I wrote about Tracfone in my post about prepaid wireless. Recently I have seen many Tracfone ads on my Yahoo account, which reminded me that my recently order for another Tracfone is about to arrive soon. I purchased another Tracfone, for business related use this time. Why did I buy a Tracfone? The primary reason is because I had a good experience with it before. Another reason is, it meets my needs very well.
I don't use that many minutes on a monthly basis. With the one year card, I have only used about 50 minutes in the last two months. At this rate, this card and phone plan will cost me only about $103 for an entire year. Yes, I might run out of minutes before then, and I can always buy another card to fill it up again.
Bottom line, I had a good experience with the service and I can't find anything that will fit my needs both financially and service wise as well as Tracfone has.
UPDATE: I just discovered Dan's site for big discounts on Tracfone prepaid plans so I thought I'd update this post. His site has some great deals listed - free phones, free airtime minutes, bonus codes and more. I'm hoping this becomes a great resource for Tracfone related information.
What about you? Do you use prepaid cell phones? What service and plans do you use?
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17 comments:
My wife and I have Tracfones, and we use their monthly "family" plan. For the two of us, it's about $17/mo after tax. On the rare occasion one of us needs more minutes, I just go online and pop in another $10 and that adds 100 minutes to whichever of us needs it.
Can't beat that kind of flexibility! I only wish I could get my hands on one of those older model Tracfones that supported unlimited incoming text messages for free. :-)
By the way -- what sold me on Tracfone was the phones with double minutes. That gets the per-minute cost down to 10 cents/min if you buy your airtime online. That's a way better deal than the other services I checked out at the time.
TracFone is a good options. There are other very competitive options out there for people to consider. Feel free to use this free resource to compare the major plans:
http://www.prepaid-wireless-guide.com/compare-prepaid-plans.html
Hi Thomas,
Thanks for the visit and your helpful information. The selling point of the double minutes was a definitely plus for me as well! The biggest selling point for me, was the one year expiration. Since I don't use many minutes, even 400 minutes will last me several months. Having the double minutes there, I would not be surprised if the doubled minutes plus promo code ends up lasting me a full year.
A full year's worth of cell service for a little over $100 is a great deal! I did look at the family plan, but did not go for it. The cost is about the same as what I would get from my current method but I would have to pay monthly no matter if I use the service or not.
Like you, my current cost per minute is about 10 cents. I'm glad to hear your experience with Tracfone, as it reinforces mine :)
Hope to see you on FrugalNYC more often.
@Prepaidwirelessguy,
Thanks for your comment. I think you mentioned the same in my previous post.
Just wondering, if you use prepaid. If so, what service do you use and why? I think your audience and mine would find that information helpful as well.
I LOVE my Tracfone!
I dumped my AT&T phone and got out of my cellphone contract when the company changed its terms. (Did you know that if they do that, it voids the contract? They don't tell you that, but I saw it on the Consumerist site and it worked! No termination fee too. Haha.)
Anyway, I got a prepaid Tracfone and I haven't ever had a problem with it. I wouldn't know about the customer service because I never had a reason to call them.
But the best thing about this is that there aren't any bills and I know what my costs are because I pay upfront for my calls. It's great!
@Greg Treft
I definitely agree. The only thing I don't quite like is the limited selection of phones, but it's well worth the upside of never getting a bill!
It's good to know how much you are actually paying for a service. Not dealing with taxes that add up to as much as the service is another plus!
Thanks for visiting and for the comment Greg!
Hey, just a plug for 2 Tracfone sites I really like. One is http://pbush14.wordpress.com/ and the other http://tracfone-blog.fone-review.com/ -- both keep a running list of all current and past Tracfone promo codes (many old ones still work, apparently) and publish extremely detailed reviews on new Tracfone models when they come out.
Both of those sites were very valuable when I was first researching whether to get a Tracfone, and which model to buy at the time. I still keep up with them to see what's new. Especially since I'm waiting for the Motorla EM326g to come to Tracfone. :)
Oh and another comment, since I saw you talking about "taxes that add up to as much as the service." No kidding!
When I was on Sprint, I was paying over $20 per month just in taxes and fees for service on my ONE phone. That was essentially a 40-50% tax on my monthly bill.
Now I pay less than $20 per month for TWO phones through Tracfone, including the tiny sales tax added in. Viva la prepaid!
@Thomas Hochmann
Thanks for the comments and tips! I'll definitely keep all you said in mind.
Getting back to taxes. I mentioned it to a Verizon rep and they basically said the problem is due to our gov. Passing the buck - like any Monopoly would. I'm thinking of going with another carrier just so I can say I'm not with Verizon.
I definitely think Tracfone is a great deal, especially since I don't talk on the phone all day long.
Yeah, but how come those $20+ worth of taxes don't apply to Tracfone as well? ... Or maybe they do, and that's why it's 10 cents a minute at the cheapest. But then, how come Tracfone can offer Straight Talk and not charge those same taxes? Straight Talk ends up being about 3 cents/min.
Something's up. Either companies like Verizon, Sprint, etc. are BSing everyone and blaming the government, or the government has them in a bind. If it's the latter, I bet they will eventually do the same with Tracfone if prepaid gets too popular.
@Thomas Hochmann
I've thought about that too. If it was a level playing field, ATT and Verizon charges would be the same. But if you look at the details of bills, none of it is really clear. The carriers just pass whatever costs they can to the consumer.
Since Tracfone has lower overhead due to the nature of their service/setup, they don't have those issues. I hope it remains this way, as you said.
Another prepaid wireless review site http://www.prepaidreviews.com/
We live in Canada and the prices to use our cell phones when we travel to the US (which is often) is unbelievable! So we bought tracfones - best phone decision we ever made! we can now phone home for only a few cents a minute and make local calls without it being a fortune!
@Melanie
That's a perfect example of why I think Tracfones are such a great bargain. For those overseas or just over the border and travel to the US, this is a great way to save.
Hi Frugal, I see it's almost a year hence your link to Dan's site about Tracfone bargains and such. Both links are no longer live. We live in a rural area in North MT & never have had a cell phone. Lots of dead zones. But Trac's are sold up here & asked a lady who uses it how it handles. Our current plans to travel this summer got us to thinking we'd like one along. I've read there are problems with buying local and then traveling to other states to use? And do the minutes run out if not used for a while or do they last until you do use them? Thanx for any updates you can provide.
Hi Anonymous,
When I buy a Tracphone online, it asks me where I'll be using the phone etc. Not sure how much it has to do with service. I know my phone is covered by AT&T, and depending on your model of phone and location, you'll have a different service provider.
As for minutes, the phone tells you when the minutes will expire. As long as you fill up minutes before it expires, the unused minutes carry over. I usually do the one year and add when I start running low on minutes or when minutes will expire soon. Hope that helps.
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