The United States has three major mobile carriers:
Postpaid plans offer more features and priority on the network, which is particularly crucial in congested areas. Postpaid customers usually get priority, followed by the carrier’s prepaid customers and then MVNOs.
To sum up, you may overspend your phone bill each month. Our goal is to assist you in finding the best cheap phone plans currently available.
What is an MVNO?
Most of the plans that are listed here are what we call an “MVNO,” which stands for Mobile Virtual Network Operator. Think of it as a carrier that does not own its network. For instance, Mint Mobile and Visible run on T-Mobile and Verizon, respectively, instead of their own networks. So why are MVNOs usually much cheaper than the networks that own their network? It’s simple: MVNOs are able to buy connectivity to these networks at wholesale prices; they also don’t typically have stores across the country, which allows them to have less overhead and pass that on to the customer.
Now, there is a downside to having an MVNO as your carrier. The biggest one is that you are lower on the tower for priority. Post-paid customers get top priority, followed by prepaid and then MVNO. So, if you’re in an area that has a lot of traffic, you might experience far slower speeds, unfortunately. So, there are a few things to weigh here when thinking about making the switch. If you’re on the road a lot and need to have good coverage and speeds, you might want to get a post-paid plan from one of the big three. But if you work from home a lot, then a cheaper plan is likely the best bet for you.
The best cheap cell phone plan
Our pick for the best cheap cell phone plan goes to Mint Mobile. There’s a good chance that you’ve heard of them before. They’ve done quite a few popular commercials with Ryan Reynolds (who has a stake in the company). Mint Mobile is now owned by T-Mobile, who has said they are committed to keeping Mint Mobile’s cheap plans.
Mint Mobile is our pick for the best cheap phone plan because you can get service for just $15 per month. Now, there is an asterisk there. As Mint Mobile has you pay three months at a time, you’re paying $45 for three months of service (which equals $15 per month). That’s still a fraction of what you’d pay at the big carriers, though.
Mint Mobile offers unlimited talk and text along with 4GB of data (on 5G and 4G LTE networks) here for $15 per month. There are other plans that offer 10GB, 15GB, and unlimited data (unlimited will slow after 35GB per month).
There is also an unlimited plan available for $30 per month (or $90 total for your…