Some Prepaids offer even lower prices than listed here for plans with less or no Data, Data-Only, or a limited amount of Talk & Text.  If you're looking for gotchas, ya know like 'fine print', this is where to look. The biggest surprise for us has been how much is added for taxes and fees. Some of these fees, like a 911 tax, are legitimate. Some others are just additional profit for the carrier but are called something like 'regulatory adjustment fee' or similar. So many of these charges are based on your location and are hard to determine. Expect the fees to be as high as 40% on low-cost plans. Getting fees and taxes included in the base price is become less common. In the fast-changing wireless world we can't guarantee the accuracy of the information on our list, but we aim for perfection. Some of the prices may look different from what you've seen elsewhere, but we show the "regular" price and, if available, the monthly price. Be careful, the price you see on a carrier's web site may be an intro price that will increase at the end of the intro period, but some of these intro deals can be substantial. The prices we show are for individual plans and you may get a discount for every additional line. Our list is by no means comprehensive but we have included (or excluded) many wireless providers based on our extensive research. We have an affiliate relationship with some of these providers and may receive a commission if you buy from them, but they do not influence what we say or include about them. See, that print isn't too fine, right? |
