Do you use a TracFone?

[hentob]

Cost? Texting? You love......? Stay away from.....?

Anything else you would like to share would be welcome.

 

[EllenFrasier]

I don't, but I have wondered if they are cheaper so look forward to some replies. Anyone?

 

[okeydokey]

This is a perfect question for the budget board and I'm sure I have seen threads about trac phone over there.

 

[Tosie]

I have had one for the past 4 years and am very happy with it. Ds14 also has one.

My cell phone is not my primary phone - it's there for emergencies and for ds to text me if he needs a ride home from school, etc.

I used to pay about $40/month with Verizon, now I buy the 1 year service for $99 and my phone comes with double minutes for life so when I add minutes I get an extra bonus. And I was able to keep my phone number when I switched to tracfone.

Adding minutes is simple - I don't buy the cards - I just add the minutes on the website. You can also add minutes through the phone but I've never done it.

I have a flip phone, ds has a slide phone. We can both take photos and there is a web browser but I never use it. We both have caller id and call waiting.

I would say if your cell is your primary phone and you call and text a lot, it may not be the right choice as you can blow through the minutes quickly. I love not having a contract and not having to pay for things I'll never use.

 

[disneybound2010]

My sister and I share a family plan through ATT and I love it, but DH refuses to sign on. He has had a tracfone for 5 years and loves his. He doesn't talk much and isn't big on all the phone gadgets so he sees no need for anything more. He usually buys about 120 minutes($30) and it lasts him a long time. He usually ends up rolling over those minutes when it is time to grab another card. He has never had any trouble with dropped calls or issues with the phone breaking(I can't say the same for mine honestly.)

 

[Big V]

I've had a tracfone for about 4 years also, and it works perfectly fine for me. I always pay for a year's worth of service and it costs me about $10 per month. If you use a cell phone a lot, it probably wouldn't be the best way to go. The coverage is pretty good and I've even called Puerto Rico on it!

 

[ckay87]

When you buy minutes, do they expire? That's my only issue. I use a cell phone very very rarely. 120 minutes would last me forever.

 

[Tosie]

When you buy minutes, do they expire? That's my only issue. I use a cell phone very very rarely. 120 minutes would last me forever.

The minutes don't expire but the service does.

When you buy a card with minutes, it adds 3 months of service to your phone. You will be notified as your service end date approaches. You'll have to add more minutes or a 1 year service card to keep the phone active. But the minutes just keep accumulating.

 

[ckay87]

The minutes don't expire but the service does.

When you buy a card with minutes, it adds 3 months of service to your phone. You will be notified as your service end date approaches. You'll have to add more minutes or a 1 year service card to keep the phone active. But the minutes just keep accumulating.

Thank you, my brain will now implode.

 

[IUTBAM]

I've had a tracfone for 6 years, and love it.

The easiest way to explain how to keep it economical...you can buy a very nice Tracfone (no camera on it, but double minutes for life) at Walmart for $10. You then go to the Tracfone website to add service and minutes. Currently they are offering 400 Minutes &
365 Days of Service for $100. Because you have a double minutes for life phone, you'll end up getting 800 minutes and a year service for $100 (plus factor in the $10 you spent on the phone). That's $110 (plus tax) for a year of service and 800 minutes. Less than $10 a month, even if you don't use all the minutes. When your year is up, add another year, and your minutes will roll over.

I've been doing this for six years. No way would I ever spend $100/month or more for cell phone service. I just don't use it that much. But $10 a month on average...absolutely!

 

[scdak]

I have a cell phone that I use as my primary phone but forgot it when I went out of town this week so I bought a Tracfone for $8.00, added some minutes on line and was all set , I bought the most basic phone, and plan on using it for emergencies (like forgetting the other one) and my upcoming trip to Disney, if I lose it or drop it, no big deal! I can say that texting is alot slower then on my verizon phone so that was frustrating but I just kept reminding myself that its a temporary phone! My mother has used one for many years and as others have said, its economical, easy to use and great for someone that doesn't use a phone a great deal.

 

[mamamary]

I also have a tracfone as do both of my kids. It is perfect for what we need it for - mostly emergencies, afterschool activities when the kids may need to reach me, stuff like that. I would not go with it if you plan on making lots and calls and it you text constantly. You will go thru your minutes too quickly. Now I do want to say that up until 2 months ago my DH also had a tracfone. He had alot of trouble with his in that he would lose calls way too often. It got to the point where its of no use if you disconnect who you are talking too.

