Tracfone, pay as you go wireless. Works great for us.
Written: Aug 10 '04 (Updated Aug 19 '04)
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The time finally came that we decided to buy my Mother-in-Law a cell phone. She is now officially a senior citizen, and we would feel more comfortable with her having access to a phone wherever she goes. I hate to admit that I didn’t want to add my Mother-in-Law to our own existing cell phone service. We have a monthly service, with a monthly fee. You go over a certain amount of minutes, it can get expensive, and I didn’t want to be responsible for her calls. So, I needed to find a different service. But which one, which company, what to do?? We chose Tracfone.
Read on to find out why (for those even considering Tracfone, if anything, I recommend reading the"Did I Get A Deal" section below, as I think it can be very helpful in saving you some money).
~~ PAY AS YOU GO ~~
I had heard of Tracfone on the radio, and the thought of “Pay As You Go Wireless” sounded just like what I was looking for. Basically, it’s a pre-paid phone card with the amount of units (minutes) programmed into your phone after you activate the phone card. You can purchase extra air time cards as you run out of current air time from just about anywhere, like Target, Walmart or on Tracfone’s web site.
~~ COST OF THE PREPAID CARDS ~~
There are six different kinds of prepaid cards that you can purchase.
There are two that give you a one year of wireless service when you purchase that particular card. One that comes with 150 airtime units (cost: $94.99). The other comes with 300 units, but it also offers Double Minutes on future cards that you purchase (cost: $149.99).
Obviously, since these are both one-year service cards, you will only want to buy one or the other of these cards, there would be no need to purchase both.
The other four cards are simply air time cards.
400 airtime units – Cost $79.99
200 airtime units – Cost $49.99
100 airtime units – Cost $29.99
40 airtime units – Cost $19.99
If you do not purchase one of the one-year service cards, then you need to purchase and activate one of these other cards every 60 days, or you can lose your service and have to go through the whole process to re-activate your phone, and then get assigned a new phone number (which can be a hassle, since you’d need to call everyone to give them your new number). There is no extra fee to activate or re-activate your phone.
I opted to purchase the “Double Minute prepaid plan with one year wireless service” with the “Motorella V60i flip phone.” This plan and phone is suggested to cost $199.99. This way, my Mother-in-Law won't have to worry about buying/activating a card every 60 days, she's set for a year and can purchase additional cards as she runs out of time (the phone keeps tabs on exactly how many units/minutes are left on your plan, so it should be no surprise when you get close to running out).
Did I get a deal? Keep reading…
~~ WEB SITE ~~
I went to the Tracfone website (tracfone.com) to get more info, and I actually ordered the phone directly from the web site. It was very easy! Their web site is very user friendly and easy to understand. The tabs across the top are simple:
Redeem airtime, activate phone, reactivate phone, buy airtime, buy phone and buy accessories.
When you click on the tabs, the directions for that particular area are easy to understand, not confusing at all.
After I purchased the phone and airtime card, I received the package within 3 days. Coming out of the box, the phone came in a big, clear plastic bubble-domed shaped box. It had the phone, plug in charger, directions, and Tracfone coupons for future airtime purchases inside the box.
After charging the phone for about 3 hours, I went back to the web site to activate the phone and the voice mail. There I noticed something interesting, so I’ll go right to the next section:
~~ DID I GET A DEAL? ~~
First of all, allow me to go back a little. When purchasing the phone on the web site, I put the package I was getting (the phone and the 1 year double minute calling card) into my shopping cart, and clicked check-out. It took me to an accessories page, where you can choose earphones, car charger, the like. I clicked on “no additional accessories” so then it took me to the check-out page.
When I got to the check-out page, I started to think that maybe my Mother-in-Law should have an earphone for when she is driving in the car. I hit the back button, and POOF! A pop-up screen came up that ask me not to leave so early, and that they would give me 10% off my purchase if I bought right now, and I would also get a free speakerphone attachment ($50 value) with my purchase. So, with the 10% off (savings of $19.99) and the free speakerphone, I saved $70 just by clicking the back button.
REFER A FRIEND: The other nice thing is their “Refer A Friend” program. If you refer a friend, you and the friend EACH get an additional 100 minutes! You only get this extra bonus once for an UN-activated phone, and once your phone is first activated, you can never get the deal again (the phone is activated using the ESN, or serial number of the phone).
Well, I didn’t know a friend who had the phone, so I went to e-bay and listed an auction that said I had an un-activated Tracfone, and I would sell my referral to the highest bidder. (100 minutes is worth $29.99) I sold it for a buy-it-now price of $15. I now had a friend, my high bidder. She had Tracfone e-mail me the referral, and I activated my phone using her referral. She got 100 minutes, and so did I. I also got an additional 20 minutes, 10 for activating my phone, and another 10 for activating it online.
So, my deal is that I got $20 off, a free $50 speakerphone, got an additional $15 for selling my referral on e-bay, got an additional 120 minutes/units ($45 value) absolutely for free, and will get double minutes on all future airtime cards I purchase for the next year (a 400 unit card will be 800 units for the cost of $79.99, so that is only .10 cents a minute).
~~ ACTIVATING THE PHONE / Your Area ~~
When you go to the web site to activate the phone, you enter your information. Based on your zip code, this will assign your “local calling area.” My Mother-in-Laws local area is ALL of Los Angeles County, which is huge. When ever she is in her “area” and is on the phone, only one unit will be used for every minute she’s on the phone. Outside of her “area” will cost her two units for every minute she’s on the phone (she rarely travels outside of L.A. County). But, this also means that she can call from across the United States, and only be charged two units a minute (which would be .20 cents a minute with the card that I got for her).
~~ WHAT TRACFONE HAS TO SAY ~~
(from their web site: www.tracfone.com)
*No Contracts * No Monthly Bills * No Credit Checks * No Activation Fees * No Deposits * Pay As You Go * Nationwide Long Distance Included.
“Tracfone provides nationwide prepaid wireless service. We use the nation's leading cellular providers to create a national footprint covering 99% of the U.S. population. This gives you service everywhere cellular service is available.
You can use your TracFone across the U.S. and if you move, you can relocate your wireless number with just a phone call.”
~~ BOTTOM LINE ~~
The web site has a “Questions” page, and an 800 number you can call at any time for help. You can even buy the phone, buy airtime, and redeem airtime using the 800 number (but they give the extra-minutes incentive to do it online). I recommend setting up your voice mail from your home phone, you simply call your cell phone number, and let it roll over to voice mail, and press # and enter your password. This way, it won't take extra minutes off your airtime to set up your voice mail. You can also check your voice mail the same way, if you're not necessarily in a hurry and can wait to get home to check your cell phone voice mail messages.
This Pay As You Go program has worked wonderful for our situation, and I think this may be something I’ll do for my daughter’s when they will need a phone in the future.
©Sherri (cubmomma) 2004
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
cubmomma
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Member: Sherri
Location: Southern Calif.
Reviews written: 28
Trusted by: 26 members
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