topic Re: Changing an ATT phone to Tracfone? in Electronics

Changing an ATT phone to Tracfone?

Marybella — Sat, 30 Dec 2017 13:17:17 GMT

I find that I really don't need an expensive plan to use my Samsung Galaxy 7 phone. I rarely call anyone or receive calls and current reception at home is lousy. I'm wasting money! Has anyone had a carrier-dedicated phone changed to Tracfone? How did you do it? I would also need to switch to Verizon's towers. Thanks!

Re: Changing an ATT phone to Tracfone?

151949 — Sat, 30 Dec 2017 13:47:13 GMT

You have to purchase an actual Tracfone phone, can't use your currant phone. You can get a Tracfone Samsung Galaxy phone - I have one. It comes with 1500min of talk, 1500 texts and 1500 GB of data , which is way more than enough for me for a year. Also 1 year of service. All for about $130. No further costs thru the year. I highly recommend Tracfone for those who are retired and no longer need their phone for work.

BTW - if you would use up any of your min or data , you could purchase more right thru the app on the phone for a minimal charge, but doubtful you'd use them up.

Re: Changing an ATT phone to Tracfone?

deeva — Sat, 30 Dec 2017 13:58:42 GMT

I agree with 151949, I used to have service thru Sprint. I bought a Tracfone and they switched everything over for me. It was very easy, took about ten minutes and I’ve never regretted my decision.

Re: Changing an ATT phone to Tracfone?

Brigitta — Sat, 30 Dec 2017 14:05:49 GMT

I have a 3 year old Tracfone that I love. I am retired and do not use my phone for anything morre than to make and receive calls and to make and receive text messages. I have a small family and am not a slave to my phone. I pay $99.00 a YEAR for my service which I refill at Target.

When I want to go on line, I use the computer. This phone is perfect for my needs.

Re: Changing an ATT phone to Tracfone?

Deb665 — Sat, 30 Dec 2017 14:23:40 GMT

I have an iPhone 6 that had service through ATT. When I retired I found I didn’t need/want the big expensive package, so I went online to Tracfone and found that I could order a SIM card from them and they would port my number over.

Changing the SIM card is easy and the service through Tracfone is just what I need. If I remember correctly, you enter the type of phone you have in order to get the correct SIM. Cost of the SIM card was $1.00.

Hope this helps!

Re: Changing an ATT phone to Tracfone?

depglass — Sat, 30 Dec 2017 15:11:00 GMT

I bought a Tracfone from QVC a year ago before Christmas. Neither Verizon nor Walmart would help me with ANYTHING since I didn't buy the phone from them.

Re: Changing an ATT phone to Tracfone?

OKPrincess — Sat, 30 Dec 2017 15:45:56 GMT

My DH and I transferred to Tracfone before we retired. We bought the phone when the minutes tripled for life of phone. So far we have found two areas where we don't get coverage so be sure your area is covered. We transferred from ATT after many years and so glad we did.

Re: Changing an ATT phone to Tracfone?

hckynut — Sat, 30 Dec 2017 15:46:12 GMT

@depglass wrote:
I bought a Tracfone from QVC a year ago before Christmas. Neither Verizon nor Walmart would help me with ANYTHING since I didn't buy the phone from them.

@depglass,

If you still have that Tracfone, why not just renew your service with Tracfone? Not sure about buying a sim card for all phones, not purchased from Tracfone, but it's worth calling them if it's only a buck!

Now if you want a newer type Tracfone, there are very good buys on hsn, where I have bought most of mine.

hckynut

Re: Changing an ATT phone to Tracfone?

151949 — Sat, 30 Dec 2017 15:58:45 GMT

@depglass wrote:
I bought a Tracfone from QVC a year ago before Christmas. Neither Verizon nor Walmart would help me with ANYTHING since I didn't buy the phone from them.

What did you want verizon or Walmart to do for you? In order to buy more time or more days of service - you can do that right on your tracfone, you don't need anyone else to do it for you. You buy it through the app that gives you the info on how many days and how many min you have left.

Re: Changing an ATT phone to Tracfone?

