Decided on cellphone,went with T-Mobile afterall

[Omega Man]

I currently have a 15 year old cellphone. It's my dads, and it's on a equally old contract from the hospital he was working at, at the time. It's an analog phone, and the cost averages to about $15 a month.
I don't use this phone as my main phone. I have a land line at my apartment for my phone, and I basically use this cell as a pager. The caller ID and voicemail are free, so I just let it ring if someone calls, then call-in to check the voicemail with another phone.

Dad just told me that Cingular is finally officially caneling all analog contracts this year, so I'll have to get my own/different phone.
Since I won't need a phone to use all the time, and don't want to spend +$300 a year on it, I am looking into a Tracfone. I can get a phone for around $20, and a years worth of service/400 mins for around $90. So a years worth of service, on a new digital phone, would still be cheaper than the brick I'm lugging around now.

Please share you opinions and experiences with Tracfone and services like it. I'll be using this in Maryland.

EDIT-This is the kind of deal I'm looking for. I may as well really stop into the 20th century and get a camera phone, too.

 

[greenLED]

Re: Teach me and tell me about Tracfones!

If you're not going to use it on a regular basis, and get the year-long option, it's a great deal. No contracts, not a lot of strings attached. Per minute charges are higher than on a contract, so is roaming, but you get the "regular" services other carriers offer (voice mail, texting, etc.).

Be aware that every time you load up your phone, it extends your service for X amount of time. Depending on your usage, you may end up having to reload your account before your service expires. That, in turn, extends the service period longer, and increases the chance of you running out of minutes and still have an active phone... you see the catch (among others)? If you let your service expire, you'll lose your number.

Hope that helps.

 

[Uncle Bob]

Re: Teach me and tell me about Tracfones!

I had to move from analog to digital and looked at Tracfone but never went with them. I could never get a human being to speak with on their 800 number. They want you to do everything online and not deal with people.

I wound up going with Consumer Cellular because of the no contract feature and flexible rate plans. I use my cell for emergency and infrequent calling so it suits me just fine.

I also don't like the Tracfone system where the phone keeps track of minutes used and the manner in which you have to purchase minutes. It's a pain in the butt. A computer keeps track of my calls and I get a monthly readout.

 

[Manzerick]

Re: Teach me and tell me about Tracfones!

+1


You can always get a good deal on a pre-paid phone. Check out all brands before you choose. As our green friend states, there is a time limit to pre-pay card and you will need to maximize duration if you have little use.

Check:

Boost (it's really nextel)
Virgin Mobile (Sprint network)
Trac
and call T-mobile.. They always have good deals!!!


hope this helps!!!

If you're not going to use it on a regular basis, and get the year-long option, it's a great deal. No contracts, not a lot of strings attached. Per minute charges are higher than on a contract, so is roaming, but you get the "regular" services other carriers offer (voice mail, texting, etc.).

Be aware that every time you load up your phone, it extends your service for X amount of time. Depending on your usage, you may end up having to reload your account before your service expires. That, in turn, extends the service period longer, and increases the chance of you running out of minutes and still have an active phone... you see the catch (among others)? If you let your service expire, you'll lose your number.

Hope that helps.

 

[BIGIRON]

Re: Teach me and tell me about Tracfones!

Bought a TracFone a couple of years ago for my elderly parents. Its done everything it was represented to do. I think there are better deals around -- seems like Virgin was the one a friend bought recently. He's pretty sharp and did his homework.

If you're on a $15month Cingular plan, it might really pay to just buy a digital phone outright and stay with what you've got. I think you can do that. You might PM "revolvergeek". He just did something like that.

Cingular did the same thing to me. They jerked me around so badly (after being a customer for 10yrs) that I walked out and went with a new Sprint plan. Lots more for the money than Cing, but I did have to do a new 2yr deal.

 

[DaveT]

Re: Teach me and tell me about Tracfones!

My wife and I went the Tracfone route...neither of us need a cell phone for work purposes, and our useage is pretty low - use work or home phone for most calls. I'd say you sound like a pretty good candidate for their service.

Overall, I've been pretty happy with it. You'll want to be aware of a few things.

They don't run their own network - I've heard them described as a "parasite" network - work off time bought from other networks. So they're not as agile as they would be with some things if they had their own network.

