Best Cell Phones Without Contracts

I'm willing to bet that most mobile phone customers are dishing out more than they need to, but those pesky contracts keep them locked in. That's why I decided to do some research to determine what phones are the best prepaid cell phones for saving money. When it comes to cell phones there is a dizzying array of choices. Once you decide on the phone the next step is usually to pick out a plan to go with it. There is also an insane amount of choices to be made when picking out a contract. How many minutes? How many texts? Do you want web access? Then if your needs change, forget about it. You either pay a massive early termination fee that costs more than the phone or get stuck paying for something you no longer need. Also, often times you want to eliminate features to save money. I wondered, is it possible to save money and still get the extra features? As you read on you will notice the answer is an astounding "yes." You can save money and have your features too.

Based on my research, I was able to come up with two really cool inexpensive prepaid phones with features that are similar to the phones you find on the more expensive contract plans. I originally started out with a list of ten phones and narrowed it down these two bests:

1. Nokia 2320 Prepaid cell phone 4.5 stars

If you are looking for a prepaid cell phone where the primary use is talking, then the Nokia 2320 is your best choice. It is a solid, inexpensive phone with features like 56 Mb memory, phonebook, and speakerphone. Also, the phone does support texting, email and web access. Since this is a 2G phone, data access will be slower than on 3G phones. However, you will hardly notice the difference unless you plan on downloading very large files. Another great feature is its 360 minutes of talk-time made possible by a powerful lithium-ion rechargeable battery. If you use this phone with AT&T there will be no annual contract or credit check and no domestic long distance or roaming charges. You have two choices for buying minutes: Either pay a flat 25-cents per minute; or $1.00 per day of use and get unlimited mobile-to-mobile minutes and 10-cent anytime minutes.

2. Samsung Mantra Prepaid Phone 4.5 stars

The Samsung Mantra is a cool, hip flip phone. This is the best prepaid cell phone if you want to do everything - talk, surf the web and access social networks. This is a feature-rich phone that has a VGA digital camera, bluetooth connectivity, external caller-id, bi-lingual English/Spanish menus, speakerphone, simple user interface and large keypad. There is also a calendar, alarm clock and calculator. If you use this phone on Virgin's network you will just pay for the minutes used. The cost per minute varies between 5-cents and 10-cents per minute. The more minutes you buy, the lower the cost per minute. Virgin also offers a $29.99 monthly plan without an annual contract. You can add and subtract extra features as your needs change. The cost for web access on the pay-as-you-go plan is $5 per month for 5Mb and $20 per month for 50Mb. Texting adds another $5 per month for 200 texts.

If you're considering a prepaid cell phone to save money, you now have two fantastic options to consider.