Should You Upgrade to Verizon’s New Unlimited Prepaid Plan?
One of the reasons we like prepaid phone service is that you will not (usually) be bound by a carrier contract for any length of time. If you want to go to a competitor because you see the best price, you will all get paid and you can move on. But Verizon’s new prepaid plans want to reward you for staying a little longer.
New plans are available for new and existing customers. After using the prepaid plan for three months, you get $ 5 off per month. Once you reach nine months on your plan, you will receive $ 10 off your monthly bill. If you sign up for Auto Pay, you will receive an additional $ 5 off your account for a total maximum savings of $ 15 per month.
There are three prepaid plans to choose from, the most expensive starting at $ 65 per month excluding discounts on unlimited calls, texts and data. After nine months (and using auto pay), you end up paying $ 50 per month. The cheapest plan offers 5GB of data for $ 40 per month before discounts and drops to $ 25 after discounts.
Taxes and fees of course still apply to all plans.
While the plans and associated discounts are attractive, they’re not entirely revolutionary.
AT&T charges $ 75 a month for its Unlimited Plus prepaid plan, but offers a $ 25 discount if you subscribe to Auto Pay, which immediately drops the monthly price to $ 50 a month. T-Mobile offers unlimited talking, text messaging, and data for $ 50 a month.
So if you want a prepaid unlimited data plan, chances are you can get it for around $ 50 a month from one of the major or alternative carriers.
Also, the question arises whether you unlimited mobile services are needed. If you have internet access at home, you probably surf and chat on Wi-Fi most of the time, especially now that you work from home and without the usual daily podcast binge on the road.
If you spend most of your time on Wi-Fi, it’s likely that a 15, 10, or even 5 GB plan might be all you need. Choosing a lower data cap significantly reduces your costs as plans from different providers range from $ 25 to $ 50 per month excluding discounts.
Depending on how much data you think you need, you can even lower your monthly upfront payment to $ 10 per month by choosing an alternative operator, often known as MVNO operator – they basically rent antenna space from major carriers. if they don’t already belong to the big guys.
So before you switch to Verizon’s new prepaid plan or any of the prepaid plans, check a few recent reports to see how much data you’re actually using.
Unlimited is an easy choice because it means you don’t have to track your own behavior and you can browse and stream content as much as you want. But the comfort of the limitless can rob you of great savings opportunities.