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Last chance! Get 50% off a cheap pre-paid data plan!

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Pre-paid data plans are a great way to save money and remain independent of contractual obligations to carriers. Now, Tello offers 50% off in your first month with their pre-paid data plans. But what kind of benefits do you get with contractless plans? Is a pre-paid plan the best option for you? Keep on reading to find out! 

Choosing the right data plan is an admittedly tricky decision. Aside from coverage and benefits, you need to be aware of the contract details of your plan to avoid hidden fees, and the commitment of 36 months that most providers ask for is a considerable long-term expense. A pre-paid data plan comes to save you from all this by allowing you to freely customize your data plan or simply end it whenever you wish.

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Snap deal: Get any Tello Pre-paid plan for 50% off until mid-April

Now Tello, an NVMO carrier with excellent reviews, offers 50% off your first month with their most popular plan combinations. But, since the options are fully customizable, you can still benefit from the deal even if you wish to change the recommended plans. The prices are also very attractive, considering that you can stop paying anytime you want, but there are a few caveats you need to be aware of that we will explain below. Here are the most popular data plans and a comparison with the cheapest Verizon Unlimited and pre-paid plans.

Popular Tello pre-paid plans compared

Carrier Tello Tello Tello Tello Verizon Verizon 
Plan Value Smart Custom Data Pre-paid 5GB Unlimited 5G Start Contract
Amount of Data 2 GB 4 GB 6 GB Unlimited* 5GB Unlimited*
Unlimited Text & Talk Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Benefits Free calls and Text to over 60 countries | Automatic renewal every 30 days | Free cancelation, upgrade or downgrade | Free hotspot tethering. Free calls and Text to over 60 countries | Automatic renewal every 30 days | Free cancelation, upgrade or downgrade | Free hotspot tethering. Free calls and Text to over 60 countries | Automatic renewal every 30 days | Free cancelation, upgrade or downgrade | Free hotspot tethering. Free calls and Text to over 60 countries | Automatic renewal every 30 days | Free cancelation, upgrade or downgrade | Free hotspot tethering. Free texts to 200 countries | 5G network | Loyalty discount up to $15 after 10 months    Six-month trial: Disney+, Apple Music, and Apple or Google Play Pass | Free texting to 200 countries | Data and calls available in Mexico and Canada.
Price/month $14 $19 $24 $39 $40 $80
Activation fee $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $35

*Unlimited data are capped at 25 GB with Tello; speeds are either LTE or 5G, after that the speeds decrease considerably to 2G speeds. With Verizon, your speeds depend on network capacity.

With this offer, the benefits become apparent, especially compared to Verizon. You get a cheaper plan, free calls to 60 countries, and free upgrades and downgrades. You only get to pay half of what you see on the monthly price for each plan for the first month, then the price is adjusted to what is listed. This is true for any plan combination that costs $10 and upwards, so you can even get a plan for as low as $5! 

With Verizon, things are trickier. To get a similar amount of data for the price, you would have to stay for over ten months to benefit from the loyalty discount that tops up at $15, bringing the cost of the 5 GB pre-paid plan down to $25. But until then, you will have to pay a premium of $40 for the first two months, $35 with paperless billing for the third month, $30 from the fourth to the 9th month, and only then your bill will go down to $25 which is more expensive, offers one less gigabyte and no free calls to other countries.

What are pre-paid data plans?

Pre-paid data plans allow you to use a network and have a number without any long-term contractual obligation. At the beginning of each month, you pay upfront for the amount of data, texts, and talk that you are going to use in the future.

The advantage of pre-paid plans is that you can easily cancel them whenever you feel like it, or adjust them to meet your future demands without any fees or extra costs. This means that you can freely jump from carrier to carrier, benefiting from their deals. Lastly, you can freely swap your SIM card between compatible, unlocked devices!

The disadvantages are that even for unlimited plans, you get very slow speeds after you have used a certain amount of data, which in this example is 25 GB for both Verizon and Tello.  In addition, you do not get any benefits like free streaming subscriptions. But the greatest setback is that you cannot pay for devices with installments, you will have to pay upfront for the cost of your device and it will have to be unlocked.

What do I need to know before choosing Tello?

Before you move on to choose a Tello plan, there are a few things you need to know first. The most important is to check the coverage. Tello is as we said, an MVNO carrier, which means that it does not have a network, using T-Mobile's instead. Since the beginning of the year, the company is only providing GSM coverage, so you will require a compatible device in order for your connection to work

Thankfully, you can use almost any unlocked device that supports the GSM network, and you can also bring over your existing number free of charge. The only additional fee you would have to pay is a new SIM card and the postal expenses (with free shipping options). 

But if you do not have a network compatible and unlocked device, Tello also has a selection of devices available, like the TCL A30 starting from $139 or the Samsung Galaxy A12s from $199. Still, these options are pretty old, and I would recommend checking our included best lists.

What do you think of this flash deal? Do you use a pre-paid plan? Would you like to see more? Let me know in the comments!

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Zois Bekios Zannikos

Zois Bekios Zannikos
Junior Editor

Gamer and Tech enthusiast with an affinity for all things scientific. When i am not writing here on NextPit you'll find me arguing with strangers on Facebook. Too young for a Millenial, too old for Gen Z.

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