Community Chat

[rockygems123]

Asking for your advice on Trafone minutes, I remember you have posted previously best way to add minutes?

My Tracfone is a 2nd / emergency phone only, I use very few minutes as I have a primary phone with unlimited data, text etc.

The Tracfone had about 1400 minutes and they went poof, thought they would transfer year over year but I guess not.

May not be accurate info but I vaguely remember someone suggesting to buy a new phone to add minutes?  My current phone is relatively new and barely used, just need to add minutes and ones that transfer over to the next year / cycle.

Thank you in advance for any info!

[Kachina624]

@rockygems123    Did you recently buy a new phone?  If so, the minutes you had accumulated should have automatically transferred over.  They shouldn't just go poof. 

I have over 7,000 minutes I've accumulated that way.  I've always bought service time, not minutes, online at the TracFone website.  It has been about 3 years since I've had to do that since I bought several years worth when I heard TracFone was being bought.

I've heard of people buying the cheapest possible phone to use the minutes on an existing phone but I don't know if that trick still works.  Since the buy-out, some things have changed.

[rockygems123]

@Kachina624 

I bought the phone 8/2020 from QVC, think it was a TSV, and somehow I managed to talk to their customer service and added Unlimited monthly service at around $20.  I realized I preferred my original phone, kept the Tracfone as a back-up and switched to 1500 minutes.  Not sure when that happened, maybe a year ago?

That's amazing that you have accumulated all those minutes.   Maybe I'll try and set aside patience and about a day lol and contact customer service to see why my minutes didn't transfer.  

And you mentioned you've purchased service time vs minutes in the past, not sure of the distinction? 

[Kachina624]

There are 3 things you must buy that you get free when you get a new phone; phone minutes, data (internet use) and TracFone service for one year.  Minutes and data carry over but you must buy service annually or you won't be able to use your phone and you'll lose your number.

Yes, call and if you have trouble ask to speak to a native English speaker.

[rockygems123]

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@Kachina624 wrote:

There are 3 things you must buy that you get free when you get a new phone; phone minutes, data (internet use) and TracFone service for one year.  Minutes and data carry over but you must buy service annually or you won't be able to use your phone and you'll lose your number.

Yes, call and if you have trouble ask to speak to a native English speaker.

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@Kachina624 

Ah, ok now I see why the phone stopped working, I didn't re-up on the service plan.  Thank you, this really clears up what happened.

QVC has an upcoming TSV, I'll have my info by then to make a good decision.

[sunsetbeach]

This probably doesn't really address your current issue, but I have had a Tracfone for several years, I'm on my 2nd from QVC.  I, too, have accumulated 6000 minutes, texts, and data over the years.  Each year I go to my account on the Tracfone website, go to the Shop section and buy the minimum amount of texts, usually for $5.00.  When I go to check out, it asks if I would like an additional year of service for $49.99 and I click yes and add it to the cart.  So, for me that has been the cheapest way to mantain my phone.  I originally read about this method on these forums and appreciated being able to save each year.  I have only had LG phones and love them, so buying a new phone until I absolutely have to is why I do it this way. 

[rockygems123]

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@sunsetbeach wrote:

This probably doesn't really address your current issue, but I have had a Tracfone for several years, I'm on my 2nd from QVC.  I, too, have accumulated 6000 minutes, texts, and data over the years.  Each year I go to my account on the Tracfone website, go to the Shop section and buy the minimum amount of texts, usually for $5.00.  When I go to check out, it asks if I would like an additional year of service for $49.99 and I click yes and add it to the cart.  So, for me that has been the cheapest way to mantain my phone.  I originally read about this method on these forums and appreciated being able to save each year.  I have only had LG phones and love them, so buying a new phone until I absolutely have to is why I do it this way. 

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@sunsetbeach 

Actually that does help quite a bit in my current situation as I have a dead phone lol because of not continuing a service plan.  So if the QVC TSV is around $50 I probably will get that now knowing what the cost is for an annual service plan.