I'm so indecisive...Tracfone *UPDATED*

[bjscheel]

I need to buy more airtime. I have a double minutes phone and was planning on getting the 1500 minute/1 year service, hence 3000 minutes, which would be plenty for my usage.

My phone is a few years old, a basic LG flip. No camera, but that doesn't bother me.

Now, Tracfone has a Samsung slider phone with QWERTY keyboard and camera, and triple minutes. I could buy that and have 4500 minutes, which is a lot. Texting would be easier. I don't text bunches, but now that DD12 and DH are texting, I do more of it.

So, do I spend $60 for the new phone and get triple minutes or just keep mine? My main worry is having trouble with the activation of the new phone. When I upgraded to this phone I ended up with a new number, but it was okay because it was now a local number and easy to remember. This time I want to make sure to keep it! When I look online, of course the only people who post about upgrading with Tracfone are the ones who had a problem with it.

Anyone done it successfully (preferably online, not on the phone) with Tracfone?

 

[pantherlj]

I say go for it. $60 isn't bad for a phone and it sounds like you keep them as long as I do!

I recently upgraded my old tracfone (it had a mini antenna that's how old it was ) to a "new" flip phone with double minutes. It was no hassle at all. I don't think I even had to call customer service - my number followed me.

I had my dad switch to tracfone from his other prepaid because he was paying .25 per minute! They were able to transfer his number from his other carrier without a problem as well. I did have to call the customer service for that one and it was a slight hassle with all the codes I had to enter but once complete. the transfer took 1 minute (not the 72 hours they said it could take). And customer service was very friendly and patient.

I didn't realize they had triple minute phones now? Maybe I'll look into that phone for DD for Christmas!

 

[bjscheel]

Thanks for the reassurance that it can go right. Tracfone is a great deal for me, I've been with them forever (and this is my second phone- my other one had an antenna and was analog). When I buy the one year service, it's less than $10/month. Getting the 1500 minutes will be more than that, but especially if I have triple minutes, I shouldn't need to get the high # of minutes every year.

I figure they get better at it as time goes on, so maybe it will work right. Remember when you had to call in to add minutes and manually enter huge long strings of numbers? You wanted silence in the house so you didn't miss a number!

Your DD would probably like it. In February, we got DD12 the coolest phone Tracfone had for our area- it's a slider, but not with a keyboard, just the regular keypad. All of a sudden they have added a bunch of cool new phones! Would be nice if we could have gotten her this one for texting!

 

[Finnishwife]

I upgraded my phone five or so months ago. It was no problem doing the switch on-line. It probably took 15 minutes in all. I was a bit worried that it wouldn't go well, but it went off without a hitch!

 

[mom2d&b]

Where did you find the tripple minute phone? My kids have tracfone and they are great for them. They have both had a few different phones but DH is the one to call and have their numbers transfered to the new phone. We have never had an issue.

 

[StephMK]

DH & I upgraded our tracfones in June online and had no issues with either transaction. Darn, I wish I'd looked at their phones though. We just bought one for DD11 but I went w/AT&T for the text packages. If I'd known I could get her a slider & triple minutes, we might have gone that direction instead.

 

[ceecee]

DH just upgraded his Tracfone to the LG with Qwenty and he loves it. We switched DD to Virgin due to the unlimited texting and I have to say DH and I get much better reception with our Tracfones. I wasn't aware of triple minutes either, not that I need them I have thousands left on mine because my yearly service runs out first.

 

[hsmamato2]

just an FYI from one who's learning.... tracfone is only a good deal if you don't use the phone too much...once you hand it to the kids,start texting,using it a lot,those minutes add up fast...and they're not the cheapest prepaid in town. Check a local cell store, for all the prepaid options, I found about 8 I could use,and better deal than tracfone...... for instance virgin mobile is $30 a month for 1500 mins per MONTH of talk,plus 1500 for text.
Now,I am considering these other plans b/c we have changed from using only tracfone 1000 mins per year one year card ($100) to needing WAY more minutes. the storm last week proved that quickly. Our landline was dead along with the electricity,and the cell got used,a lot.
so....tracfone is great when you use less than 83 minutes per month total (100 card for the year,1000 mins using double minutes) cost is approx 8.50 per month-
We will be using another prepaid like virgin mobile(sprint) or pageplus(verizon) instead of a pricey landline that doesn't work when we need it from now on.

