I agree with you that the best card for a smartphone is the 500-minute card if you use all the buckets as you describe.
However, for a person who uses his/her TracFone only for talk, the result is much different.
When using the phone almost exclusively for talk, the cheapest rate (by far) is the 750-minute card, which is a not-very-cheap 4.43 cents per minute. Unfortunately, in that case, you have paid for a large number of texts and amounts of data that will never be used.
Apparently, TracFone doesn't have any plans to make a minute-only card available.
Does anyone know for certain that the monthly Value Plans have roll-over value? Tracfone sometimes changes policies without making the information clear, even to their employees! I used to get the one year card, with Triple Minutes for Life on my phone, but when I switched to a smartphone, which came with Triple Minutes for Life, that policy went out the window. Two Representatives could not understand why it was not being credited, then a Supervisor informed me that I could no longer get Triple Minutes, even though my Tracfone was sold with that option. All that aside, in my case I would benefit from the Value Plan as long as minutes, text and data accumulated. For a dollar more, I could get an additional 25 minutes, texts, and mb data.
February 22, 2017 at 7:36 AM
Anonymous said...
Do tracfone smartphones have restrictions on the number of characters that can be sent in texts? I know non-android phones do, so I'm wondering if that is true of the smartphones as well?
Anonymous, Yes and no about the restrictions on the number of characters that can be sent. What will happen is the text will be broken up into sections and sent as two, three or even more texts, and you will be charged for each one. That also includes incoming texts. It can be fun when sometimes the second part of the text arrives before the first part, and you are scratching your head trying to figure out what is being sent until the first part arrives!
The way I figure it the 450minute/90day card is 8 cents a minute when you use auto-refill whereas the 60minute/90day card comes out to 16 cents a minute. I am calculating it assuming double minutes for life which my phone has ( so 900/90 and 120/90) and ignoring the cost of service days, the cost of data and the cost of texts since both options are the same in those areas. Also I figured the cost per minute based on check out price on the tracphone web site so I included tax and other service fees. So from a practical standpoint for a non-smart phone user your recommendation does not seem to be the best deal unless I figured something wrong. And your charts show per minutes costs in the 1 to 3 cents range which is not really what you end up paying, more like 8 to 16 cents per minute.
February 7, 2018 at 8:04 PM
greg gruber said...
my tracfone ran out of service days but had 1080.00 minutes still showing when i reactiveated my phone i lost all my minutes rip off.
November 19, 2018 at 10:27 AM
Anonymous said...
autofill isn't worth a shit. It's a lot of babble and no help!
If you don't reactivate within a given time frame (I believe either 30 or 60 days), then all is lost. When I reactivated my 3G phone for my wife to have one (have since had to upgrade to a 4G model), it was within the 30 day span. Maybe less. All the minutes (nearly 6,000) stayed & even rolled over to the new phone.
That's what I love about Tracfone, the customer is in control, yet it's important to read the fine print, just as with any other purchase. There's limitations to everything & this includes Tracfone minutes leftover on the phone. What I did, every time I activated (or reactivated/upgraded), from the very first time, called a rep to do the work, this way I could ask questions & know what am getting. Most times, would get an extra two months for activating a new device, but that wasn't the case with the last purchased, as 3G phones were phased out NOT by Tracfone, but Verizon. I received a notice via text, email & a letter sent to my home. Eventually, the phones that are based on AT&T service (where a SIM card is used) will do the same, as 5G is on the way, they won't be able to support three bands. 4G phones (to include smartphones) will likely last for as long as the phone works or supported by the OEM.
Unfortunately, there was only one brand (Alcatel My Flip) of 4G flip phones to choose from, kind of a hybrid smartphone that uses the regular minute cards (for now anyway), so that's what I went with for my wife. She loves the larger keypad, the (small) downside is the minutes & day of service is in the menu rather than on the face of the phone, but not hard to find. As stated, everything rolled over & to my surprise, when I added a 120 minute card and a 60 minute promo I found (had been doing this for years), she ended up with 360 minutes, plus the extra 60, for 420 minutes total. Not bad for a $33 card after taxes. She has a boatload of minutes & now data & texts that doesn't eat her minutes. I'll later add a year airtime card with 800 minutes to give some breathing room. Then if she puts up the $11/month, can add a card every three months & stay ahead of both minutes & time. I try to stay at least 90 days ahead on my iPhone (& those prior), so that when I add a card, will have at least six months. I find it easy to add an extra card when the weather isn't in the extremes, the bills are low & I buy an extra card.
