As someone interested in acquiring a cell phone, you’ve probably been hearing a lot about Tracfone, yet you may still be wondering what it’s all about, how it works, and why you should use it. In this article I hope to tell you all you need to know about Tracfone– what it is, what you can expect from it, its strengths and its weaknesses, and whether it’s right for you.
What is Tracfone?
Tracfone is a “pay as you go” (or “prepaid”) cell phone service. Why is it called that? Because unlike traditional cell phone services that lock you into a longterm service contract and require you to pay a recurring fee for a set amount of minutes every month, with Tracfone you just buy as many minutes as you need by purchasing “airtime” units (minutes). Once you run out of minutes, you can just buy some more.
Although this frees you from the obligation of having to pay from $40 to over $100 each and every month, there’s a catch– you must purchase airtime every 90 days to continue the service. This is because when you buy airtime, you don’t just buy minutes, but a certain amount of service days. If you don’t purchase more airtime before your 90 days are up, you lose your phone number and your service.
How do I use Tracfone?
To actually start using Tracfone, no credit cards are needed, and you don’t have to visit a store or call a number to sign up for an account. Simply buy a Tracfone cell phone at any big box retailer (Walmart, Target, Kmart), electronics store (Best Buy), or dollar store (Family Dollar). You may also purchase a phone online at Tracfone’s official website. If you’re worried about the price of a phone, don’t worry. A basic phone (like the Motorola W175)could be had for as little as $10.
You may think that because Tracfones phones cost so little and are disposable, they’re cheaply made, have poor coverage, and are just terrible overall. On the contrary– because Tracfones come from well known brands like Motorola and LG, they are very well made, provide excellent coverage, and are surprisingly functional (with exceptions– see “negatives” section). High end models that run in the $30 plus range (like the Motorola W376) offer things like bluetooth, internet browsing, texting, and a phone camera. Even the cheapest no frills phone that has nothing but basic service (no internet or email) will come with things like alarm clocks, games, address books, phone history, ringtones, and caller ID. So a Tracfone is just as good as any type of cell phone you would get from Sprint or Verizon or T-Mobile.
How Do I Activate?
When you get your newly purchased Tracfone, you can’t use it right away. First you must activate it. To do this, first insert the battery, then fully charge your phone. To activate, you have two options– by landline or on the internet. Either way is fine. Carefully follow the instructions that came with your phone and within 20 minutes, you will have a number assigned and– depending on your phone model– will receive either 10 or 20 minutes of trial usage.
How and Where Do I Purchase Airtime?
As mentioned previously, to actually get any cell phone service, you will have to purchase “airtime units”– or minutes. Airtime can be bought in 4 different ways– online, through your landline, through your Tracfone, or through the purchase of airtime phone cards that can be had at many big boxes, dollar chains, and pharmacy chains like CVS, Duane Reade, and Rite Aid. Airtime can be purchased in 60, 120, 200 and 450 minute blocks, each giving you 90 days of service, with the cheapest card you can buy (60 minutes) going for $20. If you don’t like the idea of having to constantly refill your phone you can also buy a special 400 minute card that offers you a service time of 1 year.
Special Deals and Offers
Many newbies to Tracfone make the erroneous assumption that the airtime cards are too expensive. They complain that the money you pay per minute, especially for the 60 minute card, comes out to a hefty 33 cents per minute. What most don’t seem to realize is that there are many ways to get the most out of your money by taking advantage of certain deals that can have you paying as little as 10 cents per minute.
One way is to buy a special “Double Minutes for Life” airtime card. This card doesn’t add any minutes; what it does is make it so that any future airtime card you buy has its minutes doubled. For example, if you buy a 20 minute airtime card for 60 minutes, you get 120 minutes instead (60+60= 120).
Another way of saving money is to buy a phone that already has “Double Minutes for Life” included. Much like the card, this phone will double the value on any airtime card you add to it. If you’re new to Tracfone, you are much better off just buying a phone with DMFL than buying a basic phone and adding a DMFL card later. Not only do you get the double minutes option right off the bat, you save money too, as DMFL phones are almost always cheaper than the card, which usually retail for about 50 bucks.
