Many people have made the switch over to prepaid cell phones.  If you are looking to save money or are just unhappy with your contract wireless service, a great alternative to look into may be a prepaid phone.

Tracfone is one of the better and more affordable prepaid cell phone service providers out there.  The company offers frequent deals for cheap handsets, free minutes, double minutes for life, or other bonuses.  Long-time subscribers to Tracfone prepaid are familiar with the cool promotions frequently offered by the wireless provider.

You may be wondering why you might want to work with a prepaid company.  There are a few reasons why this may be a good option for you, especially if you are looking for a cell phone in this economy.  Read more about Tracfone phones.

Prepaid cell phone offers work just as you may assume they do. You prepay for your talk time and then when you use up your minutes you buy more. Why would you want to do this?

Prepaid wireless plans are often cheaper than their contract counterparts. One of the reasons is that you have more control over your plan when you go prepaid. If you only want to use a certain amount of talk time in a given month, that's all you have to pay for. When you use up your minutes, you're done. If you don't want to purchase any more, you don't have to.

With a contract plan, you have to pay for the same amount of minutes each and every month, with no variation. The average cell phone user only use around 80% of his or her allotted minutes per month. This means they are overpaying and wasting money.

You have to remember that prepaid is a good option for more frugal cell phone users. Sure, there are plans (that are mainly aimed at cell phone-loving teens) like the Boost Mobile monthly unlimited plan that give subscribers unlimited talk time, texting, and web surfing for $50 a month. Boost Mobile may not be the best provider for you, however, if you don't use all of these features. In general, if you are going to be successful and save money using a prepaid phone, you tend not to use your phone excessively.

If you do use your phone a lot, then a prepaid plan may not be the best value for you. But if you are careful with your minutes and pay attention to what you spend each month, then you will be very successful with your prepaid phone.

Tracfone is one of the best prepaid phone providers out there because it has affordable cell phone handsets, has affordable pricing plans that work for many different types of cell phone user, and it has been around in the prepaid marketplace for a while. As I mentioned above, Tracfone prepaid often features promotions that excite their user-base and also draw in new customers.

One Tracone feature that is an immediate money saver is Double Minutes for Life. See how important it is--I capitalized it (haha)! Tracfone Double minutes for life, of DMFL, means exactly what it sounds like: when you purchase one minute of wireless talk time, you get one minute free. How about that for a deal? Free minutes is always good in my book. This allows you to really start saving on your cell phone bill. DMFL is one reason why Tracfone is one of the premiere prepaid providers out there.

If you are a senior looking for a good prepaid phone that will save you money, Tracfone may have the right plan for you. You may also want to look into Jitterbug phones. Jitterbug phones (including the brand spanking new Jitterbug J) are made just for older cell phone users who just want a basic cell phone they can use to call family and friends.

DMFL is available for $49.99, but also comes free with a current offer from Tracfone for a Motorola w370 cell phone (refurb). The cost for this deal is only $19.99 and in addition, you also get 60 free minutes of talk time. This is a very aggressive prepaid deal.

I actually use the w370 at the moment and have had not problems with it. If you aren't familiar with the phone, it is like the old RAZR in shape, but is smaller and has a better keypad. I like the color screen and the protective rubber on the outside of the phone.

All in all, this is a great phone that is basically being given away with this plan. And you get the Tracfone Double Minutes for Life free in the process. Plus, you get to take advantage of future minute bonus offers and the initial free 60 minutes of talk time. If you are looking for an affordable prepaid phone plan, you may have just found it.

There are several other "name brand" prepaid providers, but Tracfone is one of the better ones in terms of affordability. You always need to remember that if a prepaid plan doesn't make sense for your needs, then it is not the best option for you. If you live on your phone or conduct much of your business using your cellular phone, then you may be better off going with a more expensive bundle plan.

*Other Tracfone News. Read about the new Tracfone Unlimited Prepaid Plan for $45 per month.

Some of the other big prepaid companies are Cricket and T-Mobile. T-Mobile (link goes to a blog all about t-mobile prepaid) not only offers contract plans, they have several prepaid options that may be beneficial to your situation. Read more at the article I link to above to learn about the different plans this provider offers.

Cricket is a very interesting company and has experienced nice growth this year. Virgin Mobile has some solid offerings, but none that I can see top anything Tracfone is doing. Good luck with your prepaid phone search. I hope you get out there and save a bunch of money every single month!

Read another hub I wrote about saving money with prepaid phones.