If you have are thinking of switching to a prepaid cell phone plan, or if you are new to the world of cell phones, then you may be already aware that making a choice of which cell phone service provider to opt for is not an easy task. There are so many cell phone service providers in the US alone, competing with each other, and bringing lots of innovative cell phone plans that making a decision requires lots of research. So if you are still unsure, then do read along, as here I have highlighted 3 of the most famous cell phone service providers in the US, and there pay-as-you-go cell phone plans.

t-mobileT-Mobile

I am sure many people around remember Catherine Zeta Jones brandishing a cell phone and looking really hot. Well, that ad was none other than T-Mobile’s, which was the first cell phone company that offered service to both the US and Europe. T-Mobile has a number of different prepaid cell phone plans that are easy to access, and great on the budget. You can either pay for the minutes online, or buy minute cards from local retail location anywhere in the US. The basic pay-as-you-go plan from T-Mobile has 4-tiers of minute cards - $10 for 30 minutes, $25 for 130 minutes, $50 for 400 minutes, and $100 for 1000 minutes (includes 15% extra minutes). Then there is the pay-per-day plan, which starts from $1 per day, and you only pay when you use the phone. This plan allows you to have unlimited night minutes, starting from 7 pm., and unlimited mobile to mobile minutes (other calls are charged at 10 cents/minute).

The FlexPay plan is a really cool pay-as-you-go plan, where you get to choose from any of the popular postpaid plans from T-Mobile, and pay for it on a prepaid basis. The last pay-as-you-go plan by T-Mobile is the Sidekick plan, where you pay a dollar a day, and are entitled to unlimited text messaging, email, and web browsing. All calls are charged at 15 cents/minute.

AT&TAT&T

AT&T merged with Cingular in 2007, making it the No. 1 wireless service provider in the US. AT&T offers two major prepaid plans for their consumers. The first plan, called the “Pay As You Go” plan, is a traditional prepaid plan where you have set per minute rates. Calls are billed at 25 cents per minute. But users can lower this rate to 10 cents a minute by paying a dollar a day on the days that the phone is used. The users who have the 10 cents a minute package, can also add 3000 off-peak minutes to their plan by paying $20, as well as having unlimited calling to other AT&T users nationwide. AT&T also offers unlimited calling to Pay As You Go users, by charging them only $3 on the days that they use the phone.

The second main prepaid plan by AT&T is “Pick Your Plan”. In this plan, users are allowed to pay a set amount of money monthly, instead of buying more minutes whenever the minutes run out. There are 4 different rates in Pick Your Plan, which are: $29.99 monthly for 15 cents/minute calls; $39.99 monthly for 13.3 cents/minute and 500 night and weekend minutes; $49.99 monthly for 12.5 cents/minute and 3,000 night and weekend minutes; and lastly $69.99 monthly for 10.8 cents/minute and unlimited night and weekend minutes.  

verizon-wirelessVerizon Wireless

Verizon boasts itself of being the most reliable wireless service provider in US. The cell phone service provider offers 4 different pay-as-you-go plans called INpulse. Verizon Wireless has one of the largest calling networks in the US. Almost all of the prepaid plans by Verizon charge a daily access fee. The basic INpulse plan does not charge a daily access fee though, and bills calls for 25 cents/minute. The INpulse Core plan charges 99 cents as its daily access fee, and bills calls for 10 cents/minute. The INpulse Plus plan charges $1.99 as its daily access fee, and bills calls for 5 cents/minute. The INpulse Plus plan also offers unlimited night minutes after 9pm, and charges 5 cents per weekend minute. The last INpulse plan charges $3.99 as its daily access fee, and allows users to have unlimited minutes, and one-cent text messages.

All these INpulse plans offer unlimited calls to all the other Verizon subscribers nationwide. The daily access fee is only charged on the days that the cell phone is used.