Prepaid vs Contract: Which one should you choose?

Choosing a new phone isn’t as simple as deciding on your favourite brands or the features you want or need most. It’s also about selecting the right network provider for your needs, and then deciding whether to get a contract or go prepaid.

Prepaid

If you already have a smartphone and you’re not interested in upgrading every two years, or just don’t feel like being tied to a specific network for two years, then prepaid is the option for you.

Prepaid means you’ll only pay for the services you need and can use any device you want to. Summer specials, which are usually offered by networks every year in South Africa, are usually targeted at prepaid users.

Prepaid also tends to have special, time-based offers, which contract users do not get.

Another advantage of going prepaid is you don’t have to undergo a credit check.

By going prepaid, you won’t ever have to worry about out-of-bundle rates and having to spend more money than you’d budgeted for at the end of the month.

Contract

If you’re a high-end, always-on-your-phone kinda person, use your phone for business, or you just want to upgrade to the latest phone every two years, then contract is something you should definitely look at.

Contract users tend to get more included benefits than prepaid. These include texts, special rates, etc.

If you always need to be able to make a phone call, or stay connected, then that’s a great reason you should consider getting a contract.

Networks tend to have a wide variety of contracts and the odds are you’ll definitely find one that meets your needs.

Telkom FreeMe

Having said that, networks like Telkom have disrupted the service-provider industry as we know it with the launch of their FreeMe plans.

Focusing on data and then including things like texts and talk-time minutes (to make phone calls) makes FreeMe a very attractive offering. Especially when you consider that the prepaid FreeMe offerings are very competitive (in terms of benefits and cost) to contract offerings. But you remain without the credit checks and the need to be tied in to a two-year contract.

Questions to consider 

At the end of the day, deciding whether to get a smartphone contract or prepaid is determined by your needs.

• What is your monthly budget?
• Can you afford the cost of possibly going over the allotted minutes / data / texts included in your contract?
• Do you have your own phone?
• Do you need to be constantly connected?

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