There are countless number of services that are available today from telecommunications, magazine subscriptions, video game playing times, club memberships, gyms, and much more. But if you have the option to either go Prepaid or Postpaid, which would you choose? There are certain things that you need to consider if you’re planning to get a service and you’re currently deciding how to go about paying them.
First of all, Prepaid services are usually one time payments for services that are already packaged. For example, you have a $10 Prepaid Cellular phone card where you can send 100 text messages and 20 minutes of call time. Once you purchase it you are only limited to the package and once you have used them up, you would have to buy another card.
One of the issues of having prepaid services is that you are usually limited to a one time service. You need to purchase it again to use it. The good thing is that there are lots of cheap prepaid packages that could suit your needs. Let’s say you just want to limit your online game playing time to 5 hours, you would purchase a 5 hour prepaid card instead of a monthly subscription. It could really benefit you more if you aren’t using the service constantly. You can use it at your own pace (you can skip a month if you don’t need it instead of paying it monthly).
Postpaid services are those that you usually pay on a monthly basis. These are mostly subscriptions and memberships. For example, you pay $30 a month for a membership to a nearby gym (unlimited use). As long as you’re paying the monthly fee, you are free to use their facility. Contracts may also apply to postpaid services such as telecommunications (mobile, landline, internet, etc.).
There are lots of advantages of postpaid services and of them is the price. At first glance it may really look a lot more expensive than prepaid services. It is true since a monthly subscription would cost you more most of the time but if you look at it deeply some of them may really be a lot cheaper. Let’s take the gym example. A day pass to the gym costs $5 and you’d have to pay another $5 on your next visit if you don’t have a postpaid membership. But if you apply for the $30 a month membership, take a look at how much you could save. Let’s say you go to the gym 20 days a month. If you buy only day passes, it would cost you $100 which is too much. But if you apply for membership, you could go there for the whole month if you like for only $30. That’s usually the case for most services and you could even have some other perks with your membership.
So which would you choose? It would depend on your needs/preference and what type of services will you be getting. Before purchasing, always see to it that you look for options. Study what the company offers you more as it may differ from another company. Choose between prepaid or postpaid based on which could give you benefits depending on how you will use it, how frequent, how efficient it will be, and how much would you save in the long run. Always be a smart buyer.
