No Contract Cellular
No contract cellular phone plans
are plans that have no contract obligations. Unlike traditional cell phone plans, these plans will tether users to standard 2-year contracts. They are either
pay as you go
or
month-to-month
plans where users make ongoing periodic payments, as long as they still want to keep their service active. These phone plans are also much cheaper than what traditional contract phone plans cost.
Save BIG on cell phone service cost.
No contract plans cost less than regular contract cell phone plans. Being able to save thousands from switching to a no contract plan has prompted many to change to no contract plans. Light phone users could get away with paying under $10 a month for full cell phone services, while heavy users could pay $50 a month for an unlimited use plan. A modest $30/month savings translates to $720 in savings over a 2-year period.
Regular contract plans include a cost component for the cost of the cell phone, resulting in higher outlays each month for users. You can think of the higher monthly costs as covering the cost of phones over time and compensation for the risks the cell phone company takes on if a customer defaults.
Keep the same phone number.
Users are free to switch their cell phone numbers from a current carrier to a no contract plan provider. The freedom to switch a number to another provider is mandated under the FTC’s wireless local number portability guidelines (more details).
No contract plans were mostly prepaid plans in the past.
That means that users would purchase their plans or airtime upfront, rather than get a bill at the end of the month. This approach not only keeps costs low for users, it also means there are no surprises with large inadvertent charges. However, in recent times, mainstream companies like
Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile have also made their standard plans no-contract.
No credit check requirement.
Prepaid phone plans do not require any credit check. A lot of consumers like this because there is no hard credit pull that could affect their credit scores, or worse, prevent them from getting approved for cell phone service.
Cell phone users can expect reliable, clear connections and high data speeds from these plans.
The operators are termed
MVNO
(Mobile Virtual Network Operators). They do not operate their own smaller cellular networks. Instead, they have agreements in place with the large network operators like AT&T and Verizon to channel connections through the big network’s towers. 3G and 4G LTE speeds are standard.
The MVNOs administer their differentiated cell phone service plans on the front-end using a lean and mean prepaid pricing model. For example, TracFone, the largest MVNO in the US, frequently connects users’ cell phones through
and
networks.
Pricing structure and pricing varies, be sure to compare.
Prepaid plans without contracts come with different pricing structures and features. Some plans may seem more expensive on a per unit (cost per text) basis, but users actually save money with them as they do not require high payments for a huge bundle of talk/text/data or airtime credits. Take a little time to compare amongst a few companies to pick the best plan for your needs.
