Why Prepaid Is Better Than Postpaid
Over the past few years, the price of smartphones increased gradually. The same has happened for mobile services. The cost of using mobile services keeps on going up. More and more subscribers are now much more careful when choosing a prepaid or postpaid subscription as it can become very easy to waste money on mobile services. Prepaid services do appear more appealing for certain users and there is a good reason for it. There are a few advantages and some disadvantages to getting a prepaid plan.
- Being Contract-free
One of the main reasons why people choose prepaid over postpaid is the freedom it offers. A prepaid plan does not require any contract. You do not get locked into a monthly subscription for over 12 or 24 months. Having the freedom to just stop topping up your account or stop getting extra data, voice or SMS is a choice nice to have.
- Better Control Over Costs
When you get a regular contract, you get a fixed set of benefits included in your plan. For prepaid, things are a bit different. You need to top up your account and activate various services using the amount of credit available on your account. It enables you to choose what services you pay for based on what you need and use. In theory, you can end up paying much less every month than with a fixed plan.
- You Pay For What You Use
Another major benefit of prepaid plans is that you only pay for what you use. If you are on a prepaid SIM and only use data traffic, you can just get a data traffic package and nothing else. The problem with a regular subscription is that you get a bit of everything. You get talktime, SMS, and data but you do not always need all of them.
- You Can Swap Operators
Being contract-free on a prepaid SIM means that you can swap between operators whenever you need. You do not need to top-up your prepaid SIM every single month. You can get two or more prepaid SIM cards with different operators and use the one you like the most. It makes more sense to get two and use them in a dual SIM device and swap between them. When you are unhappy with one operator due to any reason, you just top up the other SIM card. If you’ve been locked into a contract but want to unlock your device for any network carrier, use any one of the popular online phone unlocking services like Mobile Unlocked, Doctor SIM or iMobie.
These 4 main advantages make prepaid SIM cards much more appealing than a regular subscription. The only disadvantage is that you do not get the same phone deals as you would on a 24-month contract. If you are overdue on a phone upgrade, you have to buy it outright. You will notice that operators sell smartphones at much higher prices than regular retailers. They do this to attract new subscribers by offering discounts on smartphones on certain subscription packages. A better choice would be to get a smartphone paid from a retailer that is not a mobile operator and then get a prepaid SIM. It may cost you more upfront but you will save some money in the long run.