The complaints about customer service on the phone are/can be valid. They're (as I understand it) a South American company - not sure where they're based, but all of the customer service people I spoke to had English as a second language. Polite, understandable on the phone, etc. ... and sometimes helpful. You're generally much better off to do everything you can online with them. It's generally easier, sometimes quicker.

I had a few problems. I was planning to drop our Verizon coverage and go with Tracfone, and bought the phones at a retail store, and wanted to basically "go" with the change. Call Tracfone, say "port me over" and have my Verizon phone go inactive when my Tracfone goes active with my old number. Couldn't do it.

Unfortunately, I'd already changed my Verizon number to my new local area (we'd moved), and wanted to not have everyone on my list change our phone numbers for the second time in a few months. So, we had to wait without any cellular service for about a week and a half, two weeks (they will tell you, if you press them on the phone, that you need to wait 3 to 4 weeks for them to port over an existing number - but it's not in the fine print anywhere I saw on the package). I don't know all the technical reasons, but part of it is that they use the European-style SIM card (is that the right name?) technology, and the card has to be made to match your account and number, and it's also because they don't run whatever network you'll be using. Porting a number from Sprint to Verizon took less than an hour, so I wasn't happy about that part of it. If you're willing to take a new number, it's much quicker - same day, I think, to get your Tracfone working.

I had some trouble with them sending me cards that didn't work. I think they sent me three cards before we got one to work in my phone (first one worked for my wife's phone). So, lots of time on hold, lots of time speaking to no-so-great phone support people, lots of time with supervisors, some of whom could actually answer questions and make things happen. I ended up with a pretty generous time credit/bonus added to my phone once all was said and done.

Using the card technology on these phones, you have to enter a lot of long (11 or 15-digit, I think) numbers to set up the phone, and every time you add a new card, you're entering a long number to get it to credit the account.

If a time lag for porting over your phone's not a problem, or if you're OK with a new number, it's not bad.

As far as coverage/use, it's been pretty good - comparable with what I'd had with Verizon in my area.

Overall, I'm happy, and we're saving a lot of money over what our plan with Verizon had been running. Of course, I never text, never wanted my phone to take pictures...I just make and receive calls. The service isn't for everyone, but I'm satisfied.

Dave

 

[Omega Man]

Re: Teach me and tell me about Tracfones!

Great responces, I have to sleep now, will read all this and do more research tomorrow.

 

[Bravo25]

Re: Teach me and tell me about Tracfones!

Net 10 has better prices. But you have to dial the area code on all out going calls. Unless they are programed in the phone.

 

[Trashman]

Re: Teach me and tell me about Tracfones!

How much do you plan to use the prepaid phone? I gave my mom my old Virgin Mobile prepaid phone and was able to get her on a $15 every three months autopay plan. I think, normally, a minumum of $20 every three months is required, but I think they offer it for $15 if you sign up for autopay, which, for her, works out to only $60 a year. She never really uses the phone, but likes to have it in case of emergencies.

 

[Omega Man]

Re: Teach me and tell me about Tracfones!

Ok, Boot Mobile and Virgin Mobile ask you to pay per-month charges or to buy minutes. That's not how I want to do this. I will actually be speaking on the phone maybe once a week, less than 5 mins at a time. It's going to be used as a pager/voicemail still. Someone calls me when I'm not home, I see their number, I call them on a landline or someone else's phone preferably. So maybe I'll use 100 mins a month.
I'd like to just buy a years worth of "activation" and not necessarily "minutes", since I'm not using the phone for it's minutes, just it's features. So far, Trac and T-Mobile have the option to buy a year's worth of time and get X amount of mins with it. For Trac it's 400 mins+1 year for about $100, and T-Moblie it's 1000 mins+1 year for $100. Neither of these quotes includes the price of a phone. I'm sure if I looked for a deal of phone+1year of service, I could get a good deal.

 

[Quickbeam]

Re: Teach me and tell me about Tracfones!

Wife and I use Cingular (Now AT&T) prepaids. We are low usage folks, only using them a few minutes a week. Plopped $100 on each and they stay active for a year (or until the money runs out).

