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Blogger Sworks66 said...

I just purchased 2 Samsung Galaxy Core Prime phones, finally some nice low cost smart phones for Tracfone. I use these phones for emergency purpose only. I could care less about Texting and I may use the Data for tracking my location because of health issues. As far as the new pricing, I would have stayed with my old non-smart phones and saved money. I guess you just have to go with the flow or find something better.

July 13, 2016 at 5:20 PM

Anonymous Dory said...

I never use all my minutes/text/data, so my only concern is least cost per service day. It appears the old 60 card is still the winner, at 22 cents per day. Is this correct?

July 13, 2016 at 6:02 PM

Blogger TracfoneReviewer Team said...

Yes, that's a pretty good option if you just need days, although you may want to grab the 1 Year/400 Minute card which comes with a full year of service.

July 13, 2016 at 6:04 PM

Anonymous Dory said...

Thank you!

July 13, 2016 at 6:29 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I purchase the standard 90-day service cards that give me 180 minutes, texts, and data. I rarely more than 50 minutes or text per quarter. I now have between 2000 and 3000 units in each bucket. I would consider buying a card that provides nothing by the 90-day extension. Hopefully the 30-day reduction in service doesn't spread the the standard cards as the decline for me.

July 13, 2016 at 7:38 PM

Blogger Greg said...

They still won't offer a service days only card that's not a website special. (You get offered one if you purchase an existing card..)

July 14, 2016 at 7:47 AM

Blogger Hoody said...

Yeah, I also wish there was JUST a time card you could buy, like 90 days at a reasonable cost of around 10 bucks. And add the other stuff as needed.

I hardly do texting, and when I do its with google messenger, which is free, I don't do that much calling either, I use the data only when I'm away from my WIFi at home, so I ALWAYS have everything left over at the end of my time period. This time runs out on 1 sept, and I have over 500 texts now.

They should be OK with a time ONLY card since there are many more people that hang on these things 24/7 to make them $$.

July 14, 2016 at 8:06 AM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

i don't like the changes. too complicated for my mouse brain to understand :-(
peter mansfield.

July 14, 2016 at 12:05 PM

Blogger bob said...

Don't forget the 1 year of service time for $50. On TF site if you make a purchase

July 14, 2016 at 5:14 PM

Blogger JimWiz1 said...

Hi, that is what I was pointing out last month, new pricing. I love your chart but worry about your math. How you put it, the new smartphone card 1500 price/minute $0.08, price/text $0.08, price/MB $0.08 would cost $375!. The 500 I got for $25 plus tax, plus fees, would have been $80. Since it goes into 3 tanks, divide the total price by 3, then divide by how much you get, so the $125 card comes to $0.027 per min/text/MB. The $25 card gives me 500 min at $0.016, 1000 text at $0.0083 and 500 MB at $0.016. The regular airtime cards have the same math problem.
Really like the new Data and Text only card prices.
Live long and Prosper,
JimWiz1

July 14, 2016 at 8:12 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

So buy a cheap card on the website and add a year of service for $50.

July 16, 2016 at 12:34 AM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have been a Tracfone member for almost three years. Over the course of those three years, I have purchased an equal total of 4200 talk, text, and MB of data. Currently, the balances in my buckets are 2738 minutes, 2844 texts, and 3517MB.

As you can see, I am an extremely light user. For me, I need the card that gives me the most service time. And I'm not too concerned with how many of each are added to my buckets.



My sister in law has been a Tracfone member since January 2016. Over these 6 1/2 months that she has been a member, she has averaged 720 minutes of talk per month on Tracfone. If she continues to use her phone at the same rate she has since the first of the year, she will spend over $400/yr for service, or almost $35/month.



Awhile back, I was visiting the americanseniors.org website (I'm one of them) and found a service that I thought was much better for heavier users. That organization recommends Pure Talk USA (puretalkusa.com). Pure Talk has several plans with prices that are comparable to Tracfone.


They have senior plans that range from $5-15 per month. For $5, they allow 80 minutes/month. For $15, it's 600 per month. And each of those increase by 10% for the first five months. They also have an unlimited talk and text plan for $24/mo and you can add 1GB of data for an extra $5/mo. Pure Talk uses AT&T network, so you would have to get a GSM phone.

