While most people are moving to long-term contracts with their mobile phone service, some people still like to remain free of such long-term commitments. And in fact, there are still some cases where it may behoove you to stick with prepaid cell phones.

The advantages of committing to a cell phone contract are pretty apparent. Fewer usage limitations and a free phone are probably at the top of most lists of these advantages. But such contracts are designed to maximize revenue from you, so you will always find some part of a contract where they will charge you more than you really need to pay.

But believe it or not, some of you out there are not yet completely addicted to hearing from your friends or family members every hour of the days. For you, you may be surprised how little you can pay and still have plenty of talk time with reliable service. In these cases, the cheapest cell phone plan may still be one which you pay in advanced and steer clear of monthly fees and long-term commitments.

My mother-in-law recently paid less than $100 for both a nice cell phone and more than enough minutes to last for 12 months. While this might be an extreme case (she really does not use a cell phone very often), there are less extreme cases where this kind of savings may still be applicable.

Are you not the sort who constantly text messages friends from meetings? Are you not the sort who must have up-to-the-minute updates on Ashton Kutcher’s latest tweets? Then one of the prepaid cell phones may still be the best idea for you.

So you should make sure you know exactly what you really need and keep an open mind to whether you really need to commit yourself to a long-term cell phone contract.