My 4 year old cell phone for $40 did everything a $700 iPhone did except for cost me an extra $660. And I've had it for 4 years. The iPhone it seems only lasts 6 months to a year, or at least it looks like that with everyone lined up 10 hours ahead of time to get that new fancy phone every 6 months to a year.
My 4 year old $40 phone is finally running too slow to use. I need to replace it. At this rate, I'll go another 70 years worth of cell phone purchasing before I get to the cost of a single iPhone.
Yes! I have had various Tracfones since 2002. I've always had Verizon or AT&T service through Tracfone's rate, without paying for Verizon or AT&T's rates. The downside was that Tracfones phone models tended to be 2 years behind the times. But, I was only using my cellphone for basic emergency usage anyway. And for $8/mo can't be beat vs $35/mo for going directly through Verizon.
Tracfone finally started having smartphones & a service called, "Bring Your Own Phone." (BYOP) In which one can use pretty much ANY smartphone available that is unlocked or a Verizon phone and use it as one's Tracfone - still for the same $8. I learned from the cellphone forums to buy a gently used, older model cellphone (that has all the bells & whistles I want,) off eBay for about $40 to use as my BYOP Tracfone. So, I did that & used that phone for a few years.
Several months ago, the operating system on that phone was so old that apps were no longer updated or supported for that OS. So I was forced to get a newer phone. And it was S.L.O.W. I was thinking about upgrading to getting a used Samsung 7 to use as my BYOP Tracfone, as I really, really wanted it's 13 mp camera. (I use my cellphone a lot for the camera.) But, the cheapest, decent condition S7 is still about $250.
PLUS, I noticed, the S7's operating system was already 3 OS old.
So, I'd be in the same spot again, having to upgrade to a newer model in about a year and a half.
Instead, I decided to just get a generic Tracfone off of Tracfone's own website. I picked a "reconditioned" phone, meaning someone tried it and returned it. Tracfone reset it to factory settings, troubleshooted it, and sold it to me, in mint condition, for a whopping $29. (A brand new one of the same model was going for $129.) It works fabulously. The OS is only 2 older and well supported, so I have more time with this phone. It is speedy, can handle me opening 5 different webpages on the phone's browser at once & flipping back & forth between the pages without slowing down. Has plenty of storage. And even though the camera is only 5 mp, I downloaded the free Camera360 app, which shoots great quality pics, for my purposes. So I didn't need a 13 mp camera at all.
Best of all, I saved $220.
And my monthly rate is still $8 with triple minutes for life. Tracfone is phasing out on that plan. (New lowest plan for smartphones start at $15/mo for new customers.) However, I was grandfathered in with the old rate as I was upgrading my phone.