I'm sorry to hear you felt you were ripped off, yet at the same time, that's all we know (you didn't state how long the phone was unused) If the phone was reactivated in time by a person (or chat, as I did last time), you could had maybe received those minutes......provided you followed the policy of Tracfone when it comes to retaining minutes. The best thing to do is to avoid service disruption, there are 30 day cards for $10 online if in a pinch for cash. Please keep this in mind as you rebuild your minutes, Tracfone has NEVER took anything from me & the lowest cost of any service, other than the phones provided by Safelink & others geared towards the poor. In certain circumstances (with some plans), they get to keep unused minutes for a period of time. This way, if the subscriber uses all of his/her minutes for that month, the company will apply the oldest carryover first to prevent loss.
All I can say is that I've been a very happy Tracfone customer since 2010, and have no plans to switch. Compared to a contract phone where I'd pay at least $50/month (minimum), I've saved over $3,000 since making the switch to Tracfone & best of all....am still on the same major network (depending on which phone owned), can't beat the value of the service!
May 21, 2019 at 3:29 AM
Anonymous said...
It is when you more data per month than the minutes or texts, auto refill is the only way to go. If you are a simple user than a cheap yearly plan is the best.
December 25, 2019 at 10:30 AM
How do Auto-refill plans work, and What is the Best Deal on Tracfone Airtime?
Welcome to TracfoneReviewer, we share lots of information including reviews, news and promo codes, so take a look around if you're new here!
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Guide to Tracfone Auto-Refill and Value Plans
Everyone that uses Tracfone knows you have to keep track of how many minutes or service days you have left. And while some of us enjoy checking our airtime and topping it off when low, many would rather have a more 'hands-off' approach.
On Smartphones, your airtime balance isn't automatically displayed on your phone, so it can be a little harder to keep track of your talk, text and data.
Fortunately, Tracfone offers several options for automatically refilling your airtime, and we are going to cover how it works, and which options are best for you.
What is great about these auto-refill options is that they also come at a small discount from regular airtime cards, making them a better deal. But which one is the best deal? We share that, and more, below!
What is Tracfone Auto-Refill? (and How to Sign Up)
First of all, there are two main options for automatically adding airtime to your phone:
Tracfone Auto-Refill - Various airtime cards that are automatically added to your account at regular intervals depending on the card you choose. Up to 10% discount on regular price. Tracfone Value Plans - Monthly minutes(50, 125, or 200) and service days added to your account.
The Value Plans have been available for a while, and triple on all smartphones. The Auto Refill is just various airtime cards, including both regular and smartphone-only cards, that Tracfone adds to your account automatically at a small discount (usually 5-10%).
Let's take a look at the chart below which compares the various options:
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Tracfone Auto-Refill and Value Plan Options
From this table you can see the variety of auto-refill options along with the Value Plans. Notice that the Value Plans all give 30 service days, while the auto-refill plans vary from 30 days, to 365 days, depending on the airtime card.
To sign up for Auto-Refill or a Value Plan:
-Visit Tracfone.com
-Select 'Auto-Refill' or 'Value Plans' from the Airtime drop down menu
-Follow the prompts which allow you to choose from several options.
-You will need a valid credit or debit card to compete the transaction
But which auto-refill option is best? Keep reading to find out!
What is the Best Auto-Refill Plan from Tracfone?
Now we want to look at which auto-refill plan is the best deal. There are two scenarios most people fit into: Scenario 1: You have lots of minutes on your phone, but are low on service days. What you need is the lowest cost for additional service days Scenario 2: You have lots of service days, but are low on minutes (talk, text or data). What you need is the best deal on minutes.
Now let's see the next table, which shows the monthly cost, along with monthly airtime amounts.