A third way you can get the most out of Tracfone is to look for sales by various retailers that offer airtime cards at a discount. At big box retailers like Target, you can find upwards of $5 taken off various cards.
One last way to stretch your dollars further is to use what are known as “promo codes.” Promo codes are 5-digit coupon codes you can add to a specific airtime card to get additional bonus minutes. For example, let’s say you get a promo code that gives you 30 minutes with the purchase of a 60 minute card. If you input the code during the process of adding your 60 minute airtime card, you will get 90 minutes instead of 60.
Combined with a DMFL phone, promo codes are a terrific way of getting the biggest bang for your buck. Let’s say you’d like to add a 60 minute airtime card to your phone and you have a promo code that adds 30 minutes. Since it’s a DMFL phone, you get 120 minutes. With the addition of the promo code, you will have added 30 minutes, giving you a grand total of 150 minutes! So basically, for the price of a 60 minute card, you got more than double the amount of minutes.
How do you get promo codes? Tracfone will often send you text messages alerting you of them. However, the best way to get codes are visiting communities like Fat Wallet, Slick Deals, Howard Forums, and the Yahoo! Tracfone Users group. Here, members often post codes that yield the greatest amount of minutes, as well as keep members updated on which ones are still valid and which ones have expired.
What are some reasons to get a Tracfone?
There are many great reasons why you might want to get a Tracfone:
Number one, if all you want out of a cell phone is to have something in case of emergency or let people know where you are when you go out, you don’t have to sign up for a pricy monthly plan that has you paying for more minutes than you actually use. So you save tons of money, because you only pay for the minutes you need.
Secondly, one of the most frustrating things that cell phone users have to deal with are the ridiculous amount of taxes that are often tacked onto their bills every month. Thanks to a myriad of taxes and surcharges, a plan that costs $50 a month could easily jump to $70 or more once these fees are applied. With Tracfone, you don’t pay any taxes other than the one you paid when you bought the phone.
One last reason to get a Tracfone is that since you’re not locked into a service contract, you don’t have any dreaded cancellation fees to worry about if you hate the service. If you dislike Tracfone, the most you ever have to pay is the phone and airtime you purchased for it. But with regular cell phone service, you often face a cancellation fee well into the hundreds of dollars, especially if you have more than one phone under a plan.
What are some negatives about Tracfone I should know about?
For all its positives to Tracfone, there are some negatives.
The first one is lack of phone selection. Tracfone rarely has more than a handful of phones available. Worst yet, their phones are often limited to 2-3 brands at any given time. So if you’re a big fan of, say, Samsung, you’re going to be disappointed. And if you really dislike the other models (like Motorola or LG), these could wind up being a dealbreaker.
Another negative is that although Tracfone offers high end phones with a lot of features (like blue tooth, camera phone, texting, etc), many of those features are crippled to a certain degree. For example, on any phone that has internet browsing, you can’t download mp3 ringtones. You also can’t transfer files directly to your phone using a USB cord. Why these features are crippled is understandable; Tracfone does this most likely to prevent people from hacking their phones. However, this won’t make things any less disappointing for you if you look forward to getting the most out of a high end Tracfone model that boasts all of these enhanced features.
One last negative is customer service. Tracfone’s dodgy hit or miss support has been the stuff that legends are made of– while some people have had shining success with it; others, particularly those who’ve called it to replace lost phones, transfer numbers, or troubleshoot an issue have had a less than stellar experience. One trick is to not call the customer support number that Tracfone officially gives customers but to instead contact Tracfone’s number at its headquarters in Florida (that number, by the way, is 1-800-876-5753). Call that number instead and the service you receive will be as different as night and day.
Tracfone In a Nutshell
If you can’t stand the idea of being committed to a cell phone plan for one or more years, are looking for a way of getting basic cell phone service without breaking the bank, or just want to cut down on your spending by canceling your current cell phone contract, a prepaid service is definitely the way to go. There are many such plans available from various companies, such as T-Mobile and Sprint. However, if you’re a newbie to this type of service, I would definitely recommend going with Tracfone first. Not only is it a low risk investment, it’s a pretty straightforward, easy to understand service –you simply buy a phone, then add time as needed. In addition, it offers special plans and deals to save you as much money as possible.
