Adding airtime to tracphone from the UK

[Celestine]

As the title says, has anyone got any suggestions for adding airtime to tracphones from the UK? I have two phones about to expire Christmas eve(how ironic) with lots of units on each. You need a US billing address to purchase units via the internet. If I had the cards and enterd the codes via the internet to my phones, would this work with phones still in the UK?

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[sandshal]

I'd also be interested in this one, although I suspect you can only renew or activate in the States - My sister did mine in Houston, however, I'd really like to be proved wrong.

 

[Pootle]

Count me as interested too What I do know, is that it can be a real pain to re-activate if you let them expire. We have 2 - and I've had 3 replacement SIM cards from Tracfone - although I've got to say they have always been very helpful.

 

[Celestine]

Just out of interest how did you get & more importantly how long did it take to get the replacement sim cards...?

 

[Pootle]

Just out of interest how did you get & more importantly how long did it take to get the replacement sim cards...?

Once I'd been told by an automated message that my sim card was not valid I spoke to a 'real person' and they offered to mail out a new one (to wherever I'm staying) immediately. It does take about 3 days to receive though, so that's the biggest downside.

 

[Celestine]

Thanks for the info, I have discovered that you don't actually lose your units until 60 days after deactivation. That gives me time to get a friend to post/e-mail the codes and then I will try and rectivate the phone a couple of days before the 60 are up. hopefully this will work, morale of the story is do not load the phone too heavily.

 

[gbrchill]

I don't know if this is any help but with T-Mobile there is an online top up using a credit card, which fails if you don't have a US mailing address. Their over the phone automated system fails like that too. However, once you get through to a real person they can take the payment from a UK credit card.

Chris.

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

A Little confused. I take it that you are going back to Florida very soon?
If not, why do you want to add time to your tracfones?

We use ours out there and then when we come back, we let the time left run out. When we go back to the uSa we just get another couple of cards.

You have to do this if you go outside the particular state anyway. i.e. we have just come back from Vermont, recharged the Tracs with cards from vt and had a local telephone number assigned for the stay.

 

[squitty]

We use ours out there and then when we come back, we let the time left run out. When we go back to the uSa we just get another couple of cards.

This is exactly what we do.

 

[Pootle]

This is exactly what we do.

Me too - but why have I had to have 3 replacement SIM cards (2 phones)?

The first time this happened, I was in California and had bought the phones in Florida, so I assumed that had something to do with it. Last month though (in Florida) it happened again. Maybe I've just been unlucky

 

[Celestine]

The reason I want to add airtime is that I was a little bit naive when I bought the phones and added all the credit on in one go. We then finished our holiday with approximately 150 units on each phone still remaining. We came home in August 06 and are not returning until March 07, the phones de activate on the 3rd Jan and you then have 60 days to add credit before you lose any remaining credit. I can handle the de activation part, but I would prefer to keep the units if possible.

I hope that makes sense, have I understood the tracphone method of working properly?

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

The reason I want to add airtime is that I was a little bit naive when I bought the phones and added all the credit on in one go. We then finished our holiday with approximately 150 units on each phone still remaining. We came home in August 06 and are not returning until March 07, the phones de activate on the 3rd Jan and you then have 60 days to add credit before you lose any remaining credit. I can handle the de activation part, but I would prefer to keep the units if possible.

I hope that makes sense, have I understood the tracphone method of working properly?

Its not really going to do you much good as you have to add minutes every 60 days to keep iy active
from the Tracfone web site
http://www.tracfone.com/questions.jsp?nextPage=questions.jsp&task=questions#q278

"Buy more TracFone Prepaid Wireless Airtime cards as you need them. If you run low on minutes, purchase and add more cards. To keep your TracFone service active, you must purchase and add a TracFone Prepaid Wireless Airtime every 60 or 365 days depending on the card denomination. Add airtime before your due date and your remaining minutes and service days will carryover and be added to your phone, to a maximum of 180 days with any combination of regular airtime cards or 730 days with any combination of annual plan cards. TracFone Prepaid Wireless Airtime cards are available online or at over 60,000 retailers nationwide."

On that page mentioned above is an email to contact them.
It might be worth doing that

 

[Celestine]

Thanks for the link, I am fully aware of the conditions etc.. I have now got a friend to purchase the cards and I will add them on in Feb. Yes the phones will have de activated but you have 60 days to re activate before you lose your remaining minutes.

As for contacting Tracfone don't even go there, we criticise the Indian call centres, you want to try tracfone. Maybe I need to learn this american english that microsoft have invented??? it took me 5 mins just to explain my e-mail address, what sort of phone company worker does not understand the international phonetic alphabet!!! I wasted a 20 minute international call only to be told '' we don't accept non US credit cards'' after I had been assured at the start of the call they did. So that I could buy airtime by phone.

Anyway rant over, lesson learn't by me.

 

[canron]

we tried to add air time to ours from ontario canada 1 hour from the usa border and we cannt do it ..you cannt even do it on line..the phone wonnt pick it up out side the usa...