Some people use cell phones for nothing but texting. And that’s fine. But I thought it would be interesting to do a little comparison on pre-paid vs. post-paid to see which is the better deal overall.
The five largest wireless communication providers in order of subscribers is Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile USA and TracFone.
These are the companies we’ll be examining as far as what you get for the money. For post-paid we’ll use Verizon, AT&T and Sprint, for pre-paid we’ll use T-Mobile and TracFone.
Verizon
The "Select" plan with unlimited texting is $59.99 monthly.
AT&T
The "Nation" plan is $39.99 – BUT – in order to get unlimited texting it’s either $20 or $35 extra depending on what phone you have.
Note: I couldn’t find any way to get unlimited texting cheaper. If someone knows a way, please post a comment on it.
Sprint
The "Everything Messaging" plan has unlimited text, pictures and video, and it costs $49.99 monthly. It’s nice that Sprint even offers a plan of this type.
For the post-paid offerings, it would appear Sprint had the best individual plan deal going for messaging at present – unless someone can point out a nationwide provider that offers it for less.
T-Mobile
The way they do text messaging (as far as I know) is billed as an optional service. If you cough up $4.99 you get an allowance of 400 domestic text messages. You are billed for all messages, meaning both sent and received. On a monthly basis, the cost (assuming text messaging alone with no talking) is $10 for a 30-minute refill and $5 for the 400 messages for a total of $15 monthly. And if I’m wrong on this, please point it out in the comments as I’m not all that familiar with the way T-Mobile does things.
TracFone
Texting is dependent on model of phone and where you send the text message. Domestic messages are usually 0.3 minutes deducted. Some lower-end Motorola phones deduct minutes for messages sent and received, but most other ones don’t (incoming is not deducted). In basic terms, it’s the cost of the phone card where the minutes are divided by 0.3 (remember, that’s domestic) to get the total number of text messages you get. A 60-minute card gives you 200 messages. A 120-minute gives you 400 and so on.
It would appear on the surface that T-Mobile has the better deal in the pre-paid department if you do texting and nothing else – assuming the $15 monthly for card + text messaging subscription reigns true. In order for TracFone to match the amount of messaging you get with T-Mobile, you’d have to purchase a 120-minute card for $29.99.
Volume of texting determines the better deal
The factor that decides which is cheaper for you is completely based on how much texting you do in a given month.
In the post-paid department we’re looking at $49.99 monthly, which after Universal Service Charge and taxes is around $55. This 55 gives us unlimited texting.
In the pre-paid department we’re looking at around $18 monthly (for T-Mobile $10 card and $5 messaging plan, taxes included) for 400 domestic messages – but bear in mind you’re knocked each time a message is sent or received.
In the given time span of 30 days, an allowance of 400 pre-paid text messages means you can send/receive a maximum of 13 messages daily before tapping the limit.
However the cost for 400 pre-paid messages is nowhere near the $55 for the Sprint plan.
T-Mobile’s unlimited text messaging plan is $14.99 monthly for unlimited domestic. And even with the added cost of the 10-dollar 30-minute phone card with taxes included, that’s still under 30 dollars monthly.
But let’s say for the moment you don’t like T-Mobile and prefer Tracfone.
A 200 minute card is $39.99 and that gives you well over 600 text messages you could use for the month – and if you don’t use it, it stays active for 90 days for whatever is left – and it’s still cheaper than Sprint.
To burn thru a 200-minute card in text messages only with Tracfone, you’d have to send 21 messages daily. And yes I know there are some people out there who do in fact send that type of volume or greater.
But for the rest of us who don’t live by our cell phones, it’s highly unlikely we’d burn thru that amount of texting in a given month.
In the end, this is how it all works out
Unless you’re an absolute text messaging fiend, pre-paid is the better deal overall.
Honorable mention: MetroPCS
MetroPCS is not nationwide (unfortunately), however you can get unlimited just-about-everything for some really decent prices – with no contract whatsoever.
Wireless carriers like MetroPCS show the way wireless plans should be done, because the way current nationwide post-paid plan providers do it is, said honestly, ridiculous. Let’s face it, contracts suck. Doing things no-contract style is definitely the way wireless should be done no matter what the provider.
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Do you have the comparisons for when looking at international texts? I think Sprint has ben charging me $0.20 per message, and that include incoming as well. I was thinking about getting a prepaid to help save some money on that.
Here’s the one for Virgin Mobile:
http://www.virginmobileusa.com/stuff/messaging/internationalTexting.do
Tracfone does not allow international texting:
http://www.tracfone.com/includes/content/popup/terms_conditions.jsp
(…and it says in the TOS if you try your phone may be deactivated.)
Great article. I stumble on this site via google and I just bookmarked it.
this is good, but can u discuss on nigeria networks
nice post, keep it going.
A “total of $15 monthly” is totally wrong
it’s a total of $55 dollars monthly. it sucks
shadowpr,
There exists a tool which turns your domestic text messages into international text messages, it works between Canada, China, Taiwan, and the United States ( https://send2world.com )
Does t-mobile really gives you 400 text messages for 4.99?
T-Mobile does NOT have any messaging bundles for prepaid accounts. I looked for it, as well as called T-Mobile. T-Mobile operator confirmed that messaging bundles are only for contracted monthly plans. So, the $15/mo is just not possible.
T-Mobile Prepaid – Cheapest T-Mobile has.
T-Mobile offers a Sidekick plan for the popular device. It costs a dollar per day, and includes unlimited text messaging, email, and Web browsing. Calls are billed at 15 cents per minute.
So basically $30 a month and .15 a minute phone.
What was failed to mention was the activation kit of $130.00 plus you have to buy a phone. Not such a hot deal.
Does anyone have any feedback with Boost Mobile ?
My sprint Contract expires in 1 month and I’m looking at various options and Boost looks good on paper, what about in real life use ?
Thanks
Verizon has a $34.99 a month for unlimited texting not calling included
straight talk, by verizon is a prepaid cell you can get at walmart and the celss range from $25-$100 depending on your taste and you can get a prepaid card that gives you unlimited call,unlimited text, and unlimited data aka internet, for 30 days only for $45, so that is $45 a month instead of around a hundred like the major name companys where you have to have a two year contract when signing up and they charge you $200 to cancel when if you wanna stop using your prepaid just stop it costs nothing and you can use it again in life hassle free
my verizzon prepaid phone was 20 dollers for unlimeted texting for one month
I use tracfone, and have been using it for several years. What they don’t tell you, is that you have to pay for every text message that you receive as well. It costs .3 units to send a message and .3 to receive a message. In addition, messages which are longer than say 150 characters, are split into pages and you must pay .3 units for each page to send. it is a complete rip off in my opinion, and i will be switching to a plan soon.
They do tell you, actually. If you use their cheapest phone, it’s .3 units for texts sent or received. If you use a better model of phone they sell (usually the next one up from the cheapest), texting is only charged one way and not both.
In addition, ALL texts have a maximum standard 150 character length. Ones that go over that character limit count as a second text, and are therefore billed as as second text.
You’re not getting “ripped off” at all. If you switch to a plan, then yes, *then* you’ll be getting ripped off.
i think t-mobile is the best deal!