Why I Use A Pre-Paid Card

It's interesting the reaction I get from people when I tell them that I use a pre-paid card instead of a post-paid subscription with the mobile phone operators. "WHY?" seems to be the first question that everyone asks, and they don't seem to believe when I tell them that it's cheaper for me.

Listen up, people. I'm not saying it's cheaper for everyone. It's just cheaper for me. And I can say this confidently because I know my mobile phone usage and compared to the hefty monthly bills that I used to get, I've been able to happily afford my pre-paid card. Here's why.

The bulk of my phone usage is on sending SMS-es. I'm a heavy SMS sender, and I can easily send up to *gasp* 2000 SMS-es a month. Using a normal post-paid subscription line only gives me up to 500 free SMS-es, which means I'll end up paying for the extra 1500 SMS-es, and at 5c/SMS, I end up paying $75 on top of the monthly subscription fee. So if the subscription fee is $25/month, my bill can easily hit $100 a month.

However, pre-paid cards offer excellent value on their top-up cards. I pay $28 and get $100 value. This means I can send 2000 SMS-es but only need to pay $28. Sure, the rate I pay for calls are a bit more expensive than if I had a subscription but because I don't make all that many calls, it doesn't really matter to me.

Roaming charges on a pre-paid card are also ridiculously high, as I found out when I went to Nepal and Bhutan last year. But then again, I don't travel that often and I can easily can a local line when I'm overseas.

So this is why I use a pre-paid card. It makes monetary sense to me, currently I only pay $28 a month, or $56 in months where there is slightly heavier usage. Making Ithis change has help me save tonnes of money on phone bills! *grin*