Before we talk about my hand-picked best cell phone plans of 2025, it is important to understand your cell phone bill is made of two things: the cost of the phone and the cost of the plan.
To help you get the best deal possible, we want to optimize both of these things.
You have two general approaches:
Which approach is best for you?
It depends.
Each approach has pros and cons.
With the Big Wireless Bundle, you are getting a discounted phone by doing a trade-in deal with one of the big carriers, typically at the expense of having to sign up for a more expensive cell phone plan.
The big carriers, AT&T, Boost Mobile, T-Mobile, and Verizon, all generally offer between $400 and $1,000 off a new phone when you trade-in your old one.
This means you can generally get a new iPhone, Samsung phone, or Google phone for completely free, or steeply discounted.
BUT, to be eligible for the best trade-in deals, big carriers typically require you to be on their most expensive cell phone plans. Prices range from $65 to $90 per month for a single line.
When you think of the Big Wireless Bundle, think low-cost phone, expensive plan.
Pros:
Cons:
With the Phone Freedom Formula, you are purchasing an unlocked phone directly from the manufacturer (Apple, Samsung, Google, etc.) and giving yourself the freedom to choose any cell phone plan from any carrier.
The formula is:
Unlocked phone + affordable cell phone plan = massive monthly savings
An unlocked phone means it isn’t tied to any carrier or contract. You are free to use the phone on any cell phone plan or carrier you choose.
Instead of $65 to $90 per month, you could spend $10 to $30 per month on a cell phone plan from a prepaid carrier.
Popular prepaid carriers include US Mobile, Mint Mobile, and Visible.
When you think of the Phone Freedom Formula, think expensive phone, affordable plan.
Pros:
Cons:
The best approach for you, either the Big Wireless Bundle or the Phone Freedom Formula, is simply based on how many lines you have.
If you have 1-3 lines, the Phone Freedom Formula will generally be your best option. Yes, you will have to spend a bit more money up front on the phones. BUT, you will save yourself big-time over the course of one, two, and three years by having a significantly lower cell phone bill. (We’ll get into some real numbers in a second).
If you have 4+ lines, the Big Wireless Bundle will generally be your best option. When you have four lines, the big carriers typically give you a great multi-line discount. Combine the discount with the free phone trade-in deals, and you’re looking at an overall great value here.
Let me give you a real-world example so you can see how these two different formulas compare based on how many lines you have.
Let’s say you’ve got an iPhone 13 Pro Max and you’re looking to upgrade to the new iPhone 16 Pro Max.
How do the different options stack up?
Here’s a full breakdown:
Let’s say you have a single line.
With the Big Wireless Bundle, all the big carriers offer you $1,000 off the iPhone 16 Pro Max when you trade-in your iPhone 13 Pro Max.
BUT all the trade-in deals are over a period of 24 or 36 months. And only certain plans are eligible for the full $1,000 of credit. So you are kind of stuck on a more expensive plan for the next 2-3 years.
To help keep the comparison easy, let’s look at the full cost for the phone and plan for a period of 3 years:
Now, let’s say you go with the Phone Freedom Formula.
Here, you buy your new iPhone 16 Pro Max directly from Apple. Apple gives you $350 of trade-in credit for your old iPhone 13 Pro Max. So you’re spending $849 out of pocket on your new phone.
But because your iPhone is unlocked, and you’re able to choose any cell phone plan you want.
Let’s say you’re looking at four different prepaid plans that cost $10, $15, $25, and $45 per month.
Here are the total costs over three years:
Looking at the 3 year totals, and you can see you save a HEAPING amount of money by going with the Phone Freedom Formula.
The lowest cost option from the Big Wireless Bundle is Boost Mobile. It costs $2,618.11 over 3 years. The lowest cost option from the Phone Freedom Formula is just $1,209.00 with US Mobile’s 2GB plan.
That is $1,409.11 in savings.
BUT… this is not a fair comparison.
US Mobile’s plan only comes with 2GB of high-speed data. Boost Mobile’s plan comes with 30GB.
A more fair comparison would be US Mobile’s $25 Unlimited Starter plan. This comes with 35GB of high-speed data, which even more than Boost Mobile’s plan.
And here, US Mobile Unlimited Starter saves you $869.11 over 3 years compared to Boost Mobile’s plan.
And if you compare US Mobile’s Unlimited Starter plan to Verizon’s Unlimited Ultimate plan, then you save a jaw-dropping $1,937.59 over 3 years.
That’s $53.82 per month!
