Prepaid Plans - What Am I Missing?

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atreidesgoldenpath

Gawd
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Jul 20, 2008
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I've been on a prepaid plan for a few years now.
I'm in the market for a new iPhone, and there are all these "deals" out there that give you "discounts" on the phones.
However, they all require some postpaid "Unlimited" plan of service.
These postpaid plans are all more expensive than my prepaid plans.
I don't really get the allure of the postpaid plans.

What am I missing, and why do people still use these more expensive cell phone plans?
 
I cannot speak for other people, but unlimited everything is what I need.

The downside is, phones are crazy expensive and I do not have a need to upgrade my phone as of yet.
 
I cannot say I care about iPhone, but I do BYOD on Android.

The question with unlimited is how much data can one really burn?

I dropped AT&T post paid, was paying about $110 for 2 lines and 6GB of data total.

Now with Mint Mobile using T-Mobile towers, find with 8GB per line and pretty much cut my monthly bill in half and combined for 16GB data on two lines.

I recall vaguely reading an article about the percentage of people on prepaid over post paid. Other than maybe priority on network, I think the savings in prepaid outweighs it.
 
I've been with T-Mobile since 2009. About 2 years ago, I switched from a standard plan to prepaid and couldn't be more pleased. I get unlimited talk/text/data (10GB 4G LTE) for $50 per month.
 
Obviously, the discounts on the newer phones are only available on postpaid accounts, because they are able to make more money on postpaid accounts.
1. They hook you in to paying for your device over a term of usually 24 months.
2. The plans cost more than prepaid for seemingly about the same stuff.

Unless you need super actual unlimited for postpaid, and not the regular unlimited which is available as prepaid for less money generally, I guess I still don't get why consumers haven't moved off the postpaid accounts in higher numbers.
 
Postpaid is generally cheaper for families with multiple lines. For me it was considerably cheaper on T-Mobile's (Military) One plan with 4 lines for $100/month for "unlimited" (may be throttled after like 52 GBs or something) data and everything else. Pretty sure there's no equivalent pre-paid plans to that level of service for $25/line. Plus considering all the promos post-paid gets for new phones as well, it's pretty hard to beat that.

Now that I've moved overseas for my job, Vodafone is considerably cheaper here than most pre-paid in the states. I pay €25/month for 60GBs of data and unlimited everything else on my line and my wife's line, or they have a €10/month plan (that I put my son's line on) for 10 GBs of data.
 
I will say you aren't missing anything. Cost is the bottom line. There are certain plans that cost less there are others that cost more.
I'm similar to T4rd in the sense that I'm on a T-Mobile One plan with 6 people on it and each of us pay $25 for infinite everything. I also NEVER get under contract and buy all my phones outright. I've been basically on every courier or at least an MVNO on that courier in order to maximize my plan and minimize cost. So I've definitely played that dance.

Basically, if you're just looking at cost, then it's easy to find who costs the least, but I wanted to have certain service levels as well.
In short, I'm on T-Mobile not just because of cost, but because I also travel internationally at least once a year. This year is a much more frequent year, and I'm going to be out of the country 4 times. T-Mobile offers free international roaming on data and text pretty much anywhere I would or could travel (All of Asia and all of Europe, Canada/Mexico, I haven't looked into other places, but I know it's like over 100 countries). And that one benefit saves me a lot of hassle and headache. They kick you to 2g internationally, but that's all I need to operate GPS. I don't "need" to be streaming etc, slow data is a life saver in comparison with no data, and I can text everyone else I'm with to stay in contact with them.
Additionally, as noted cost is a factor. Because of One, I pay less (and we all pay less per person) than I ever could on a Pre-Paid Plan ($25 a person).

I will say though that my dream would be to be on Verizon with the same cost and or perks. I was on Verizon (or an MVNO) for over 10 years. And I do miss that service level, but they just aren't as competitive on price. And they also don't offer any plan (nor does any MVNO offer a plan) that allows for free international roaming either in whole or in part (with partial text or data per month).