Also I think when you call customer service you are going to another country and when you need to do alot of explaining sometimes things get lost in translation. But I do have to say that when my sons phone broke and I called, they were very helpful and sent him a new phone. I thought it would be complicated but they made it very easy.

 

[mickeymedic]

I've had a tracfone for 5 or 6 years now. I'm on my 3rd phone - not that there was anything wrong with my previous phones - I just wanted a new one. My first two phones were $9.95 each at Walmart. My current phone was maybe $20 or $30 dollars - but has a camera, blue tooth, and web.

My current phone came with double minutes for life. So, I buy 200 minutes online every few months - with the double minutes it becomes 400 minutes. I can send and receive texts for 0.3 minutes each. Over the course of a year I probably spend $10-$15 dollars per month.

I considered switching to Verizon so that I could have free Verizon-to-Verizon talk and text. (Most of my friends have Verizon.) However, I couldn't find any plan that would actually be less expensive than what I have now. So, I am staying with Tracfone.

 

[Imzadi]

I have two Tracfones in place of a landline. One is for business and one is for personal calls.

This is a review I wrote on Tracfone's newer camera/web capable Tracfone models a few months back, on the Budget Board and over on Fatwallet.com. Since writing this review, there have been a few other camera/web models that have come out.


Tracfone web & picture capability for same price of REGULAR Tracfone service!!!

Sorry, this is way long!

I am NOT talking about needing to switch to Tracfone's "Straight Talk plan," but still using the regular Tracfone service - adding on only the amount of minutes you need every couple of months - without paying more for web service.

I had many models of Tracfones for about 8 years now! (I've talked about my experiences here. Do a DIS search.) All keeping my same original phone number. I love Tracfone. I always bought whatever was the cheapest $10/or free phone available when I upgraded since I basically only needed it for the bare basics, calling to tell someone I'm running late, emergency service use.

I did get one of the first Tracfone camera phones when they first came out, the Motorola W376g, but, as it turned out, you have to spend extra units to send each picture to yourself in an email or to another cellphone, as that was the ONLY way to get the pictures off the phone. The Bluetooth capability was only for a headset. There was no USB jack to plug in a cable to send the pictures to a PC.

The first "web capability" for that phone was only to the Tracfone site. There was no browsing other sites. I gave that Tracfone away.

A few weeks ago, I decided it was time to upgrade Tracfone models again. I really wanted a camera Tracfone, even if it would cost me extra units. I doubt that I will use it much, but the few times I do want to take pictures, it would be nice to have.

So I did my research and found this Tracfone:
Click on Tracfone: LG 290c

It is one of the new "Slider" phones. I was mostly researching to find out people's experiences with Slider phones. Instead, I found a review mentioned that there IS software out to upload pictures from this phone right into your PC, using the Bluetooth capabilities. You can also access other websites beyond Tracfone's.
Tracfone: LG 290c Review

The reviewer also mentioned another forum, dedicated to cell phone users, stating their research & experience with Tracfones. I found the particular thread that dealt with this model Tracfone, and the thread was for the regular Tracfone service, NOT the Straight talk plan. (In fact, they have a completely different thread for that service.)

This thread has 16 pages, ALL dealing with the web browser and MMS picture capabilities of this phone. That even if you get the phone activated, and your phone doesn't seem to have those capabilities, it doesn't necessarily mean your area doesn't support those services for Tracfone, it may accidentally be the service isn't correctly switched on from the (real) base carrier when they activated your phone.

Here is the link to the thread. It is set to page 5, where you can read there are 2 softwares to upload pictures to your PC, whether Mac, or further down, post #68: the BlueSoleil service for a Windows PC.

A Brief Review of LG 290c - Page 5

It ALSO explains further down to call the Tracfone Escalations Department phone number, if the web & MMS picture capabilities aren't hooked up properly with the base carrier, (in my case Verizon,) that Tracfone uses. (Tracfone actually rents service from the major cellphone carriers: AT&T, T-Mobile for GSM cellphones with SIM card, or Verizon & Altell for CDMA, non-SIM card phones. This depends on where you live and more importantly: ***what cellphone model you choose.***)

As it turned out, I really NEEDED the info from that forum thread. Sure enough, Verizon was so used to my phone number, which I kept for 8 years, being dedicated to Tracfone, that they simply switched phones during the upgrade and never even looked to see I now have a web capable phone and those services need to be hooked up to my phone. Nor, possibly, were they told by Tracfone originally, about the upgrade of service.

