TracFone pre-paid cell phone

[Esteban]

Does anyone here use a TracFone pre-paid cell phone? tracfone.com What is your experience like with them?

I have not had a cell phone in years. Hated having a monthly bill for one.

I'm coming around. I have a new TracFone winging it's way to me via UPS. It should be here next Wednesday. The cell phone I ordered is a LG 480G. It has triple minutes for life (of the phone), meaning air time I/you buy is tripled.

Amazon.com sells the phone for $27.99 LG 840G Prepaid Phone With Triple Minutes (Tracfone). There are hundreds of reviews for it.

Or you can get the phone with one year of service and 1200 minutes of calling time included for $99.99 at Amazon LG 840G Prepaid Phone With 1200 Minutes and Triple Minutes (Tracfone) which seems like a great deal because it's almost equal to the cost of buying one year of pre-paid TracFone service with 1200 minutes (400 air time minutes and a year of service costs $99.99 and the airtime gets tripled with this phone).

Curious me, I googled tracfone. Found a better deal. Now I have one on order from Home Shopping Network for $69.95 plus tax and shipping that includes a full year of service and 1500 minutes, LG No-Contract Touchscreen 3G Wi-Fi Camera Smartphone with 1500 Minutes - Tracfone Service Whoopie! A cell phone and a year of service for considerably less than the cost of the pre-paid service.


There apparently are easy ways to get additional free minutes by using/adding on promo codes too. tracfonereviewer.blogspot.com is one site I learned of that posts the promo codes.

[MtnDon]

Like any cell service varies with location. We had a tracfone 6 or more years ago. We liked it but then in the second year they changed who they used in our mountain area. The service went from okay to more or less unusable. (Tracfone and many others do not have their own towers, they buy time on Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, etc.) So we changed to an Alltel prepaid as we can see that tower from our cabin ( it's now Verizon where we are). As we are not big talkers we make out fine with the prepaid pay as you go plan. Costs us about $100 a year. I would like data but won't pay the price for it as the mountains area is still not up to speed on data.

[Esteban]

The phone I ordered works on the GSM network. In my area that will be ATT or T-Mobile. Verizon uses CDMA and is strong in my area. I went back and forth choosing whether to get a gsm or a cdma phone.

The phone I'm getting, a LG480G, is gsm and the specs say it works free (no air time charges) on free wi-fi. I'll need to see how well that works in real life. There is a lot to learn. It has many functions beyond a phone. Music player, camera, video camera, wi-fi, appointment book, alarm clock, etc, etc.

HSN very clearly showed a 1500 minute TracFone card on their video demonstration. The salesperson I ordered from said I get 500 minutes that will be tripled. Sorta the same and sorta not at all the same. Seemed to me to be misrepresentation bordering on fraud (which I told him). TracFone Minutes

In either case it's a good deal. If I do receive a TracFone 1500 minute card (value $199.99) as shown on the video I may be able to triple the 1500 minutes. Time will tell.

Howard Forums seemed to indicate my area is pretty up to speed on data networks. I'll see after the phone arrives and I test it.

[Fenlason]

I have a tracfone.. and have had it a couple of years. I can't say I use it much. It is mostly for when I head out to the woods to work [alone].. It seems like cheap insurance.

[campmaster-k]

My wife uses a trac phone and likes it.

[Quickstrt]

Hi Estiban, I have been using tracfone for several years now. Though I am a continent away from your area, I can say it serves me well. I also got a new phone recently with the triple minutes for life plan. Around here, cell phone signals are sketchy at best, but I can say I seem to have service everywhere my friends do with their fancy $600 4g phones. I dont use it for anything more than making calls, I'm just not that tech savy and dont really have the need for internet on the go so with that said, I do like my service and I do like not having a monthly bill. Thanks for the post on the promo codes, I will have to keep that in my favorites for future use.

[legojenn]

I used to have one that I bought for travelling in the US. The reception was good and the phones were okay for the cost. Most of the use of my phone was in New York, Vermont and Pennyslvania.

Though it's not your concern, calling Canada was a pain. You had to dial a 1-800 number like you had a prepaid phone card and texting home was impossible. Internet on the phone was unusable. It was slow, would time out and the phone I had LG500 I think, would only take handwriting for input, but the screen was not sensitive and misread characters.

