Published on July 1st, 2016 | by Guest

6 Reasons to Consider MVNOs

Have you ever thought of switching over to a mobile virtual network or MVNO? If your contract with your cellular provider is about to end, you might want to consider switching over to prepaid, instead. Not only will you be looking at hundreds or even thousands of dollars in savings, you’ll be able to stay contract-free while enjoying the same services that you are used to getting from your provider.

Here are 6 solid reasons to make the switch to MVNOs:

Monthly plans are far less expensive.

The prices offered by MVNOs are by far its greatest advantage over the major carriers in the US. Most consumers tend to believe that prepaid plans are offered poorer quality of service compared to those serviced by the big companies. It’s a misconception. In a nutshell, you’re actually paying much less for the same plans using an MVNO than you would have with any of the top companies.

They offer more flexibility.

MVNOs also offer more flexibility in terms of plans. Typically, there are two types of plans that you can avail of: pay-as-you-go and unlimited. Pay-as-you-go basically means you pay whatever you use, while unlimited plans offer unlimited data or minutes for a specific length of time. Some other prepaid carriers may offer even more flexibility with plans that can be adjusted to meet your needs. The key here is to look at the ongoing rates for texts, minutes, and data, and figure out which plan suits your current needs the most. Overall, it would still be far cheaper than those offered by the big companies.

Minutes are carried over.

When you get a contract plan from a major carrier, you would normally get caps on the number of texts that you make or the minutes that you use up. Any minutes or data used over the cap gets charged a ridiculous amount on top of your monthly subscription fee. On the other hand, any unused minutes, texts, and data would normally disappear by the end of the month. Well, that isn’t such an issue with prepaid plans. With prepaid plans, extra minutes are typically rolled over to the next month, and flexible plans means you can change up the inclusions of your prepaid plan.

You can choose your own device.

There are MVNOs that allow their customers to use their own unlocked phones from previous contract with any of the major carriers. Or you can simply use an unlocked phone. Either way, the great thing about going prepaid is that your choice of phone isn’t as limited.

It’s contract-free.

Contracts protect both the consumer and the provider, but the thing about the big carriers’ contracts is that they offer subsidized phones attached to their two-year contracts – and with ridiculously inflated monthly fees. These types of contracts are legally binding, so if you might be held liable should you choose to violate the contract terms. Not so much a problem with MVNOs since they’re contract-free.

Your credit cards are kept safe.

Prepaid carriers hardly collect any personal information at all. In fact, in most cases, you’d only need to provide your name and your payment, which means you can definitely avoid giving your credit card details and personal identifiable information.

MVNOs are certainly more popularly used now than they were a few years back, and with good reason. If you’re looking to save some cash on your mobile phone plans, or simply want a backup data connection in case your main network goes out, then an MVNO might just be the right fit for you.

Tags: consider, MVNO, reasons, telecom