"contracts" = signing a 2 year agreement in exchange for a subsidized phone
a lot of the providers now offer service without contracts: Verizon Mobile Everything, AT&T Mobile Share, All of T-mobile's plans, ?sprint?
anyways, where are you located, and are you happy with Verizon reception? Do you know if T-mobile/ATT offers comparable service in your area?
T-mobile prepaid offers $30 (100 min, unlimited text, 5GB data), $35 (unlimited text/min, no data)
AT&T MNVOs (H2O, ...) offers unlimited talk/text/500MB for $30
Verizon MNVOs (pageplus that Strk linked above, net10), $30-35 limited to unlimited talk/text
If you see the industry trend, we're moving towards unlimited text/talk, and limited data buckets. The T-mobile $30 5GB 100min is probably the "best-value" plan if you can deal with 100 minute (paying $0.10/min overage after, or using VoIp like hangouts)