Nearly everyone needs a cell phone to get by these days. As the number of personal landlines continues to decrease, more people are going mobile and are relying more heavily on their smartphone to get them through the day. However, not everyone wants the commitment that comes with owning a smartphone. Not only do you have enter into a binding two-year contract, but you also get stuck with a phone for two-years that has one high monthly bill.
So how do you avoid smartphone commitment? Easy. Get a prepaid cell phone.
No, I'm not talking about the old school flip phone that doesn't have a data plan, camera, or even a clock on the outside. Prepaid phones have actually come a long way, and are quite similar to leasing a nice vehicle. You don't want to commit to purchasing a new 2011 Lexus because you know by next year it will be old and you will want to upgrade. So what do you do? You lease it so that you have the option to trade whenever you would like. The same goes for smart phones.
Many leading service providers offer the newest Android phones with great prepaid phone plans. There are no service contracts, allowing you to pay monthly for the service that you need, and all you have to do is pay the for phone itself. So you can have a swank Samsung Galaxy, but not deal with the hassles of an extravagant data plan.
So who would want to do this?
Most of us are die hard brand loyalists. If we love Android, then we will always try to buy the latest Android, and if we love Apple, the latest iPhone is always on our minds. However, not everyone is so brand oriented, and a prepaid cell phone allows users to try out different phones with different plans to determine which one suits their needs the best.
Prepaid options are also great for families with kids. You can get the kids the phones they want, without having to worry about them running up the monthly bill. Each month you can give them a set amount of data usage and minutes, and when they use it, they're done. Pretty easy.
Prepaid phones used to be pretty horrific. They were pretty bare bones, and clearly looked like a bargain cell phone. Now, however, you can get a great Sidekick 4G or other Android in prepaid form without having to worry about commitment or high bills. Which is pretty nice when you are always on the look-out for the latest and greatest in technology.