No matter which plan you choose from the Phone Freedom Formula, you’re saving money over the Big Wireless Bundle option.
BUT…that’s just for one line.
What if you have four lines?
To make things easy, here is a table with the same plans with the prices listed out for four lines:
You’ll notice US Mobile’s 2GB and Mint Mobile’s 5GB plans are still the two most affordable options.
They will save you between $1,759.92 and $764.88 over 3 years.
These plans also only give each line 2GB or 5GB of high-speed data per month. Maybe these plans are fine if you and your family are light data users. But considering Ericsson’s 2024 Mobility Report shows that average data use in North America is 22GB per month, I think you may want a little bit more data per line.
And that is when you come to AT&T’s Unlimited Starter SL plan.
And this plan is magic.
This plan is magic because it is AT&T’s most affordable plan AND it still gives access to AT&T’s best trade-in deals. (AT&T is the only big carrier to do this. All the other big carriers withhold their best deals for their most expensive plans).
The combination of affordable plan price PLUS excellent phone discounts makes AT&T Unlimited Starter SL the most affordable unlimited plan for four lines.
You get everything you need at an excellent price.
Unlimited high-speed data. 5GB of hotspot data. Free roaming in Canada and Mexico. And $1,000 off the newest iPhones every 3 years.
Not bad.
Plus, we’ve gotta talk about upfront device costs.
With the Phone Freedom Formula, you’re paying $3,396 up front to upgrade everyone’s iPhone from the iPhone 13 Pro Max to the iPhone 16 Pro Max.
With the Big Wireless Bundle, you just have to pay taxes up front. Maybe $400-ish? Much easier on the wallet.
And sure, you’ll notice US Mobile Unlimited Starter realistically isn’t much more expensive than AT&T’s plan. Just $2.78 more per line per month. And if you value the freedom and flexibility of being able to switch plans or carriers any time you choose, or the benefits of having an unlocked iPhone, then US Mobile Unlimited Starter’s plan may be a good value. Or any prepaid plan around the $25 price point.
But I think most of you with 4+ lines will enjoy the extra features and perks AT&T Unlimited Starter SL offers, plus the option to go to a physical store for help and support.
Next, we need to address the elephant in the room…
You ask great questions.
Has anyone every told you that?
When I was first researching prepaid phone plans as a high school student back in 2014, I was wondering the same things.
“Are these carriers legit?” I wondered. “How can they afford to offer such affordable plans??! There’s gotta be a catch.”
I thought prepaid carriers must have worse coverage, slower data speeds, worse customer service, or missing features in order to offer such affordable rates.
And it turns out, there are catches with prepaid carriers.
Here are three catches about prepaid carriers you need to be aware of:
Many people assume prepaid carriers have worse coverage than the big carriers.
This is both correct and incorrect.
Let me explain.
It turns out that all cell phone plans in the U.S. use either AT&T, Boost Mobile, T-Mobile, or Verizon for coverage, regardless of who the carrier is.
I explain how this works in my article how some cell phone plans can be so much cheaper than others.
The three bullet summary is:
Because the smaller prepaid carriers are buying access to the big networks to offer service, coverage is about the same between the big carriers and the prepaid carriers.
There is a catch though.
Prepaid carriers miss out on some coverage. They miss out on coverage referred to as “domestic roaming.”
Domestic roaming is where your phone switches to a partner network for service in areas where your primary network doesn’t have coverage. For example, T-Mobile customers will roam on the AT&T network in some parts of Vermont where T-Mobile hasn’t built out its network yet.
Most prepaid cell phone carriers do not have access to domestic roaming agreements.
If you sign up for a prepaid carrier, you may miss out on coverage in some small areas of the U.S.
How do you tell where the big carriers have domestic roaming and if you need access to domestic roaming coverage?
Check the AT&T coverage map, T-Mobile coverage map, or Verizon coverage map and see what areas they have designated as “partner coverage” or “extended network.”
(Note: I am just checking now, and Verizon has stopped designating areas on their map as partner coverage. Instead, check out Visible’s coverage map. Visible is owned by Verizon and uses Verizon for coverage. The purple areas marked as “extended network” are areas where Verizon has domestic roaming.)
If you live in an area with partner coverage, you may want to consider either a) a different carrier or b) a big carrier that includes domestic roaming in that area.
If you live in an area covered by the native network, then any carrier using that network for coverage will have service.
A lot of people perceive prepaid carriers to have slow or throttled data speeds.
And there is some truth to this.
The two biggest differences between prepaid carriers and big carriers are data priority level and high-speed data allowances.