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For plans/service I've been on, I can offer the following:
Boom!: A lesser known Verizon MVNO, but they are 100% legit. Great service in both customer level and provider level. They don't have a truly infinite data option unless you're basically willing to pay carrier pricing anyway ($70), but if you can live with something like 7GB of Data a month, you can pay $40 (they have tiered pricing both higher and lower depending on what you need). Which, once again for this service level is awesome. Probably my favorite MVNO I've been on.

Cricket: It was "fine". I would probably not use them again. But the price was decent.

T-Mobile: I'm on them currently. I would say it's "fine". T-Mobile allows for Wi-Fi calling. In other words, for places I don't have good service, generally Wi-Fi covers the rest. So I've found them to be good enough.

Ting: Ting is by far the cheapest MVNO if you never or barely use a phone. If you need to keep a line open, and don't want to fully park the number, then this is a good option. It's also good for people like my Dad that hates cell phones and barely uses it. It keeps him down to sub $15 a month, but gives him service if he needs it. I think it's like $7 just to keep the line open and you only pay for what you use. However if you use your phone a lot, you'll quickly exceed the cost of simply paying infinite on a competitor. So if you're a heavy data or text user, then they simply aren't worth it.

Verizon: In my opinion, the best carrier, but also the most expensive. I've never had anything but good customer service and good network service with them. Could be because CA is basically fully wired with them. I would love to be a Verizon customer again, but their pricing doesn't make sense for me.
 
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Xfinity Mobile runs on Verizon's network, and Comcast is losing money on it. So I would that's probably the best prepaid plan value.
 
Why do people go with postpaid? Tower priority, for one. If you use a Verizon prepaid like Visible, Page Plus, etc, you're at the bottom of the totem pole for data speeds, connection quality, etc. This does NOT apply to Xfinity and Spectrum, which has equal priority to Verizon Post Paid.

Some prepaid carriers (like Cricket) limit your speeds something awful. I believe Cricket has new customers capped at 3mb/s, which is some 2010 shit right there.

Meanwhile, I have 6 unlimited lines on T-Mobile postpaid for $120.
 
entropism said:
Why do people go with postpaid? Tower priority, for one. If you use a Verizon prepaid like Visible, Page Plus, etc, you're at the bottom of the totem pole for data speeds, connection quality, etc. This does NOT apply to Xfinity and Spectrum, which has equal priority to Verizon Post Paid.

Some prepaid carriers (like Cricket) limit your speeds something awful. I believe Cricket has new customers capped at 3mb/s, which is some 2010 shit right there.

Meanwhile, I have 6 unlimited lines on T-Mobile postpaid for $120.
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I’m not very familiar with pre- vs postpaid. All major carriers offers both, do they still prioritize their postpaid customers or is it all the same as long as you’re on one of their plans?

I’ve been thinking of making the switch to prepaid since they’re quite a bit cheaper (except for T-Mobile) and I never take advantage of the phone deals through carriers since they’re almost always through 24+ months of bill credits now.
 
Prepaid customers of postpaid companies are heavily deprioritized, especially on AT&T and Verizon. Verizon has to be the worst when it comes to deprioritization.

Take Visible, for example. The service (along with customer service) is a load of hot garbage. But hey, it's cheap.

Me? My phone is important enough to my daily life, to not fuck around when it comes to that. I make enough money to not have to worry about it, and if it boiled down to it, I'd rather have reliable cell service over, say, an extra dinner out per month.
 
Ting, is probably only a deal if you have been overpaying for normal postpaid, or you have been watching LTT way too long and their ads.

If you have a GSM mobile, tons of providers out there hawking their products that offer more for less. Mint comes to mind, runs off tmobile.
 
entropism said:
Prepaid customers of postpaid companies are heavily deprioritized, especially on AT&T and Verizon. Verizon has to be the worst when it comes to deprioritization.
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Can anyone confirm if this is true as now I’ve heard both that they are not deprioritized and that they are. AT&T and Verizon reps both told me service would be the same but who knows if they actually know for sure.
 
My favorite MVNO is Mint. but typically pre-paid is a better deal with decent mid-rangers or 1 year old used flagship phones...
 
exlink said:
Can anyone confirm if this is true as now I’ve heard both that they are not deprioritized and that they are. AT&T and Verizon reps both told me service would be the same but who knows if they actually know for sure.
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I worked for 3 of the carriers. I can assure you, it's true.
 
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