SeilerBird
Well-known member
I have used Tracfone for the last 20 years. The first ten they were the primary phone company but for the last ten years they have been my backup phone company. I feel a lot better carrying two phones with me. My primary phone, a Pixel 2 XL, is on Google's Fi network which costs me $23 a month. I rarely use data on my phone and Fi is dirt cheap if you don't use a lot of data. They only charge for the data you actually use. I keep my Pixel on me or next to me at all times.
My backup phone is also dirt cheap. It was a $50 LG Power and it cost me $20 every three months to keep it active. The $20 paid for three months of service without adding any minutes or data to my phone. I only use the phone in an emergency or when trying to figure out why my Pixel was not working. I kept the phone in the glove department of my car. That was handy in case I got into my car and went somewhere and forgot to bring my Pixel with me.
However a few months ago I got a message telling me my phone would not work soon and I should buy another phone. I ignored that message until I tried to use the phone last week and it did not work. Turns out Verizon is stopping support of 3G networks and phones and my LG was 3G. Tracfone uses Verizon network in many areas including mine.
There are three very different options for buying a new Tracfone. You can go to the Tracfone website and pay the highest amount. You can buy it from Amazon and save a bit of money or you can buy it from eBay and get one hell of a deal. I ended up buying a ZTE Zfive C from eBay for $39. It comes with one year of service plus 1500 minutes of talk, 1500 messages and 1500 megabytes of data. If I would buy the same phone from Amazon it would cost $39 but you would have to buy an air card for at least $20 to get your service started. Buy the phone directly from Tracfone and it costs only $9.99 but you would have to buy an air card to get it started.
I bought the one from eBay and it extended my end of service day to 4/11/2021. I have 6 gigs of data, 9000 text messages and 7500 minutes of talk time now. On a phone I only use for backup. So the only thing that I care about is my service end date. It had been costing me $80 a year to keep the phone active. For $39 I got an entire year plus a much better phone. So on 4/11/2021 I will throw this phone away and get another cheap phone and another year of service. It only took me an hour to get the new phone unboxed, activated and cleaned up. The ZTE is a great little phone. It runs Android 7.1 and is very responsive. It is a three year old phone but it will do just fine as a backup.
My backup phone is also dirt cheap. It was a $50 LG Power and it cost me $20 every three months to keep it active. The $20 paid for three months of service without adding any minutes or data to my phone. I only use the phone in an emergency or when trying to figure out why my Pixel was not working. I kept the phone in the glove department of my car. That was handy in case I got into my car and went somewhere and forgot to bring my Pixel with me.
However a few months ago I got a message telling me my phone would not work soon and I should buy another phone. I ignored that message until I tried to use the phone last week and it did not work. Turns out Verizon is stopping support of 3G networks and phones and my LG was 3G. Tracfone uses Verizon network in many areas including mine.
There are three very different options for buying a new Tracfone. You can go to the Tracfone website and pay the highest amount. You can buy it from Amazon and save a bit of money or you can buy it from eBay and get one hell of a deal. I ended up buying a ZTE Zfive C from eBay for $39. It comes with one year of service plus 1500 minutes of talk, 1500 messages and 1500 megabytes of data. If I would buy the same phone from Amazon it would cost $39 but you would have to buy an air card for at least $20 to get your service started. Buy the phone directly from Tracfone and it costs only $9.99 but you would have to buy an air card to get it started.
I bought the one from eBay and it extended my end of service day to 4/11/2021. I have 6 gigs of data, 9000 text messages and 7500 minutes of talk time now. On a phone I only use for backup. So the only thing that I care about is my service end date. It had been costing me $80 a year to keep the phone active. For $39 I got an entire year plus a much better phone. So on 4/11/2021 I will throw this phone away and get another cheap phone and another year of service. It only took me an hour to get the new phone unboxed, activated and cleaned up. The ZTE is a great little phone. It runs Android 7.1 and is very responsive. It is a three year old phone but it will do just fine as a backup.
