Why i choose Singtel Mobile Prepaid plan over postpaid?

Samsung Galaxy Nexus
Mine (15 September 2012)	S$420
Singtel bundle price (only Flexi Lite Youth is eligible for this price)	S$268
Retail price in Sim Lim Square	S$550

Mobile & Data Plan (possible choices)
Prepaid Mobile			Postpaid Plan
Hot$55	Yo!$18	DataTalk$22	Flexi Lite Youth	Flexi SuperLite
*S$15 (S$9 per 30 days)	S$18	S$22	S$39.90	S$27.90
$40 worth of local talktime, SMS and MMS/data	120 mins of local outgoing calls	120 mins of local outgoing calls	100 mins of local outgoing calls	100 mins of local outgoing calls
	FREE incoming calls all day	FREE incoming calls all day	FREE incoming calls all day	FREE incoming calls all day
	1,000 local SMSes	500 local SMSes	Unlimited local SMSes	500 local SMSes
	50MB of local data	250MB of local data	2GB of local data	100MB of local data
$15 worth of IDD talktime and Global SMS		$12 worth of IDD talktime and Global SMS
50 days validity *equivalent to S$9 per 30 days	30 days validity	30 days validity	24 months plan	24 months plan
S$108 per year	S$216 per year	S$264 per year	S$478.8 per year	S$334.8 per year

† The plans here are for my personal preference; if you are looking for all the plans , please refer to singtel.com

By looking at the prepaid column and the postpaid column, you will find out that the price of postpaid is much higher than prepaid. However, a lot of people still choose postpaid plan in the end. 

What's the secret behind it? 

The mobile phone here is a decisive factor here. The local retail price is twice over the Singtel bundle price,  and interestingly, the customer service is two time worsen than the latter one. It's reasonable to choose postpaid plan, while you don't have to look for it and negotiate with the impatient shop owner. 

If you are a mobile data hogger, surfing the web page and watch Youtube sometimes, Flexi Lite (youth) with 2GB data is your dish.

Nevertheless,  I still stand with prepaid. 

Let me show you the cost for all the plans over two years:

Hot$55 = 108*2 + 420 = S$636

Hot$55  = 216*2 + 420 = S$852

DataTalk$22 = 264*2 + 420 = S$948

Flexi Lite Youth = 478.8*2 + 268 = S$1225.6

Flexi SuperLite = 334.8*2 + 420 = S$1089

Flexibility 

Prepaid plan is much short-term Oriental compared to postpaid 2-year contract; a 30 or 50 days service allows me to change based on different periods. 

For normal school day, I will use Hot$55 because I will be either school or home most of the time. Data isn't important, but the 50-day validity for S$15 is immensely attractive to me. 

For holiday, I will swing between Yo!$18 and DataTalk$22, depending on the usage of data. 250MB is sufficient for online messaging and micro blog browsing, and frankly, it's luxuriously enough. On the other hand, 50MB is a bit stingy for micro blog browsing, but occasional online messaging is enough with the time control. 

Phone price

In my case, phone price isn't the problem. I can get the much cheaper price from oversea, and avoid the unfriendly negotiation in Singapore. Consequently, I got my Galaxy Nexus at S$420 compared to the Sim Lim Square's S$550. 

In a result, affordable prepaid plan covers the price deficit on phones. In a yearly basis, all prepaid plans here are cheaper than Flexi Lite Youth, and Hot$55 and Yo!$18 are less-expensive than Flexi SuperLite. 

Realistically, Postpaid plans tie with 2-year contract, and thus, none of the postpaid plans is economical compared to prepaid plans.

From financial stand point, Postpaid plan hardly impress me, unless Flexi SuperLite bundles with a phone.