Electronics

[gardenman]

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@monicakm wrote:

@PickyPicky3 

I thought Tracfone was a type of phone, not a carrier.  I'm as smart as a nurse (g)

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Tracfone is kind of a hybrid. They don't make phones and they don't (well, didn't before being bought by Verizon) own any towers. They bought airtime in bulk at low prices and then also bought phones in bulk at low prices, bundled the two together, and sold them as a package. They give you very low-cost phone service but very expensive mobile data. The phones are typically a generation or two older than the latest and greatest but are still very good phones at very good prices. 

As long as you're not a big mobile data user, Tracfone is hard to beat. It's the mobile data where they rack up their profits. They sell their add-on data at $10 per GB. 

If you shop for phone service anytime and price it as an individual you'll find "typical" unlimited service comes in around $80 a month for a single line. If you buy four lines it'll drop to $25 a line. If you buy service for a hundred phones (A really big family or modest business) you might end up paying even less than that per line. If you're Tracfone and you're buying service for 21 million lines, you get a very, very good price. They bundle that low price per line and an older, lower-cost phone together into a largely unbeatable package for consumers who don't want/need the latest and greatest. It's a clever business model.

[gardenman]

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@monicakm wrote:

@gardenman 

Thank you for the education. Until yesterday, I thought all TracFones were flip phones.

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Tracfone sells some pretty nice phones. They have the Google Pixel 6A now for around $200 which was a $500 phone two years ago. They have a phone to meet pretty much everyone's needs and you can even bring any unlocked phone to them. 

[deeva]

That's what I did. Bought an unlocked phone from Best Buy and a Verizon SIM card, then activated it thru Tracfone. 

[Moonlady]

That's hilarious. I guess that nurse has never heard of Life Line, either. I guarantee you she wouldn't have refused to accept it had I taken that call. 

[songbird]

I had always purchased my unlocked phone first, then shopping for a carrier.  I never heard of Tracfone before QVC.  After hearing about it, I still prefer buying an unlocked phone first. 

[SilleeMee]

TracFone is a prepaid mobile phone service that uses other networks such as AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon (who now owns TracFone) to operate it's own network. They don't own the cell towers but pay to use them.

[gardenman]

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@songbird wrote:

I had always purchased my unlocked phone first, then shopping for a carrier.  I never heard of Tracfone before QVC.  After hearing about it, I still prefer buying an unlocked phone first. 

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The advantage of TracFone is they sell their phones and service at a deep discount. I bought a Motorola G Stylus 5G (2021 model) here for $58+ with a year's service a month or two ago. The phone alone sells for around $130 elsewhere. After a year's use you can unlock any Tracfone and wander off to another carrier if you're not happy with Tracfone.

Most retailers charge you a premium to buy an unlocked phone as the carriers often subsidize much of the cost of the phone. Take away those subsidies and you pay more for the phone.