Cell phones have become an every day commodity, but trying to sign up for a monthly plan with major cell phone service providers can prove costly or next to impossible for consumers with bad, little, or no credit history. For those who would rather not submit to a credit check, there are other options for prepaid cell phone plans with no strings attached.
T-Mobile FlexPay and Prepaid
T-Mobile offers potential customers two different options when it comes to choosing a cell phone plan with no credit check.
With a FlexPay account, you choose from one of the available plans (same as regular monthly plans), which operate similarly to a standard plan although you essentially pre-pay for each month in advance. The trade-off, however, for no credit check, deposit, or contract is that you must pay retail price for any cell phone you wish to purchase.
Through it's prepaid service, T-Mobile offers select phones in special prepaid packaging (available at Target, Wal-Mart, and many other retailers), which offer service with a predetermined amount of minutes based on how much money you put on your account. Refill cards for prepaid Pay-As-You-Go accounts are available in denominations of $10, $25, $50, and $100. Once a customer spends a minimum of $100 on refill cards, they enter the Gold Rewards program that provides 15 percent more minutes with every future refill purchase.
T-Mobile Prepaid also offers a Pay-by-the-Day plan that charges users $1 each day (only on days the phone is used), and then just $0.10 per minute after that. In addition, this plan offers free mobile-to-mobile calling (calls to any other T-Mobile customer) as well as free nights (from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.). Pay-by-the-Day accounts are refilled with the same cards used on the Pay-As-You-Go accounts (although the Gold Rewards program is not available).
Unlike the FlexPay plans, which require full retail price for any phone, T-Mobile's prepaid option offers a variety of affordably priced phone packages that also include an activation card with starter airtime.
Boost Mobile
Working through the Sprint PCS and Nextel network, Boost Mobile offers select phones that work with it's "Unlimited" service. Boost Unlimited offers unlimited calling, text, and wireless web for a low monthly price. Service also includes unlimited multimedia messaging and unlimited walkie-talkie service with other Boost customers. The cost for the plan (including taxes and other fees) is paid in advance each month, usually with a credit or debit card (both one-time payment and recurring auto-payment methods are available).
For those who would rather use the refill cards, Boost Mobile has a "pay as you go" option with a wider selection of phones and low per-minute rates. For this type of plan, walkie-talkie and wireless Web are charged on a per-day basis.
MetroPCS and Cricket
MetroPCS and Cricket both offer unlimited cell phone service plans, similar to Boost Unlimited, although the coverage areas of these two providers are much more limited. MetroPCS has the most coverage around its "home areas" of Dallas-Fort Worth, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, New York, Atlanta and most of Florida. Cricket has coverage in most major cities around the United States.
Both Cricket and MetroPCS offer plans with unlimited talk time for as low as $35, with slight price increases for additional features such as unlimited text, long distance, wireless web, and e-mail.
If service is available in your area and traveling is not a concern, one of these services could provide a great value with no credit check needed. If you are more likely to need your cell phone while on vacation, then T-Mobile or Boost Mobile's options may provide a better fit with broader coverage and, of course, no credit check necessary.
Tags: cell phone, credit check, Boost Mobile, with credit, Boost Unlimited, cell phone service