Tracfone question

flotsamandjetsam said:
We have had several Tracfones over the years. One hitch we have encountered is that they cannot transfer minutes from the old phone to the new one if the old phone is dead. The minutes are stored in the phone. You may be able to find someone in the organization who can/will give you a break on this.
Click to expand...

Another plus for T-Mobile. The minutes travel with the SIM. Swap SIM, done.

jclarksnakes said:
I have had a Tracfone for years. I could do a commercial for Tracfone.

"hi, are you a grouchy old bastard like me? Do you hate people? Do you hate spending money? Do you hate phones? Do you especially hate spending money to talk to people on the phone? Then TRACFONE IS FOR YOU!"
Click to expand...

:LOL: That's my demographic!

I was at an event recently, and a friend pulls out the same phone I have - I told him, 'We are a dying breed, dumb-phones for us, we just want to make and receive an occasional call.' I'll surf the web when I get home.


-ERD50
 
:LOL: That's my demographic!

I was at an event recently, and a friend pulls out the same phone I have - I told him, 'We are a dying breed, dumb-phones for us, we just want to make and receive an occasional call.' I'll surf the web when I get home.


If I was one bit cheaper or grouchier I would not even have a cell phone.
 
I have a tracfone for DW and a couple that I help my BIL and SIL keep active. Recently SIL dropped hers in the ocean and even though it remained submerged for a few hours, it eventually died. I transferred the service and minutes to a new phone for her without any problems. They said I had to enter a bunch of stuff into the old (dead) phone but after telling them that the old phone is dead due to being saturated with salt water, they relented and let me add the months of service and minutes to a new phone (without accessing the old dead phone). If the first CSR can't/won't do it after pressing them, call back and try with a new CSR. There is also an executive resolution line that apparently puts you in touch with a higher level of CSR, some of which even have American English accents instead of heavy Spanish accent as I usually get.

OP, your situation was exactly like mine so you should be able to transfer the service to a new phone. Also, check online for buying phones, you might be able to order one straight from Tracfone with a free 3 months 60 minutes card included for $20 (and free shipping). And there are coupon codes for another $3-5 off of that.
 
I've also transferred minutes from a dead tracfone.

I've got a great strategy for getting the most airtime. It involves buying the minimum minutes then supersizing by adding year. I'll post details when I'm at my regular computer.

And don't forget that my tracfone went through the laundry and survived.
 
Here are my notes on the best way to get a lot of airtime without buying a lot of minutes.
Purchase a minimum number of minutes, then, on the next page, supersize by adding 365 days of air time. Note that the total charge shown on the page may not show the supersizing. When you click the Checkout button, it will complete the transaction.​
 
TromboneAl said:
Here are my notes on the best way to get a lot of airtime without buying a lot of minutes.
Purchase a minimum number of minutes, then, on the next page, supersize by adding 365 days of air time. Note that the total charge shown on the page may not show the supersizing. When you click the Checkout button, it will complete the transaction.
​
Click to expand...


I will try that when I transfer from Virgin to Tracfone... I still have money on Virgin and do not want to lose it...

Just got off the phone with Tracfone and bought the high priced phone :mad: What I do for the DW :flowers:

BUT, they charged me shipping and taxes :mad:

They did say that we can transfer the old phone number and minutes to the new phone... I asked how many we had and he said about 600, so they do keep track of that info.. also, I know what to expect when we get to that point..
 
Texas Proud said:
I will try that when I transfer from Virgin to Tracfone... I still have money on Virgin and do not want to lose.
Click to expand...
I must have missed something, I assumed you and your DW both had Tracfones. I would be very, very surprised if you were able to transfer remaining "money on Virgin" to Tracfone. I'd guess that will be lost so you might as well use up your Virgin money and then go to Tracfone. You will be able to transfer your cell number, but that's it...
 
Midpack said:
I must have missed something, I assumed you and your DW both had Tracfones. I would be very, very surprised if you were able to transfer remaining "money on Virgin" to Tracfone. I'd guess that will be lost so you might as well use up your Virgin money and then go to Tracfone. You will be able to transfer your cell number, but that's it...
Click to expand...


