Anyone know much about TracFone ???

[Richard L]

Our fwo phone family plan with Cingular is expiring in a few days, and I have been looking into a prepaid cell phone service and TracFone appears to be the best since they rent time from all the other big cellular networks. That means that no matter where you are, if you can get a signal from any cellular service, you can connect with no additonal charges.



My question conserns their regular Nationwide service and their Single Rate service.



My understanding is that if you have the Nationwide service, you can call longdistance anywhere in the US from your local area, and only pay a 1 unit = 1 minute rate. However if you make any calls from outside of your local area, you are considered roaming and that rate is 2 units = 1 minute.



If you buy one of the Single rate phones, you can call from anywhere in or out of you local calling area to any place in the US and you only pay 1 unit = 1 minute and there is no rate change for the roaming calls.



Based on what I'm reading on their website www.tracfone.com, their does not appear to be any additional charges for the Single Rate plan with no roaming fees. You only need to purchase one of the Single Rate TracFones that are priced from $19.99-$49.99, which is the same as the Non-Single Rate phones.



Is this how it works, or am I missing something ???



Thanks,

...Rich

 

[Fred]

I think that's right. I was looking into getting one for my parents.

 

[Mark B]

I've been on a TracFone for 2 years now. They seem like a good option if you're a low minute user and don't need a fancy phone. I got an online deal. They mailed me a free Nokia 1100 phone and 320 minutes for the price of one of their 200 minute/1 year activation cards. I still had 100 minutes left after the first year (they carryover).



My understanding is that I only get charged double minutes when I'm outside a TracFone covered area, no matter where I am. Basically, if you're roaming, you're paying double. But I travel a fair bit and from IN to CA, I am rarely out of a covered area.



One thing that steamed me a little bit. I accumulated a number of different free minute coupon codes during my first year. I was thinking they would all add up but when I did renew, I could only use one of them (400 minutes for the price of 200).

 

[Richard L]

fy101yny,



If you have the Nokia 1100, that is supposed to be the Single Rate (1 unit = 1 minute) so there should be no roaming charges???



I am trying to figure out if there is an additional fee hidden that has to be paid to get the Single Rate.



The local area where I live only covers the county I live in, and it is very common for us to be outside of our home county. I want the Single-Rate service and want to be able to roam outside my local area without paying double for that service.



We use less than a hundred minutes per month and we have thousands of minutes left on our Cingular rollover minutes, and they will start to expire at about the same rate we rollover more each month.



Does anybody know how the Single Rate TracFone plan works?



...Rich

 

[Tom Schindler]

Rich,



Just because your contract is expiring does not mean you have to renew or anything. I have been out of contract for 3 months, but the new plans offer more minutes for a slightly more money and I don't use all the minutes I already have. I have 4 people on my plan too.





Tom

 

[Richard L]

Caymen,

I know I don't have to renew my plan. I mentioned that my one year contract with Cingular was expiring only because it is a good tome to switch.



I looked for cheaper Cingular plans, (their service was fine) but they don't have any cheaper plans, and and the new plans have three times more minutes now than I have on my current plan. Even now I have way more minutes than I need or use. Like I said, I have thousands of rollover minutes that I will never use.



The attractive part of TracFone and other prepaid cell phone service is that you do not have to pay all those rediculous taxes and fees like you do with a regular cellular phone service.



You can buy a One year service with 150 minutes for about $130 plus the 100 minutes you get for free with the phone purchase. You can then add a 400 minute double card that actually gives you 800 minutes for only $90. If you currently use less than 100 minutes per month, you would have a full year of cell phone service for only $240 (assuming the average TracFone cost $30) Compare that to what I pay now, the TracFone cuts my annual cell phone cost in half.



...Rich

 

[Mark Grumpy]

Rich,

check out VirginMobile as well. Pay as you go, same rate where ever you call from or to in the contiguous 48. They also use other provider networks. If you sign up online for "automatic top-up" of your pre-paid minutes using debit card then you only have to add $15.00 every 90 days to keep active. If you don't use that $15 it carries over.



First 10 min's of any day are .25 and additional min's are .10 cents. Not cheap minutes compared to plans but suits me perfect for emergencies and infrequent calling while I'm travelling.



virginmobileusa.com



grump

 

[Joe Averion]

Like Grumpy, I use VirginMobile as well. To add to what Grumpy stated, they also offer 2 other plans I am sure. I know for sure one of the other plans they offer is geared towards people who use their phone a lot. Instead of .25 for the first 10 minutes of the day, all minutes all day are .10 however with that plan you pay a .35 per day service charge and that is whether you make a call or not. The other plan I am not sure how it works.



