No. 1 Question to Ask Before You Buy a Prepaid Cell Phone

The first question to ask yourself is: Why do I need a cell phone?

Are you buying a prepaid cell phone for the convenience of making and receiving a few phone calls while you are out and about? Do you expect to use it all the time? Would you do text messaging? Or do you see your phone a useful portable device that will monitor your emails, take pictures, listen to music on and have cool ring-tones?

Nowadays, lots of companies have entered the prepaid cell phone services market and there are plenty of choices available. From a basic cell phone that works to one that lets you browse the web, send/receive email, play music, do instant messaging on a Qwerty keypad and more.

Obviously, the more sophisticated the phone, the more the phone costs, and the more you may have to spend on the usage of it.

So before you get carried away looking at all the different phone models, take a minute to reflect on what the must have features are and what the nice to have features are. Then ask yourself if it is worth spending that extra $XX on all these other nice to have features. Also, factor in the cost of usage, not just the cost of the phone. For example, the additional cost for web surfing.

Remember, this is what you are exchanging your money for. You work hard for your money, wouldn't you want to spend it meaningfully?