I won't change until my buckets have gotten much lower, but it might be a cheaper alternative than Tracfone for some.

July 16, 2016 at 5:06 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

So simple, buy 1000 texts for $5 and when you check out you can get a year of service for $50, total cost $55

July 18, 2016 at 5:12 PM

Blogger TracfoneReviewer Team said...

Good points, will try and go back through and adjust. Looks like the relationship is still the same, just need to divide by 3.

July 19, 2016 at 7:50 PM

Blogger Catherine A. McClarey said...

I am very tempted by the BLU R1 HD phone at $49/$59 for Amazon Prime members, and saw that one of the options offered there for activating that phone was a Tracfone BYOP SIM kit for just $1.00 extra. Tracfone has changed a lot since I was an ignorant cellphone noob with a dumbphone with them years ago, and I really appreciated the comparison chart of airtime cards vs. old smartphone cards vs. new smartphone cards. (It stinks that promo codes can't be used with smartphones, though!) I'm currently a RingPlus customer (which is based on Sprint's network), and so would have to switch service providers if I were to get the BLU R1 HD from Amazon. FreedomPop now offers GSM service; however, I have been very disappointed with the poor call quality and SLOW customer service on their CDMA side. Based on the online research I've done thus far, for my usage levels (about 10 min. talk/0-10 texts/400MB data per month, according to my RingPlus invoices), the next best alternatives (other than Tracfone, of course) seem to be PureTalk (as recommended by a previous commenter in this thread), TPO Mobile, and US Mobile. T-Mobile's $30/month "100 min./unlimited text/5GB data" card would be a close runner-up if I found myself using a lot more data than I currently do. Coverage maps seem to indicate that AT&T probably has a stronger signal in my area than T-Mobile, though (although I haven't yet personally listened to local calls via both networks to compare), so Tracfone and PureTalk might have the best call quality.

July 23, 2016 at 6:55 AM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

What happened to Triple Minutes for Life?

July 24, 2016 at 3:51 PM

Blogger Greg said...

Never applied to smartphones, just cell phones.

July 25, 2016 at 2:24 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

TML still applies if you buy a regular airtime card.

July 26, 2016 at 11:14 AM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think you should also deduct $4.17/mo for the service days provided by each card before dividing the cost by 3. Since you can add 365 days for $50 to any online purchase, this will eliminate that variable.

For example, if you take the $125 smartphone card and deduct $50 for service days, then divide the $75 remainder into 3 buckets of $25 each, you get 1500 mins @ $0.0167 plus 1500 texts @ $0.0167 plus 1500 MB of data @ $0.0167.

July 26, 2016 at 11:32 AM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Maybe TracFone feeling pressure from the freemium svcs of sprint ? I have a ring plus phone as my backup, but one day I could see it replacing Trac altogether...

July 28, 2016 at 5:04 AM

Blogger Lori Lynn said...

I just purchased the LG Rebel LTE LG L44VL from QVC. It came with 1200 talk+ 1200 text + 1200 data and 1year service and triple talk,text& data. It said when activated it that any new cards added would add to my service time. Is this true of all cards???

July 29, 2016 at 6:20 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

It *did* apply to smart phones. I've been getting triple minutes 3 years. The new smart phone plans eliminated it, it seems.

July 30, 2016 at 11:34 AM

Blogger TracfoneReviewer Team said...

Thanks for your help, the tables have been updated!

August 5, 2016 at 7:40 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

The final price on my purchase was different than what was on the initial bill. Anyone have this same experience? The total with tax was $129.48 and the second final bill came up as $143.71

August 10, 2016 at 12:40 PM

Blogger Unknown said...

Unless US Mobile has improved, I had them last year and they were horrible. Could not get on internet, and also could even use my Moto G GSM 3G phone in southern CA. I was very disappointed, and moved to another MVNO, TING. But now am considering coming back to Tracfone with the BYPO plan.