Marybella — Sat, 30 Dec 2017 16:32:04 GMT

@Deb665 wrote:
I have an iPhone 6 that had service through ATT. When I retired I found I didn’t need/want the big expensive package, so I went online to Tracfone and found that I could order a SIM card from them and they would port my number over.

Changing the SIM card is easy and the service through Tracfone is just what I need. If I remember correctly, you enter the type of phone you have in order to get the correct SIM. Cost of the SIM card was $1.00.

Hope this helps!

This is my situation. I have had a Tracfone for years and then I decided I needed a true smartphone thru ATT. Now, I realize I don't need a $100 a month bill. I'll have to call Tracfone, because I don't know if an ATT phone can get a new sim card for Verizon. Verizon has the towers that my previous Tracfones used in my area, not ATT. It's kind of confusing.

Re: Changing an ATT phone to Tracfone?

Marybella — Sat, 30 Dec 2017 16:34:28 GMT

@151949 wrote:
You have to purchase an actual Tracfone phone, can't use your currant phone. You can get a Tracfone Samsung Galaxy phone - I have one. It comes with 1500min of talk, 1500 texts and 1500 GB of data , which is way more than enough for me for a year. Also 1 year of service. All for about $130. No further costs thru the year. I highly recommend Tracfone for those who are retired and no longer need their phone for work.
BTW - if you would use up any of your min or data , you could purchase more right thru the app on the phone for a minimal charge, but doubtful you'd use them up.

I think you can change the sim card and it will work, but not sure. Thanks!

Re: Changing an ATT phone to Tracfone?

Marybella — Sat, 30 Dec 2017 16:38:29 GMT

@Brigitta wrote:
I have a 3 year old Tracfone that I love. I am retired and do not use my phone for anything morre than to make and receive calls and to make and receive text messages. I have a small family and am not a slave to my phone. I pay $99.00 a YEAR for my service which I refill at Target.

When I want to go on line, I use the computer. This phone is perfect for my needs.

I had Tracfones for a long time, but two years ago I thought I needed something more. My DH has a Tracfone and he has better reception at home than I do. That's my biggest issue. I'm paying $100 a month and I'm finding it's not worth it!

Re: Changing an ATT phone to Tracfone?

software — Sat, 30 Dec 2017 16:41:52 GMT

@Marybella wrote:
I find that I really don't need an expensive plan to use my Samsung Galaxy 7 phone. I rarely call anyone or receive calls and current reception at home is lousy. I'm wasting money! Has anyone had a carrier-dedicated phone changed to Tracfone? How did you do it? I would also need to switch to Verizon's towers. Thanks!

Look around on the Tracfone website, if you haven't already. It states you don't have to buy their phone, you can use an existing phone.

I think all you need is to change the SIM card.

When you go to the website, look under Activation, it walks you through everything you need.

Good luck, I had an expensive ATT plan and ditched it about a year ago for a Tracfone pay-as-you-go. And I recently updated to a newer, better phone and that was easy as well. It's all done "automatically" through the network. Once you create your account with Tracfone, it will be active for anything you need to do and will follow you to any phone.

Re: Changing an ATT phone to Tracfone?

Marybella — Sat, 30 Dec 2017 17:17:43 GMT

@software wrote:
@Marybella wrote:
I find that I really don't need an expensive plan to use my Samsung Galaxy 7 phone. I rarely call anyone or receive calls and current reception at home is lousy. I'm wasting money! Has anyone had a carrier-dedicated phone changed to Tracfone? How did you do it? I would also need to switch to Verizon's towers. Thanks!

Look around on the Tracfone website, if you haven't already. It states you don't have to buy their phone, you can use an existing phone.

I think all you need is to change the SIM card.

When you go to the website, look under Activation, it walks you through everything you need.

Good luck, I had an expensive ATT plan and ditched it about a year ago for a Tracfone pay-as-you-go. And I recently updated to a newer, better phone and that was easy as well. It's all done "automatically" through the network. Once you create your account with Tracfone, it will be active for anything you need to do and will follow you to any phone.

