Other prepaid cellular services
mint mobile Is a prepaid service that uses the T-Mobile network (T-Mobile acquired the company in 2024). Plans start at $15 for 5GB, although they do offer an unlimited tier for $30 (and sometimes it’s on sale for a lower price). Mint’s rates are lower, but the company’s plans have considerable restrictions on service and data, and Mint doesn’t offer a smartwatch plan at all. International calling and data is also expensive.
cricket wireless Is a prepaid service owned by AT&T. It offers unlimited plans starting at $35 per month, although the entry-level plan does not include hot-spot data (it is sold as an extra). The line discount is good for up to five lines, so Cricket could be good for family plans. Cricket Wireless has several stores in the US, which is unusual for a prepaid phone service provider, and Cricket is a solid choice if you prefer to talk to a customer representative face-to-face.
straight Talk It is owned by Verizon and is often marketed at Walmart locations. It has unlimited talk, text, and data plans starting at $45 per month. These plans come with 10GB of hot-spot data and unlimited international calling to Mexico and Canada. However, US Mobile and Verizon-owned Visible offer plans at the same price with better value and more features like bundled smartwatch support.
Tracfone Prepaid cellular service owned by Verizon. Like Consumer Cellular, its marketing is heavily focused on older users. And like Consumer Cellular, the plans aren’t the best value. On a more positive note, many TracFone plans include rollover data, which is unusual. This may be tempting if you don’t need much data, but sometimes use more data than usual.
ting mobile Is a prepaid cellular service that uses the Verizon network. It used to be owned by T-Mobile and is owned by Boost. Ting offers unlimited plans, although many unlimited plans have low high-speed data limits. Hot-spot data is included in all plans, but international is not included, so you will be charged extra for it. Smartwatches are not supported. I personally used it as my primary service five years ago, but it changed as its plans became less competitive.
consumer cellular is a brand that markets itself to older individuals with the promise of simple, affordable service. However, the company’s plans are more expensive than competitors, starting at $20 per month for just 1GB of data. The company has ranked highly in at least one Consumer Reports user survey. Consumer Cellular has retail locations and opened its 50th store in July 2025.
mobilex is a prepaid service on the Verizon network with a range of pay-as-you-go and unlimited plans. Given their limits on data and international usage, unlimited plans don’t seem attractive to me.
redpocket mobile Verizon is a prepaid mobile carrier with access to AT&T and T-Mobile (users choose networks at sign-up). It has a simple plan system with only three tiers, ranging from 3GB to 50GB of premium data. Only the premium tier has hot spots. All plans include some degree of international coverage in 80-ish countries with 100 minutes/100 texts and a decent chunk of data (1GB to 10GB), so they’re a good option for people who travel internationally but don’t use enough data to justify the more expensive Google Fi Unlimited Premium plan. I was also disappointed with RedPocket Mobile’s app, which proved to be buggy and frequently made errors claiming that my personal information was incorrect but not explaining what specifically was wrong.
total wireless It is also owned by Verizon and offers unlimited plans starting at $40 per month. Those are reasonable plans, but once again, US Mobile and Verizon’s own Visible’s options are more attractive overall.
uscellular Until recently, it was the oldest independent MVNO in the US, but it was acquired by T-Mobile in 2024, and T-Mobile plans to integrate the company into T-Mobile. So, while you can still technically purchase a plan from the company, it makes more sense to go to T-Mobile.
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