Is there such a thing as a pre-paid 3G or 4G enabled laptop I can use without a credit card?

I don’t use one in my personal life, but if you’re in the US you can try Wal*Mart. I don’t know if they have any laptops with an internal 3G or 4G card, but you can get the USB adapters. They sell the “air cards” there to add time and, it seems, they have something to do with Monkey Pak.

I’m not aware of any laptops that come like this. That would severely limit the marketability of a very expensive item. Rather, there are a number of pre-paid 3G/4G internet service providers that will sell you the wireless modem that plugs into a USB port.

There really aren’t any laptops like that as those that come with built-in 3G/4G often either have a contract attached to them already or have no service of their own period and most 3G/4G providers want a contract.

You might be interested in this article which details a few such plans. I will copy/paste an excerpt for you here:

“If you need to avoid 3G service contracts, you have two primary pay-as-you-go 3G cellular alternatives, both of which only became available in the past few months: the Novatel Wireless MiFi and Virgin Mobile USA Broadband2Go.

Novatel Wireless’s MiFi is a compact router that lets you create a wireless hotspot using a mobile broadband network. The device is available from Sprint and Verizon Wireless. If you pay full price for the MiFi ($400), you can then pay $15 per day for unlimited use, with no contract.

That may be okay for those who need only a day’s worth of 3G cellular Internet connection multiple times throughout the year. However, if you need MiFi for Internet connectivity for several consecutive weeks or more, the $15-per-day plan is prohibitively expensive. Otherwise, you’d have to opt for a $60 monthly data plan (for 5GB of data) or $40 monthly plan (for up to 250MB)—both of which require contracts.

Virgin Mobile USA’s Broadband2Go is a USB 3G cellular modem ($150 at Best Buy) that you can use with blocks of broadband cellular Internet usage without a contract. You have four plans to choose from: 100 MB (for use within 10 days) for $10; 250MB for $20, 600MB for $40, or 1GB for $60 (these three plans give you up to 30 days to reach the maximum usage limit).

If you’re planning to be gone for several weeks, the 1GB plan might serve your needs. But you’ll pay about $210 total ($150 for the device, $60 for the 1GB plan) for the privilege. Also, be careful: Playing YouTube videos, downloading iTunes songs and movies, and such, will quickly eat into your data allotment. If you expect to download lots of multimedia content, you might want to do that at a nearby Wi-Fi café and save your Broadband2Go plan for e-mail and basic Web surfing.”

However they are notably more expensive than a contract plan. I pay an extra $30 on my cellphone since I have a Droid X which requires a data plan. I am a relatively light user as I do not stream video yet I can go through 1GB a month quite easily. Compare that to the $60/1GB of Virgin Mobile and the $15/day of the Novatel, and those plans really only make sense for those with deep pockets or who are engaged in criminal activity.

I know you asked about laptops, but I thought I would mention the iPad can be used on 3G and there is no contract at all, you can turn the 3G off and on at will, you just pay for usage. What I don’t know is if you must have a credit card? I wonder if you can use apple gift cards? Or, maybe you can use a debit card? A quick call to an apple store can probably answer those questions if you are interested.

Oh, I just thought that you can buy prepaid credit cards at the supermarket, maybe you can use that? The negative is you pay $3 more or less for the card.