Can You Still Buy Prepaid Phones Today?

The difference between prepaid and subscription wireless service hinges on when you pay for a month of service. In that sense, when you sign up for a subscription plan, you're also signing up for a line of credit. For a while now, telecom companies have been attaching subsidies, promotions, and add-ons to these plans, enticing those switching carriers with free stuff, while locking subscribers down with contracts to keep them paying premium plan rates. That hasn't been the case for prepaid carriers, which have traditionally focused on value for their core services.

You can buy phones from a wide variety of retailers, including the prepaid carriers themselves, and use the devices with a prepaid service. But did you know big box chains like Walmart, Family Dollar, and Dollar General also sell phones that come with complimentary wireless service? If not, you've come to the right place to learn what it means to get a phone and what it means to get locked to a prepaid phone.

Devices marketed as prepaid phones tend to be tightly integrated to the carrier on the packaging. If you see a Simple Mobile phone (one of many Verizon-owned carriers), you're not going to be able to activate it out of the box on T-Mobile. For devices purchased outside of a carrier store, a SIM card is typically included with purchase, or pre-installed, so that you can go through service activation as you set the phone up. You'll find plenty of iPhones and Androids on a mid-range or budget spec in this category, some of them refurbished and from prior model years. 

Then there are the phone-and-service bundles. These products take a budget device and pair it with service on a fixed term. Look hard enough and you'll find examples such as Walmart with a Motorola Moto G Play from 2025 selling for $80 that includes 365 days of TracFone service with monthly allowances of 1,500 talk minutes, 1,500 text messages, and 1,500 megabytes of data. Or how about Target selling an iPhone 7 — a 10-year-old device — for $350. The perk in this case is $50 of AT&T Prepaid credit, which is equivalent to two months on AT&T's unlimited prepaid plan.

A good option, if you can afford it, is to purchase an unlocked device separate from your service plan. This gives you more options to choose from, including devices from brands that aren't sold in North America such as OnePlus, Oppo, or Xiaomi. By opening this door, however, it does close some others, as AT&T and Verizon limit network access to devices they have certified. T-Mobile is less restrictive on this front. For example, I use a phone from Chinese brand Vivo — known for its X300 Ultra smartphone with a 400mm telephoto lens attachment — and have data access via one of many carriers that utilize T-Mobile. 

If you've already purchased a phone from one carrier and want to bring it to a prepaid carrier, you do have another option. Wireless companies are generally encouraged (but not required) to develop and follow a device unlock policy. For prepaid phones, this typically means making a request, after 365 days of paid service, to have the carrier-locking software on your phone deactivated so that you can bring it to another carrier. Once your device is unlocked, the same network compatibility hurdles apply.