My Tracfone Experience

I authored an earlier version of this on cellguru's forum in this post.
I decided to put the info here where I can easily update it.

last edited April 16, 2007
New Developments:

edited April 16 2007 -- Just to prove I'm not kidding - the details on my cheapest tracfone:

I took a Nokia 2600 tracfone, which I bought on an earlier $20 2-card plus phone deal. I ebayed the two cards for $15 each ($30) so my net cost for the phone is negative $10. I then activated this phone and repeated the card deal (bought 2 more phones and 4 cards), but this time I sold the two phones for $19 and $13 so my net cost is close to zero. (buyers paid for all shipping costs too). I used 3 of the cards and some bonus codes and with the 20 minutes and 60 days free on activation ended up with 260 minutes and 360 days of service. And I still have one card left which will be good for another 90 days and 60 minutes plus whatever bonus deal I find. I even made a mistake by using the rapid refill web feature which does not allow adding bonus codes, or I would have had probably 30 more minutes or days. I doubt you will find anything cheaper including other introductory deals. Of course I had to go through the small hassle of reselling the unused phones/cards.

edited March 2007:
As of March 15, my CallPlus TDMA plans (using Cingular) no longer have service, I guess they shut them down early. So I finally activated a third Tracfone. Tracfone has changed their terms for the better. Airtime additions (6o minutes or more) now provide 90 additional days of additional service, and you can add unlimited service time. Refer-A-Friend (RAF) still has not returned.

I purchased another two of their "Buy One Card, Get a Second, Free" deals since its essentially a half-price sale on minutes - with a free Nokia 1100 phone as a bonus. I used three of the cards which with bonuses added almost a year of service. If I can get a few bucks for the Nokia 1100 phones on ebay (which IMHO are not as nice as the 2600), it means a year of cellphone use and 250 minutes will cost well under $40, maybe even less than $0. The Nokia 1100 phone uses the same battery as the 2600 so this is also a way to get a fresh battery. One new lesson I learned - DO NOT use the RAPID REFILL feature on the web as there is no provision to enter bonus codes -- Just use the regular web interface. I would have another 30 or 60 minutes (or days) if I had realized this. Well, I can't complain since I'm getting such a bargain. Using many of the tips here, I'll get more than a year of minimal service (~250 minutes/year) for under $40 per phone (two phones) and moderate use (2000 minutes/year) for perhaps $200. If your use exceeds 200 minutes per month, you may be better off with a contract or other prepaid plan.

The awesome camera phone deal below now comes with double minutes for the life of the phone. Since the special deals and bonus codes are constantly changing, I won't always update what I've already written.

I finally realized you could buy the tracfone buy-one-get-one-free card deal (two 60 minute cards plus free phone for ~$20) and get a year of phone use for about $40 plus tax. Less if you sell your extra phone(s).

1. Buy two of the card specials (each card is 60 minutes plus 90 days) so you get 4 cards and two phones for ~$40 plus tax. Shipping is ~$5 but you qualify for free shipping over some $$$ amount.
2. Activate one phone online and get the 20 minutes 60 days on activation (or use your existing tracfone phone). Possibly keep the other phone(s) as spare(s), the battery(ies) may be especially useful, charge and top up occasionally. Or give away/sell the extra phone(s) on ebay.
3. Since you can now add unlimited service time, you could add all the cards - there are 4 cards, so you will have 4x60 = 240 minutes plus 4x90 = 360 days plus your activation minutes and time, plus any bonus codes you can find. Thats at least a year of service (but not a lot of air time) for $40 -- If you are gettting this for a child and think he might lose or break the phone, then you should not add all the cards at once. Or wait for better bonus codes as these change all the time.

edited November 17, 2006
I ended up selling my remaining three 60 minute cards on ebay for $15 each, so my net cost for two Nokia 2600 tracfones is now essentially zero. I have not activated one of them yet since I got the camera phone and the cheap transfer minutes instead. I will end up having to activate the other phone and also buy additional time at some point, but I think it may be cheapest for me if I get a one year card for $99. Update: Bought special add-a-year to any purchase for $50 with additional airtime, service time and bonus codes. The $99 one year card is not such a great deal for me.

edited October 22, 2006
I found someone selling a Nokia tracfone with 1288 minutes for $50. This is a very good deal, since those minutes are around 4 cents each (vs 7-33 cents). I bought it and had tracfone transfer them to my newly activated camera phone (see Deal below). It took a few calls and several minutes to do this. The service time is good 'til Jan 2007, so I will add my one-year double minute card with bonus minutes for a total of 1888 - hopefully that will last about a year. Before one year is up, I will have to buy another large card so I can get double minutes and another year. The downside is I will have about $185 invested, and replacement cost of perhaps $400 so the phone better not be lost, break or get stolen....

