Prepaid phone service can reduce your monthly cell-phone costs, but not every prepaid plan assures you of savings. Here are a couple of features to avoid with pay-as-you-go prepaid plans, along with better alternatives—including, in one case, a contract plan.

Paying for minutes, as with a contract plan. Any prepaid plan that works like a contract plan—set monthly fee for a set number of minutes—runs counter to the main appeal of prepaid, which is to buy only what you need, and sets you up for overbuying minutes.

For example, AT&T’s “GoPhone Pick your Plan” charges $50 a month for 400 minutes and 3,000 included night and weekend minutes.

If you need only 400 or so daytime minutes per month, skip the above deal and check out an AT&T contract plan, “Nation 450”. This plan provides more daytime minutes (450) and more included night and weekend minutes (5,000) for a smaller monthly fee ($40). Better yet, consider Verizon Wireless’ “Nationwide Basic 450” contract plan, which is similarly priced, but provides unlimited night and weekend minutes.

Paying a daily fee, regardless of use. Boost Mobile’s “Daily chat & text” prepaid is a plan we’ve had misgivings about since we first saw it. It charges $1 per day, regardless of whether you use the phone. That amounts to a minimum monthly fee of $28 in disguise. On top of that, you pay 10 cents per day-time minute. Talk a mere 200 minutes in a typical month, and the daily fee plus per-minute charges add up to $50.

At that rate, you may as well sign up for Boost’s $50 unlimited plan, Virgin’s $50 unlimited plan, which are available nationwide, or check out newcomer Straight Talk’s $45 unlimited plan, which is currently available for activation only if you live in the green areas on this service map.

If you don’t talk much, say, only about 100 minutes per month, Boost’s “Pay as you go” plan, will be cheapest, because it charges just 10 cents a minute only for the minutes used, with no daily or monthly fee for regular voice cellular service. (Text messages are 10 cents apiece, less than a la carte rates with most contract plans.) And minutes do not expire, as they do with some other per-minute plans, because you don’t buy minute bundles. With this plan, you prepay dollars to your account at least once every 90 days, and spend them only on the minutes you actually use at a rate of 10 cents per.  —Jeff Blyskal

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Samsung Jack smart phone on the AT&T network. (Click to enlarge.) [ Photo courtesy of AT&T ]

We've just added two new, and competent, smart phones to our Ratings, available to subscribers. Meanwhile, the Palm Pre, which remains among our recommended smart phones (available to subscribers), will be available from Verizon in the new year, a development that would-be owners might want to consider before buying now from Sprint.

Samsung Jack ($100) AT&T. The Jack is the "low end" update to the popular and high-scoring Blackjack II smart phone. (The other is the $180 Epix, which scores well in our Ratings.) We like the Blackjack family for their combination scroll wheel and jog dial, which provides quick, easy access to the phone's applications and home-screen icons. The Jack adds Wi-Fi and upgrades the 1.9 megapixel camera of the Blackjack II to 3.2 megapixels, and adds a 2X zoom.

T-Mobile Sidekick LX 3G ($250). This pricey smart phone is slightly thinner than the LX model it replaces, which isn't saying much since the Sidekicks are some of the bulkiest phones in our Ratings. But at least it adds 3G capability, a bigger display, and a higher-megapixel camera. It has a relatively large 3.1-in. display that swings open to reveal a well-spaced QWERTY keyboard that’s among the best we've seen.

Both phones are exclusively available from the indicated carriers. Controversy over such deals rose in recent months, in part over demand for the Palm Pre, which is exclusively available from Sprint—the lowest-scoring carrier in our Ratings of cell-service, available to subscribers.

This week, following months of rumors to that effect, Verizon confirmed that it too, would offer the Pre, beginning in early 2010. Details of Verizon pricing and plans have not been announced. But given that Verizon has perennially been among the best carriers in our Ratings, you might want to hold off on a Pre purchase, at least until more details are forthcoming about a Verizon Pre. —Mike Gikas