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The United States has three major mobile carriers: AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon. However, they may not always offer the most affordable phone plans. Phone plans are usually divided into two categories: prepaid and postpaid. Prepaid plans require payment before usage, while postpaid plans require payment after usage. Prepaid plans generally do not require a credit check, unlike postpaid plans.
Postpaid plans offer more features and priority on the network, which is particularly crucial in congested areas. Postpaid customers usually get priority, followed by the carrier’s prepaid customers and then MVNOs.
To sum up, you may overspend your phone bill each month. Our goal is to assist you in finding the best cheap phone plans currently available.
What is an MVNO?
Most of the plans that are listed here are what we call an “MVNO,” which stands for Mobile Virtual Network Operator. Think of it as a carrier that does not own its network. For instance, Mint Mobile and Visible run on T-Mobile and Verizon, respectively, instead of their own networks. So why are MVNOs usually much cheaper than the networks that own their network? It’s simple, MVNOs are able to buy connectivity to these networks at wholesale prices, they also don’t typically have stores across the country, which allows them to have less overhead and pass that onto the customer.
Now there is a downside to having an MVNO as your carrier. The biggest one is that you are lower on the tower for priority. Post-paid customers get top priority, followed by prepaid and then MVNO. So if you’re in an area that has a lot of traffic, you might experience far slower speeds, unfortunately. So there are a few things to weigh here when thinking about making the switch. If you’re on the road a lot and need to have good coverage and speeds, you might want to get a post-paid plan from one of the big three. But if you work from home a lot, then a cheaper plan is likely the best bet for you.
The best cheap cell phone plan
Our pick for the best cheap cell phone plan goes to Mint Mobile. There’s a good chance that you’ve heard of them before. They’ve done quite a few popular commercials with Ryan Reynolds (who has a stake in the company).
Mint Mobile is our pick for the best cheap phone plan because you can get service for just $15 per month. Now, there is an asterisk there. As Mint Mobile has you pay three months at a time, you’re paying $45 for three months of service (which equals $15 per month). That’s still a fraction of what you’d pay at the big carriers, though.
Mint Mobile offers unlimited talk and text along with 4GB of data (on 5G and 4G LTE networks) here for $15 per month. There are other plans that offer 10GB, 15GB, and unlimited data (unlimited will slow after 35GB per month).
There is also an unlimited plan available for $30 per month (or $90 total for your first three months). With this plan, you’re getting unlimited talk and text as you’d expect, as well as up to 40GB of premium data. So once you hit that 40GB data limit, your speeds will be reduced, but they are still unlimited.
It’s also important to note here that Mint Mobile runs on T-Mobile’s network. So if you’re somewhere that T-Mobile’s network doesn’t work really well, you’re going to want to look elsewhere. Mint Mobile does support both physical and e-SIM.
The cheapest phone plan
Believe it or not, there are plans that are even cheaper than Mint Mobile, and that would be Tello Mobile. You can get a plan as low as $8 per month or $9 per month if you opt for some data. This is because Tello lets you choose the data you want, independent of your talk and text. You can choose from Unlimited mins, no minutes, 100 minutes, 200 minutes, 300 minutes, or 500 minutes. All of these include free texts, except for the no-minutes plan.
Tello lets you choose how many minutes you want, which is good for those who don’t talk on the phone much. And also your data. Which includes 500MB, 1GB, 2GB, 5GB, 10GB and Unlimited. Unlimited talk, text, and data will cost you $25, which is not bad at all.
What’s so great here with Tello Mobile is that you are able to really cherry-pick the perfect plan for you, whether that is going to be lots of data and very few minutes or vice versa.
Like with most other services out there, unlimited isn’t really unlimited. Here, you’re looking at 35GB of premium data, with 5GB of hotspot included. After that 35GB is used up, you’ll be seeing reduced speeds.
Tell Mobile runs on T-Mobile’s network as well.
The best plan running on AT&T’s network
All of the carriers have their own MVNOs these days, and AT&T has Cricket, which is a really impressive MVNO, actually. It offers quite a bit, for not a whole lot of money.
Cricket Wireless offers a number of different plans, with unlimited, starting at only $55 per month. You can get unlimited access to 15GB of mobile hotspot for $60 per month. But Cricket also offers 5GB and 10GB plans for $30 and $40 per month, respectively. Cricket Wireless also offers some additional discounts for auto-pay on each plan, which will save you another $5 per month.
Currently, Cricket Wireless is offering up multi-month plans, where you can pay for 3-, 6- or 12-months at a time, and save you quite a bit. For the 12-month plan, you’re getting it for only $30/month. That’s a $25/month savings right there.
