What exactly is a prepaid cell phone?

Question

What's the difference between prepaid phone and just a cell phone? Is there something worse about it?

It seems prepaid phones are cheaper so, there has to be something bad about "prepaid" O.o

Answer 1

I had a prepaid for a while. Yes, they are nice if you never really use them..otherwise..I wouldn't bother. It's nice also because there is no contract really. I would recommend them only if you are not going to use it that much. I think mine was about .28 cents a min. or so. It was pretty expensive. But if you don't want a lingering contract, then a prepaid is the way to go.

Answer 2

A PREPAID PHONE COMES LOCKED TO ONLY USE THE CARRIER WHO SELLS YOU THE PHONE. IT HAS A SIM CARD THAT HEEDS TO BE TOPPED UP WITH CREDIT TO USE THE PHONE, UNLIKE OTHER POST PAID PHONES WHERE YOU SIGN A CONTRACT AND PAY THE ACCOUNT EACH MONTH. PREPAID PHONES ARE GENERALLY UNLOCKED AFTER A CREDIT LIMIT HAS BEEN USED, THEN YOU ARE FREE TO  USE ANOTHER CARRIER IF YOU WISH  

Answer 3

Prepaid cellphones are a type of cellphones.  Its cheaper to buy one but in reality the usage is more expensive than the cellphones bundled with contracts or post paid phones.  My friends with prepaid phones very seldom use their phones to save the minutes.  They only use it on emergency.

Find out more:  http://www.electronicsknowhow.com

Answer 4

Here in Blighty we have contract phones and Pay As You Go (prepay) phones.  With a prepay you have to buy credit to attach to your account, and can only make calls while you have that credit there.  If your credit runs out, you're scuppered until you top up again.  The calls also tend to be a bit more expensive.

With a contract phone, you get so many minutes and texts per month for £x, and then if you go over your contract allowance you just pay a small amount for anything else.  Usually, you get a handset thrown in with your contract, whereas you have to pay separately for a handset with PAYG.

The trick is to figure out how much you use your phone.  If you make emergency phone calls and send the odd text only, you'd want to go PAYG because although the calls are more expensive you don't pay anything on a monthly basis.  If you're surgically attached to your phone, it's usually better to go contract.