 

[mrodgers]

just an FYI from one who's learning.... tracfone is only a good deal if you don't use the phone too much...once you hand it to the kids,start texting,using it a lot,those minutes add up fast...and they're not the cheapest prepaid in town. Check a local cell store, for all the prepaid options, I found about 8 I could use,and better deal than tracfone...... for instance virgin mobile is $30 a month for 1500 mins per MONTH of talk,plus 1500 for text.
Now,I am considering these other plans b/c we have changed from using only tracfone 1000 mins per year one year card ($100) to needing WAY more minutes. the storm last week proved that quickly. Our landline was dead along with the electricity,and the cell got used,a lot.
so....tracfone is great when you use less than 83 minutes per month total (100 card for the year,1000 mins using double minutes) cost is approx 8.50 per month-
We will be using another prepaid like virgin mobile(sprint) or pageplus(verizon) instead of a pricey landline that doesn't work when we need it from now on.

It all depends on how you use it. I have 3 phones and pay $23.66 per month on the automatic plan. We only text each other (wife, daughter, and myself) and an occasional family member. We have double minutes and get 100/80/80 minutes on the phones every month. I would like to "upgrade" my wife's and my phone to one of the new touch screen phones which are triple minutes, so we would get 150 and 120 minutes on them. All we do is keep in touch 2 or 3 times per day while at work and my daughter barely uses hers yet since she is only 11 (just to keep on her if she is away from home to keep in touch.)

Tracfone certainly isn't cheap if it is used heavily, but for just having to keep in touch with one another in a family, it's dirt cheap. My wife goes through her 80 minutes because she "chats" with her mom also. I only use about 30-40 minutes worth each month and it builds up.

Single folks can use $45/month prepaid phones pretty well. When you have a family and use a cell phone heavily, there is no cheap cell phone. Used as an emergency phone so you can have one on you though, you can't beat Tracfone for cheap.

 

[PaulaSue]

Sorry if I should have started a new post but I am hoping to find the answers and here could be the easiest. I have checked on Trac,com but if it was there I didn't understand since I dont have a phone. (I use Dh's but it is his work's)

How do they charge you for texting? Is it the same price a call per minute? Do they charge a per day charge on texts?

My oldest wants a cell and I have plans for her birthday (turning 13) but I am trying to figure out the best for her and our budget.

Can you call an AT&T cell and only pay the per day charge or is that dependent on the kind of phone you buy?

I like the $60 one with triple minutes. I am thinking of getting her that and a card for a year with 400 points. (So that would be 1200 points for a year and average out 100 a month, correct?)

I am trying to figure out how many texts or calls that would be to get her started. Help!

 

[pantherlj]

Sorry if I should have started a new post but I am hoping to find the answers and here could be the easiest. I have checked on Trac,com but if it was there I didn't understand since I dont have a phone. (I use Dh's but it is his work's)

How do they charge you for texting? Is it the same price a call per minute? Do they charge a per day charge on texts?

My oldest wants a cell and I have plans for her birthday (turning 13) but I am trying to figure out the best for her and our budget.

Can you call an AT&T cell and only pay the per day charge or is that dependent on the kind of phone you buy?

I like the $60 one with triple minutes. I am thinking of getting her that and a card for a year with 400 points. (So that would be 1200 points for a year and average out 100 a month, correct?)

I am trying to figure out how many texts or calls that would be to get her started. Help!

You can call or text any phone number you want from a tracfone - no cost difference at all.

Yes, 400 minute card would average out to 100 minutes a month (be sure to google for codes - you can get bonus minutes. I buy my cards online and there is a box to enter a code).

a text is .3 of a minute so that would be almost 300 texts a month. My daughter tends to text since it's cheaper than a phone call. There is no per day fee or charge. You just have minutes deducted every time you use the phone. It always displays how many minutes and days you have left on your phone.

I know it's not the cheapest way to go for people that text a lot but I like how it's teaching her to budget. She isn't good with budgeting her money but she is learning with her phone She knows she only gets X minutes a month and if she goes over she just has no minutes left or she can spend her own money to buy more.

I buy the 90 day cards for $20 and she has never run out of minutes (the minutes that you don't use roll over).

 

[mrodgers]

Note that there is 1 particular phone that you only get charged 0.3 units for incoming texts. The LG420 is a flip style phone that has a small screen on the front when closed. It displays when an incoming text comes in. If you hit the volume buttons on the side before opening the phone to read the text, it will display a portion of said text and accept it without charging the 0.3 units for incoming. You then can open the phone and go to the message to read it fully.

