Customer Reviews

TracFone Prepaid Airtime Card, 1 year/150 Minutes for Tracfone Phones

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(42)

 

 

I use my tracfone for emergencies. In 10 months I have used less than 50 minutes. I bought the one year card so I dont have to think about my plan all year. I have read other reviews and feel that for the occasional user (like myself) the pros outweigh the cons. Before my tracfone I had a Verizon traditional plan. I could not get receiption in certain buildings (such as stores, offices) and got very bad reception even in my home. That plan was costing me $480 a year. For $100 a year for the tracfone (not counting the one time purchase of a phone) I get fine phone reception and can be reached in an emergency which is all I wanted.

The cons are that the "800" help line is pretty awful. It takes forever to accomplish things but I have had the reps give me minutes back when it took too long to set up things (like voice mail). Fortunately I have only had to use the "800" line once or twice in the year so I can live with that con.

When I bought my phone last year tracfone was the only one that had a one year plan. All the other "pay as you go" companies made you buy a new card every 60 days or so. I was afraid I would forget to do that, so I chose tracfone.

To sum up, for the occasional user the tracfone is a much less expensive alternative to a traditional plan. I feel that the pros outweigh the cons.

For those of us (in the majority) who needs a telephone away from a land-line about five minutes a month, the TracFone is ideal.

For those who need reaffirmation of their self-worth by being constantly available to all and sundry (and chatting about nothing in the company of others, or revealing intimate details of their lives in public places), look elswhere.

There is a serious flaw with the one year prepaid service option: If you lose your phone or it gets stolen, you will lose all the minutes/units you purchased that are still unused on your phone. My phone was stolen a month after purchasing the one year/150 minute Tracfone prepaid card, and I was informed by customer service that I would not be compensated for my balance because there was no way to prove how many minutes I had left on the phone at the time it was stolen. They need the actual phone to verify the minute balance, and obviously I could not provide it. I do recommend Tracfone service but I strongly recommend purchasing the smallest increments possible (30 minutes for 60 days). This way, if your phone is lost or stolen, you won't be out so much money.

Caution: Wait until the very last day to redeem these one-year cards. TracFone will Give 365 access days from the day you redeem the one-year card. If you have any access days remaining on your phone on the day you redeem the one-year card, you will lose those days.
I have complained to TracFone about this. I hope they change this rule. As of 08/20/2003 they still do this.

I was assured by tracfone's web site that there is indeed coverage in my area. There may be-I've yet to find it. What I have found, is that after spending $150.00 on phone and card, when I turn my phone on I am usually treated to a long period during which it tells me it's "searching for service", after which it either goes into "roaming" mode (despite the fact I am in my home area!), or it finds a signal but shows a signal strength of only one or two bars on the signal meter. Occasionally, in certain really special spots, I have the pleasure of an almost immediate signal strength of one or to bars. Unfortunately, a signal strength of one or two bars guarantees that either your call won't go through at all, or, if it does, it will be dropped after a few moments. On rare occasions, the call will go through, and is not dropped, in which case the party on the other end winds up spending most of his or her time yelling, "what? I can't hear you-you're breaking up-what?" Repeated attempts to contact tracphone via e-mail invariably end in failure. I have so far talked to seven others in my "coverage area" whose experience mirrors my own. DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY. Incidently, the owner's manual for the phone was the worst I've ever seen and practically usless.

i have had a tracfone for several years now and have found it to be pretty good. however, in mid september, my phone stopped working. i bought a new phone and have been trying for almost 10 weeks to transfer the minutes from the old phone to the new phone. i have been calling every week or two with always a new excuse. they are incredibly incompetent.

It sounds a good idea of not having to pay monthly fee, no tax, no commitment. However, you end of paying more than that, plus tons of troubles.

