Whenever you’re looking at a new mobile phone provider, and you ask your friends about some input regarding which one you should choose, you always hear about the stigma attached to cell phone contracts. But just how bad are they actually, and are they even limiting or negative at all? Something that you’re going to find is that contracts are like just about anything else in life, in that they have positive as well as negative points. You’re going to find that in some ways, cell phone contracts can be the perfect option for you, but in other ways they may just be a bit too limiting for you to want to use.
Either way, you’re going to find that you want to get both sides of the story before actually choosing the type that you want to go with. You’re going to find that whether you choose cell phone contracts or prepaid phones, you can expect something very different. You want to know which is actually the best choice for you, so that you don’t run into trouble down the line, by becoming unhappy with your phone service.
Here’s what you can expect from contracted cell phone plans in most cases:
1) You almost always get a discount when buying your phone.
Perhaps one of the largest advantages of singing up for a contract, is that it enables you to save a massive amount on the cost of buying a phone outright. You can count on either a severely discounted rage with a two year contract, but in most cases you’re going to be able to get your phone totally for free
2) In many cases, you can save on you normal bill as well.
Something else that you’re going to find with just about any type of cell phone contracts, is that they can oftentimes give you discounts on the normal types of bill prices. When a company knows that you’re locked in for longer, typically they can afford to give you a discount, like on the other services that you will be using. This can be great incentive to just sign the contract, so that you can save more money in the long haul.
3) Free upgrades in many cases.
Another thing that you’re going to find with most types of cell phone plans under contract, is that they will give you a free upgrade to a new phone every year or so. This way, you get a brand new phone that’s ready and raring to go right out of the box, when yours may be running on it’s last legs. This is a big feature though, because you’re going to find that phones just aren’t made to last that long. Anything you can do to take down the cost of buying a new one when your phone finally dies is a major bonus.
Of course, despite these positives however, there are some bad things when it comes to cell phone contracts as well:
1) You’re locked into that plan for the duration of the contract.
So let’s say that you want to add some more minutes to your plan, or you find that the current arrangement just isn’t working out for you. While the problem with most contracts is that you’re not able to change anything until the time that your contract is up, making them notoriously annoying for you to have to deal with. This means you can be locked into services that you don’t want, or just leaving you unable to get services that you do want added on, which can have you facing penalties if you try to use them anyways.
2) Almost all contracts have early termination fees.
So let’s say that you just can’t stand using your cell phone contracts with that provider anymore. If you want to cancel at a place like Verizon or AT&T, you have to pay a massive early termination fee so that you can buy out the contract. Typically this is in the hundreds of dollars as well, which is quite the harsh punishment when you just want a different type of phone plan. This is why cell phone contracts can be a bit risky, and why they are something that you really have to think about before signing up.