Check out the website Grumpy posted to see all the info on VM. I am happy with their service and as far as the phones they are good. Last I checked I think they have like 5-6 phones to choose from.

 

[Richard L]

grumpy & Joe,

Thanks for the info on VirginMobile, I'll check them out. However, it will be difficult to compare until I fully understand how TracFone charges for their Single Rate plan???



...Rich

 

[Richard L]

grumpy and Joe,

I just did some snooping around on the VirginMobile website and I see a few things that I don't care for.



The local coverage map is larger than Tracfone's however their extended coverage does not appear to exist or is not available in my area ?? Also, the coverage area is not as dense as TracFone's.



Also, VirginMobile does not use other networks, they only use one, the Sprint network. Sprint has far less nationwide coverage than Cingular, or Verizon and Sprint has a poor record around here. about 5 years ago Sprint was selling their phones in the Waco area, but all the phones were local to the Killeen area (about 50 miles away) so people were getting roaming charges while at home in Waco. According to the local news report, Sprint did not tell the Waco customers that bit of information and refused to refund any money.



So I'm still asking my original question. Is there an additional charge for TracFone's Single Rate plan that allows for nationwide long-distance, and no roaming charges outside of your local area ???



...Rich

 

[Nelson Atwell]

I bought a TracFone from Wal-Mart several years ago. I was never able to activate it, because TracFone showed it as being stolen. Even when I offered to fax the receipt I had from Wal-Mart they still refused to activate it. Wal-Mart refused to give me my money back, because the phone had been opened. It was a real PITA, but I finally got Wal-Mart to allow me to exchange the phone, and then I took the new, unopened phone back for a return a few weeks later.



My buddy had a similar bad experience with TracFone. When he moved from Georgia to Oklahoma he had to mail his phone to TracFone to get a new Oklahoma number to prevent constantly getting charged for roaming. It took three weeks for them to send the new phone and when he got it, he could only do out-going calls, The incoming calls would work, but the phone wouldn't ring no matter what he tried. TracFone finally figured out there was a problem with the programming of the phone. They told him to mail the phone back to them for replacement. They would not send a new phone until they received the old one back. He sent the phone back, but requested a refund and cancellation of his service.



He now uses Virgin's Pre-Paid service and is very happy. I think with TracFone, you get what you pay for, which isn't much.

 

[Richard L]

I'm not sure what you are refering to when your friend canceled his service?? Don't use the phone and your service will be dropped. He may have wanted a refund for the phone and the minutes he didn't use and I can see why they may have balked at that.



I am interested in TracFone for their Single Rate service which, if I understand correctly, provides nationwide long-distance and no additional Units charged for roaming.





...Rich

 

[Nelson Atwell]

He requested a refund of the charge they charged him for swapping out his old phone for the new one which was not programmed properly.



The point was that TracFone has some very real customer service issues. As long as everything works, you'll be fine, but if you need to resolve an issue it will take weeks to get it solved.

 

[Mark Grumpy]

provides nationwide long-distance and no additional Units charged for roaming.

Rich,

there is no roaming with Virgin. Same cost wherever you be. I've used it all over the country without issue.



And unless I am reading their map wrong, the only place Sprint does not cover is most of Alaska, Puerto Rico and a little of Hawaii. I see no blank spots in the 48.



grump

 

[Richard L]

grumpy,



Virgins website shows my local service area which does cover much of the I-35 corridor, however there are a lot more dead areas east and west of the interstates. Cingula/ATT and Verizon have the largest cellular networks in the US. Sprint has been growing over the last few years but still has a way pgo to catch up.



I have had one or more cell phone services continuously since 1990. I have used Cellular-1, ATT, Alltel, Nextel and now Cingular



I left Nextel, at the end of the one-year service contract because I ran into a too many dead areas while traveling along the Interstates. I realize that there is sparce coverage in many wester states, but I'm talking about states that are east of Texas. One particular annoying gap was while traveling along I-55 in MO. I was behind schedule and attempted to call the hotel in Indiana to hold my reservations for a later arrival, but could not get a decent signal. After that incident, I began examining the coverage maps very carefully and comparing them. I found that Nextel and Sprint appear to have good coverage, but if you follow along the Interstates, they often have large sections along that route that have no coverage while Cingular & Verizon do not have those gaps.



