Prepaid Cell Phone Facts
There are plenty of reasons why you may want to buy a prepaid cell phone.
– Cost control
– Simply do not like recurring bills
– Do not have to have the most current and coolest smart phone
– You just don’t use a cellular phone that often
All those reasons are completely valid, and in fact I believe that for lots of us our cell phones act as a fun distraction as much as for communication, e.g. playing with “apps”, needlessly checking email, text messaging, etc. And we may not even think that much about the cost of a cellular phone.
But a Consumer Report just gave us one more reason to appreciate prepaid suppliers over typical cell phone plans.
For the second year in a row, AT&T has taken last place in the annual wireless customer satisfaction survey conducted by Consumer Reports. AT&T is definitely not the only significant cellular provider, but they’re clearly one of the key players, and if satisfaction with the big boys is that low among their subscribers, that lets me know you can be much happier, and bask in the additional benefit of no long term commitments, by going with a prepaid phone.
Additionally, the survey indicated high performance and satisfaction was attributed to smaller carriers like U.S. Cellular, but listen to this:
Prepaid brands like Tracfone also secured better scores than any of the Big 4 (ATT, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile).
It looks like expense and satisfaction don’t have to be mutually exclusive!
Paul Reynolds, electronics editor for Consumer Reports, said “Our survey indicates that subscribers to prepaid and smaller standard-service providers are happiest overall”. How ’bout that??
To be fair, AT&T, T-Mobile and the other major providers do offer prepaid plans as well , and from a cost viewpoint they’re competitive with, and in a few cases cheaper than, those that specialize like Tracfone. But as with many things we buy, the base line price isn’t invariably the best criteria for your purchase though. Having the assurance that you’re not likely to be cursing your cell phone provider more often than a bad official in a football game should factor into your decision too.
So make your decision based on what’s best for you, but realize that name brands and pricey marketing campaigns aren’t always aligned with customer satisfaction. Often an easy, straight-forward service that works, like Tracfone, is more than “good enough”.
Mike Warren writes about prepaid cell phone service at Airtime for Tracfone. When not writing about cell phones and such, he enjoys his own fitness pursuits, aviation and 1.
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