Best Tracfone Deal Ever?

If you are in an area served by GSM phones - a recent tracfone deal is awesome. ... while it lasts:
Double minutes for a year, a one year card with 400 minutes + 200 bonus minutes (for a limited time) plus a new camera phone (Motorola c261) for $129 +tax, shipping. -- I bought one and I must say, it is pretty cool. (Update 3/2007: double minutes are now permanent.)

Note that the tracfone terms of use may have changed; please read them. I think it stated somewhere on the site that the limit for any one customer is 3 phones, and they may require you to activate previously purchased phones before they will sell you any more (perhaps to prevent ebay abuse). (update: Apparently there is a market for hacked tracfones in Asia. We may see tracfone reduce the phone purchase subsidy if their countermeasures do not work)
Disclaimer: I'm just a customer. I do not represent Tracfone, and anything I write here is my opinion, and hey, I could be wrong (it did happen once).

Older News: as of September 29 Tracfone's Refer-A-Friend program has been temporarily suspended -- I was planning to activate another refurbished Nokia phone, and collect the 240 (total) free minutes, but I will wait and use my existing 4 prepaid cards as neeeded, instead. --
Update: March 2007, still no RAF program.

OK back to the blog:

Well, you already know I'm a procrastinator (see my July 2006 blog). Now I'll admit I'm also a cheapskate. I dislike monthly bills for things like cable TV or cellphone service which just seem expensive for what you get. I will concede that cable is required for a decent signal in some areas (this presumes that TV is a necessity), and cellphone service provides additional convenience over a wired phone, but I don't think I should have to pay so much for the privilege of potentially using a tiny bit of existing "bandwidth", which costs the supplier an additional -- well, almost nothing. Thats why I use prepaid cellphone (and have a TV roof antenna).

I've used Callplus and Pageplus prepaid cellphone services before -- and now, Tracfone .
In my area, Northridge California, Tracfone GSM service is actually provided by Cingular. Callplus TDMA service (also provided by Cingular) was OK, not great. But TDMA is an older technology and will be phased out sometime after March 1, 2008. (Update, MVNO plans are already stopped as of March 15, 2007. Equipment may still work for 911, etc.) My CDMA Pageplus service is provided by Verizon. The weak CDMA digital signal near my home was not usable (although elsewhere it seems to work fine) causing my phone to restart every few minutes. In addition my CDMA LG VX4400 phone has a very short talk/standby time despite having a new battery. I decided to try out Tracfone. So far its been great, but of course, YMMV. Update: March 2007 CallPlus and/or Cingular pulled the plug on TDMA. My CDMA phone plan lapsed, and I did not purchase more airtime to reactivate - it never worked that well, perhaps 'cause my phone is crummy (not even worth selling so it may be a parts phone - cool LCD). I spent probably about $100 for 6 months of service - most of which was the phone and replacement battery.

I ordered an introductory package from the Tracfone website which included two 60-minute cards and a "free" refurbished Nokia 2600 GMS phone. The price including tax and promo free shipping was just over $20, about the retail price of one 60-minute card. People are buying this deal, activating the phone online for 20 starter minutes, adding 120 Refer-A-Friend minutes, applying bonus codes and reselling the activated phones with 140-200 (or more) minutes on ebay for about $20-30 plus shipping, but then also reselling the two 60-minute cards for $12-18 each and I guess keeping the other 120 referral minutes for themselves. Net profit: $20-40 -- Way too much time and trouble for me to do this, but it shows what a good deal it is. Added Note: I think Tracfone may be trying to suppress these middlemen because the phones themselves are subsidized. Usually you are better off dealing directly with the Tracfone store, but a lot of people don't realize this.

By carefully managing my account as described below, I hope to get as many as 380-440 minutes and 8 months service for my $20, which comes to about 5 cents per minute or $2.50 per month. Net10 (10 cents per minute), a prepaid service often recommended for people with high cellphone usage (more than 125 minutes per month), may have similar ways to optimize use. I believe both services are run by the same company.

I requested a Refer-A-Friend email referral from cellguru which provided both of us with free minutes (currently 120) when I activated my new phone service. The phone was delivered by Fedex in a few days, but I could not activate it right away because the SIM card was incompatible with my local service. A replacement SIM card sent via DHL arrived in a couple of days.

