topic Re: Tracfone card? in Electronics

Tracfone card?

sipp — Mon, 22 Mar 2021 18:42:34 GMT

Valued Contributor

Posts: 721

Registered: ‎03-10-2010

- I rarely sign in only to ask questions when I can't find answwers anywhere else- ANYHOW--- I bought the 1 year and got the extra texts (when checking out) - Total cost $55! HOWEVER- NOW MY HUSBAND LIKES HIS SMART TRACFONE SO MUCH- HE'S BEEN TEXTING LIKE CRAZY TO OUR KIDS (WHO LIVE OUT OF STATE)- BUT HE DOES IT AT HOME- (DOES THAT MATTER IF IT'S AT HOME USING OUR INTERNET? I DON'T KNOW AND IF HE WAS TO USE THEM ALL UP THEN I DON'T KNOW IF THEY'LL TRIPLE EVERYTHING WHICH I WAS FIRST WORRIED ABOUT. ALSO ----- IF I WAS TO BUY A CARD JUST FOR TEXTS- WOULD I BUY A REGULAR "WHITE" CARD IE FOR $20 TO ADD THE TRIPLE ON- SERIOUSLY CONFUSING HERE- WHO SAID THESE ARE SMART PHONES ANYHOW? i GUESS THEY ARE- BUT I'M NOT!!! And heaven forbid Tracfone will get wise and delete that deal- I mean- really- I could just buy that deal and get years of service until they go to some other G ya know? LOL!!!

Re: Tracfone card?

jeepgrl — Mon, 22 Mar 2021 19:17:20 GMT

No, it doesn't matter if you are home using your wifi, every text will reduce the number that you have left. I am on a monthly auto refill with Tracfone so I don't have to worry about running out of texts. They have several options on their website. I text more than I talk on the phone, so I went with a plan that give me more texts that minutes. Hope this helps.

Re: Tracfone card?

Reconnaissant — Mon, 22 Mar 2021 19:18:36 GMT

@sipp

Re: Tracfone card?

Kachina624 — Mon, 22 Mar 2021 19:23:47 GMT

@sipp Tracfone no longer triples minutes unless it's an older phone bought under that program.

Re: Tracfone card?

x Hedge — Tue, 23 Mar 2021 14:09:49 GMT

@sipp

I have one TracFone that's used for texts only. I don't buy any plans or auto refill. I only buy the $50. annual service plus several thousand texts.

You can buy 1000 texts for $5.00 at the TracFone website, under "add on". I usually buy a few thousand at a time. I don't know if they sell the $5.00 text cards in stores.

You can also buy add ons right through your TracFone.

Texting uses the same phone lines/towers as calling, and being home or near WiFi makes no difference.

Forget the tripling. That old program was phased out after the "text wars" brought prices down significantly.

Be aware there are still some old TracFone cards in stores. I saw data cards in a grocery store at the old, higher price, and there's no refunds on cards.

Re: Tracfone card?

x Hedge — Tue, 23 Mar 2021 17:57:42 GMT

@sipp

I've been reading over your recent Tracfone threads and see you keep asking about tripling.

The "tripling" feature that came with many TracFones in the past was only good on that specific phone. It did not transfer to the new smart TracFones you bought for your husband and yourself.

You can transfer your phone number, airtime, and all your talk/text/data from phone to phone, but the tripling is not transferable.

There was a price war among phone service providers, started roughly 2015(?).

Competition was stiff with lots of new service providers eager for customers (Boost, Cingular, etc). Prices were slashed, especially aiming to attract younger folks who texted constantly, driving up their parents phone bills. TracFone dropped prices like everyone else, but also stopped offering tripling.

If you read all the fine print on the "tripling" card you refer to, you'll see it won't work on your smartphones. And TracFone cards are not returnable/refundable.

Don't waste your money buying an ancient tripling card that's been hanging in the store for years.

Re: Tracfone card?

MoJoV — Wed, 24 Mar 2021 20:46:42 GMT

@sipp Your husband can buy 1000 texts for 5$ right on his phone. Just go to your tracfone app and hit plan...then you have the option to hit Add-ons...and there you can buy the texts right there. No need to buy cards anymore.

Re: Tracfone card?

sipp — Sun, 28 Mar 2021 06:02:09 GMT

Thanks to All!

Re: Tracfone card?

sipp — Sun, 28 Mar 2021 06:04:02 GMT

This was expecially helpful! we didn't know that they were automatically deducted - thought if it was on our internet that they weren't subtracted!!! thankyou!!

Re: Tracfone card?

sipp — Sun, 28 Mar 2021 06:08:59 GMT

On QVC's site it does say that if you have an older "triple" phone (non-smart) and then buy a new smart phone- that they will transfer the triple as a courtesy- one time thing. so ??

Obviously since we bought our smartphone an- it's good for a year-

haven't used the "triple" feature which you say is not on anymore- When bought it- they said it would get the triple feature

Re: Tracfone card?

sipp — Sun, 28 Mar 2021 06:14:18 GMT

He hasn't had the phone for the "year" bought from HSN ----- and not used enough to buy a "monthly" plan for talk, text etc--at $20 or so a month---- can you buy JUST the individual $5 texts option w/o a monthly plan?

Re: Tracfone card?

x Hedge — Fri, 02 Apr 2021 23:04:28 GMT

@sipp wrote:
He hasn't had the phone for the "year" bought from HSN ----- and not used enough to buy a "monthly" plan for talk, text etc--at $20 or so a month---- can you buy JUST the individual $5 texts option w/o a monthly plan?

Yes, you can @sipp .

I buy texts only, but no talk, no data, NO plan.

If you don't include the posters name in your replies, we can't tell who you're addressing, and nobody gets a notification. It's sheer chance someone would check in again on your thread.

Please let us know WHERE in the QVC website it says something about transferring the tripling to a new phone.

I'm sure many here would like to read exactly what it says.

Thank you so much.

Re: Tracfone card?

x Hedge — Fri, 02 Apr 2021 23:07:39 GMT

@sipp wrote:
This was expecially helpful! we didn't know that they were automatically deducted - thought if it was on our internet that they weren't subtracted!!! thankyou!!

Just so you're aware, "a text" consists of 160 characters, or less. At 161 characters it is deducted as being two texts. The longer the text, the more is deducted.

Letters, common punctuation marks, and spaces between words count as one character each.

Some less often used symbols may count more than 90 characters each.

Your phone should have a counter that shows the number of characters changing as you write the text, so you know when you approach 160.

The whole reasoning behind what some people call texting shorthand is to conserve characters. The goal is for your message to be complete and clear, but avoid going over 160 characters in a single text.

. . . And, you are paying to both send and receive texts. Yes, receiving a text will deduct from your total, just as sending a text does. Thank goodness they're so inexpensive nowadays, much less expensive than phone calls.

Re: Tracfone card?

sipp — Sat, 24 Apr 2021 19:39:54 GMT

I was unaware! Thankyou so much for your infor- both husband and I have smartphones now- wish we didn't ....they make us feel stupid...Old "stupid" ones were so much easier! lol!

Re: Tracfone card?

sipp — Sat, 24 Apr 2021 19:40:30 GMT

and this was REALLY news to us!!!

Re: Tracfone card?

sipp — Sat, 24 Apr 2021 19:44:39 GMT

When we purchase the phones --- they assured us in QVC's questions and answers that our non-smart phones with triple everything would carry over to the smart phones we purchased but only the first time we bought them "as a courtesy"- any different further purchases - would not triple.ie if we bought New different smart phones- the first ones we bought- would not carry that over- since we haven't had to add anything yet- I don't know that the original "promises" were kept.