Alltel Prepaid Plans

Alltel prepaid can be a pretty good deal, once you've figured out their plans. Alltel offers both standard cell phone contracts as well as prepaid wireless service. They call their prepaid service AlltelU to avoid any confusion.

Note 1: Verizon is looking to buy Alltel. Will have more on this if the buyout is approved.

Note 2 : This is different from the the Alltel Simple Freedom plans which Alltel bought. You can find out more here.

Is it for you?

woman talking on cell phone next to escalator

You used to be able tell the difference between Tracfone, for example, and Alltel by looking at the pictures on their websites. While on Tracfone's website, there was an grown-up with her phone to her ear talking, on the Alltel prepaid site there was a smiling teenager looking at the cell phone in her hand.

The girl was either sending a text message or using it for entertainment. Whom you identified with was a good indicator of which service you'll prefer.

How things change.

Now, the AlltelU web site features a grown man wearing a sweater and collared T-shirt talking on his phone while the Tracfone web site shows links to video of teenagers walking through their high school.

But you can't turn over your hard-earned money on the basis of the advertising so let's go over if Alltel really is right for U, uh, I mean, you.

Coverage

If you peruse the Consumer Reports review, you see that Alltel gets good ratings for coverage even though it is one of the smaller full-fledged (i.e. they own their own network)carriers.

Coverage Map

You can check coverage map for yourself and see whether it works for you.

Phones

You can choose from a large selection of Alltel prepaid phones . They are somewhat expensive because they have more features.

There is a small rebate for new prepaid customers which does offset some of the activation fee they charge.

They're definitely a good choice if you want to use a high-end phone with prepaid service.

Rate Plans for Alltel Prepaid Wireless

Alltel's rates are easy to understand in terms of usage but a little harder to understand when comparing them and when trying to figure out whether it will fit in your budget. They charge a $35 activation fee which adds to your cost.

There are three plans:

pay-per-minute,
pay-per-day, and
pay-per-month.

Pay-per-minute

This simple plan charges by the minute but also includes a monthly usage fee.

Calls cost 15 cents per minute and 59 cents/minute when roaming. Text messages cost 5 cents. Their website has a handy cost calculator (not including taxes). There is a $35 activation fee. The minimum initial balance required when you sign up is $20. And finally there is a $4 per month usage charge.

Minimum yearly cost

Let's compare the cost to Tracfone, where a 400 minute 1 year card currently costs $100:

One year of Alltel's pay-per-minutes service, using 400 minutes will cost at least $143.00.

This includes the activation fee($35), the monthly usage fee ($48 = $4 per month x 12 months) and calling charges (400 minutes x $0.15 per minute). You'll have pay more if some of those calls are roaming calls.

Here's someone describing their experience with Alltel's pay-per-minute prepaid service.

If you use many more minutes in a year though, then Alltel prepaid wireless may be a better deal for you than Tracfone, if you use one of their other plans.

Pay-per-day

There is no monthly usage fee with the pay-per-day plan, but the 75 cent daily fee more than makes up.

Phone calls cost 10 cents per minute, but this plan does offer nights and weekends free and free text messages.

So, how does it add it?

Minimum yearly cost

Still, the minimum cost for one year is $308.75 plus the actual cost of the number of daytime minutes.

This includes the activation fee($35), the daily usage fee ($273.50 = $0.75 per day x 365 days), plus whatever number of daytime minutes * 10c per minute. Depending on how many daytime minutes you use, this can come out a little cheaper than a standard cell phone contract while still retaining the unlimited nights and weekends feature common in the standard contracts. You should consider this if you knew you will be making a lot of night and weekend long distance calls.

Pay-per-month

The pay-per-month is like a standard cell phone plan without the long-term contract.

29.99 per month plan

With this plan you get 200 daytime minutes and 1000 night and weekend minutes per month. If you go over this fairly generous allotment, you have to pay a whopping 35 cents for each additional minute.

The minimum yearly cost is $360 plus taxes.

This is really a compromise between a standard cell phone contract and a prepaid cellular service. It may be useful if you just want to avoid a credit check -- not necessarily a bad idea if it's true that even with good credit, each credit check reduces your credit score.

39.99 and 69.99 per month plans

There are also pay-per-month plans that cost $39.99 per month and $69.99 per month. You get more minutes and you aren't tied down to a long term contract.

Add minutes to your prepaid Alltel phone

You can add minutes to your prepaid Alltel phone's airtime balance in a number of ways: buy prepaid airtime cards at a retail location, add to your balance online or directly via the phone, or you can go to an Alltel retail dealer.

Service Period and Additional Fees

Your service does not expire as long as you maintain your account balance, but there are usage fees.

Monthly usage fee

There is a $4 per month usage charge for the pay-per-minute plan. So every month $4 is deducted from your airtime balance.

Daily usage fee

There is 75 cent per day charge for the pay-per-day plan. So, every day your balance decreases by 75 cents.

Activation Fees

There is a $35 activation fee as mentioned earlier. This is offset some by the rebate you get when you order your phone online. You can also activate your phone online, so you may never need to stand in line at a retail store.

You do get an Instant Credit and some Bonus Minutes for activating your phone online. The Instant Credit decreases your activation fee you actually have to pay, and the Bonus minutes are added back to your airtime balance.

Voicemail

Voicemail is a standard feature on Alltel prepaid. You are charged minutes while accessing your voicemail.

Note: You have to set up your voicemail greeting within 60 days of activation, or your voice mailbox will be deleted.

Thanks for reading this Alltel Prepaid review.

You can check out the latest . . .

Alltel Prepaid Bargains

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