No Contract Cell Phone Service: Consumer Reports

Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile now all offer cell-phone service without a two-year service contract. It may sound like a good deal. With no-contract deals you usually get lower monthly charges, but the plans can charge hefty prices for the phones themselves. Consumer Reports compared 78 cell-phone plans from 12 different carriers. It analyzed plans for three types of people: an average, single-user; a low-use couple; and a high-use family of four