After I purchased the phone, I signed up the service, set up the account and voice mail. It costs me almost 20 air time units to make it work. (1 unit = 50 to 60 cents)

I called home 3 miles away from my home, and still in my home area, (not in roaming) a recorded voice told me that "you have to dial the area code first", this stupid message costs me 2 units. And I have to use the roaming dial to reach my home which costs me 2 units per minute.

Carrying Tracfone to roaming area without even touching the keypad, which costs me another 2 units.

Since, there is no contract, once you run out of airtime or the airtime expired, you will lose your phone number. For this reason, the phone number are recycled fast, so I received a lot of calls from people looking for previous phone numbr owners. Which ends up I have to pay a lot of units for wrong numbers.

I have no idea why the air time units displayed on the phone decreased so fast, neither do I know what causes it to decrease.

The phone (or the service) is very unreliable. It will NOT work in malls, groceries, and hotels. People can NOT reach you, and you can NOT call out. In the open area, it works, so far.

The customer services is terrible. You may spend 30 minutes on you home phone in order to get a person to talk you. (Warning: DO NOT use Tracfone to call their Customer Services, You may end up paying 60 air time units in order to get a real person to talk). And that person will NEVER solve your problem. DO NOT even try to complain that air time units disappear without a reason, they will insist that you have made phone calls a lot. There is no record of you phone call activities, you can only simply take their words.

Recharging air time is another headache. You spend half-hour to go through snail-responsed webpage, at the same time working on your cell phone to get your series number. The series number is NOT printed on the phone, you have to read the user's menu first to know how to get the series number out of your cell phone. Then give your credit card number. Then it the webpage responds "There is a error occur, please call our customer service." Then, start all over again to struggle to reach a person to talk on customer service. Eventually, type a 30 digits code into you phone.

I wish people have posted these messages before I purchased the phone.

The one year card is the way to go if you only need a cell phone for emergencies or occasional use. I use my phone as a back up plan for long road trips. I travel from St Louis to Kansas City or Denver a lot, and the 1 year card allows me to have access to a cell phone in the event of a car problem for less than 8 dollars a month. This is considerably cheaper than other pay as you go wireless plans such as ATT's GoPhone, or T-Mobiles new plan. The downside is that the card only allows 150 minutes per year while competing plans offer many times that. The minutes can be upped to 250 a year if you are a new customer because Tracfone gives out 100 minutes free to customers who are referred by current Tracfone customers such as myself. Give me an e-mail anytime at doctorjohnamus@hotmail.com and I will e-mail you the link to recieve 100 free minutes. There is nothing to lose and we both get free minutes. e-mail me with any questions, thanks!

I purchased a pay-as-you-go phone purely for emergency purposes
only. If you don't want to pay $40 a month for a cell phone,
tracfone is the way to go. Just buy the phone and a one year
pre-paid activation card and you won't have to worry about any
other payments unless you use up all of your airtime. And, if
you still have airtime left over before the year is out it rolls
over to the next year, provided you again purchase activation time.

I bought my Tracfone shortly after moving out of the city and into a more isolated area. There are no payphones here, so I was actually scared to leave the house without a phone. I originally bought my Tracfone from Walmart. But when I got the phone, it wouldn't let me activate it. When I called Tracfone's customer service, the rep told me to send the phone to Florida and they would send me one that did work in my area. He also gave me about twenty free minutes extra for my trouble. (I was scared to send them the phone because I didn't know if I would have problems or if they would send me the new one or what, but I sent it to them.) The new phone arrived within the week. And I was able to activate it just fine. So I ended up with lots of extra minutes. I only use the phone for emergencies or trips to the store. It works great. And I've now renewed with the one year card each year for two years. Because I rarely use the phone, and I took advantage of their specials at renewal time, I've built up over seven hundred minutes in airtime. So when I leave the house, I feel much safer with this phone, and I was able to call home from across town without a problem in a busy store. The only drawback I have with this phone is that you have to keep it charged. That's a bit annoying and I charge it like once every week or two. But I'm very happy with the phone and service at the moment. For me, it's been positive and good.