Pay as You Go Mobile Phones
Pay as you go mobile phones (pay as you go cell phones) are absolutely brilliant. I've had one for 7 years and I wouldn't have it any other way. When I got my first mobile phone in Europe it was far more advanced than anything available in the US at the time. Text messages were, and still are, more popular than calling phone to phone and since most of my communications were done by email at the time, I didn't see the point in paying a monthly fee for calls I would never make. And that's how it still is, and that's why I still love my pay as you go mobile phone setup.
Why Prepaid Cell Phone Plans are so Great!
1. No contract.
You are not tied down to a 1 or 2 year contract when you have a prepaid (pay as you go) mobile phone. This is something that would appeal to anyone who's just moved to a foreign country and hasn't had time to suss the competition out, or anyone who simply doesn't like contractual obligations.
2. No monthly fee.
This is the main reason I am still using prepaid plans after all this time. I don't use my cell phone very often, beyond a few text messages each month. I probably only use it to make phone calls a max number of 10 or so times per year. If you're like me, you use less than have the minutes available on the existing plans offered by the mobile phone companies, so it makes no sense to pay them extra money for something you don't use -- and something many customers lose (minutes) when they aren't used by the end of the month. That's just a waste of money.
3. You can still use the internet.
I'm able to use the internet for free at Wifi spots if I need to. If I want to use the internet to actually check email or something, this is not cheap, but still possible. You can also check your email and other things if your phone is capable of it.
4. Your credit rating does not matter.
Got bad credit? Join the rest of the world, buddy. Thanks to the economic situation, most people have questionable credit these days, and many others simply have none. So if a phone company requires a credit card to set your pay plan up, this makes it difficult to arrange if you've not got one. Fortunately, with pay as you go phones, you don't need a credit card.