Using the info in that thread, I had to call the Escalations Department, THREE times and over several days, until I finally got a customer service rep, who did indeed know right away what the trouble was. The first two, I could tell were clueless as to what the problem was - even when I explained it to them how to correct the problem. This rep told ME, verbatim, what the thread said about how the base carrier did not hook up the Tracfone correctly. She asked for two parameter codes (parameters 4 and 6,) off the cellphone, to verify that the service was not set up correctly. She then said she would send an email to Verizon's carrier analyst, to examine my case and get my cellphone properly hooked up. She never said anything like, "Oh, that service is only part of the Straight Talk plan," or "That service in not available in your area." (The Tracfone users on that forum thread already know it's part of regular Tracfone's service if you get this particular phone. She said she would even call back the next day to make sure it was hooked up properly - which she did do!

My Tracfone was properly hooked up the next day!!! I absolutely LOVE it!!! I tested out the camera. I sent pictures and plain text messages to my email and to another cellphone. Then I emailed pictures from myself onto the camera.

I downloaded the BlueSoleil software. It is free for 30 days. I don't know if I simply have to uninstall it and reinstall it fto start another free 30 days, or if I need to buy it. But, it will be worth it if I buy it instead of using Tracfone units. I already uploaded 10 pictures off my camera cellphone to my laptop, using the instructions on that forum and the BlueSoleil software and the Bluetooth on my laptop.

I read there are Bluetooth dongle attachment thingies one can get for those who don't currently have Bluetooth on their PC. I don't know as I have it.

I used the web browser and checked my Gmail email. I also went to Google.com and did a Google search. I tried to access the DIS, but it said there isn't enough memory to load a DIS forum page.


To wrap up: I will use the camera on the phone a lot, since I don't even have a digital camera, and now, I can upload pics for free. I did tweak them a little with my photo editing program. But, I haven't played around with all the camera features yet. It actually lets me change zoom, brightness and resolution.

The web browser, I probably will use very minimally. Only when I'm away from home for several hours. But, it is soooo nice to be able to check email out on the road now. And if I get into a car accident on the road, snapping a few pictures is great for emergency use.

The BEST part is: other than some extra minutes for using the web browser and texting an occasional picture now and then, I do NOT have to pay any more than the basic Tracfone service I have!!!


ADDING: I specifically got this model phone as I need a Verizon based Tracfone. Verizon works best in my area. However, there are a couple other Tracfone camera/web GSM cellphone models that may do the same thing as this phone, if you need a GSM cellphone. AT&T or T-Mobile would be the base carrier for those phones. The LG 600G is one of them.

You will have to look for your own reviews. Probably the same guy who did the review on this cellphone model may do reviews of the other Tracfone camera cellphones. Compare the details Tracfone gives on this phone to their other camera cellphones and to the details on the Motorola W376g which clearly it doesn't have all these capabilities. Plus, that forum will probably also have threads for the various camera/web Tracfones. Make sure it's not a "Straight Talk" thread for the same phone. Do your research carefully. Not ALL the camera Tracfones are capable of these features.

If you prefer this phone and Verizon/Altell works well in your area, you can simply click on the link above and add it to your cart, even if it doesn't appear when you input your own zip code. You can order any Tracfone available, even if the website doesn't list it in your zip code. Just make sure it will work in your area! If you don't have Verizon or Altell as a regular (non-Tracfone) carrier service in your area, don't order this phone.

I have no affiliation with Tracfone, other than I am a happy (and cheap) user. All usual disclaimers apply, yada.

 

[Pigeon]

Yes, we've used them for years. For dh and I, they are great. We rarely talk on them--maybe 30 minutes a month tops, usually less. We don't text. It costs us about $100/year each. I can't think of any other service that would be that cheap. Coverage is great in our area.

Dd13 has also had one. We allow her to do a little texting, but not as much as she'd like. Because she's been responsible with it, we are going to upgrade her to a Virgin Mobile $25/mo prepaid plan (unlimited texting, email, etc. plus 300 min/talk per month) for Christmas.

The phones from Tracfone are pretty basic (but very cheap), and are totally adequate for dh and I.

The big downside is their customer service. You may never need them. But if you do, they are beyond awful. The use overseas call centers, with operators who are only allowed to read from scripts. It will be hours or days of your life that you will never get back.

 

[dyna]

5 tracphones in the family here we hate them but the cost is right 6.00 a month per phone....calling for service on them is a huge huge pain in the butt takes forever sometimes days to get minutes added this is after adding minutes online an not getting them on the phone.

