Cell phone plans - Is Tracfone any good?

[Icepick]

I currently have a Verizon wireless cell phone plan that I picked up three summers ago. The two year plan I originally signed up for is almost up. I want to switch to a cheaper method of cell phone usage. I'm

considering a pay as you go plan like maybe TracFone or any of the

variants out there.

Can anyone recommend one? Does anyone have any experience with

Tracfone? good or bad?

Reasons why I dislike Verizon Wireless:
1. I am charged $35.95/month for 300 minutes + taxes & fees = $49.56/month.

2. I have received at least five phone calls on my land line from Verizon salespeople trying to upsell me to the new plan. The one I have now, 300 mins@$35+tax&fees is discontinues to new customers and they are trying to upsell me to 400 mins@$40+tax&fees. This is really beginning to annoy me.

3. /Rant I ran into a problem where my son spilled water on the first phone we had last year at only 1 year into the plan. They refused to replace the phone for me and forced me to either buy a new one at $160 or pay them $170 to terminate the contract early. That really pissed me off. Not really their fault but, hey, they could have cut me some kind of break. /Rant

Now, educate me on pay-as-you go or Tracfones please!

 

[zephyrprime]

Oh for cripes sake, if you spill water on your phone, it's your own dang fault. Don't try to make the phone company pay for YOUR SON'S mistake.

The only pay as go plan that is any good in my opinion is virgin mobile. 25c/minute for the first 10 minutes, 10c/minute thereafter. $20 every 90days minimum and your minutes never expire.

If you talk on the phone more than about ~200minutes/month, a monthly plan is better.

 

[state 08]

Go for the Sprint Sero plan.

I have,

500 Anytimes Minutes
Unlimited Sprint to Sprint and Sprint to Nextel
Unlimited Nights and Weekends starting @ 9PM
Unlimited Internet (PCS VISION)
500 TXT messages

$30.00/mo ... about 36 after tax and fees.

 

[NutBucket]

Point 1: All companies have approximately the same "added" costs due to taxes.

Point 2: Tell them you don't want to be called. They have to honor your request.

Point 3: Suck it up. If you crash your car you don't get a deal on new one.

 

[drum]

my parents use tracfone. its great unless you actually talk on the phone with any regularity, which they don't. they only have it for emergencies.

 

[KB]

Wife has Tracfone and doesn't have any problems...except if she text messages or gets text messages then it cost 2 minutes. Also she loses her mintes every few months and has to buy new ones.
Costs like $20 every few months.

 

[boomerang]

I've had a tracfone for the past several years.

It suits my needs perfectly. It may not suit your calling habits though.

I buy a prepaid card for one year of service and 300 minutes and it lasts me about that long. I make few calls. My wife is the only one that knows the number and she calls me on it infrequently. I use it for convenience. It is a way for us to keep in contact if needed when I am in my car. This is the only time I use it.

The information is all at their website. Just look and see if it will work out for you. It's easy to get bitten by the minutes / time thing they have going.

I have had no problems with their service at all. I am actually on the cingular network and for where I use the phone, the reception is great and I have nearly zero dropouts.

My wife just bought a new phone from them to replace her current tracfone. It was cheaper to get a new phone than to get a replacement battery for the phone she had.

They told her it would be 5 to 7 days to switch her number over. It has been nearly 30 days and they have given her a lot of excuses. She has been far more patient that I would ever have been. She called this afternoon to ask them where to send the phone back. She got routed through 3 different people that all told her a different story and she finally insisted that she was returning the phone. None of the people she talked to spoke english as their native language.

She doesn't know what she's going to do right now, but I have a feeling tracfone has lost her as a customer.

 

[NutBucket]

Tracfone stinks because the minutes expire. You're much better off with Virgin/Boost Mobile since the minutes you buy accumulate and don't expire. I believe you need to buy $20 every 3 months to keep the number active.

 

[imported_Stewy]

I was in a similiar situation a few months ago. After looking at numerous prepaid solutions (I was too cheap to pay $30+ for a real cell phone) I decided to go with Net10. They sell 300 minutes for $30 which last for 60 days, have no roaming charge, and have service where ever Cingular, T-Mobile, and a few other service providers are. For my purpose, they work great. If you buy a phone with them now, they give you 300 minutes free. It's a good deal for someone who doesn't want to spend much on a phone, and based on your OP, it's cheaper than what you're paying right now. Unlike previously mentioned in this thread, they only charge 5c per text message, which is MUCH better than the 2 minutes per that Tracfone offers.

 

[Icepick]

Net10 looks like a bang for the buck winner but, the coverage in upstate NY looks spotty based on their own coverage map. It looks like a subsidiary of TracFone anyway.

Tracfone's site shows better coverage on their map. I don't know how good that will be in practice, though. Tracfone looks like a good choice for now. If I can get by on 30 minutes/month then I'll save a bunch of cash each month.

State08, I think I can by on less minutes and save money by going with the TracFone instead of Sero based on the rates you stated.

I'll have to go check out Virgin/Boost Mobile now and see what they're pitching.

 

[Icepick]

Originally posted by: zephyrprime
Oh for cripes sake, if you spill water on your phone, it's your own dang fault. Don't try to make the phone company pay for YOUR SON'S mistake.

That is true. BUT, they already had my by the nads with the contract I was locked into. They were gauranteed to get more $$ out of me over the next few months. They could have taken care of a good customer by cutting me a break and at least offering a replacement at a discount. The phone they sold me for $150 at the time was selling for half that when purchased with a plan a year earlier. They could even have built some good brand loyalty.

