Postpaid? Prepaid? I’ll Go with Postpaid
Saturday, March 20, 2010
“Why?”
That is probably the first question in hand, because in people’s eyes, having a postpaid cellular card could lead to unwanted bills, it’s inability to be limited, and so forth, and so forth. And using a prepaid number is cheaper and easier to the wallet. Well to a certain extent, that’s probably true, but I have good reasons why I chose to stick with a postpaid number.
Reason #1: Convenience
The first and foremost reason for me is convenience. No matter what you do (unless you limit your credits, certain telcos have this feature), you will still have the ability to make a phone call when you need to. Imagine having a low credit on a prepaid phone and you’re stuck in an emergency. Believe me, you don’t want to be caught in that situation. With postpaid numbers, I can also register that to my credit card for auto billing each month. It saves my time and I don’t have to worry that I forgot to pay my bills anymore.
Reason #2: It’s Actually Cheaper
Unless things have changed I didn’t realize, I found using a postpaid number to be a lot cheaper. Back in the days when I was still using a prepaid number, I usually shell out around 200-250k each month for my phone bill. After I switched to postpaid, it’s around 150k. Now, my bill is around 250-275k already with an internet subscription that costs 125k alone. One other thing that I find interesting is how you calculate your rates. Here’s an example of a postpaid rate:

And here’s an example of a prepaid rate:

It’s clear that postpaid numbers have much simpler rate calculations. Personally, I don’t want to waste my time on constantly calculating the best rate for my phone calls. It’s just dreadful, and not to mention unnecessary. Why do we have to have different rates at different times, and at different regions? It’s just simply pointless.
Reason #3: No Fear of Deactivation
While you can also be deactivated by your service provider when using a postpaid number, you don’t have to hassle with different active periods when using different top up vouchers with different nominals. Add that to the rate calculation you already have before, and you’ll have a lifetime’s worth of mathematical problems.
So if your concern is to save money, it’s not the case of whether you should choose prepaid numbers over postpaid numbers. It is a control that you have to achieve for yourself. It’s as simple as making phone calls, texting, or browsing as you need.
Note:
Rates were taken from Indosat. I found other telcos use methods that are more or less the same.








