Prepaid or Subscription?

The mobile communications market is changing. According to the online comparison service Bonus.ch, customers are switching providers more and more frequently. For their part, providers are undercutting each other with promotional offers and primarily advertise subscriptions. Users are benefiting from cheaper rates than ever before, but the dark side behind the subscription hype remains: Those who sign up for a subscription are usually bound by contract terms that are designed to prevent them from quickly switching to another provider. As a result, despite the many switches, many people still stay with their provider for longer than 5 years, paying subscriptions that are priced well above 20 francs per month.

There is a reason why subscriptions are so popular. For a monthly fee, which can be higher or lower, you are usually connected without limits and can also buy a device, the price of which you can then pay off via your subscription fee. The barriers to entry are therefore particularly low with subscriptions.

Subscriptions are also usually sold as promotional offers. For example, with most of these offers, you can benefit from a lower basic fee for a certain term or receive additional services such as one year of Netflix or Spotify for free.

On the other hand, subscriptions almost always include contractual conditions that are intended to prevent you from leaving the subscription prematurely. Even with “lifetime” discounts, all that glitters is not always gold. A lifetime discount is often nothing more than the usual list price with a made-up and massively higher “base price” advertised.

However, the disadvantages of subscriptions usually become apparent after a certain delay, namely when you are dissatisfied for some reason and want to get out of the contract. In most cases, a high penalty fee is then charged, and the unpaid “free smartphone” is either billed or reclaimed.

So when subscribing, be sure to read the fine print and don’t be blinded by all the “super deals”.

The small print is often limited with prepaid rates. The big advantage of this model is the freedom it offers you as a user. You pay for what you need and can also simply switch to another provider or another rate plan at any time if you wish.

Prepaid was and is particularly popular with people who only use their mobile connection sparingly and therefore do not want to pay for flat rates. Accordingly, you are connected more cheaply than anywhere else with a prepaid rate for low usage.

The disadvantage of prepaid becomes apparent as soon as you want to transfer a lot of data or make phone calls. With prepaid, you usually pay for certain volume packages, for example, per gigabyte or per 500 MB. This is particularly expensive if you want to stream videos or send and receive large image files while on the move.

You know prepaid subscriptions from services like Netflix, Spotify or Apple Music. Digital Republic’s rates are also sold as prepaid subscriptions. Just like with classic subscriptions, you pay a monthly fee in this case and can surf and/or make calls throughout Switzerland without any limits.

Unlike typical subscriptions, you are not bound to a minimum contract period or notice period with Digital Republic’s prepaid subscription. You simply pay month by month in advance and can pause the renewal of the prepaid subscription or cancel the subscription at any time.

With a prepaid subscription, you have the typical prepaid advantage of absolute freedom when and for how long you want to pay for the service, and at the same time enjoy a flat rate that is otherwise only available with subscriptions.

We explained in more detail why this freedom is so important for users in our article “Connected Unbound”.

Prepaid subscriptions like those from Digital Republic combine the best of both worlds. By the way, if you order a physical SIM card, you can also test it at Digital Republic for 30 days free of charge and without any obligation, even without specifying a payment method. Take a look!