Are Pay As You Go CellPhones Worth It?
By Tisha Kulak Tolar
There are a ton of commercials on television advertising the different cell phone companies and their plans for consumers. But a paid, monthly contract phone plan may not be the right kind of phone plan for you and your budget. It really depends on your usage and personal preference.

In lieu of a monthly contract phone plan, you have the option to have instead a prepaid cell phone. With the prepaid phones, you are not locked into a 1 or 2 year service plan and do not face having to pay hundreds of dollars in penalties and fees should you choose to switch to a different prepaid phone. The pay-as-you go plan allows you to prepay for the minutes you expect to use on your phone and then the amount of minutes actually used will be deducted from your account. With contract plans you may have the option to rollover those unused minutes but essentially you are paying for the minutes whether you use them or not.

Since many monthly contract phone service provides usually require a credit check before opening a phone account, those with bad or no credit histories may opt to use a prepaid phone instead, which requires no credit check. The pay-as-you-go phone plan can also be a better choice for your budget as you can set the amount of money you can afford to pay each month, instead of facing a high monthly bill you may not be able to pay off each month.

There are several different options available for prepaid phone plans. Citing two examples here, we will discuss the popular Tracphone and Net 10 prepaid phones.

Tracphone

Tracphone boots to be the leader in prepaid wireless service in the US. They offer several value plans, where you can purchase minutes for a flat rate fee each month. Text messaging is available on the phones. You can also add bundles of minutes at any time you are running low. Brand name phones are available starting at $14.99. If you already had a cell phone number, you can transfer your old number to your new Tracphone. You can activate and refresh minutes online or via the telephone.

Net 10

The Net 10 prepaid phones charge $.10 a minute for all calls (local, ling distance, and roaming nationwide). The cost of the actual phone ranges from $19.99 to $59.99 and includes many of the popular brand named models (LG, Motorola, Nokia) in a select group of styles. Phones have text messaging capabilities, which cost the sender $.05 per message. Users prepay money to activate and use the phone. Net 10 offers 4 inclusive programs, where users pay a flat-fee to access different amounts of prepaid minutes. You can get 150-400 minutes for a flat rate fee or you can pay for the Net10 Unlimited program that gives you unlimited calling and texting for a flat rate a month. (Note: The Unlimited plan is not available in all areas.) Whenever you need to replenish minutes, you can log on to the Net 10 website or call the toll free number.

If you have been working on your budget and need to find some areas where you can cut costs, compare how many minutes you actually use on your cell phone each month and see if it might be more financially smart to switch to a prepaid wireless plan than it would be to continue renewing your monthly contract with your present provider. Just remember, only make the switch at renewal time or you can expect to pay upwards of $200-$300 to break your contract.

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Cell Phone Family Plans Reviewed
By Barry Nagassar
It's another season for shopping and buying and wouldn't you know, cell phone companies from both the US and Canada are starting to roll out some new deals. This article will look at the pros and things to watch out for when it comes to signing up for family plans. It would take into consideration things like network coverage or cell phone selection between carriers, but it will give you an idea of the money you will or won't save.

You have the special someone, the kids, your significant other? Without a family plan all calls between each other usually count against your total minutes use. That means no free calling between the most popular numbers in your phone. This can change, however, with new family plans. What we see clear across the board (especially in Canada) are the carriers willingness to offer cell phone plans to families. You'll get unlimited calling between people on your plan, sometimes up to 4 different phones. Sounds great doesn't it? No more phone bills that cost crazy amounts, you can save your money!

Essentially the idea is perfect, one bill, no fees, no more lost minutes. Basically the ads are true, you are getting unlimited phone calls between the family plan members, however, beware of some of the fine print.

For example, remember, you'll be sharing all additional minutes between all of you. Got a talkative kid? You may wind up with no minutes for yourself since everyone shares the anytime minutes. By the way, all you're saving really is the minutes you wasted between each other. You don't save anywhere else on the bill. Each phone is still charged individually: activation fees, system fees, 911 fees, etc etc etc.

You should be aware of the different charges for different services when you're moving one person from one carrier to another. Some carriers don't charge for basic voicemail (Telus) but others charge you money (Rogers $5 bucks basic voicemail.) That's an additional 60 bucks a year. Do you want to pay that money that you would not have before? Basically you have to decide whether $60 is worthy cost for money talk time.

So how should you make a choice? Really, it's a matter between who will offer the most anytime minutes. Whoever can provide you with the best deal for minutes aside from your family/couple members would be the way to go. Some offer free first incoming minute on all calls. Some exceed others in anytime minutes, some will give you deals on new phones, more minutes, additional features, etc. Be on the prowl and don't jump at the first opportunity. Compare costs and you'll save some additional cash.

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Online Cell Phone Shopping - Fantastic Experience
By Martin Smith
Shopping online for a cell phone can provide you with an opportunity to save money and also save time. I'm one of those people and is not particularly fond of going to my local store and being pushed in to buying something I'm not sure about. Being able to first research what cell phone I'm thinking of buying and then actually being able to purchase it online just makes the whole experience much easier. There are many online resellers that provided a fantastic service and most of all affordable prices. Many of these online retailers can provide cheap contract deals, which can be cheaper than purchasing in store because they have less overheads.

One advantage to you is that you benefit from shopping from the comfort of your own home. This of course is where the Internet is playing a really important role in the day-to-day consumer spending. One of the great advantages is that you can visit various online cell phone website is in a matter of moments just put a kick of the mouse. This gives you the benefit of being able to compare the difference on lucrative deals. There are many deals available from these types of stores on an almost daily basis and being able to compare them in a matter of moments has got to be one of the biggest advantages of shopping online.

