T-Mobile Prepaid ReviewYou can get good phones and good rates on T-Mobile prepaid.RatesUpdated: New $50 and $15 Monthly PlansSurprisingly, T-Mobile prepaid plans are pretty good. This is surprising is that T-Mobile usually concentrates on their contract plans by offering various deals some of which can admittedly make sense especially if you've got a large family of cell phone users.T-Mobile has three kinds of prepaid plans: Monthly, Pay by the Day, and Pay As You Go MonthlyThere are two monthly plans.$50 per month Unlimited PlanYou get unlimited talk, and text,picture, and video messaging for $50 per month. This is a good deal on a major carrier.$15 per Month PlanYou get unlimited text picture and video messaging on the $15 per month plan. All voice calls cost an additional 10 cents per minute. This is a pretty good deal, but I would have preferred to at least get a few voice minutes included.As a comparison, Kajeet, the cell phone for kids has a unlimited messaging plan for $14.99 a month that also includes 60 voice minutes. This is designed for children who send more texts than make calls, but it make it possible to not have to spend more than the $15 per month. Pay by the Day PlanThe Pay by the Day plan is very similar to GoPhone and Verizon plans. You are charged $1 on the days you use your phone plus 10 cents per minute of airtime. This T-Mobile prepaid plan is no longer prominently featured, but it still exists.So if you want to know when . . . When T-Mobile Deducts $1/dayIt's on the days you use your phone.The big advantage of this plan is . . . Unlimited 7pm to 7am Nationwide CallingYou get unlimited nationwide calling from 7pm to 7am. Note that if you haven't used your phone yet that day, you will get charged the $1 for using the phone.Pay As You Go PlanWith the T-Mobile Prepaid Pay as You Go service your cost per minute depends on which prepaid refill cards you buy. You get about 10 minutes when you activate - after that you have to add airtime.All of these prepaid plans are available with their prepaid starter kits. Prepaid Refill CardsT-Mobile prepaid refill cards come in denominations for $10, $25, $50 and $100 dollars, with the last one being the best value for your money.
So for $100 plus the cost of the phone, you get 1000 minutes good for one whole year. How To Get Bonus MinutesYou receive T-Mobile prepaid bonus minutes once you buy the $100 airtime refill card or any combination of $100 in airtime refills. This gets you Gold status and a 15% airtime bonus.Where to buy T-Mobile Refill CardsRefill cards are available all over the place: at convenience stores such as Circle K and 7-Eleven, pharmacies like Eckerd and Walgreens, and superstores like Walmart, Costco and Office Depot.You can go direct to refill your T-Mobile Cheap Prepaid CardsThe best deal is the $100 one-year card directly from T-Mobile or from a retail store. A year of service works out to $8.33 a month and you get 1000 minutes.How to Check Your Airtime BalanceYou can check your airtime balance from your phone by calling #999# from your handset. You will get a free text message back with your airtime balance. You can also dial 1-877-778-2106 from any touch-tone phone or if you have signed up for an online account, you can just log in to your account, but of course you'll have to get to a computer first.MessagingMessaging options include text messages, picture messages and instant messaging.Text MessagesText messages cost 10 cents to send and are free to receive.Picture MessagesPicture messages cost 25 cents to send as well as receive.Instant MessagingSome available phones are compatible with Yahoo, AOL, MSN and ICQ instant messaging services. You are charged for airtime when you use these services.Keeping your NumberYou can keep your number if you refill your account within 90 days after your minutes expire. This is really good. Other plans recycle your number pretty quickly.You can even buy minutes online for someone else, a convenience if you've got children away in college or summer camp.
PhonesPrepaid Starter KitsThere are prepaid starter kits starting in price from $24.99 for a Nokia 1661 to a Samsung Galaxy S 4G for $349.99.(The eco-friendly Motorola W233 has been discontinued.)Flip PhonesYou can get a red flip phone like the LG GS170 or a standard flip phone like the Samsung T139.QWERTY PhonesYou also have a couple of choices of handsets with QWERTY keyboards. The Sparq offers a sideways-sliding QWERTY keyboard and an FM radio. The Samsung T359 squishes its keyboard into a compact form. The Nokia X2 and the Blackberry 8520 offer traditional vertical keyboard. Finally there's latest version of the Sidekick.Android PhonesPrepaid Android phones available from T-Mobile include the LG Optimus T in various colors, the Samsung Gravity Smart the T-Mobile Sidekick (didn't realize this was an Android phone at first) and the Samsung Galaxy S 4G.The phones aren't always in stock. Most starter kit comes with a (wired) hands-free headset and $10 starter airtime. Sometimes there are offers for a bonus refill card with your purchase. Already Got an Unlocked Phone?You can get just a sim card and activate your unlocked phone on the t-mobile prepaid plan.One of the best things about these Starter Kits is that you get free overnight shipping on them. So there's no reason not to buy them online and save on the gas plus there's no waiting in line to be served. Plus online activation is easy. T-Mobile Prepaid Cellphone DealsYou can look for some popular T-Mobile deals here.CoverageI just wanted to add a quick note about coverage. T-Mobile coverage used to be somewhat lacking, but they've improved it enormously. In my case, the area where I used to live used to be in their roaming area, but now has great coverage. You can check your own street-level coverageNortheastFor example, I used a borrowed T-Mobile phone on a car trip from Western New Jersey to Buffalo, New York. Despite going through some pretty rural areas, their coverage and signal was quite good.Check it out for yourself when you shop T-Mobile Prepaid Phones
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