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Monthly Cost and AIrtime Amounts for Tracfone Auto Refill and Value Plans
From the table above you can see how much each plan costs per month, and how much talk, text or data you get.
The 60 Minute Card is the clear winner for cheapest monthly plan. If you're in scenario 1, you will probably want to choose this option.
But what is the best deal on minutes? For that, we calculated the cost per minute (per month) for each auto-refill option.
Taking a look at the numbers in the table below, we see that the 500 Minute Smartphone Only airtime card is the cheapest in terms of cost per minute of talk time (once all other costs are factored out) at just 1.08 cents per talk minute!
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Best Value on Tracfone Auto-Refill - 500 Minute Smartphone Card
Notice that the 750 Minute Smartphone Only card is the next best value, followed by the 60 Minute regular card.
We calculated the cost per minute by doing the following:
Subtracting the cost of service days (where 365 service days equals $50)
Subtracting the cost of data (where 1 GB (1000 MB) equals $10)
Subtracting the cost of texts (where 1000 texts equals $5)
Making the final number in cents (so it is easier to read)
(if we made any errors, please be sure to let us know in the comments below!)
Let's Recap:
Best Deal on Service Days: 60 Minute Card (just $6 per month)
Best Deal on Minutes: 500 Minute Smartphone Only Card ($11.88 per month and lots of airtime)
Here is a graph for those who would rather see a visual representation of the numbers. Notice that the 1500 Minute Smartphone Only card is the worst value.
[Image]
Graph showing cost per minute for auto-refill plans from Tracfone
For the majority of Tracfone users who have smartphones, the 500 Minute Smartphone Only auto-refill is the best choice. If you need additional airtime, buying a text, data or extra airtime card is easy to do. If you find yourself with too many minutes, switching to the 60 Minute Card will save you money.
If you're looking for a new phone, the Samsung Galaxy Luna is on sale from Amazon for $69 which includes a 120 Minute Airtime Card ($30 value)
We hope this information is helpful and accurate, be sure to let us know your thoughts in the comments below, and if we made any mistakes.
Join us on Facebook where we have a great community of users, and share the latest news and information.
Take a look at our updated list of Tracfone Promo Codes if you're adding airtime to your phone anytime soon.
10 Comments
Close this window Jump to comment formPeter,
I agree with you that the best card for a smartphone is the 500-minute card if you use all the buckets as you describe.
However, for a person who uses his/her TracFone only for talk, the result is much different.
When using the phone almost exclusively for talk, the cheapest rate (by far) is the 750-minute card, which is a not-very-cheap 4.43 cents per minute. Unfortunately, in that case, you have paid for a large number of texts and amounts of data that will never be used.
Apparently, TracFone doesn't have any plans to make a minute-only card available.
February 18, 2017 at 9:31 AM
Does anyone know for certain that the monthly Value Plans have roll-over value? Tracfone sometimes changes policies without making the information clear, even to their employees! I used to get the one year card, with Triple Minutes for Life on my phone, but when I switched to a smartphone, which came with Triple Minutes for Life, that policy went out the window. Two Representatives could not understand why it was not being credited, then a
Supervisor informed me that I could no longer get Triple Minutes, even though my Tracfone was sold with that option.
All that aside, in my case I would benefit from the Value Plan as long as minutes, text and data accumulated. For a dollar more, I could get an additional 25 minutes, texts, and mb data.
February 22, 2017 at 7:36 AM
Do tracfone smartphones have restrictions on the number of characters that can be sent in texts? I know non-android phones do, so I'm wondering if that is true of the smartphones as well?
July 16, 2017 at 8:29 PM
Anonymous,
Yes and no about the restrictions on the number of characters that can be sent. What will happen is the text will be broken up into sections and sent as two, three or even more texts, and you will be charged for each one. That also includes incoming texts. It can be fun when sometimes the second part of the text arrives before the first part, and you are scratching your head trying to figure out what is being sent until the first part arrives!
July 18, 2017 at 6:26 AM
Very funny sue :)
September 9, 2017 at 7:35 AM
The way I figure it the 450minute/90day card is 8 cents a minute when you use auto-refill whereas the 60minute/90day card comes out to 16 cents a minute.