It is a glitch in the firmware of that phone. There was 1 other older phone that was the same way, maybe the LG600 but not sure. The 420 I think is the new version of the 600 and the glitch in the firmware wasn't fixed.

All other phones charge you 0.3 units for both incoming and outgoing texts. You also get charged if your outgoing text does not go through because of no signal. If you resend, you end up charged 0.3 units a second time.

 

[bjscheel]

Sorry if I should have started a new post but I am hoping to find the answers and here could be the easiest. I have checked on Trac,com but if it was there I didn't understand since I dont have a phone. (I use Dh's but it is his work's)

How do they charge you for texting? Is it the same price a call per minute? Do they charge a per day charge on texts?

My oldest wants a cell and I have plans for her birthday (turning 13) but I am trying to figure out the best for her and our budget.

Can you call an AT&T cell and only pay the per day charge or is that dependent on the kind of phone you buy?

I like the $60 one with triple minutes. I am thinking of getting her that and a card for a year with 400 points. (So that would be 1200 points for a year and average out 100 a month, correct?)

I am trying to figure out how many texts or calls that would be to get her started. Help!

I got DD12 a double minutes phone and the 1500 card, so 3000 minutes for a little over a year (you get like 60 days and a few minutes additional with the activation). It came out to like 7 minutes per day, or 21 texts. She has to budget. She is not super social and texting constantly, but you would be surprised how quickly the texting can add up. Her average minutes per day is going up, though, by using less than 7/day and she is proud of that.

I just checked and she has used about 900 minutes since February, so at that rate she will use around 1800 minutes/year.

Just saying you might want to look at the higher minutes cards, as DD is pretty careful about budgeting texting, but friends will be on unlimited texting and might send a lot.

 

[bjscheel]

I just wanted to update with my experience in case anyone does web searches for switching Tracfone experiences. I did get the new phone and started the activation/switching process online Thursday night. It said it could take a few hours or up to 2 business days. It said to turn the new phone off and on again and when you saw your minutes and days of service, it was activated. In the meantime, neither phone worked. Not a big deal, I don't get a lot of calls, and DD had her phone with anytime I traveled.

I checked the phone several times Friday and over the weekend and it always said Activation Required. This morning I had the thought to log in to my Tracfone account online. Above my new phone it said something about updates and had a link. I clicked on it and it said there was a problem and had me enter codes.

I entered the codes and then it said 0 days and 0 minutes. The website said to turn off and on and wait 5 minutes. Still didn't have my days and minutes that I should have. Half an hour later I logged back in and it still had the link to update the phone. I clicked it again and entered codes. One came back as invalid, so the website said I had to call in. HOWEVER, when I clicked OK on the phone, my minutes and days were showing and I am now able to call and text. Yay! I don't have to call Customer Service!

I'm glad I decided to log in instead of wait for the phone to activate like it said it would.

I also was concerned because the new phone is GSM and the Tracfone map showed a big gap in coverage in my corner of the state. However, DH called me this morning and it was clear as could be.

 

[DJT]

I just wanted to update with my experience in case anyone does web searches for switching Tracfone experiences. I did get the new phone and started the activation/switching process online Thursday night. It said it could take a few hours or up to 2 business days. It said to turn the new phone off and on again and when you saw your minutes and days of service, it was activated. In the meantime, neither phone worked. Not a big deal, I don't get a lot of calls, and DD had her phone with anytime I traveled.

I checked the phone several times Friday and over the weekend and it always said Activation Required. This morning I had the thought to log in to my Tracfone account online. Above my new phone it said something about updates and had a link. I clicked on it and it said there was a problem and had me enter codes.

I entered the codes and then it said 0 days and 0 minutes. The website said to turn off and on and wait 5 minutes. Still didn't have my days and minutes that I should have. Half an hour later I logged back in and it still had the link to update the phone. I clicked it again and entered codes. One came back as invalid, so the website said I had to call in. HOWEVER, when I clicked OK on the phone, my minutes and days were showing and I am now able to call and text. Yay! I don't have to call Customer Service!

I'm glad I decided to log in instead of wait for the phone to activate like it said it would.

I also was concerned because the new phone is GSM and the Tracfone map showed a big gap in coverage in my corner of the state. However, DH called me this morning and it was clear as could be.

