regular cell phone or tracfone? About This Page:

[dejavu]

I have a regular cell phone, but rarely use it. Our bill is charged $15 per month for the service on my phone, then DH and I share minutes. Would it be cheaper for me to get a tracfone? I don't know anything about them. Do you get charged for incoming and outgoing minutes?

[Angileyze1]

On the Tracfone, you get charged for pretty much everything. However if you barely use it, it might be the way to go. Just keep in mind, that on the Tracfone, you HAVE to buy minutes or airtime every so often whether you use it or not just to keep it activated. You can't buy let's say 100 minutes and not buy anything else for 6 months. They will deactivate you for that even if you have minutes left.

[KMB733]

If you rarley use your cell phone, a tracfone may be the way to go. But like Angileyze1 said, tracfones charge for everything. You might want to look into a cheaper plan with your current provider and compare and see what is better for you.

[RobDVC]

We have a regular cellphone that our three phones (me, DW and DS12) share minutes on. our account is $60 for the first phone, and $10 for each additional phone.
If you rarely use your phone, though, tracfone or another prepaid phone is the way to go.

[Ceara's mawmaw]

Yes look into a prepaid since you rarely use it.....although I would probably go with someone other than tracfone.......compare all the others and get the best deal for you......

[DisneyFanAnn]

Originally Posted by Angileyze1

On the Tracfone, you get charged for pretty much everything. However if you barely use it, it might be the way to go. Just keep in mind, that on the Tracfone, you HAVE to buy minutes or airtime every so often whether you use it or not just to keep it activated. You can't buy let's say 100 minutes and not buy anything else for 6 months. They will deactivate you for that even if you have minutes left.

We had a tracfone for awhile and it was really nice. You have the option of buying airtime that will cover you for a year so you don't have to worry about it. We always found specials on the website that would give us minutes along with the airtime and the phone reminds you whenever you turn it on when the airtime card is due. We just bought minutes as we needed them and only bought the airtime once a year. As long as you do it before it expires, you won't lose any of your minutes.

[materstater]

I had a tracfone, we just used it for phone calls not texting and it only cost us the minutes and activation fee. You can get deals on them at sams club too. The only problem I had was whoever had the number before me had an angry boyfriend who would leave cursing voice mails on my phone. Hum wonder why she won't return your call dude?

[goofysdtr]

I find Tracfone to be our best bet for now.

[Ransom]

We got a Virgin mobile account that sounds similar to the Tracphone deal. It's been working well for us for the last year. Every once in a while they add some minutes to the account automatically, whether we need them or not. But there are no monthly fees or anything. So for as infrequently as we use the thing, it's a good deal for us.

[chezp]

Tracfone do charge for everything, but it's perfect for us, as we just use ours for our visits to the States. From our experience, you can just buy minutes and then not use it for some time. Wendy got us a great deal and the minutes she got (I don't recall how many) are good until June 2009. We used it in December 2007 and then didn't touch it again until a couple of weeks ago and, because the minutes are still good until next summer, that's fine. Obviously we'll top up again before June 2009, so you can keep your phone and not use it for month after month, just long as your minutes aren't about to expire.

I hope that made some sense!

[duck addict]

Iphone (I it)

[Carousel96]

Your current provider may also have a pay as you go plan, so you don't have to buy a new phone and switch to Tracphone.
We were able to switch our Verizon service to their pay as you go program -- we actually got a credit for staying with them. We had to add minutes every 90 days at first, but once we spent $100 minutes are good for a year.

[Cam22]

We have a plan that allows all three of us to share minutes. Until recently, we didn't use our cell phones much, but when my Mom's condition worsened, I began to call home much more frequently.

[clio]

I have sprint now but I used to have virgin mobile. I'd put $20 every 3 months and it worked out fine. At work I usually recommend either tracfone or net10 to people that want a prepaid phone. Tracfone is good if you don't talk on the phone much and net 10 is good if you do. Net 10 gives you 300 minutes when you buy the phone. The only thing is that you have tp by minutes at least every 2 months and I don't believe that they have a one year card like tracfone does.
Liz

[ilovedisney247]

I use a Tmobile prepaid and I love it . . . I only use a few minutes a week.