WE just can not justify the cost of other cell phone service in our budget tho I don't use my cell phone an average of once a month DH uses his maybe half dozen times a month.
Now the DD's that is a different story

 

[kaytieeldr]

I bought the most basic phone, and plan on using it for emergencies (like forgetting the other one)

You're funny. I just bought a Tracfone as backup to my... Tracfone! The second one was $12.99 at Walgreen's last week, has a camera, and comes with double minutes for life. It came with ten minutes, I bought sixty, and you can always find bonus codes online. First phone has about fourteen hours on it, spare phone has almost three.

I use the first one, but not much - I don't use any personal phone much. I just like having a backup to the backup

 

[zoemurr]

make sure you always check for coupons online. You can often get up to 400 bonus minutes with a code.. but there are ALWAYS codes available. We've had them for 10+ years. Yes, CS can be frustrating, but the price is right and we've never had any service problems. Getting DD one for Christmas.. love the PPs review about being able to search the web.. I think I might need that for me!

 

[zoemurr]

I have two Tracfones in place of a landline. One is for business and one is for personal calls.

This is a review I wrote on Tracfone's newer camera/web capable Tracfone models a few months back, on the Budget Board and over on Fatwallet.com. Since writing this review, there have been a few other camera/web models that have come out.


Tracfone web & picture capability for same price of REGULAR Tracfone service!!!

Sorry, this is way long!

I am NOT talking about needing to switch to Tracfone's "Straight Talk plan," but still using the regular Tracfone service - adding on only the amount of minutes you need every couple of months - without paying more for web service.

I had many models of Tracfones for about 8 years now! (I've talked about my experiences here. Do a DIS search.) All keeping my same original phone number. I love Tracfone. I always bought whatever was the cheapest $10/or free phone available when I upgraded since I basically only needed it for the bare basics, calling to tell someone I'm running late, emergency service use.

I did get one of the first Tracfone camera phones when they first came out, the Motorola W376g, but, as it turned out, you have to spend extra units to send each picture to yourself in an email or to another cellphone, as that was the ONLY way to get the pictures off the phone. The Bluetooth capability was only for a headset. There was no USB jack to plug in a cable to send the pictures to a PC.

The first "web capability" for that phone was only to the Tracfone site. There was no browsing other sites. I gave that Tracfone away.

A few weeks ago, I decided it was time to upgrade Tracfone models again. I really wanted a camera Tracfone, even if it would cost me extra units. I doubt that I will use it much, but the few times I do want to take pictures, it would be nice to have.

So I did my research and found this Tracfone:
Click on Tracfone: LG 290c

It is one of the new "Slider" phones. I was mostly researching to find out people's experiences with Slider phones. Instead, I found a review mentioned that there IS software out to upload pictures from this phone right into your PC, using the Bluetooth capabilities. You can also access other websites beyond Tracfone's.
Tracfone: LG 290c Review

The reviewer also mentioned another forum, dedicated to cell phone users, stating their research & experience with Tracfones. I found the particular thread that dealt with this model Tracfone, and the thread was for the regular Tracfone service, NOT the Straight talk plan. (In fact, they have a completely different thread for that service.)

This thread has 16 pages, ALL dealing with the web browser and MMS picture capabilities of this phone. That even if you get the phone activated, and your phone doesn't seem to have those capabilities, it doesn't necessarily mean your area doesn't support those services for Tracfone, it may accidentally be the service isn't correctly switched on from the (real) base carrier when they activated your phone.

Here is the link to the thread. It is set to page 5, where you can read there are 2 softwares to upload pictures to your PC, whether Mac, or further down, post #68: the BlueSoleil service for a Windows PC.

A Brief Review of LG 290c - Page 5

It ALSO explains further down to call the Tracfone Escalations Department phone number, if the web & MMS picture capabilities aren't hooked up properly with the base carrier, (in my case Verizon,) that Tracfone uses. (Tracfone actually rents service from the major cellphone carriers: AT&T, T-Mobile for GSM cellphones with SIM card, or Verizon & Altell for CDMA, non-SIM card phones. This depends on where you live and more importantly: ***what cellphone model you choose.***)

As it turned out, I really NEEDED the info from that forum thread. Sure enough, Verizon was so used to my phone number, which I kept for 8 years, being dedicated to Tracfone, that they simply switched phones during the upgrade and never even looked to see I now have a web capable phone and those services need to be hooked up to my phone. Nor, possibly, were they told by Tracfone originally, about the upgrade of service.

