Tracfone or Tmobile Prepaid?

[poohbear158]

Hubby and I are now out of our contract with Cingular and are looking to go prepaid . We don't use the cell phones very often so prepaid is the way to go for us. We usually travel to Disney World twice a year so my question is which prepaid service is better in the world... Tracfone or Tmobile? I know both companies work were I live, so that is not an issue.

 

[T. Lynn]

I don't know much about your area but T-Mobile is horrible in my area of PA. You couldn't pay me to sign on with them. My mom has them and everytime we're on the phone, she loses signal.

 

[shopnfun2me2]

Tracfone worked for us last May at Disney. We didn't have any problems. I don't have any experience with Tmobile Prepaid.

 

[mmessler]

No experience with TMobile, but my mother used to have Tracfone and while it had decent coverage, she found it to be a little on the expensive side as far as prepaid goes. Not sure if that's still the case. We both have Virgin Mobile now, and she rarely uses it, but I have never had any problems at all. Works everywhere I go around here, and last trip to Disney not a problem on the few occasions we used it. Prices for voice calls and text are very reasonable.

 

[autumnsmommy]

Tracfone has a class action suit against them for charging roaming rates in the "home' area. Virgin has no roaming. If you only use it on vacation, don't go with Tracfone, as your rates double out of the home area.

 

[kribit]

I heard Virgin is very good, but I'm not sure about service in Disney.

 

[festivedaisy]

I've had T-Mobile To Go for over a year and have been very happy with the service. You can check their coverage maps online, but my phone even worked when I was in Cozumel earlier this year. You can occasionally get refill cards on sale at Target, 1000 domestic minutes for $88, good for a year.

 

[meloneyb21]

I had Virgin Mobile when I went to WDW last year. It worked really good and I didn't have not one problem.

 

[kat08]

I don't know if you are happy to be rid of Cingular or just happy to be out of your contract ...but... Cingular has pay-as-you-go plans. I just signed up for one. They have one plan that is 25 cents a minute, flat rate or they have another that is 10 cents a minute with a $1 charge for each day you use your phone. I have the 25 cents a minute plan because I rarely use my phone and, when I do, it's for short periods of time. If you talk for a long time when you use your phone, you'll probably want to do the other plan.

You buy pre-paid minutes with this plan. They have $15, $25, $50, $75 & $100 pre-paid "cards" that you purchase. The $15 card expires in 30 days; the $25, $50 & $75 cards expire in 30 days and the $100 card expires in a year. All of these roll over if you buy another "card" before the one you have expires.

Oh yeah, there are no additional charges with these plans (taxes, roaming, long distance, etc.) And I have read on thede boards that Cingular phones get good reception in the parks.

 

[kellia]

Tmobile is garbage in Michigan and parts of Ohio, didn't even work in the areas the map showed 'coverage'. I am so glad to be done with them! We have great coverage with Virgin Mobile here and in Florida.

 

[nbodyhome]

I have had T-Mobile for over a year. I purchased 1000 minutes for $107 that is good for a year. Much cheaper than doing it nearly any other way! I ended up keeping a couple of hundred minutes by adding more before the year was out.

 

[Mskanga]

I don't know if you are happy to be rid of Cingular or just happy to be out of your contract ...but... Cingular has pay-as-you-go plans. I just signed up for one. They have one plan that is 25 cents a minute, flat rate or they have another that is 10 cents a minute with a $1 charge for each day you use your phone. I have the 25 cents a minute plan because I rarely use my phone and, when I do, it's for short periods of time. If you talk for a long time when you use your phone, you'll probably want to do the other plan.
.

I have the .10 minute plan with the $1 daily fee only on the days that you use the phone that plan also includes free unlimited cingular mobile to mobile so the calls between my daughter and I in WDW were all included in the $1 daily fee , no other expenses.
There are months that I don't use more than $10.

 

[meloneyb21]

Does anyone know if Alltel Wireless pre-paid is any good?

 

[Mono~rail]

Consumer Reports had an issue just a few months ago on cell phones. Maybe check out what they have to say.

 

[alikat99]

I was in the EXACT same situation as you last year! I gave up my cell phone for a couple of years because I was tired of paying $40/month for all of about 20 minutes a month that I actually used my phone. A friend here on the DISboards told me about tmobile and I signed up with the 1000 minutes good for a year. We're only about 1.5 hrs from Disney and I use it there all the time. My biggest suggestion would be to find someone in your area that has tmobile, to find out the service issues in your area, because it works fine at WDW and central FL.

 

[Andrea from PA]

I've had TracFone for several years & got one for my son this past year. I buy the 1 year contract.

We've had no service problems, but I did have a screw up when I bought my second phone. The customer service is a mass call center in India. It is loud & no one could understand my problem. I wound up with 2 phones when I only wanted one (My error -- I put it thru computer twice). They couldn't fix it so I just sold it to another family member...

I'd recommend ONLY buying Trac thru the website. The stores don't offer the same deals.

I have to much going on & Trac was the only one I could find with a 1 year deal at a cost I wanted ($100 or less)

 

[clori]

I have a t moble family plan that works well for me. I live near Boston and places I've visited that I haven't had any problems using it include the seacoast area of NH, Hartford CT, New York City, New Jersey,parts of Pennsylvania (worked fine at Sesame Place), Virginia near Busch Gardens, Orlando including All Star Sports, Pop Century, Contemporary, Fort Wilderness, Wilderness Lodge, Downtown Disney, and all 4 parks (never went to Water parks to try there). I would assume that the reception is the same for prepaid and and regular service. I have never once had a roaming fee or long distance charge on tmobile in the five years or so I've had them Dh had a tracfone for a while and whereever we went even 15 miles away etc there were roaming charges etc and reception wasn't great.

 

[bjscheel]

My Tracfone worked at WDW except for inside Cosmic Rays. I like it. I don't pay attention to the per-minute cost, I just know that I can have phone service for a whole year for $100. That's only about $8 a month. If you watch the specials, you can get double minutes etc. The minutes don't expire, so they keep building up if you don't use it much. I am using it more now than I used to but I have used about 70 minutes in 2 months.

The "home" area is super small, but I always have more than enough minutes so I don't worry about it.

I also would recommend reloading over the web, it is too hard to listen for all the numbers you have to program. I did have to call in to transfer my phone number to my husband's old phone and that was quite an ordeal. Got it done though!

 

[pantherlj]

My Tracfone worked at WDW except for inside Cosmic Rays. I like it. I don't pay attention to the per-minute cost, I just know that I can have phone service for a whole year for $100. That's only about $8 a month. If you watch the specials, you can get double minutes etc. The minutes don't expire, so they keep building up if you don't use it much. I am using it more now than I used to but I have used about 70 minutes in 2 months.

The "home" area is super small, but I always have more than enough minutes so I don't worry about it.

I also would recommend reloading over the web, it is too hard to listen for all the numbers you have to program. I did have to call in to transfer my phone number to my husband's old phone and that was quite an ordeal. Got it done though!

I do the exact same as you. 500 minutes with a coupon an online coding and a year of service for $100 lasts me a year. I just ignore the per minute rate because it would drive me nuts LOL However, it is much better than $30 - $40 a month!