BILLPAY vs. PREPAY – John Verling Explains

BILLPAY vs. PREPAY (Part One)

A question I’m asked almost daily by mobile phone users is which is better, prepay or billpay? Prepay being when you top up by purchasing credit before you make your calls; billpay is when you pay monthly for them. There is so much choice for phone users these days it should be possible to find a plan to cover almost anyone’s use without having to pay an arm and a leg for the privilege. Some people don’t trust billpay as they feel they are in charge of their spending by using top-up, others want the freedom to make calls at all times and feel billpay gives them that. In this article I will lay out the options open to the former, next time I’ll give those available to the latter.

With prepay there is great value if you tend to text more or if you tend to just call people who are on the same network as yourself. For €20 every thirty days you can chose between a plan allowing you to text anyone on any network at no extra charge or a plan allowing you call or text anyone on the same network as you  at no extra charge.  The crucial bit about the second option is the same network as you. As you can now move network and keep your number a prefix of 087 no longer means only  Vodafone, 086 O2, 085 Meteor or 083 Three. If you have a plan allowing you free calls and texts to fellow Vodafone users calling Tommy on 0871234567 would not be free if Tommy has moved his number to Meteor. A lot of people get caught this way. It’s no harm checking with regular callers which network they are on, it can save you money! The only prerequisites for these two plans are to sign up for your choice and to top-up by €20 every thirty days. If you are not on one of these plans an average call can cost you up to 29cents per minute and texts can be up to 15cent per text sent. You can change plans every thirty days if the one you are on doesn’t suit.  If you are currently spending more than €20 per month on credit, it would be well worth your while considering going on one of the above plans. 

For those of you who are still don’t fully trust billpay, or more to the point themselves on billpay, but yet don’t want to be caught at a crucial time without credit the mobile networks all offer a compromise option. The Vodafone Simply, Meteor Lite and the Three Best of Both plans give you the freedom of billpay but curtail some of the benefits just like prepay. You take out a thirty day contract, payable by direct debit monthly, and the network gives you a certain amount of free minutes and texts each month. If you go over your monthly allowance it will charged to your bill at a rate close to that of prepay or if you are on Three you revert to prepay for the remainder of the thirty days. It is possible to track your usage from your phone so you can still stay in charge. The networks don’t offer free or reduced priced phones with these plans so if you’re changing phone you’ll have to pay full price. The contract is for thirty days at a time so if you find its not suiting you, you are free to go back to prepay.

John Verling