About TracFones
Cell phones that use the TracFone service are known collectively as "TracFones." This service does not require a credit check, prevents surprise bills at the end of the month, and avoids the long-term and expensive commitments of a typical cell phone contract. Instead, you buy a prepaid number of minutes good for a certain amount of time, renewing them when you run out.
Starting
The TracFone website offers a quick and easy way to start up with a credit card. You start with a phone and airtime bundle (which is cheaper than buying either separately). As an example, paying $20 gets you a reconditioned V170 plus 60 prepaid minutes. Or you can buy their cheapest phone at $10 and 60 minutes of airtime for $20, for a more expensive total of $30. Looking for their frequent online coupons further reduces the cost of signing up.
Service
Forget about spending $200 on a two-year service commitment. Instead, you add airtime in four ways: buying an airtime card at many retailers, filling out a form on their website, calling customer service, or by adding minutes directly from your cell phone. All minutes are good for a minimum of 90 days. In any case, TracFone displays the number of minutes you bought on your phone screen.
Phones
Their most inexpensive phone is the Motorola C139 with a color screen, text messaging, wallpaper and screen saver. A more feature-packed model is the Samsung T301G with a slide-out keypad, VGA camera, picture messaging and downloadable news, sports, and weather. To see samples of their phone, visit your local retailer such as Walmart or Radio Shack.
Cost
At $20, the cheapest airtime card gives you 60 minutes for 90 days of service. However, the per-minute cost is the most expensive at 34 cents. At $125, their most expensive card costs $125 but offers 800 minutes for 365 days, or 16 cents a minute. Additionally, this "One Year, Double Minutes" card doubles the minutes for cards you buy in the future. Unused minutes roll over to the next time period, as long as you renew the service before expiration.
World
With TracFone, long-distance calls to 60 countries such as South Korea, Germany, and New Zealand, costs the same as calling locally. (For a complete list, see their website in "Resources.") In addition, if you have friends or relatives in Mexico or Canada, you can create three local numbers in those countries. People in those countries can then call those numbers for the price of a local call while you are charged your standard rates. These international options cost nothing extra.
Tags: airtime card, cell phone, minutes days, minutes good, most expensive, number minutes, phone minutes