Which phone did you end up getting? (Hope I didn't miss it in the PP.) I'm looking at Tracphones, too. I have T-Mobile $19.99 plan that is out of contract which they don't have any more. I sometimes don't have coverage when everyone else does so I'm looking to switch, however I don't want to pay a large monthly bill.

Donna

 

[bjscheel]

It's a Samsung 404G I think. The one with triple minutes and a slider QWERTY keyboard. (May not be available in all areas) I plan on getting the 1500 minute plan, which will triple to 4500 minutes over a year, and last I looked it was $200. So that's about $16.67/month for service.

The phone seems pretty cool so far, it's fancier than anything they've ever had available. My DD12 is jealous of the keyboard.

The phone models that end in "C" use the CDMA network (Verizon towers). The phones ending in "G" use GSM (AT&T towers). The Tracfone map shows much more coverage for the C phones, but like I said my G phone worked fine here. I think maybe we have recently gotten better coverage here because the G phones weren't available for my zip code last spring.

I am happy with Tracfone in general, it fits my needs at a good price, it's just always a little hassle when switching phones.

 

[DJT]

It's a Samsung 404G I think. The one with triple minutes and a slider QWERTY keyboard. (May not be available in all areas) I plan on getting the 1500 minute plan, which will triple to 4500 minutes over a year, and last I looked it was $200. So that's about $16.67/month for service.

The phone seems pretty cool so far, it's fancier than anything they've ever had available. My DD12 is jealous of the keyboard.

The phone models that end in "C" use the CDMA network (Verizon towers). The phones ending in "G" use GSM (AT&T towers). The Tracfone map shows much more coverage for the C phones, but like I said my G phone worked fine here. I think maybe we have recently gotten better coverage here because the G phones weren't available for my zip code last spring.

I am happy with Tracfone in general, it fits my needs at a good price, it's just always a little hassle when switching phones.

Thanks a bunch for that information! I went to Target on Saturday and the clerk there knew next to nothing about Tracfones (or any phones for that matter). So I decided I'd try somewhere else or maybe another time of day and hope for a clerk who knows something about them. I'm keeping the above info so I'll know at least that much about them.

Can you get on the net with yours? I probably wouldn't use it for that purpose a lot, maybe on vacation.

 

[bjscheel]

Supposedly I can, but I haven't looked to see how many minutes it takes away for web, so I haven't tried it yet. I probably won't do that a lot either- if I can get wifi, I can use my iPod Touch, but it will be handy to be able to if I really need to.

 

[bjscheel]

Have you looked at phones on the Tracfone website? It will have you put in your zip code and then it will show the phones that can be used in your area and you can compare all the features. Get at least a double minutes phone, if not triple minutes. They are more expensive than the basics, but the extra minutes you get every time will make it worthwhile. My triple minutes phone was $60.

I also always get the one year service cards online. It's so much nicer to not have to buy airtime every month or two. When you buy airtime online, it is pretty slick. It shows up on your phone automatically (you used to have to enter a bunch of codes).

Your minutes rollover too. Also, if you need more minutes before your year is up, you don't lose days of service, the new dates of services are added on.

 

[sksjasams]

My DH and I both have tracfones. CDMA coverage works best for our area, even though they try to match us with GSM. We used to have flip phones lg200C for many years. Mine died maybe 6 months ago. I got the newer version of the same phone lg220C. I called customer service to transfer my number and minutes. The transfer went perfectly smooth. One call and done.

My DH's phone started acting up and we replaced his with the same as mine lg220C. I saw now you can do the transfe ronline, but that didn't work for me. I kept getting an error message. i called and did the transfer but this time it didn't happen so smoothly. Couple hours later phone still not working. Called again and they tried some more codes and told me if still not working to call back after 24 hrs. Had to call back again then, but then they reset the phone and everything was fine. Really not as smooth as the first time, but not that awful either.

One thing to mention about browser access. At least around here, it matters which provider you are linked with. DS (net10 phone) and I are both linked to a US Cellular tower, and I was told they do not allow web access. We could change our phone numbers to verzion phone numbers in order to get browser access, but have not done so. DH is linked to a verizon tower and he has web access. It seems limited and very difficult to use though with out a real keyboard - at least for me.

Anyway - triple minutes sounds great, plus a newer model phone. If a new phone fits in your budget I would do it - its not that big of hassle really.