Anyone that owns a prepaid mobile phone, which is just about everyone over the age of fifteen, will need to buy prepaid airtime for a cellphone sometime or the other. There are a few different networks that one can choose from, some of the most popular ones being MTN, Vodacom, Cell C, and Virgin Mobile and all of these networks have prepaid as well as contract phones available. Airtime is available in a voucher form where you have to scratch a strip with a coin to get your voucher number, or you can get your airtime in the form of a slip and you read the airtime off the slip and dial it into your phone. Some stores sell airtime for cheap while others sell it for its normal price.
There is nothing specific that you would need to know when you buy prepaid airtime for a cellphone, except that you should check that the shop assistant has given you airtime for the correct network. MTN sells airtime from R5 and up, Vodacom and Cell C too, but Virgin Mobile only start at R35, they are yet to create more convenient top-ups. If you are looking for cheap airtime, you should shop around as some stores sell airtime for quite a bit cheaper. For example, you can get R30 airtime for R27.99, which is quite a saving for airtime.
Many people find prepaid cellphones to be more convenient than contract ones as then they do not sit with a bill at the end of the month. With pre-paid, you can buy airtime when you want to, if you don’t have money to spend on airtime for three months, then that is fine. But with a contract you will run it up and when the bill finally comes you will have to cough up all that money in one go. Buying prepaid airtime for a cellphone is easier to work with, when it is finished it is finished, buy more or don’t buy more, it’s as easy as that.