Electronics

[hckynut]

On 9/9/2014 Trix said:

Perhaps their service has improved as my experience was almost two years ago, but it was a nightmare I'll never forget. I could not make or receive calls from my apartment. I would have not been disappointed if I lived in some remote rural area, but no... I live in downtown Chicago.

I can't recommend it, but as I said in my first sentence, perhaps their service has improved.

TracFone now uses 4 of Major Cell Providers . If you get a dropped call with TracFone, chances are you would not even be able to make it just 1 of the other carriers.

T-Mobile only works if I would stand on the state line of Iowa and Nebraska, that is how little coverage they have in our state. Virgin Mobile, which my wife uses with her Galaxy SII, will not allow her to call from our house most of the time. She has to sometimes drive 6 blocks away to make a call, or she can use my smart Samsung TracFone and call from the comfort of home.

Verizon is the best in our city according to the many I know with the "expensive plans". I will stick with my less than $6 per month smart phone using TracFone as my cell provider.

[Nuttmeg]

On 9/9/2014 hckynut said:

On 9/9/2014 Trix said:

Perhaps their service has improved as my experience was almost two years ago, but it was a nightmare I'll never forget. I could not make or receive calls from my apartment. I would have not been disappointed if I lived in some remote rural area, but no... I live in downtown Chicago.

I can't recommend it, but as I said in my first sentence, perhaps their service has improved.

TracFone now uses 4 of Major Cell Providers . If you get a dropped call with TracFone, chances are you would not even be able to make it just 1 of the other carriers.

T-Mobile only works if I would stand on the state line of Iowa and Nebraska, that is how little coverage they have in our state. Virgin Mobile, which my wife uses with her Galaxy SII, will not allow her to call from our house most of the time. She has to sometimes drive 6 blocks away to make a call, or she can use my smart Samsung TracFone and call from the comfort of home.

Verizon is the best in our city according to the many I know with the "expensive plans". I will stick with my less than $6 per month smart phone using TracFone as my cell provider.

No one cell phone provider works perfectly across America. I have heard and read the stories about customers buying discounted phone contracts with Sprint or T-Mobile and the service was poor. They had to return to Verizon or AT&T. I do not think this happens as much right now. The major carriers all charge about the same for service so customers can select the best service in their area.

[hckynut]

On 9/9/2014 nutmeg3 said:

On 9/9/2014 hckynut said:

On 9/9/2014 Trix said:

Perhaps their service has improved as my experience was almost two years ago, but it was a nightmare I'll never forget. I could not make or receive calls from my apartment. I would have not been disappointed if I lived in some remote rural area, but no... I live in downtown Chicago.

I can't recommend it, but as I said in my first sentence, perhaps their service has improved.

TracFone now uses 4 of Major Cell Providers . If you get a dropped call with TracFone, chances are you would not even be able to make it just 1 of the other carriers.

T-Mobile only works if I would stand on the state line of Iowa and Nebraska, that is how little coverage they have in our state. Virgin Mobile, which my wife uses with her Galaxy SII, will not allow her to call from our house most of the time. She has to sometimes drive 6 blocks away to make a call, or she can use my smart Samsung TracFone and call from the comfort of home.

Verizon is the best in our city according to the many I know with the "expensive plans". I will stick with my less than $6 per month smart phone using TracFone as my cell provider.

No one cell phone provider works perfectly across America. I have heard and read the stories about customers buying discounted phone contracts with Sprint or T-Mobile and the service was poor. They had to return to Verizon or AT&T. I do not think this happens as much right now. The major carriers all charge about the same for service so customers can select the best service in their area.

Nope, but I think chances of them working might be better with 4 carriers as opposed to only 1 of them. Had TracFone for years when they used only T-Mobile and AT&T and I have never had a dropped call here in Nebraska.

With Sprint/AT&T/Verizon and T-Mobile, I would like to think chance of completing a call might be boosted a little bit. My knowledge of cell phones is limited as much as my use of them. If I call once every month that is over my calling limit. I do however think that more providers equal better chances of connecting and less chances of dropping calls.

As I said, I am far from an expert on these things, but I do know that TracFone of mine has never let me down via a dropped call or inability to call from anywhere in our state. Not true with T-Mobil, or in my wife's case, Virgin Mobile which I believe is connected via the Sprint Network.

[goodstuff]

I have the Straight Talk prepaid plan purchased through WalMart and am satisfied. We have a Samsung smart phone that isn't the latest/greatest, but it does everything I need it to do and more. The phone cost under $100 when I bought it, and my plan (unlimited talk, text, and data) runs about $45/month. No contract, no hassle -- and it runs on the Verizon network. A lot of people don't know that some of the less prominent carriers buy capacity on the "big" networks and run their services on those networks. Works for me!

[151949]

On 9/8/2014 Tgbtg said:

On 9/8/2014 Stargazer77 said:

On 9/8/2014 kachina624 said: I buy a new Tracfone every year when someone has a "deal" on them. I put the minutes on my old LG840g, and ditch the new phone. It's too much trouble switching all my contacts over and the old phone works perfectly so why change? I use my phone for about $7/mo.

Could you tell me how exactly you do that? My grandma has the Big Easy Tracfone (the one with the larger buttons). I bought it last year for her from HSN and set it up. Her year just came due so I bought the same thing (it was on sale for 40 dollars, 1 year of service and 400 minutes), and I switched everything over from the old Tracfone to the new Tracfone. I would love to be able to just add minutes and time to her existing phone like you did.

By the way, if you ever decide you'd like a new phone, you can use Bluetooth to send your contacts over from your old phone to your new phone. It's pretty simple.