If you do decide to purchase from an online reseller make sure to check out their clearance lines or special offers section first. You will always find that many resellers will be trying to get rid of older stock and this is where you can pick up real bargains. There is absolutely nothing wrong with these phones, the fast pace of the cell phone market means that many resellers only have a limited time. In order to sell their stock before the next range is starting to hit the market. With this in mind they will on a very regular basis reduced pricing on some top class cell phones. It is just a matter for you to check out what is actually available on any given day.

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Free Cell Phone Offers - 3 Things You Need to Know About Getting a Free Cell Phone
By Ray Hansen

Free cell phone offers are found all over the internet. The ads will show up on thousands of sites. But are they a good deal? Can you really get a cell phone for free? The answer is, yes, they can be a very good deal, but there are some things you need to be aware of before jumping in.

1. Free cell phone offers require a commitment. Although you can get a very nice state of the art phone for free, there is a catch. Typically a free phone offer requires a 2 year commitment to a service plan. Most service plans with the major carriers start at around $40 per month and go up from there depending on how many minutes and what features you add to the plan. If you cancel early you will be billed a hefty cancellation charge. So even though the cell phone is free, the service is not.

2. There is typically an activation charge when you activate a new phone on a wireless network. The charges vary from carrier to carrier, but you can expect to pay $20-$40 to activate your phone in order to be able to use it. There are sometimes special promotions where a carrier will waive the activation fee. These usually only last for a couple of weeks and may only be offered once or twice a year.

3. The first cell phone bill is often a shock for new customers. You may have signed up for a basic $40 plan, but the first bill can be $100 or more. The reason for this is that the cell phone carriers bill you in advance. On the first bill you are paying for what remains in the current billing month, for the next month's service, and for activation fees. Be aware that the first bill will be bigger (and sometimes much bigger) than your normal monthly bill.

Keeping these things in mind, free cell phone offers still can be a good deal. You need to pay for service anyway, so taking advantage of free cell phone offers can save you $100s on a new phone. The best offers on the best phones are usually found online since online merchants do not have the overhead that the brick and mortar stores do. Some online merchants will even express ship the phone to your address for free.

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Excellent Benefits of Cell Phone Offers
By Martin Smith

Cell phones have become an essential part of our everyday life's. Being able to communicate and keep in touch with family and friends is why many people decide to purchase a phone. At some stage we all need to upgrade our phone, some people will do this more regular than others. Some feel the need to keep up with the latest technology. Others decide to update to keep up with fashion - latest color for example.

Whatever your needs are when you decide to purchase a new phone you want to get the best deal possible. There are plenty of cell phone offers presented to us all the time. It is just a matter of deciding which one suits you best. If you are just looking for a handset (and not a contract) there are many websites available on the Internet that can offer some really interesting bargains. And let's be honest in these current economic times we are all looking for bargains.
Essentially what you need to do is visit to your network service providers website, they will always have a special offers section where you will find that they will be trying to sell older model phones at reduced pricing. This is an area where you can definitely pick up a bargain. You may be asking why are the phones in this area so cheap?. All of the service providers will restock with the latest cell phones on a regular basis with this in mind they need to reduced their stock levels of older models so they put them on the website in these special sections.
They will send them out to their stores to be sold over the counter. Obviously selling them on the Internet is their preferred choice as the overheads are much cheaper than having to ship them around the country to try and clear them in a store.
There are other third party websites that will sell SIM free phones, which essentially can be used with any network service provider by simply placing your SIM card in the phone. Yet again on these types of sites you can find many bargains as most of these on to have an Internet presence and our not also supporting stores sell their overheads and less hence they can supply cellular phones cheaper.
If you are not comfortable with purchasing a phone line simply head to your local mall and check in your local store if they have any clearance offers any phone that they will have that as being in stock for over 90 days to want to try and clear out of stock quickly. It is just a matter of going into stores and telling them that you are not willing to pay for the latest phone but do they have anything that is three to four months old in stock that may be reduced.

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by Joshua Topolsky

Usually, Sundays don't get too crazy at Engadget -- after all, even super-nerds need to rest. That wasn't the case yesterday, however, as we found ourselves knee-deep in a handful of seriously sweet smartphone leaks. Most of the news centered around AT&T's upcoming devices (you know, like its first Android phones, brand new BlackBerry offerings, and... the Palm Eos), but we also saw a few new angles on the Pre. Do yourself a favor and hit all the links below -- you won't be sorry.

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by Chris Ziegler

You might recall that this happened right about this time last year when we were all patiently waiting for the iPhone 3G to be announced, and once again, it's been discovered that the latest beta of the iPhone SDK has icons for an unreleased version of Cupertino's finest. We've been able to verify that two icons tucked away in a deep folder refer to black and white versions of the "iPhone2,1" (black is pictured above), which is one of the internal model codes we've been hearing get thrown around for a while now. Thing is, the icon is identical to the one being used for iPhone1,2 -- better known as the iPhone 3G -- so Apple's either smartly using a placeholder until the final SDK build, or the latest and greatest model is a dead ringer for the old. We're betting on the former.

by Ross Miller

The previously rumored Motorola portrait QWERTY slider Iron Man has popped up again, this time as the AT&T-bound Heron, with listed specs being a 2.8-inch touch screen, 3 megapixel camera with flash, aGPS, 3G, and a big red "subject to change" notice since the device has moved to (drumroll, please) Android OS. Planned availability is said to be November 2nd here, but we suspect these slides are a bit dated and that may ultimately be wholly off target. Also on the menu is another portrait slider, the Sawgrass. This one may in fact be Alexander, and if that's the case, at least we've got a cleaner press shot to put on its tombstone. Then again, we hear from Boy Genius Report that it's reincarnated under the name Somerset. The information you (probably) seek is in the gallery below.