Cricket Wireless does get 5G access with a 5G-compatible device. So you’ll be getting the fastest speeds available.
As mentioned, Cricket does run on AT&T’s network. And unlike some of the other MVNOs out there, Cricket will get priority since AT&T owns it as well.
The best plan running on Verizon’s network
Visible is an interesting MVNO (owned by Verizon). It markets itself as an app and not as a carrier. Because it uses eSIM, it is super easy to switch over and get started with Visible. And because it uses Verizon, that means that you can bring over virtually any unlocked phone to use on Verizon’s network. You can also get incredible coverage for an incredible price.
Visible has two plans, Visible and Visible+. The regular Visible plan is $25 per month and only includes the basics. That’s unlimited talk, text, data, and hotspot. The caveat on the hotspot is that speeds are limited to just 5Mbps. You’ll also get unlimited talk and text to Mexico and Canada.
Visible+ offers all that plus a bit more for $45 per month. You also get 5G Ultra Wideband (that’s C-Band and mmWave). As well as unlimited talk, text, and data roaming in Mexico and Canada, International calling from the US to 30+ countries, and International texting from the US to 200+ countries. For those who travel a lot or have families in other countries in North America, the Visible+ plan is worth the price. It also comes with 50GB of premium data; afterward, you’ll be limited to slower data speeds.
If you need a new phone, Visible has you covered there too. Unlike some other MVNOs out there, Visible sells phones and can help you finance them. Visible uses Affirm to finance its phones for you, which also lets you upgrade after paying off half of your phone. Now, that is really impressive. And it’s not something you’d expect from a service that’s just $25/month.
For wearables, Visible supports the Apple Watch (only). You can purchase one from Visible or bring your own. The plan is just $5 per month on Visible, making it far cheaper than the big boys out there, which is honestly super impressive.
These prices all come with taxes and fees included, too.
The best plan running on T-Mobile’s network
Finally, we have Metro by T-Mobile. Also owned by T-Mobile, as you might expect from the name. This is formerly MetroPCS, and finally renamed to Metro by T-Mobile a couple years ago.
Metro by T-Mobile has three plans available, all of which are unlimited. Starting at $40 per month. And if you’re eligible for the Affordable Connectivity Program, you can get up to $30 off.
The first unlimited plan is $40 per month and gives you unlimited talk, text and data. As well as access to T-Mobile Tuesdays, Scamshield and a 1-year subscription to Vix.
Next up is a $50 per month plan which includes everything from the cheaper plan, but you get 5GB of hotspot data, and 100GB of Google One storage. Finally, there’s the $60 per month plan, which includes everything from the cheaper $50 plan, but hotspot data is bumped up to 15GB, and you also get Amazon Prime included. Which is a really big deal.
Of course, Metro by T-Mobile runs on T-Mobile’s network and does get access to its full 5G network.
Cheapest plan for families
Rounding out our list of the cheapest phone plans is US Mobile. This is a really interesting one, as it does support both T-Mobile and Verizon. It also offers more premium data and hotspot data than any other service on this list. There are two plans available here – Unlimited Starter which offers 35GB of premium data and 10GB of hotspot data. Then there’s Unlimited Premium with 100GB of premium data and 50GB of hotspot data. These are priced at $29 and $50 per month, respectively. Still pretty cheap, but where it really comes in handy is for families.
A family of four can get US Mobile for only $100 per month, and taxes and fees are included here. So that’s $100 per month and not a penny more on the Unlimited Starter plan. Or you can choose the Unlimited Premium plan for $160 per month for four lines. US Mobile also provides perks for those with multi-line accounts. So you can get a $15/month credit for use on a perk. Which includes Spotify Family, Apple Music Family, Apple TV Plus, Disney Plus, ESPN Plus and much more.
Of course, if you don’t need unlimited data, US Mobile also has sharable data available. You can get 2GB for $10/month, 6GB for $18/month, 12GB for $25/month, and so on. If you really don’t need a lot of data, you can get the “Light Plan,” which offers 1GB of data and unlimited talk and text for only $10 per month. And again, that includes taxes and fees. That is an incredible deal right there.
If that’s not enough to get you to switch, US Mobile also offers a free trial. You get to use the service for 30 days, and that will include a $100 prepaid card for transferring your number to either of the two 5G Networks that US Mobile runs on (Verizon or T-Mobile). You’ll get 30GB of data and unlimited talk and text for the duration of the 30-day trial period.