Yes, thanks, I did that. Tracfones use Verizon towers here. Is the sim card the only thing you need to change to be able to convert? Can I put a Verizon sim card from Tracfone in an ATT phone? Is there any other setting that needs to be changed in the phone to do it? I want to make sure that it's something I can do with this phone.

Re: Changing an ATT phone to Tracfone?

Marybella — Sat, 30 Dec 2017 18:08:51 GMT

It appears that I will have to apply to ATT for an unlock code. They really want to tie you in! LOL

I have a couple more installments on the phone which I will pay off and then apply for the unlock.

Re: Changing an ATT phone to Tracfone?

chickenbutt — Sat, 30 Dec 2017 21:22:29 GMT

Marybella wrote:
It appears that I will have to apply to ATT for an unlock code. They really want to tie you in! LOL

I have a couple more installments on the phone which I will pay off and then apply for the unlock.

Whew! Glad to see that you're doing your own research and paying attention for the actual facts. All phones are NOT unlocked and that will preclude anybody from making such a change.

I have the same phone you have, but I'm with Sprint. It seems like the price you are paying is really high. I have an unlimited for everything plan and I pay $60 a month. I'm just on a 'one phone' plan, as my husband has his phone with his company. They are with ATT and, well, let's just say I'm glad I'm not as I recently ditched them for internet and landline due to too many shortcomings on services.

Truth be told, I probably use my phone about like you do so even that is probably more than I need to pay but I'm reticent to change to one of these Tracphone type deals. I see a lot of people are happy with it and that's great. But I also see a lot of complaints so I guess the moral of that story is - nothing's perfect.

Hope they'll unlock it for you when you are able to do so. Even just getting rid of ATT will be worth it.

Re: Changing an ATT phone to Tracfone?

meem120 — Sun, 31 Dec 2017 03:06:10 GMT

I just switched to Consumer Cellular. $ 25 a month. Very easy to switch from Verizon. They are very nice and easy to deal with and they speak English

Re: Changing an ATT phone to Tracfone?

willdob3 — Sun, 31 Dec 2017 14:54:09 GMT

@Marybella

Years ago, I broke my contract with ATT & took my iPhone over to a no contract plan. I’ve used a few different no contract plans & have stuck with Straight Talk for years now.

I also purchased a new iPhone from Apple and set it up with Straight Talk. I just purchased a “starter kit” and that had everything I needed in it. I suspect Tracfone has one, too.

Re: Changing an ATT phone to Tracfone?

Marybella — Sun, 31 Dec 2017 18:31:02 GMT

@chickenbutt wrote:
@Marybella wrote:
It appears that I will have to apply to ATT for an unlock code. They really want to tie you in! LOL

I have a couple more installments on the phone which I will pay off and then apply for the unlock.

Whew! Glad to see that you're doing your own research and paying attention for the actual facts. All phones are NOT unlocked and that will preclude anybody from making such a change.

I have the same phone you have, but I'm with Sprint. It seems like the price you are paying is really high. I have an unlimited for everything plan and I pay $60 a month. I'm just on a 'one phone' plan, as my husband has his phone with his company. They are with ATT and, well, let's just say I'm glad I'm not as I recently ditched them for internet and landline due to too many shortcomings on services.

Truth be told, I probably use my phone about like you do so even that is probably more than I need to pay but I'm reticent to change to one of these Tracphone type deals. I see a lot of people are happy with it and that's great. But I also see a lot of complaints so I guess the moral of that story is - nothing's perfect.

Hope they'll unlock it for you when you are able to do so. Even just getting rid of ATT will be worth it.

I have had Tracfone service before and it was pretty good. The reception at my house with Tracfone is better than AT&T. Having had experience with it in the past makes it less worrisome to switch. My other option is to see if Verizon would give me a deal to switch. They are the only providers in my rural location.

My AT&T bill includes $23 for the phone and $74.00 for a 6GB plan. I get a $20 discount on the access charge and a $6 discount from AARP. It amounts to $102 per month with taxes. I am thinking of paying off the phone now and that will release me from that contract. I sure hope AT&T won't refuse to unlock my phone.

Thank you for replying!