The problem that I found with them is that when something goes wrong, customer service is somewhere between indifferent and hostile. Because I used the so rarely, I accumulated over $100 in credit over two years. On a trip to the US before Christmas last year, my credit was wiped out. I thought that it would be an easy fix. I was called a liar and scammer. I was accused of never buying airtime.

So, after getting burned by them, I bought a SIM card for AT&T. It works nicely in my old iPhone. It costs me less to use than the Tracfone and the customer service was amazing setting me up. My use is sporadic. About five to ten weekends in the spring and summer camping, plus a trip to the east coast and a few day trips to northern NY in the fall and winter.

Your needs are likely different than mine, but I find that you can do better than Tracfone for the price.

[PKCSPT]

My husband has had his Tracphone for, oh since before they put cameras in them so it is old for a cell.
For him it works well as he doesn't use his phone very much. We have found that when he does use it the minutes get used up pretty fast.
Coverage seems pretty average.

[Zollinger]

I have that same Tracfone and really like it. Of course I am not much of a phone talker though. I do like the Wi-Fi. The triple minutes are a plus also. The only problem I have is how I hold the phone. My pinky finger was covering up the reciever hole and no one could hear me.

[Mary C]

I used to have a Tracphone and I was happy with mine, It worked pretty good. I didn't use it much but never had a problem with it.

Mary C.

[Esteban]

Thanks everyone for your helpful replies.

I've done more reading in anticipation of the phone's arrival. I ordered screen protectors and a carrying case from Amazon which have been delivered. The cell phone should easily fit in a t-shirt pocket.

Found a very informative discussion at Fat Wallet for a recently expired offer from HSN for the same phone I bought Tracfone LG Touchscreen Smartphone with 1400 Minutes @ HSN - $59.95 + FS It seems the phone come with a sim (card) that will work with either ATT or T-Mobile (one or the other not both). I had hoped the cell phone would work on both ATT and T-Mobile towers using which ever one had the better signal. Apparently not.

Another discussion Trac/Net10) LG 840g Phone Topic at Turk Forums. It's very lengthy. Saw some photos taken by the LG480G and they looked very good.

The phone I've chosen


Have also read that TracFone will soon have Android phones.

11/26/13 edit: Tracfone now has Android phones and services available on their website.

[mobile camper]

We have been using TracFone for quite some time now and it has been working great. We don't use it as a primary phone so we like it.

[GerryS]

I love the idea. I hate and I mean HATE the contract deals. If AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon were so great, they wouldn't essentially force you into a multi year deal. If you ask me, the contracts are a way of insuring that they don't have to have good customer service. You're captive.

I can't tell you how many Facebook posts I've seen in the past 2-3 years by people saying what problems they've had. It's ridiculous. Not to mention the excessive fees for text (SMS) messages...

One more thing while I'm ranting, I can understand having to pay for things I send. I can always opt not to send something. why, why do I have to pay a buck for the idiot who texts me when they have obviously been doing drugs or drinking. I'm not baboo...I shouldn't have to pay for messages intended for him.

On the rest of that, is I could pay extra to disable SMS. What? Pay extra to disable? That's as bad as paying to have an unlisted number...

[Esteban]

The LG480g phone arrived Wednesday. I like it. Am having fun learning how it works and putting in contact information for family, friends, the auto club, etc. It came with an initial 20 minutes of airtime good for 60 days. I have a printed instruction page (from HSN) with a code to call in to get 1500 minutes and a year of service that I will activate soon. Feel like a cell phone newbie. Liking the handy clock, calender, scheduler, and calculator functions. Have much, much more to learn...like how to use the "free" wifi and the still and video camera functions.

Tracfone has now come out with Android (smart) phones with even more capabilities for more $$.

[Esteban]

I am learning to use the new phone. Once I set it up and added the included minutes I had 1520 minutes of call time and 425 (365 + 60) days of air time. Very pleased.

A minor annoyance is that the phone number I obtained was recycled. I already received a few calls even though I have not shared my cell phone number with anyone yet.