Using the info in that thread, I had to call the Escalations Department, THREE times and over several days, until I finally got a customer service rep, who did indeed know right away what the trouble was. The first two, I could tell were clueless as to what the problem was - even when I explained it to them how to correct the problem. This rep told ME, verbatim, what the thread said about how the base carrier did not hook up the Tracfone correctly. She asked for two parameter codes (parameters 4 and 6,) off the cellphone, to verify that the service was not set up correctly. She then said she would send an email to Verizon's carrier analyst, to examine my case and get my cellphone properly hooked up. She never said anything like, "Oh, that service is only part of the Straight Talk plan," or "That service in not available in your area." (The Tracfone users on that forum thread already know it's part of regular Tracfone's service if you get this particular phone. She said she would even call back the next day to make sure it was hooked up properly - which she did do!

My Tracfone was properly hooked up the next day!!! I absolutely LOVE it!!! I tested out the camera. I sent pictures and plain text messages to my email and to another cellphone. Then I emailed pictures from myself onto the camera.

I downloaded the BlueSoleil software. It is free for 30 days. I don't know if I simply have to uninstall it and reinstall it fto start another free 30 days, or if I need to buy it. But, it will be worth it if I buy it instead of using Tracfone units. I already uploaded 10 pictures off my camera cellphone to my laptop, using the instructions on that forum and the BlueSoleil software and the Bluetooth on my laptop.

I read there are Bluetooth dongle attachment thingies one can get for those who don't currently have Bluetooth on their PC. I don't know as I have it.

I used the web browser and checked my Gmail email. I also went to Google.com and did a Google search. I tried to access the DIS, but it said there isn't enough memory to load a DIS forum page.


To wrap up: I will use the camera on the phone a lot, since I don't even have a digital camera, and now, I can upload pics for free. I did tweak them a little with my photo editing program. But, I haven't played around with all the camera features yet. It actually lets me change zoom, brightness and resolution.

The web browser, I probably will use very minimally. Only when I'm away from home for several hours. But, it is soooo nice to be able to check email out on the road now. And if I get into a car accident on the road, snapping a few pictures is great for emergency use.

The BEST part is: other than some extra minutes for using the web browser and texting an occasional picture now and then, I do NOT have to pay any more than the basic Tracfone service I have!!!


ADDING: I specifically got this model phone as I need a Verizon based Tracfone. Verizon works best in my area. However, there are a couple other Tracfone camera/web GSM cellphone models that may do the same thing as this phone, if you need a GSM cellphone. AT&T or T-Mobile would be the base carrier for those phones. The LG 600G is one of them.

You will have to look for your own reviews. Probably the same guy who did the review on this cellphone model may do reviews of the other Tracfone camera cellphones. Compare the details Tracfone gives on this phone to their other camera cellphones and to the details on the Motorola W376g which clearly it doesn't have all these capabilities. Plus, that forum will probably also have threads for the various camera/web Tracfones. Make sure it's not a "Straight Talk" thread for the same phone. Do your research carefully. Not ALL the camera Tracfones are capable of these features.

If you prefer this phone and Verizon/Altell works well in your area, you can simply click on the link above and add it to your cart, even if it doesn't appear when you input your own zip code. You can order any Tracfone available, even if the website doesn't list it in your zip code. Just make sure it will work in your area! If you don't have Verizon or Altell as a regular (non-Tracfone) carrier service in your area, don't order this phone.

I have no affiliation with Tracfone, other than I am a happy (and cheap) user. All usual disclaimers apply, yada.

either of these phones available at Tracfone.. not sure which one to get for DD.

 

[LuvOrlando]

I bought them for my kids when they were in Kindergarten and 1st grade to use when at camp and at sleepovers in 2002 or so. They are great for a number of reasons, the first being the fact that they don't scream "steal me". If they are lost or stolen I am only out the $20 phone and however much service time/ minutes might be on it. When I bought the phones they offered double minutes for the life of the phone and the minutes accumulate as long as you don't drop the service. The phones cost me $20 every 3 months to add 60 minutes/units & 90 days. The units part comes from texting, the phone uses 1/3 unit per text. To this day I still maintain service on these phones and keep them in my kids backpacks tucked out of sight, off and hidden in dollar store eye glass cases for an emergency.

A year ago my DH got an I-phone and with the kids going into middle school the extra $10/month with free phones from Walmart online coaxed me into getting them other phones. If it wasn't for DH's expensive choice my kids would have stuck with the trac phones. Our cell phone bill KILLS me each month because I KNOW it can be reduced dramatically but since my DH is the main culprit, and also the one who works, I just keep my mouth shut and go with it I'm choosing my battles and all of that.

Anyhoo, Trac phones are absolutely the better deal.