Most cell phone companies have come out with two different types of billing. The first is prepaid, and the other is continuous billing. With prepaid plans, you buy your minutes beforehand and you can use them until they run out.
If you sign up for a plan that uses continuous billing, it will work more like a credit card account. The cell phone provider allows you to use the service each month and sends you a bill. As long as you pay your bill, you can keep using the service.
When you have bad credit, the cell phone provider is less likely to trust that you will pay your bill. Since they are taking on all of the risk, they may not want to allow you to get billing of this type.
If you're looking to get a credit account with a cell phone provider, you will need to have at least decent credit. Most providers will want to see a score of at least 630, but some would like to see a much higher credit score than that.
If you put down a deposit, the cell phone company will allow you to use the phone as long as you pay your bill on time. Additionally, they will normally have a limit equal to the amount of your deposit.
For those of you that dont want to put down a deposit, you can opt to sign up for the prepaid option. With this option, you normally have to buy the phone up front and then you usually buy cards to refill the phones minutes.
Since the cell phone company doesnt really take on risk with the prepaid option, you can get easily get this option even if you have terrible credit. In fact, the cell phone company wont check your credit if you choose this option.
Almost every major cell phone provider out there provides both of these options. If you are unsure which option is the best for you, you may want to call the company of your choice and talk to them about your options.
