A Pay as You Go Cell Phone is All I Need
I bought my first cell phone about eight years ago, and the salesman who was helping me tried very hard to sell me a plan. I knew that I didn't need one, because I knew I would not be using the phone that often, and a plan would cost about $20 more per month than a pay as you go cell phone, so I decided to go to a different store.
I found one at a local department store that was pay as you go, and it cost me about $25. I think it came with something like 100 free minutes of usage before I had to top up, so it turned out to be a pretty good deal for me.
The main reason that I would be using the cell phone was for my job. I am a freelance writer, and I work the vast majority of the time from home. On the occasions that I have to go out on an assignment, I bring my cell phone with me, and on those rare occasions that I actually receive a call on my cell phone or have to call someone else, I am typically only on the phone for a few minutes at the most.
The pay as you go cell phone was all I needed because I would buy $30 worth of minutes per month and not even use them all up. It cost me 10 cents a minute to talk on my cell, with an additional charge of 35 cents per day, and at the end of almost every month, I would have minutes left over. The plan the sales associate was trying to sell me cost about $50 per month.
One of my colleagues, who is a photographer with our newspaper group, said that I would realize within a few months that I should have gotten a plan, and that the pay as you go cell phone would end up costing me more. He said that I would be using my cell phone a lot more than I thought, and that I would end up saving money in the long run with a plan.
Eight years later, I have never had anything but a pay as you go cell phone and have never needed anything else. On a few occasions I have not put $30 on my cell phone account for the month. I have had to put $20 on a time or two, simply because I was building up so many extra minutes, I just didn't see the point of piling on more.
My pay as you go cell phone has worked great for me, and I have no intention of ever having a plan. I am not saying that it is for everybody, but for me, it is all that I need.