August 23, 2016 at 7:28 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I buy my tracfone thro HSN or QVC and basically get a new phone, a year's time and triple minutes, text and data (apx. 200 min/mth) when I need a new year-only card. When they have their specials, it costs from $79-$129 depending on phone for all of that. However, if I'm not ready for a new phone and like you, always have minutes left, I call Tracfone and get on their ??? plan. (I think it's called security plan) What happens is you sign up, and when you're time runs out, it automatically gives you 30 more Days-ONLY for $5.95. Each month, if you run out of days, it repeats. No charge to sign up and you can cancel any time. I just did it Aug. 29, 2016 so it's current. Doesn't sound like anyone here knows about that, so hope that helps you out.
I find the best answer is to call, tell them what you want and ask what they have for that issue. No one OFFERS the 'deals' anymore, but they have them. Also, why is it that if you buy your card at Walmart, they don't charge tax, but w/ Tracfone they do? They couldn't tell me but that's wacky!











September 3, 2016 at 5:33 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I get triple minutes for life w/ my tracfone. You just have to buy the phone that has it.

September 3, 2016 at 5:42 PM

Anonymous Dory said...

Thank you bob! I bought a 1GB card for $10, plus the 1-year card for $50. $5/month is the cheapest I've ever paid.

October 23, 2016 at 5:36 PM

Blogger Unknown said...

i buy 1000 txt for $10.00, at target, only store that have these cards.. trac phone keeps saying ! we can get 1,000 txt cards for $5.00?? where do we find these at?? i have a alcetel, android. i do mainly txting.. this android is not as good as my old flip phone was, had Better connection & better txting range then this android .... might go back to the cheaper phone for alot better performance... or go to a different phone service...

November 6, 2016 at 1:51 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

The (4) $20 cards = $80/yr = $6.67/month is best for me. After about a year I have 626 minutes, 691 texts, and 644 data rolling over. My wife has more of each left on her account. $18 with autopay discount comes out to $20 after their fees. I'm on wifi 90% of the time and use Hangouts while on wifi. Can't really beat that on a great Nexus 6p phone!

December 22, 2016 at 5:42 PM

Blogger nancy45 said...

I have a smartphone with over 2000 minutes and similar amounts of texts and data. I don't use many minutes or data, mostly texts so I go online and buy the lowest price card I can ($10 for 30min/30/days) and at the end of the transaction I add a year's worth of service time for $50. My phone costs me $60/yr which works out to $5/month! (I'm really getting 13 months of service because of the card I added so my phone is actually only costing me $4.62/month.) As far as I know the option to add a year's worth of service time without adding minutes is ONLY AVAILABLE ON THE TRACFONE WEBSITE. I do buy texts once in a while but at $5/1000 that's pretty cheap! I am a happy Tracfone customer. I love this website by the way; lots of great information...

May 1, 2017 at 5:43 PM

Blogger Unknown said...

HSNs latest offering is the LG Fiesta. It doesn't come with triple minutes, but I picked it up recently as the TSV for $129.00 because the phone looks good.

May 19, 2017 at 10:54 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

where on the website is the 50.00 card for l year. I didn't see anything.

May 22, 2017 at 8:38 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Suppose I have a smartphone with Tracfone service (via BYOP program) and purchase a smartphone only airtime card and have minutes and data left at the end of the service period - can I purchase a regular airtime card to extend the service days? Will the extra minutes, texts, and data from the smartphone only card roll
over?

June 18, 2017 at 12:48 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I,Agree,100%"!"/I've Always Liked TracFone,But,Its,So Much Simpler to just be able to,Buy,One Card,That Cover's,Everything!!)*

August 10, 2017 at 12:39 AM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I,Agree,With Above comment!
Thanks

August 10, 2017 at 12:47 AM

Blogger Pugdaddy said...

I've been a Tracfone user for years. I have a BYOP Samsung Galaxy S5. Does Tracfone have any way of just purchasing minutes?

September 7, 2017 at 6:48 PM

Blogger Jeanieq said...

You can still buy Tracfones that aren't the triple basket of Talk /Text/Internet, but you have to go the Ebay, Amazon or the Tracfone stores. They aren't making any new Cells of that type, but you can find new or used phones if you look. My husband and I have a small stock pile of phones to go to when our present phones quit working. On ebay I got a 2 for the price on one deal. My husband went to the TracFone store and bought a flip phone. He didn't want a smart phone. We are never going online on these phones. We have desktops and tablets. Call your Tracfone store before you go to make sure they have some left.

July 13, 2018 at 9:39 PM

Anonymous Dehab Mewael said...

I don't know much about these services and I don't like these changes. I always feel that calculating these data is complicated.

August 9, 2018 at 5:13 AM

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