A Guide to Maximizing TRACFONE Minutes and Service Time

1) Get 10-20 initial free minutes when you activate. If you use the tracfone website to activate you receive 20 free minutes currently, if you go through a service rep, you receive 10 minutes. For me, the web process did not finish so I used a land line to call the toll-free service number. They still gave me the 20 minutes without my asking, perhaps because I started the process on the web. My initial phone service is good for 19 minutes and 60 days, because while speaking to the rep, I used 1 minute to make a test call.

2) Get more free minutes with Refer-A-Friend (RAF).
Update: The RAF program still has not returned (March 2007) so I think it may not -- Too good to last, apparently.

You can get a RAF referral from any Tracfone user (you can email me for one) or send one to yourself if you already have a Tracfone account. Don't delete the referral email, as it contains instructions and a link you will need to apply the minutes. You can buy your tracfone phone anytime but you need to get a referral before you activate it. It may take up to three days for the minutes to show up on your phone.

The web interface to add the RAF minutes did not work for me, so I used a landline phone (automated touchtone menu). Added Note: It remains to be seen what the new Refer-A-Friend Deal will be. I hope they announce the details soon...

3) Get still more free minutes by using a bonus code with each transaction. I found a 60-minute bonus code by doing a search for "Tracfone code". I used this code when I added my RAF minutes from a land line. Again, I could not get the web interface to work properly, but using a land line phone, the automated service menu accepted the bonus code and I did not need to use any of my prepaid cards. I now have 199 minutes (because of the test call) and my service time is good for 120 days. Bonus codes change frequently, are valid with specific types of transactions and may work beyond their stated expiration date. Update: DO NOT use the new RAPID REFILL feature on the web as there is no provision to enter bonus codes.

4) Don't let your service time expire. I think you have up to 30 days to reactivate before you lose your minutes, but I wouldn't want to risk it. You may also lose your phone number. There is a way to transfer all your unused minutes to a new phone number, for example if you replace your old phone. You need to do this while your old phone is still working and active.

5) Time your prepaid card additions to maximize service time. Update: You can now add unlimited service time (just keep adding cards). So this is no longer valid...

The 60-day cards can only extend service time up to 120 days. There are also 1-year cards which can extend service time up to 2 years. If possible, wait 'til the service time is less than 60 days (or 1 year) to add time. If you have more than 60 days (or 1 year) of service remaining and add minutes with a 60-day (or 1-year) card, it will add the minutes but only extend the service time up to a maximum of 120 days (or 2 years). If your remaining service time is less than 120 days (or expired), and you must add both a 60-day and 1-year card, you should add the 60-day card first, then the 1-year card.

The prepaid cards don't expire, so you should add minutes only when you need to. Since it is unlikely that your minutes and service time will be used at the same rate, you can manage them both by choosing appropriate size cards and planning ahead.

6) You may be charged time for calls that are made but not answered. I've read that you have up to 15 seconds before time is deducted, but I have not verified this. To be safe, you should not rely on signaling someone by hanging up before they answer. But see the next item. As with most plans, fractional minutes are rounded up.

7) Text messages can be received for free on certain phones and are cheap to send on others. A new thing I just found out is that there can be a charge for receiving text messages on a tracfone -- apparently it depends on which phone you have. My Nokia 2600 allows free incoming text messages but my Motorola camera phone charges 0.3 units. If this is a significant issue for you, ask tracfone before you purchase a phone. My daughter thinks charging to receive text messages is unfair, since she has no choice to receive messages or not. I think this is still a good rate if you tell your friends its not for trivial messaging. You can use the internet to send a free message, or send from another tracfone for 0.3 units. (I'm not sure whether the charge to send a text message also varies by phone model.) I don't know how to send a text message from a land line phone, but it may be possible. For efficiency you might store frequently used messages such as "Call Home" or "Pick me up", or "I'm parked at ".

8) Buy your prepaid cards in advance. If available, cards are usuallly cheaper from cellguru (website), online (ebay) or shop around -- even retail outlets sometimes put them on sale. Added Note: You may be able to buy a used tracfone on ebay that still has a lot of minutes and service time and transfer these to a new phone (I'm did this and my cost will be about 4 cents vs up to 33 cents per minute -- $20 for a 60 minute card). With my usage, perhaps the one year card is the best deal. Update: There are often special deals on the website, such as adding one year to any airtime purchase for only $50 more.