In my local Waco area, I consistantly travel a lot of FM and country roads that are some distance from the Interstate highways (I-35) and the Cingular/Verizon network have far better coverage in those areas than Sprint.



I don't think Virgin is a bad Prepaid Cellular service, It just has a number of issues that don't fit into what I prefer in a cellular service in this area.

I have always gotten excellent service from Cellular-1, ATT, and now Cingular. Except for the excessive number of gaps in their coverage, Nextel was very good too. The reason I want to try the PrePaid cellular service is the cost of the current plans that give more minutes then I would ever use, coupled with all the rediculous fees and taxes that easily increase your basic service by 25% or more.



Alltel was by far the worse service I ever had. While the advertise on TV that they have so few dropped calls, etc does not hold true in my area. My wife and I were plagued with dropped calls. I ever asked one of their reps why I could be sitting at my desk at work or in my living room at home ahd watch the signal reception bars go up and down, when I was not moving and the phone was not moving??? The idiot said he thought it might be caused by gusts of wind ??? The worst part was that he was dead serious !!!



...Rich

 

[Mark Grumpy]

Don't forget that Sprint and Nextel combined their service areas. So if you were Ok left of 35, for example, with one and OK right of 35 with the other, you should be good to go.



I know what you mean about dead areas though. I don't remember who I used to have but on the 170 miles from here to Del Rio down I90, about 90 miles of it was dead.



grump

 

[Richard L]

grumpy,

When I said Nextel service was OK, I was speaking in terms of dropped connections. As I stated, Nextel had a lot of dead areas but it was not until I experienced that incident on I-55 that I carefully examed their coverage map and compared it to other services that I visually saw the holes in their coverage.



Alltel uses the Verizon network which is one of the biggest/best coverage, unfortunately the have a problem with dropped calls. I tried Alltel twice and suffer the samed dropped calls both times, as well as their office/store staff are a bunch of idiots.



....Rich

 

[Gypsy me]

Sometimes frequent dropped calls can be a result of mis programming by the carrier. When I first got my Sprint pcs I experienced dropped calls ALOT. I called them, they credited me for each min. And then repair had the problem fixed. That was 3 years ago. Now, I very seldom have a dropped call. In fact the only time a call drops is when I am driving by the local hospitol here or it's the other persons service dropping the call.



I would have went Verizon but they do not cover Kingman,AZ. All calls out are roaming, and you can't check voice mail from here. However if I wanted to drive 46 miles to Bullhead City then I would be able to check voice mail ha ha

 

[Deleted deleted]

I have had a Tracfone (Nokia 1100) for about 2 years now. The single rate is quite simple... 1min=1unit no matter where you travel with your phone.



I had no issues with setting up the phone as Nelson has reported.



I have had better coverage in remote areas like between Kingman and Laughlin, NV where my wife's SprintPCS phone was completely no signal.



If you are a light phone user like me, you'll like Tracfone. I don't care about 'gadget' phones with cameras and crap, I just wanted a basic cell phone for light use.

 

[Richard L]

GM,

Yes, I am aware that the phone programming can cause dropped calls. My wife went through 4 phones and several reprogammings of each and we still continued to get dropped calls.



I think the problem was with Alltel's tower (actually owned by Verizon). Why else would a phone's signal strength constantly go on and off when you are standing/sitting and holding the phone in the same spot !! This may be due to improper programming of their main computer, or the towers were overloaded and cut off the signals to users.



Alltel told us they were adding 14 new towers in the area over the next few months and that we should call a special 800 number every few weeks, and follow the instructions to download new software to be able to access these new towers. We did that, but the dropped calls continued.



I won't even go into the hassles I had to go through with the local Alltel store when I cancelled my account at the end of the service contract. I had to go through the Better Business Bureau before they put me in touch with a lady who was a district or regional manger over the local Alltel store, got thinks straightened out fast!



Darin,

Yes. I got a hold of TracFone customer service last evening. He explained that the reason for having the Single Rate and the addtional unit charge for Roaming is because of the type of service in that area. Most areas support both digital and analog service, and getting a Single Rate compatible phone will work in both areas. but if you have an analog phone only, you have to pay 2 units if you leave you local coverage area because TracFone has to pay more to lease the airtime if you are roaming, Basicly, they get a better rate if you use a digital phone because it's easier to track and account for the airtime for the digital phones.



....Rich