Prepaid Wireless Phones: A Good Deal? - Comments Page 3

Hi Bob,
I am someone who just never found the need to have a cell phone, usually relying on just my landline. When travelling, however, it became apparent that public pay phones are almost non-existent anymore... A friend had a Trac Fone that became too expensive for minutes as his usage increased, so he finally replaced it with a smart phone and monthly service plan. Because he had renewed his Trac Fone minutes so many times (with included extensions to his prescription months..) he had gotten bonus extensions to his future months of service credits. He gave me his old Trac Fone (a simple LG flip phone using Verizon that has incredibly good long talk range in rural areas!). It has service paid up till year 2029, and had 488 minutes of talk credit still on it. This is perfect for me: I wrapped it in cushioning and put it into a metal throat lozenge tin. It is always with me, but un-call-able (nor GPS track-able!) while in this metal tin. It has saved my bacon once or twice in emergencies, but costs me $0/month to keep. The LG battery holds its charge for months and I recharge it about twice a year, or whenever I've used it. It is perfectly practical for my needs.

I purchased my TRACFONE direct from Apple and paired it with their bring your own smartphone project.it came with triple minutes so when I add minutes it gives me a years service and with a 400 minute card it gives me 1200 talk minutes and 1200 texts and 1 gb of data. I do this once a year at a cost of $79.00. My wife has the same plan and when we are near wi-fi it switches over and does not use my minutes or data. I have never dropped a call on either phone and we travel all over the US and have never been in a location where we did not have service. And I NEVER get a monthly bill-ever.
I felt the need to include this because it was not mentioned in your description of Tracfone and is a really low cost and reliable service.

I would update your Tracfone. I pay $20 for smartphone with unlimited talk and text and 1 GB data per month. I think its $l0 more for each GB. I usually never go over the data limit since most places you use it have wifi available.