Instead, they decided to strip me naked, bend me over the counter and dry rape me right there on the showroom floor. For that, my friends, there can be no further patronage.

 

[jimbob200521]

Originally posted by: drum
my parents use tracfone. its great unless you actually talk on the phone with any regularity, which they don't. they only have it for emergencies.

My parents are the same way. The only reason they buy another card every few months or so is because if they don't they not only loose the minutes they already have but also the phone number. It works good for them, but again, if you talk very much, unless you buy large cards and watch your time, Tracfone is pretty good.

US Cell is pretty good. My basic plan is $39.95 for 1000 anytime minutes, unlimited mobile to mobile calls and unlimited call me min. And for an extra $5.95 a month I also get unlimited nights and weeks starting at 7:00pm. After taxes, etc my month bill is about $55.00

 

[Armitage]

Originally posted by: NutBucket
Tracfone stinks because the minutes expire. You're much better off with Virgin/Boost Mobile since the minutes you buy accumulate and don't expire. I believe you need to buy $20 every 3 months to keep the number active.

As far as I can tell Tracfone works the same way - you have to buy additional time to keep your service active, but the remaining airtime doesn't expire if you keep it active. I've had mince since Sept. and my minutes have never gone down except through use.

My tracfone service has been great - but I hardly use my phone. It's expensive per minute if you use it alot. I recently added 60 minutes/60 days of service for $25 - then they offered another 30 days of service for $5. So $10/month for 3 months of service.

 

[Sphexi]

1. The 300 minute plan has been discontintued for a while. They changed it to a no-roaming plan, which you are not on, so they want to get you onto it to make sure you get the best service possible. Not their fault you want an older, more expensive per minute plan with less service.

2. You sign a contract agreeing to 2 years of service, in exchange for $240 off the price of the phone. Without insurance, they don't have to cut you any break at all, since they gave you a fairly expensive phone for next to nothing, or in a lot of cases, free.

3. Tracfone will only be cheaper if you don't use it. Per minute it is VERY expensive, with the exception of buying the double-minute year card and the $80 card every other month, which puts you right back up around $40 a month for service, yet still doesn't give you as many minutes or features or service as Verizon. Yes, you could spend only $20 per month on it, but you'd be getting only 60 minutes to use that month. Do the math, it's not worth it.

 

[Tu13erhead]

.

 

[middlehead]

I know you didn't mention the network, but if you've had any problems with the service itself make sure to doublecheck on whose network those independent prepaids are using. I know tracfone runs on Verizon towers in my area, but I don't know if it's a national deal between them or if tracfone negotiated region by region.

 

[Armitage]

Originally posted by: Tu13erhead
Tracfone CS blows. I used to work at Target, where we sold phones and minute cards. About 6 times someone bought a Tracfone minutes card, tried to activate it and was told the number was invalid. So I'd have to get on the phone with their CSR and, even though I JUST SOLD THEM THE CARD, they still refused to recognize the card as valid, and would not give another card number. Eventually my manager would just buy the guest another card or something, but come on. Pathetic.

I always buy mine online. Never had a problem. Any chance people were bringing back old cards and trying to return them claiming they didn't work?

 

[Icepick]

Originally posted by: middlehead
I know you didn't mention the network, but if you've had any problems with the service itself make sure to doublecheck on whose network those independent prepaids are using. I know tracfone runs on Verizon towers in my area, but I don't know if it's a national deal between them or if tracfone negotiated region by region.

If I find out TracFone uses Verizon's infrastructure in my area then I'll definitely go with them. Verizon has the best coverage up here hands down. Too bad they're so expensive.

 

[conehead433]

I've used Tracfone for several years with no problem. I really don't use the phone much so it costs me about $10 a month. I just buy a one year card with 150 minutes and use a coupon to either double the minutes or add 100. I used the phone a good bit a couple of years ago as I needed it on the job so I bought a 400 minute card for ~$80 and was paying about $.20 a minute for calls. It's definitely a good deal if you don't use the phone a lot but it still may be cheper for some with all the BS charges you get using a regular provider.

 

[Armitage]

Originally posted by: Icepick

Originally posted by: middlehead
I know you didn't mention the network, but if you've had any problems with the service itself make sure to doublecheck on whose network those independent prepaids are using. I know tracfone runs on Verizon towers in my area, but I don't know if it's a national deal between them or if tracfone negotiated region by region.

If I find out TracFone uses Verizon's infrastructure in my area then I'll definitely go with them. Verizon has the best coverage up here hands down. Too bad they're so expensive.

They definitely don't use Verizon here. Verizon is the only company with good coverage at my home and my tracfone doesn't work well here.

 

[Tu13erhead]

Originally posted by: Armitage

Originally posted by: Tu13erhead
Tracfone CS blows. I used to work at Target, where we sold phones and minute cards. About 6 times someone bought a Tracfone minutes card, tried to activate it and was told the number was invalid. So I'd have to get on the phone with their CSR and, even though I JUST SOLD THEM THE CARD, they still refused to recognize the card as valid, and would not give another card number. Eventually my manager would just buy the guest another card or something, but come on. Pathetic.

I always buy mine online. Never had a problem. Any chance people were bringing back old cards and trying to return them claiming they didn't work?

No. Like, I personally sold them to them literally minutes before. I watched them take the card off the rack, I scanned it, they paid, then the same card didn't work (you can match them up on the reciept).