9) Keep your conversations short. You are a busy person, be friendly but don't linger. Perhaps this should be number 1. Teach your kids the value of time. Let them learn to budget a fixed allotment of minutes -- ("Yes you can call your friends, but when your minutes run out, and you have to walk because you couldn't call home for a ride, just remember how much fun you had chatting with them.")

10) Use the caller ID function. If you are near a land line don't answer, just call them right back.

11) Check your voicemail from a landline to avoid cell charges. Voicemail takes a long time and you may use up several minutes just to check on and delete messages. Have your friends use Caller ID and call them back (from a land line). Or have them send a text message.

The following voicemail procedure applies to the Nokia 2600 and may be different for other phones:

Go to: Menu -> Contacts -> Settings -> VoiceMail number and write down the phone number (be careful not to change it). On my phone it is a completely different local (sort of) number. Perhaps it is a generic number for many Tracfone users.
I think this is what happened when I tried it:
-- Call your voicemail number from a land line with your cellphone turned off.
-- When the message begins, hit the star (*) key.
-- Enter your 10 digit cellphone number at the prompt.
-- Hit the star (*) key when your personal message begins.
-- Enter your voicemail passcode at the prompt

-- The voicemail options are given - I don't remember them all, but I think

-- 7 is delete the current message
-- * is exit

12) Lock your phone to prevent accidental calls. I'm sure this has happened to a lot of folks. Tracfone will not refund your money/minutes if you accidentally drain your account. On my Nokia you lock and unlock by pressing Menu, followed by *.

13) Be sure that you hang up after your call. My daughter has been careful about locking the keypad after I warned her about the possibility of making an accidental call. Once she called home and got our answering machine, so she hung up (she thought) and locked the keypad. She did not realize the call was still connected. The answering machine recorded all the sounds picked up inside her pocket for the next several minutes until (fortunately) the answering machine's digital memory storage capacity was exceeded and it hung up. Although the recorded message was mildly amusing we wasted about 15 minutes of phone time. I once did something similar on callplus. You might consider turning off your phone at the end of a call, but turn it back on because people often call right back if they forgot something.

14) Keep a copy of your ESN (IMEI), SIM number, phone number and a log of your time additions. A second copy of your numbers on a business card along with the Tracfone toll-free service number to call if you have problems or your phone gets lost or stolen. I also printed out a label with the phone number, name and landline phone, local (landline) voicemail number, IMEI, etc, attached it to the back and taped completely over it with clear tape. It looks like:

818-555-1234
ESN: 123456789012345
Return to Bubba: 818-555-4321
VM: 818-123-4567, enter Tel #,
Press * when greeting begins

15) Buy the special Tracfone package deal if you need another phone. There is often a one-year deal also. Don't forget to refer yourself for two extra 120 free minutes - one for your old and new phones. You can do this after you buy the phone. You will need to use a second email address for the new phone. Update: RAF has not been available for some time...

The current introductory package deal contains a basic Motorola phone, but the Nokia phone offer was still on their website via a direct link (which I managed to find). I was able to place an order for a second package deal including the Nokia phone. The order was acknowledged but the phone was apparently out of stock. After about three weeks they sent me a second email, saying it had been sent. I was not at home for the FedEx delivery so I had to pick it up in person. This was only a minor inconvenience, since I believe requiring a signature and ID for "valuable" packages is a good business practice. I will wait a bit (after my first 60 days of service on the first phone) before sending a referral to myself and activating the phone. I should be able to get 120 Refer-A-Friend minutes and maybe some bonus minutes for both phones.

16) Transfer minutes (and if you like, service time, and phone number) from a current active used tracfone. Its sort of a hassle, but you could end up with really cheap minutes. Since the Refer-A-Friend program was not available while Tracfone was/is revamping the system, I managed to buy a used, active, working tracfone (not from ebay) with 1288 minutes for $50. That's about 4 cents per minute. The seller sent all the info on phone and account un-linked the ESN from his email. I then called Tracfone with both phones turned on from a land-line. Tracfone activated my new phone, and checked out the old phone. After I received a new number, I called again and had the minutes and service time transferred. Because it was a large number they had to use two transfers of 850 and 438 minutes. Tracfone can also transfer an existing phone number to a new tracfone, but in my case it was for a different area code so I did not want to. Tracfone deactivated the old phone, though it can be reactivated by purchasing and adding tracfone minutes. Incidentally, the old tracfone was a CDMA phone, while the new one is GSM. I'm not sure they will reactivate the CDMA tracfone in my area.

I'll come back and update again if I anything significant changes.