You just did not understand what I wrote... she has Tracfone, I have Virgin... her phone blew up... mine did not... we are replacing Tracfone with Tracfone.

I have been using up my minutes and when I get low enough, I will buy a Tracfone for myself... I do not mind losing a little, but had over $50 on the account when I decided to leave Virgin... still have over $30 and will have to put another $15 on in Feb before I get it down... since I usually only use mine in the city, it works for me. I just do not like them since they decided to not help out my mom who had $170 on her phone and she did not put more money on it.... they said 'it it to late, she lost the money, but we can start her over again'.... no thanks...
 
I'm in a similar position with Virgin, only I have $235 in credit. I thought maybe I could get a smart phone and burn off the credit using remote web access, but they appear to have a firewall between the so called "Paylo" prepaid text / voice and the "Beyond Talk" smart phone service. Any phone with Android capability seems to fall into the other service category and my credit is unusable.
 
My tracfone days expire in March. I just went ahead and bought another year's worth of time (1 Year + 400 mins card). I'll get 800 mins though as I have the double minutes for life thing.

Question. When extending, will that extend 1 year from the previous expiration date, or 1 year from the day I did the extension?

In otherwords, do I need to wait til just before the time expires to milk out the number of days before next expiration? Or can I just add it when it get the card and not lose any days in the process?
 
easysurfer said:
My tracfone days expire in March. I just went ahead and bought another year's worth of time (1 Year + 400 mins card). I'll get 800 mins though as I have the double minutes for life thing.

Question. When extending, will that extend 1 year from the previous expiration date, or 1 year from the day I did the extension?

In otherwords, do I need to wait til just before the time expires to milk out the number of days before next expiration? Or can I just add it when it get the card and not lose any days in the process?
Click to expand...


It will add 1 year from your previous expiration date, so you can add time whenever.
 
Thanks. Makes thing easier as when I renewed last year, I waited until the time almost expired and didn't pay attention as to when the time got extended from.
 
easysurfer said:
My tracfone days expire in March. I just went ahead and bought another year's worth of time (1 Year + 400 mins card). I'll get 800 mins though as I have the double minutes for life thing.

Question. When extending, will that extend 1 year from the previous expiration date, or 1 year from the day I did the extension?

In otherwords, do I need to wait til just before the time expires to milk out the number of days before next expiration? Or can I just add it when it get the card and not lose any days in the process?
Click to expand...


As mentioned, it extends from the last expiration....

The one good thing about buying the more expensive phone is that it is triple minutes for life... so I might get by with less $$$s going forward...
 
jclarksnakes said:
"Hi, are you a cheap grouchy old bastard like me? Do you hate people? Do you hate phones? Do you especially hate talking to people on the phone? Well alrighty, TRACFONE IS FOR YOU!"
Click to expand...

Hey! That's me! We have used Tracfone now for about 10 years. I am not glued to my cell phone like most other people are. Do you notice that the cell always rings at a bad time? Like when you are in the middle of painting and have your hands full. Many times a cell phone ties you down and distracts you from what you have planned. Watch who you give your number to. You may get abused when they want to blah blah blah.

Good point TromboneAl..."Purchase a minimum number of minutes, then, on the next page, supersize by adding 365 days of air time. Note that the total charge shown on the page may not show the supersizing. When you click the Checkout button, it will complete the transaction".
 
I have used Tracfone for several years. I am on my third phone...DH is on his second phone and I have successfully transferred the minutes each time. I buy a one year card for each of us. I buy the card when a regional big box store has a $20 off coupon for one general merchandise item and that gets my annual cost to $80 for more minutes than I use. I had the double minutes for life phone.

I would like to have an iPhone but I am just too cheap to pay the monthly service plan. I am always very cautious about anything that is a recurring bill. In other words, it is not the price of the phone that is as a big a deterrent to me as the monthly service plan that goes with it. That is why I like prepaid.
 
