BELLEVUE, Wash.-Three times more teens are currently using prepaid wireless than last year, a study released Thursday indicated.
According to the second annual Coinstar Teen Poll, one reason for such an increase may be that nearly half of U.S. teens don’t know how many airtime minutes they are allowed under their calling plans, making them more susceptible to overage charges. Among the teens polled in the survey, 39 percent said they use “pay as you go” prepaid plans for wireless service-up from 12 percent in last year’s survey.
The poll indicated that while only 10 percent of teens admit they regularly exceed monthly minutes in their postpaid calling plans, 46 percent said they are unaware how many evening/weekend minutes they are allotted each month, and 36 percent didn’t know how many daytimes minutes they have.
Despite their lack of awareness, teen purchasing power may be higher than ever. A separate study released last week reported that 35 percent of teens said they decide which brands of cell phones to purchase; only 22 percent said their parents decide for them.