I'd like to know, too. I'm assuming you would just get the pin for the promotional minutes and then add it to your current phone via CS or online?

You can add min using your phone or the website or you can purchase an airtime card somewhere like Walmart that adds min. You DO NOT need to buy a new phone in order to get min. My DH does not use his phone much so he only buys the minimum 2 months airtime card (that includes the min) at a time. He usually gets them from walmart.

[Ainhisg]

On 9/10/2014 happy housewife said:

On 9/8/2014 Tgbtg said:

On 9/8/2014 Stargazer77 said:

On 9/8/2014 kachina624 said: I buy a new Tracfone every year when someone has a "deal" on them. I put the minutes on my old LG840g, and ditch the new phone. It's too much trouble switching all my contacts over and the old phone works perfectly so why change? I use my phone for about $7/mo.

Could you tell me how exactly you do that? My grandma has the Big Easy Tracfone (the one with the larger buttons). I bought it last year for her from HSN and set it up. Her year just came due so I bought the same thing (it was on sale for 40 dollars, 1 year of service and 400 minutes), and I switched everything over from the old Tracfone to the new Tracfone. I would love to be able to just add minutes and time to her existing phone like you did.

By the way, if you ever decide you'd like a new phone, you can use Bluetooth to send your contacts over from your old phone to your new phone. It's pretty simple.

I'd like to know, too. I'm assuming you would just get the pin for the promotional minutes and then add it to your current phone via CS or online?

You can add min using your phone or the website or you can purchase an airtime card somewhere like Walmart that adds min. You DO NOT need to buy a new phone in order to get min. My DH does not use his phone much so he only buys the minimum 2 months airtime card (that includes the min) at a time. He usually gets them from walmart.

I think we were interested in how the poster applied the minutes to a current phone, because you can purchase phones with 1500 minutes for around $80. Since then, I have read that the non-smart phone promotional minutes are coded to only work with non-smart phones and can't be applied to androids.

[123SuzyQ123]

I have had my LG Tracfone for 3 years, after many years of paying the high fees for monthly contracts for other phones. I could not be happier with my Tracfone. The most I have ever spent in a month on buying minutes is $19.00. Whereas with my old cell phone carrier, I was out close to $80 to $90 per month. I will only use Tracfones from now forward.

[Ainhisg]

I have to say that so far, I am loving the Tracfone Optimus Dynamic II. Never having had a smart phone, I am amazed at everything it can do for an entry level smartphone. I found the online tutorial and the reviews and questions for this phone model on Amazon to be quite helpful in understanding how to work the phone besides watching You Tube videos on it. And I am loving not having a monthly payment of any kind!

[CharmTx]

On 9/9/2014 kachina624 said:

On 9/8/2014 Stargazer77 said:

On 9/8/2014 kachina624 said: I buy a new Tracfone every year when someone has a "deal" on them. I put the minutes on my old LG840g, and ditch the new phone. It's too much trouble switching all my contacts over and the old phone works perfectly so why change? I use my phone for about $7/mo.

Could you tell me how exactly you do that? My grandma has the Big Easy Tracfone (the one with the larger buttons). I bought it last year for her from HSN and set it up. Her year just came due so I bought the same thing (it was on sale for 40 dollars, 1 year of service and 400 minutes), and I switched everything over from the old Tracfone to the new Tracfone. I would love to be able to just add minutes and time to her existing phone like you did.

By the way, if you ever decide you'd like a new phone, you can use Bluetooth to send your contacts over from your old phone to your new phone. It's pretty simple.

You don't activate the new phone...forget it exists. Go through the activation procedure and put the minutes on the old phone. Takes about 2 minutes, just follow the prompts online.

Kachina, so I still go through (step 1) the activation procedure even though my current phone I'm using is already activated? I guess I'm still unclear on how to add these new minutes to my current LG840. I thought I would need to go to (step 2) redeem promotional minutes by calling call the toll free number and give my order no., zip code and phone number to get my promotional minutes. Sorry, I'm usually smarter than this.

[CharmTx]

On 9/13/2014 CharmTx said:

On 9/9/2014 kachina624 said:

On 9/8/2014 Stargazer77 said:

On 9/8/2014 kachina624 said: I buy a new Tracfone every year when someone has a "deal" on them. I put the minutes on my old LG840g, and ditch the new phone. It's too much trouble switching all my contacts over and the old phone works perfectly so why change? I use my phone for about $7/mo.

Could you tell me how exactly you do that? My grandma has the Big Easy Tracfone (the one with the larger buttons). I bought it last year for her from HSN and set it up. Her year just came due so I bought the same thing (it was on sale for 40 dollars, 1 year of service and 400 minutes), and I switched everything over from the old Tracfone to the new Tracfone. I would love to be able to just add minutes and time to her existing phone like you did.

By the way, if you ever decide you'd like a new phone, you can use Bluetooth to send your contacts over from your old phone to your new phone. It's pretty simple.

You don't activate the new phone...forget it exists. Go through the activation procedure and put the minutes on the old phone. Takes about 2 minutes, just follow the prompts online.

Kachina, so I still go through (step 1) the activation procedure even though my current phone I'm using is already activated? I guess I'm still unclear on how to add these new minutes to my current LG840. I thought I would need to go to (step 2) redeem promotional minutes by calling call the toll free number and give my order no., zip code and phone number to get my promotional minutes. Sorry, I'm usually smarter than this.

Anyone know how to do this? I skipped Step 1 and went to Step 2, but no minutes on my LG840 yet.