Prepaid cell phone plans: Great option or Last Resort?Written by Syd Johnson
There was a time when prepaid plans were marketed mostly to people with poor or bad credit. Now, prepaid plans are being marketed as a great alternative to unlimited plans. Here are a few things to consider before you sign up for your prepaid. What is prepaid? Prepaid usually involves buying a block of minutes via online systems or replaceable cards, and you can use these minutes until they run out. Once you are out of minutes, you make another deposit or get a new card and you can continue using your phone. No credit or poor credit Prepaid Plans are cell phone industry’s equivalent of secured credit cards. You can still get a cell phone if you have no credit history or poor credit. Plans purchased through one of major cell phone carriers might include free or low cost cell phones, and you can also get discounts on standard accessories such as earpieces, headsets and faceplates. Minutes Expire One of major charges against prepaid cards is that minutes expire after a period of time. That is, if you don’t use all of your minutes within two or three months, you lose them and you have to buy another card. Some people consider this a rip off, but if you have an unlimited plan, you also lose your unused minutes on a monthly basis, unless you have one of few rollover plans that are available. It is up to each customer to weigh costs and benefits of their options.
| | How To Choose a Great Camera PhoneWritten by Syd Johnson
List of Features Camera phones are handy, and they offer most features of any type of cell phone on market. The list of features available on a camera phone is truly astounding for such a small product. Here is a sample list:Internet access, better color resolution, improved sound quality, multi media messaging (MMS), zoom in/out, video recording capabilities (short clips, no movies), speaker phones, FM radio, MP3 players … and all other capabilities you associate with great cell phones. Every major cell phone manufacturer has a camera phone on market. While some manufacturers say their camera phones are latest and greatest, all camera phones have limitations when compared to regular cameras. If you have dreams of taking pictures on fly and sending them over to Grandma's house, compare, compare, and then compare features again before you purchase your camera phone. Picture Quality Pictures on camera phones can be fuzzy, garbled or weird. Camera phones don’t have same capacity for clarity and space as your average Digital Camera. Check specs on your phone to see resolution. On newer models, 640 X 480 pixels is norm. In contrast, Digital Cameras are rated according to millions of pixels. Make sure you have enough space to store a few pictures. You should know how many pictures you can keep on your phone at any one time. Usually, around 30 small pictures are possible. Charge In cell phone industry, every new feature seems to have a new charge. Be aware of amount of time it takes to send a picture from your phone. Check your service agreement to see if time it takes to send a picture via web will be deducted from your minutes, or if a monthly fee is required to send pictures from your camera phone. Under best plans, you pay a monthly fee to send unlimited amounts of pictures.
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