Best Cell-Phone Plans for Every Type of User

all it the wireless wars. Cell phone carriers are falling all over themselves in their rush to entice you with their latest promotions, which range from overhauled plans and pricing to hefty cash rebates if you’re willing to break your contract with your current carrier. In a span of a couple of weeks in August, most of the major carriers either updated some of their current plans or introduced new plans to compete more aggressively for your business. “I think it’s a better time now than it ever has been for customers looking for deals,” says Logan Abbott, president of Wirefly, a site that compares phone plans.

Intense competition has wrought a much wider selection of no-contract options with lower-price service plans. T-Mobile led the charge in spring 2013 by discontinuing two-year contracts on all of its plans. Its customers can bring their own compatible devices or pay full freight for their phones rather than select a device at a subsidized price that carriers typically pair with a contract. Now AT&T, Sprint and Verizon also allow customers to pay the full price for a phone or bring their own devices in exchange for lower pricing on a service plan and freedom from a contract.