Electronics

[qvcaddition]

@Frangelina 

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@Frangelina wrote:

Not possible to just buy add ons alone, you must have an active service plan to buy the add ons as needed.

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I do have an active service.  I was doing add ons, but somehow got on a plan where they are charging me every two months.  I am elderly and don,t Tex or talk on it. Have a lot of min and tex, don,t need anymore.  I still have a landline, but family fed me.  My plan is good until Jan 22.

[qvcaddition]

I just called them and they took me off auto fill. Had no problem with CS

[JGalt]

As @x Hedge said, it isn't possible to get exclusively the $49 one year service date any longer.  However, if on the tracfone website page for Refill/Add, scroll down to add ons and select the one you want, or the cheapest. Then go to the checkout page.  You have to go right to checkout, can't poke around looking at other pages, because then there is no way to get to the Cart.  When in your cart, add the $49 one year of service and check out.

Past years one could just add the one year for $49, but when I tried to do it a couple weeks ago, I was unable to do so.  I had to first do a minutes add on and then check out directly as I described above.  So if you are like me and have thousands of talk, text, data minutes and certainly need no more, you still have to add some in order to be able to do the $49 one year of service extension.  So it cost a bit more this year, but it is still the cheapest cell phone service I have been able to find.

More Precisely:  as someone above pointed out, you do have to have an account on tracfone dot com.  Then when in the refilll section, select, "I need to purchase an airtime service plan".  Then you get to a page where you can scroll down to "Add-ons".  You can pick the $5.00 add on.  Then on the checkout area, scroll down to "More for your Device"  Toggle YES on the $49  - 365 days of service, and check out.  So this year it's $5 more essentially for the one year of service.

[hckynut]

Been with Tracfone for many years, and had about as many different phones. I seldom ever turn mine on, it's in my vehicle inside my travel bag. Ya know, the emergency thing!

Think I might have renewed 1, probably my wife did, while I was in 1 of my many extended hospital stays. When my 1 year is within a couple months, or even sooner if HSN has a good sale and a "start it whenever deal", I get a new phone with usually the 1500 stuff, could not care less about data, or any of it actually.

Cheaper for me and very little jacking around. Activate it online and that's it. Been pretty simple for me, but I know most don't use their cell phones for the original purpose of phones, when invented by Alexander Graham Bell.

Only an added this post to show my simplicity with Tracfone. Costs? Usually about $5-6 a month. Best deals I have found for my use.

hckynut 

[Jordan2]

I have another question. Do I need to buy a 5G capable phone right now, will a new 4G work fine for the three years I will hold on to it?

[teganslaw]

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@Jordan2 wrote:

I have another question. Do I need to buy a 5G capable phone right now, will a new 4G work fine for the three years I will hold on to it?

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I'm not an expert, but articles I've read about this say that 4G phones are not being phased out. Both 4G and 5G use the same technology, except for a couple differences. Unless it's your preference, you don't have to switch to a 5 G since the 4G will be in effect for many years.