On a cellular network, there are two main data priority levels:
Priority data gives you the fastest speeds available at all times. Even if a network is congested, such as at a sports game, stadium, airport, or other crowded event, you’ll still typically have a usable connection.
Deprioritzed data means your speeds may temporarily slow down or stop working during times when there is heavy network traffic. Once the network is no longer congested, you’ll resume getting the fastest speeds available.
Generally, most prepaid carriers have deprioritized data.
So you may experience slower speeds on a prepaid carrier if you live in an area with a lot of congestion.
That said, the big carriers offer plans with deprioritzed data, too. Verizon Unlimited Welcome, T-Mobile Essentials, and AT&T Unlimited Starter SL are all deprioritized. And these plans tend to be the plans most people are on because they are the most affordable.
If you’re on one of those plans, then you’ll get the exact same network experience on a prepaid carrier as you do with your current carrier.
Plus, it turns out some prepaid carriers now offer plans with priority data.
US Mobile, Visible, and MobileX all offer priority data on Verizon, for example. US Mobile even offers priority data on AT&T, too.
And with 5G networks rolling out in more areas with faster speeds and improved network capacity, the truth of the matter is I think network priority level matters less and less.
The other big difference between the prepaid carriers and the big carriers is how much high-speed data the carriers can offer.
The big carriers own their own cellular networks, and they do not care how much data you use each month. They are able to offer plans with truly unlimited high-speed data.
The prepaid carriers, meanwhile, are purchasing data from the big carriers on a per GB basis. They cannot afford to have users consuming unlimited data because it would erase their profits and prevent them from offering the affordable plans that they do.
So, instead, the prepaid carriers offer plans with set allotments of high-speed data before slowing down, or “throttling,” your data speeds.
Here are some examples:
This setup generally works pretty well because, on average, most people never come close to exceeding the high-speed data allowance included in their plan.
The average data use in North America is just 22GB per month, after all.
There is also one exception.
Some prepaid carriers that are owned by the big carriers directly are able to offer prepaid plans with truly unlimited high-speed data.
For example, Visible is owned by Verizon, Cricket is owned by AT&T, and Metro by T-Mobile is owned by T-Mobile. And Visible, Cricket, and Metro all offer plans with unlimited high-speed data.
So will data speeds be slower on a prepaid carrier?
Sure. Speeds may be slower if you get a plan that is deprioritized or you exceed your high-speed allowance and get throttled to 512 Kbps.
But it is also entirely possible to pick up a prepaid plan with unlimited priority data and get the exact same network experience that you would find from a big carrier.
Many people perceive customer service on prepaid carriers is worse than on the big carrieres.
And, look, the telecom industry as a whole is not known for good customer service.
Go on Reddit and you will read horror stories of people dealing with customer service from ALL cell phone carriers.
Boost Mobile losing a device in shipping. Verizon not applying device trade-in credit to a customer’s account. AT&T reps adding lines without a customer’s knowledge or consent. And T-Mobile charging an arm, a leg, and two kidneys for international roaming fees.
It’s a dumpster fire over there.
And sure, while some prepaid carriers have a reputation for poor customer service (looking at you, Tracfone), I think many prepaid carriers offer customer service on par or above par from the big carriers. Consumer Cellular, Ting, and US Mobile are all prepaid carriers that have become known for having good customer service.
The biggest difference between the big carriers and prepaid carriers is where you can get customer service.
With a big carrier, you can get customer service by going to a physical store.
With most prepaid carriers, you often won’t be able to go to a physical location. You will have to rely on service through online chat, the phone, or email.
If you’re someone who wants to be able to go to a physical store and have someone help you set up your new phone and transfer all of your information over, then going with a big carrier may be a better option for you.
(Pro tip: iPhone users can also go to an Apple Store, and they will help transfer your data over to your new iPhone regardless of who your carrier is.)
However, if you feel reasonably tech savvy, then I think the extra monthly savings of a prepaid plan are worth having to use online chat or phone support in the rare times that you need it.
Plus, let’s face it. The best customer service is not needing customer service.
My best advice to not need customer service is to simply purchase your phone from the manufacturer and NOT the carrier. It turns out a majority of customer service issues are related to the phone. Placing an order, losing an order, getting it activated, getting promo credits applied to your account, etc.
By ordering your new phone from the manufacturer, you can often avoid a lot of headaches that come from dealing with a carrier.
Plus, the manufacturers care a LOT MORE about you having a great purchase experience with their product.
