Some prepaid cell phone companies allow users to buy a certain number of minutes for a specific price while others charge a fee for each minute that is used. Many users switch to prepaid cell phones, or pay-as-you-go phones, in order to avoid the penalty fees associated with most contract plans.

A prepay mobile phone (also commonly referred to as pay-as-you-go, pay-as-you-talk, pay and go, go-phone or prepaid) is a mobile phone for which credit is purchased in advance of service use. The purchased credit is used to pay for mobile phone services at the point the service is accessed or consumed.

One of those conditions: Long-term use of the same device. Once they ascertain a phone's number, they can track it indefinitely. However, many prepaid phone companies sell what's referred to as burners disposable cell phones.