What is prepaid? How mobile providers work

The question of what prepaid actually is usually comes up when choosing the right mobile plan. It is a payment model where you load credit onto your SIM card to use mobile services.

When you are looking for a new tariff, for example because of a larger Internet flat rate or due to lower prices at the competition, the word prepaid often comes up. It describes the tariff of your SIM card.

Simply explained: This is prepaid

The term prepaid comes from the English language and can be translated as "prepaid" or "advance payment". It is mainly used for SIM cards for cell phones. The payment model describes a purchase process in which the customer pays in advance and can later use his credit flexibly as needed.

• The best-known prepaid providers in Germany are Vodafone, Telekom, Aldi Talk or Blau.de. They all offer prepaid cards at different rates.
• Some of the providers have their own network infrastructure. Their Internet connection is accordingly better. The other providers have to buy network access and can therefore often not offer additional features such as fast LTE.
• The prices for calls and SMS differ between the prepaid providers. Internet is billed according to connection frequency and duration. Dabei lohnt es sich in der Regel, eine Flatrate abzuschließen. Diese Flatrate wird monatlich von Ihrem Prepaid-Guthaben abgebucht und ermöglicht Ihnen eine vorab festgelegte Menge an Anrufen, SMS und Internet-Besuchen.
• Wenn Ihr Guthaben aufgebraucht ist, müssen Sie es aufladen, um den Service Ihres Mobilfunkanbieters wieder nutzen zu können.