I'm OK with contracts like that being legal - just look at it as a way to keep ahead of the folks who are too lazy to save themselves that money! People are awful good at convincing themselves to consistently overpay for an "unlimited everything" plan "y'know, just in case I need it." I crunched the numbers on my pre-paid plan and figured I'd need to go over on my minutes by about a factor of three to make the cost line up with the unlimited contract plans - and my call history had never, ever been that high. So just like you, I'm $30 a month for the same text and data rates, and a handful of nationwide minutes, plus the benefit of starting with an unlocked phone right off the bat. Never going back to a contract plan again.