I am calculating it assuming double minutes for life which my phone has ( so 900/90 and 120/90) and ignoring the cost of service days, the cost of data and the cost of texts since both options are the same in those areas.
Also I figured the cost per minute based on check out price on the tracphone web site so I included tax and other service fees.
So from a practical standpoint for a non-smart phone user your recommendation does not seem to be the best deal unless I figured something wrong.
And your charts show per minutes costs in the 1 to 3 cents range which is not really what you end up paying, more like 8 to 16 cents per minute.
February 7, 2018 at 8:04 PM
my tracfone ran out of service days but had 1080.00 minutes still showing when i reactiveated my phone i lost all my minutes rip off.
November 19, 2018 at 10:27 AM
autofill isn't worth a shit. It's a lot of babble and no help!
May 10, 2019 at 8:07 AM
If you don't reactivate within a given time frame (I believe either 30 or 60 days), then all is lost. When I reactivated my 3G phone for my wife to have one (have since had to upgrade to a 4G model), it was within the 30 day span. Maybe less. All the minutes (nearly 6,000) stayed & even rolled over to the new phone.
That's what I love about Tracfone, the customer is in control, yet it's important to read the fine print, just as with any other purchase. There's limitations to everything & this includes Tracfone minutes leftover on the phone. What I did, every time I activated (or reactivated/upgraded), from the very first time, called a rep to do the work, this way I could ask questions & know what am getting. Most times, would get an extra two months for activating a new device, but that wasn't the case with the last purchased, as 3G phones were phased out NOT by Tracfone, but Verizon. I received a notice via text, email & a letter sent to my home. Eventually, the phones that are based on AT&T service (where a SIM card is used) will do the same, as 5G is on the way, they won't be able to support three bands. 4G phones (to include smartphones) will likely last for as long as the phone works or supported by the OEM.
Unfortunately, there was only one brand (Alcatel My Flip) of 4G flip phones to choose from, kind of a hybrid smartphone that uses the regular minute cards (for now anyway), so that's what I went with for my wife. She loves the larger keypad, the (small) downside is the minutes & day of service is in the menu rather than on the face of the phone, but not hard to find. As stated, everything rolled over & to my surprise, when I added a 120 minute card and a 60 minute promo I found (had been doing this for years), she ended up with 360 minutes, plus the extra 60, for 420 minutes total. Not bad for a $33 card after taxes. She has a boatload of minutes & now data & texts that doesn't eat her minutes. I'll later add a year airtime card with 800 minutes to give some breathing room. Then if she puts up the $11/month, can add a card every three months & stay ahead of both minutes & time. I try to stay at least 90 days ahead on my iPhone (& those prior), so that when I add a card, will have at least six months. I find it easy to add an extra card when the weather isn't in the extremes, the bills are low & I buy an extra card.
I'm sorry to hear you felt you were ripped off, yet at the same time, that's all we know (you didn't state how long the phone was unused) If the phone was reactivated in time by a person (or chat, as I did last time), you could had maybe received those minutes......provided you followed the policy of Tracfone when it comes to retaining minutes. The best thing to do is to avoid service disruption, there are 30 day cards for $10 online if in a pinch for cash. Please keep this in mind as you rebuild your minutes, Tracfone has NEVER took anything from me & the lowest cost of any service, other than the phones provided by Safelink & others geared towards the poor. In certain circumstances (with some plans), they get to keep unused minutes for a period of time. This way, if the subscriber uses all of his/her minutes for that month, the company will apply the oldest carryover first to prevent loss.
All I can say is that I've been a very happy Tracfone customer since 2010, and have no plans to switch. Compared to a contract phone where I'd pay at least $50/month (minimum), I've saved over $3,000 since making the switch to Tracfone & best of all....am still on the same major network (depending on which phone owned), can't beat the value of the service!
May 21, 2019 at 3:29 AM
It is when you more data per month than the minutes or texts, auto refill is the only way to go. If you are a simple user than a cheap yearly plan is the best.
December 25, 2019 at 10:30 AM