Prepaid cell phone service is an excellent alternative for parents who want to monitor cell phone expenses for their teenage children, those who cannot qualify financially for a cell phone contract, or for emergencies. Prepaid cell phone cards are used either to refill time for a specific prepaid cell phone service, or for long distance calls made from any phone, including cell phones.
Function
Prepaid cell phone cards allow users to purchase a set amount of time, usually measured in minutes, for use with mobile telephones. Customers purchase the cards and either apply the entire balance to an account or enter a PIN with each individual call. In either instance, because the time is prepaid, there are no surprises at the end of the month. Most prepaid cards provide notification when balances run low and when they are due to expire. Prepaid cell phone cards can often be used for services such as date transmission, text messaging and ringback tones as well as for spoken conversations.
Refill Cards
Many major cell phone services, such as Verizon and AT&T provide prepaid cell phone service as well as contract cell phone service. Other companies such as Tracfone and Virgin Mobile only offer prepaid cell phone service. With prepaid cell phone service, customers must purchase prepaid cell phone card in order to refill minutes. There is always a deadline for refilling minutes before the prepaid service is deactivated. If refill minutes are not purchased before the deadline, any unexpired minutes are almost always lost, but the prepaid cell phone service can be reactivated by purchasing more minutes. After service has been deactivated for a specified period of time, the prepaid service is permanently canceled. When that happens the customer must reactivate the phone again, often losing the original cell phone number.
Domestic and International Calls
It is also possible to purchase prepaid cell phone cards which are not associated with a specific cell phone service. They almost always have a PIN which must be entered each time a call is dialed, although some cards allow the PIN to be stored. These cards can be used with any cell phone, and can often be used with regular landlines. In many instances these prepaid cell phone cards are designed to call to or from one or more particular countries at a discounted rate. Other prepaid cell phone cards can be used with to call to and from a wide variety of countries.
Choosing a Card
Many prepaid cell phone cards offer discounts with purchases of larger denominations. Others offer longer periods before the purchased minutes expire. The features available with prepaid cell phone cards often vary according to the plan selected. For instance, some prepay cell phone plans offer a monthly billing option for customers who want similar service to that offered for longer term contracts, without being tied down to a long term obligation. Also, certain prepay cell phone plans offer discounts when calling other customers with the same plan, which might be a major influence in selecting a particular prepay cell phone card.
Warning
For prepaid cell phone cards associated with a particular cell phone company, the customer must purchase the right card. Prepaid cell phone cards from another cell phone company will not work. For prepaid cell phone cards which are not associated with a particular company, customers should be sure that the card will work in their country. Also, some cards have large surcharges which are applied when calling to or from certain countries which may eliminate any savings. Finally, check out any unknown company before providing any credit card information. The Better Business Bureau is a good source for reports on a particular business.
Tags: cell phone, cell phone, cell phone service, phone service, phone cards
