Today, you can get a prepaid smartphone that easily competes with contract phones, even a prepaid iPhone. You will pay more up front, but entry-level monthly plans are much less. For instance, you will pay $649.99 for a 16GB iPhone 4S and $30 per month for 2.5 GB data, unlimited texting and 300 minutes on Virgin Mobile. So for the first year, your out-of-pocket would be $1,010 before taxes and fees. On AT&T, you will pay $199.99 for the 16GB iPhone 4S and $89.99 per month for 3GB of data, unlimited texting and 450 minutes. So your expenses the first year would be $1,279.87 before taxes and fees and you would still have another year on your contract. Since taxes are included in the prepaid monthly price, the overall savings can be about 40%.

Before you get too excited, keep in mind that the latest and hottest new phones are still available to contract customers months before they trickle down to prepaid plans, and to the carriers that mainly offer them. And, like contract phones, prepaid phones are usually locked to the carrier you purchase them from. But there's no denying the savings. Prepaidonline.Com provides prepaid airtime refills for all smart phones from all carriers.