Midpack said:
Net10 & Straight Talk (same company as Tracfone) have LG Optimus 3G Android phones now, though they are $150-180 I think LG Optimus Net(TM). A way to have an actual "smartphone," still no contract and relatively inexpensive. However, I have not actually used one so I don't know how they perform. And I'm sure they won't match the performance of an iPhone 4S or a 4G Android though but those require contracts and significantly higher minimum costs/month - as usual, you get what you pay for more often than not. Good luck.

I'd like to have the latest iPhone myself, I'm just way too cheap. :D
Click to expand...

This is significant. I'll consider this if my iPod breaks, because I could have a cell, PDA, and camera all in one unit, and wouldn't have to rubber band them together.

A standardized sim card is such an elegant solution -- I wish tracfone would adopt it.
 
Midpack said:
Net10 & Straight Talk (same company as Tracfone) have LG Optimus 3G Android phones now, though they are $150-180 I think LG Optimus Net(TM). A way to have an actual "smartphone," still no contract and relatively inexpensive. However, I have not actually used one so I don't know how they perform. And I'm sure they won't match the performance of an iPhone 4S or a 4G Android though but those require contracts and significantly higher minimum costs/month - as usual, you get what you pay for more often than not. Good luck.

I'd like to have the latest iPhone myself, I'm just way too cheap. :D
Click to expand...

I have the LG optimus but on the Virgin Mobile network. Works well overall for a low end Android phone. It locks up occasionally and isn't nearly as fast as the latest high end 4g android phones but it gets the job done well and is very small so it fits easily in your pocket. You can't get the latest 3d graphics games on it but otherwise it runs almost every productivity app I have needed (for work). I think I paid $130 for it when it came out last year, so I imagine you can shop around for a deal now (but that was on Virgin mobile not the net10 and straight talk).

I use it for email and internet all the time and the 3g speeds don't really bother me (in the city so speeds are decent). Good camera. Only technical complaint is that the on board memory is tiny - something like 120 MB or 180 MB, and the different basic apps and OS use up a good bit, so I have to be cognizant of how many old unused apps I leave on there, and uninstall to free up space. Much better deal vs the thousands you would pay over the 2 year contract for a typical smart phone if you don't need bleeding edge tech.
 
Midpack said:
Net10 & Straight Talk (same company as Tracfone) have LG Optimus 3G Android phones now, though they are $150-180 I think LG Optimus Net(TM). A way to have an actual "smartphone," still no contract and relatively inexpensive. However, I have not actually used one so I don't know how they perform. And I'm sure they won't match the performance of an iPhone 4S or a 4G Android though but those require contracts and significantly higher minimum costs/month - as usual, you get what you pay for more often than not. Good luck.

I'd like to have the latest iPhone myself, I'm just way too cheap. :D
Click to expand...


I have an itouch that I got for $20 last christmas. Brand new. It is an amazing tool.
 
steve88 said:
I have an itouch that I got for $20 last christmas. Brand new. It is an amazing tool.
Click to expand...
Did you mean iPod Touch (amazing but not a phone) or iPhone? You can get an iPhone 3GS direct from AT&T now for 99 cents, but you have to buy a voice and data plan under contract last time I looked. Great phone if you're OK with the plan, but two revisions earlier than the current iPhone 4S.
iPhone 4S at AT&T - Download 3x faster only on AT&T's Network
 
Midpack said:
Did you mean iPod Touch (amazing but not a phone) or iPhone? You can get an iPhone 3GS direct from AT&T now for 99 cents, but you have to buy a voice and data plan under contract last time I looked. Great phone if you're OK with the plan, but two revisions earlier than the current iPhone 4S.
iPhone 4S at AT&T - Download 3x faster only on AT&T's Network
Click to expand...


Sorry you're right its a ipod touch. My son has converted or downloaded an app and has the ability to call and receive.
 
But it is then really a wi-fi phone and not a cell phone, right? In other words, fine if you are at home or Starbucks, but not it you are in the car or whatever.
 
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