A couple of things to remember with prepaids:

+ Cost per minute - no flat rate.
+ Voicemail may be optional and cost extra.
+ e911 may cost extra
+ You may have to keep your phone active by adding funds within a certain period of time or you lose your balance - time period depends on how much you add (e.g. Cingular was $15 add gives you 30 days activation, up to $100 gives you 90 days activation, $100 gives you one year activation.)
+ If you miss your re-up date, you may lose any and all balance of funds you may have had left over - happened once to me - forgot to re-up in time and it cost me $60 in carried-forward balance!
+ you can upgrade your phone at any time by buying a new one (unlocked, or locked for the carrier you use). Just make sure it is a sim card model and put the little sim card from the old phone in the new phone.

 

[Omega Man]

Re: Teach me and tell me about Tracfones!

Yeah, it sounds the same as Tracfone. I guess it's between Tracfone and T-Mobile, whoever gives me the better deal. So far T-Mobile is ahead with 1 year and 1000 mins for $100 pre-phone. Plus they may have better CS from what you folks are saying about Tracfone.

 

[gorn]

Re: Teach me and tell me about Tracfones!

If you can get cingular to honor your $15 a month service and allow you to activate a digital phone on it you should go to www.tigerdirect.com, they sell unlocked phones that will work on cingular's net for as little as $29.

 

[Omega Man]

Re: Teach me and tell me about Tracfones!

If you can get cingular to honor your $15 a month service and allow you to activate a digital phone on it you should go to www.tigerdirect.com, they sell unlocked phones that will work on cingular's net for as little as $29.

Nope, they'll cancel the contract because my father hasn't worked at that hospital in like 12 years. Plus, when I did try to get the contract moved to another phone about 5 years ago, they refused. Said I'd need a new contract of my own.

 

[ACMarina]

Re: Teach me and tell me about Tracfones!

I deal with several different prepaid units on a regular basis. Personally, Tracfone is the worst, on all accounts. If you're gonna spend the money, spend it on a decent carrier. Figure out what works well where you are and go from there - Cingular's Go-Phone is pretty good, as is Boost Mobile - I shy away from VirginMobile around here, but simply because the coverage in the area isn't too hot.

Tracfone has, in the past two weeks caused several problems that I had to deal with. Customer service takes at least 20 minutes to get live, and they often have quite a bit of trouble getting issues handled. And unfortunetly, there WERE issues, something that I've not seen with Cingular or Boost..

 

[Omega Man]

Re: Teach me and tell me about Tracfones!

Well, Hell musta froze over, because the guys at RadioSnack actually talked me out of their products today! I presented my situation, and both guys (young and old) said straight up not to buy a Tracfone, which I was standing right next to. They suggested I can go with a Go Phone or a Tmobile. The Go Phone has a stipulation though that I haven't seen on the T-Mobile yet. On the Go Phone you are subject to a $1 a day useage fee, it costs you $1 a day if you use the phone that day. I haven't seen this fee with T-Mobile yet. The young guy said if T-Mobile doesn't have that charge, I should go with them. The math works the same with the minutes, if you buy a Go Phone $100 card, it equals 1000 minutes (10c a min for Anytime minutes). That's the same as T-Mobiles 1000 mins for a $100 years service card.
T-Mobile users, is there a fee?
And the coverage is about the same, with T-Mobile on top because it's service map includes the mountians where I camp, Go Phone doesn't highlight that area.

 

[TOOCOOL]

Re: Teach me and tell me about Tracfones!

Well, Hell musta froze over, because the guys at RadioSnack actually talked me out of their products today! I presented my situation, and both guys (young and old) said straight up not to buy a Tracfone,

That happened to me too :laughing: .........then they sold me a Virgin :twothumbs

 

[ScooterBug]

Re: Teach me and tell me about Tracfones!

my bride and i both have Trac phones for 3 years now and have never had a problem. i just buy a years service for each and go from there. most times i have minutes left over at the end of the year, cost for one is $90.00. i am happy with it..

 

[rayonebay]

Re: Teach me and tell me about Tracfones!

There are two plans for the Go phone. One is a dollar a day plus ten cents a minute. The other is twentyfive cents a minute with no other charges.

 

[ACMarina]

Re: Teach me and tell me about Tracfones!

Rayonebay is right. And I'm one of those pesky sales people who would tell you flat-up NOT to buy a tracfone..