Is A TracFone Good

Have had TracFone for almost 9 years now. Over that time I have upgraded the phones every time year. Bought all of them on hsn and each time it was cheaper than adding a years worth of minutes.

You can keep you same phone number, but as far as texts? They use up your "minutes" with supposedly 3 texts per minute, but that is not always true. It depends on the length of you text. Data? If you have wi-fi in your home or are in a wi-fi area it does not use minutes. Only texts and calls use minutes.

I have never had a "dropped call" on any of these phones. My present one is a Samsung Centura, which is a smart phone. The minutes came along with texts and data also. My left over minutes each time I upgraded were added to the new phone and with each new phone TracFone also added 3 months to my year expiration dates.

I now have close to 4,000 minutes talk time/4,000 texts/4,000 data on my smart phone. Figure the last one a bought is now costing me less than $6 per month.

If you are talking about the LG840G? That was my last phone and it is not a "true smart phone". Has some smart phone features but there are too many things it does not do for me to consider it a true smart phone.

You might want to check shophq as they had an LG for a cheaper price also with 1500 minutes. I don't know if it is a "true smart phone"

Hi jordan2! My doctor has a flip phone, we had a little chuckle about it last time I went. He wanted to take my pulse manually, but wasn't wearing a watch and pulled out his phone, which wasn't turned on, so we used my watch. He's actually into technology and was about to teach himself Linux last time I went, so I don't know what the flip phone is about. Maybe I'll ask him next time I see him.

Anyway, I have a Tracfone. I cut the cord with AT&T two summers ago. I had been a customer for about 10 years, when they were Cingular and Cellular One before that. I paid what you paid and I was a light user so it was a waste of money. Last summer my mom was ready to cut the cord with AT&T also. She and I had the same plan where you got X minutes per month and each text cost 20 cents. Add 20% taxes and fees to the monthly bill and it just became not worth it.

I really like my Tracfone because it's a semi-smartphone (LG 840) and if I need to jump on the internet for something or want to check my email quickly when I'm out, I can. It's not a great interface and is definitely not for surfing the web or sending a long email, but it's good enough.

I'm not sure if the phone you're talking about it the older semi-smartphone like mine or the newer Android based phones where the minutes, texts and data are divided. If it's the semi-smartphone, one minute of talk time on the phone deducts one minute from your balance. 3 texts sent or received deducts one minute from your balance. The internet deductions vary depending on how long you're on the internet and what you're viewing. I turned off my ability to load pictures while on the internet, so my deductions aren't too much usually. Sending and receiving text message pictures are kind of expensive. I don't do that too much.

It just depends what you want to do with your phone. Are you tied to your current cell phone number? If you wouldn't be too upset at losing it, you could buy the phone from HSN, set it up with a new phone number, use it and see how you like it. If you want your old cell phone number sent to your new Tracfone, that's easy to do (I did mine online through Tracfone and didn't have to deal with AT&T at all), but if you change your mind about the Tracphone it won't be easy to hang on to that number. Simplest is easiest with Tracfone. Their customer service can be challenging from a consumer standpoint.

I don't have a smart phone but I've been very pleased w/ Tracfone. DS had one for 10 years, the numbers wore off on the keyboard and the buttons barely worked - lol - so I got him and me Samsungs from the Q 15 mos. ago 1400 min. w/ triple minutes for life. It's a cheap way to go if you hate monthly phone bills, and I dumped my Verizon landline (base cost $90/mo) and xferred my home # to my cell. Tracfone does take care of that, and your carrier has to comply. DH hates cellphones, so he doesn't have one, I've offered him my older flip phone but he doesn't want it. I don't text or use it for the 'net, I have a kindle fire for that + hughesnet (I use wifi router @ home). I use the home computer for most of my 'net.

I actually prefer a flip phone. I have LG840. Bought it in August as a q TSV. $89 is a good price. I'd go for it. I've had no issues. I transported my number. People complain about the customer service, but they were nice to me and very helpful. My only regret is not knowing that my old provider would have lowered my plan to keep me. I found out too late in the process to stop it. Well I probably could have, but it would have been a hassle. If you like where you are, ask about a lower price before pulling the trigger.

Tracfone is a good deal for me because I don't use it much. I take it with me when I'm out & about in case I need it or on vacation. I don't surf the web or text on the phone so I don't know how many mins it uses for that. I have the LG840G. $79 is a good price for the phone with triple mins & 1500 mins & probably comes with 1 yr service because it costs $100 for 400 mins & 1 yr service through Tracfone but you would actually get 1200 mins with your triple min phone. It comes with instructions how to set it up. I transferred mins & number from an older Tracfone online (it was easy) so I'm not sure how to do that with a different carrier.

Found this online: Can I transfer my current phone number to a TracFone?

This is some info about TracFone Area codes where you live and call most often. You should check for service.

http://zip.tracfone.com/?utm_source=IMM&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=DR

These are FAQ's about getting started etc. http://www.tracfone.com/questions.jsp

the ones sold on the shopping channels are a good deal, even if you bought one every year the minutes allowed pay for themselves.

On 3/29/2014 HiLo said:

the ones sold on the shopping channels are a good deal, even if you bought one every year the minutes allowed pay for themselves.

Exactly. It's actually cheaper to just get a new phone every year, especially if you don't use it much. No way you can buy 1200-1400 minutes and a year of service for $79-$99.