John: Ok - thank you! I have an old fashion tracfone. I would like to upgrade to a tracfone smart phone. I never text, rarely call; mostly have it for a possible emergency or an occasional call. The reason I want to change would be to be able to access the internet google remotely. What cost effective option would you recommend. Will I have to pay any new costs or just the usual minutes? If you turn off Data and only use WiFi it doesn't cost anything. If you can't then it will cost you Data, but if you rarely use it, then you won't have to worry much about running out.
Remember a smartphone is just a phone with a computer. It has a camera, GPS, and lots of tools apps as well, but don't worry about those.
BTW, once you find out all the stuff you can do with a smart phone, I'm sure you will use it more. Email, maps, use it as a flashlight, camera, contact list, grocery lists, important numbers to remember like the oil filter number for your car, etc. You'll be amazed at how smart you will be after a while. LOL Good luck. If I am changing my tracfone lg over to an android, how do my remaining minutes change over. Into the 3 pools, divided equally or just in talk. You have to turn off the mobile data option under "more" when connected to free Wi-Fi or TracFone still quietly charges you for somehow using their network services.
They don't tell users this upfront. It's a gotcha thing. They told me That Card did not offer that feature Bait and switch! I complained to HSN Before I purchase I want have a few questions.
If she is on our home wifi and texts with her friends will it use her texting minutes? If she is on out home wifi, will it use her data. OR does it work like a regular cell phone switching between the two? I just wasted too many airtime units trying to get a straight answer from someone working with a script. When I use my phone to check my email account. It takes about 5 seconds to load my email index and when I click on new emails it takes all of another 5 seconds to list them.
I look at a couple and then logout and off of the web. Now I expected a hit in my DATA units but instead, not as well, I got a 91 unit hit in my air time for what was 3 minutes in real time.
I want to know why my airtime gets beat up instead of my data units getting used. My Tracfone script reader wasn't even close to coming up with a close answer.
I want to switch from a Tracfone flip-phone to a Tracfone smartphone. Will something similar happen on a smartphone? Will I be charged for 2 texts since it is a 2 step process on a flip-phone when I try to open a group text? Also will group texts on a Tracfone smartphone be displayed as an "ongoing" conversation or will I end up seeing each person's reply to the group text as a separate text like it does on my flip-phone?
Alice, texting charges on a smart phone are separate from the phone charges separate accounts , whereas text and voice are the same account on your flip-phone and I can't understand why you are charged twice. Have you contacted TF to ask why? I've never had two charges on the smart phone.
On the other hand, I've no experience with group texting, as I use my email for groups and download using secure wifi which is free. I'm pretty sure she will be charged regardless because texting relies on phone service.
You might want to check out this website for how to send text for free from a computer. To prevent use of data, you must turn it off and wifi on. I find the tendency is to default to data more profitable when available. Having only wifi on at home is cheaper. Use Google Hangouts or similar app to make calls using your wi-fi then you shouldn't use up your minutes. Make sure to turn off location and mobile network.
If I use my Trac smart phone to take a picture, does this use count against any of my time allocations? If so, which one talk, text, web?
If I am at my favorite restaurant McDonalds and use my Trac smart phone to get on McDonalds internet, does the time I spend on the net use any of my Trac time? If so, from which pool? Thanks, John. My question is will my balance of minutes roll over of I add more phone time! Or when is g auto refill do I keep minutes from before refill on new refill dated?
I'm sorry but I don't understand your second question, but you never lose minutes unless you let your account expire. Even if you transfer your number to a different phone. Why pay for what you don't need Can you transfer minutes from a simple Alcatel mobile phone to a LG simple mobile phone. Both have tracfone minutes but Alcatel has more minutes than needed. The amount of texts we get, is that to send AND receive?
My son says I don't loose any when he texts me. My data units seem to draining very quickly. How can I keep this from happening. Is there one particular app that is doing this or what?
If I have added service days to my Trac phone in over 3 months can I still use it or do I need to buy a Sims card. I paid for a Please respond back to me. Thank you! At that price I'm not gonna mess with the free apps! I have an old-fashioned non-Android flip phone from TracFone. The other day, my cousin sent a picture and I opened it -- incredibly minutes immediately disappeared from my phone.
Is that right? How are the minutes figured out for that. It was a text message with an image -- seems extreme to be minutes for the few seconds of downloading. Is it based on size of the file? Where do you go to leave a message for this stupid crap? I've never been do disgusted with anything in my life than this. I do not have WiFi where I am located. Everything I read says a user can send text messages without data. I have not found this to be true. What am I missing?
Post a Comment. TracfoneReviewer is committed to sharing the best and most accurate information for our readers. How Minutes Work with Tracfone Smartphones Over the several years, Tracfone has included a number of Android and Apple powered smartphones in their lineup of cell phones.
Tracfone provides both cell service and phones at a low cost and sells airtime cards with varying minute amounts 60, , etc. When the minutes are added, the phone then uses those minutes when you call or text. You also get a certain amount of service days in most cases 90 with each card.
This system where users can buy minutes only when needed helps to make Tracfone service very inexpensive for people who don't use their phones very often. Some Tracfone devices also come with double or triple minutes for life, meaning you get double or triple the minutes when you add a new card. However, Tracfone has made Changes to Triple Minutes for Life and you can learn more by following the link.
One of the changes to triple minutes is that most new smartphones from Tracfone do not come with this bonus. However, Tracfone now offers a number of smartphone only airtime cards that come with a significantly greater amount of airtime compared to regular airtime cards. Let's start by looking at smartphone only cards.
How Smartphone Only Cards are Different than Regular Airtime Cards Tracfone now offers three types of airtime cards - 'regular' cards 'smartphone only' cards and 'smartphone unlimited' cards. Regular Airtime Card - Airtime values of 60, , etc. Can be added to any Tracfone device and can double or triple. These cards can only be added to smartphones and can not double or triple.
Can only be used with smartphones and does not double or triple. So the main differences between these cards is that smartphone cards come with more airtime, do not triple, and can only be used with smartphones. When adding a smartphone only card you will get exactly the amounts listed on the card unless you also use a promo code! Learn more about smartphone cards vs regular cards with our Guide to the Best Deal on Tracfone Minutes.
Now that we've covered smartphone only cards, we will look at some important differences for how regular airtime cards work with smartphones.
How Tracfone Minutes are Added to Android Smartphones With Smartphones which includes both those from Tracfone, and BYOP devices , the way minutes from regular airtime cards are credited to your account is a bit different than how things worked for older 'dumb' phones.
For older phones like the LG G , when you added a 60 minute card, you would get it tripled to minutes which you could then use for talk, text and surfing the web. For smartphones, Talk, Text and Data are split up when you add the minutes. So if you add a 60 minute card, you will get it tripled in most cases to minutes, and then this is split up into minutes for talking, texts, and MB for web.
So to make it clear: Non-Android phones use one 'pool' for minutes. Android phones use three separate 'pools' for talk, text and data.
Once the airtime is split into these different pools, you can't transfer it from one 'pool' to another. For most people an Android phone is a great deal because you get the same number of minutes for talking, while also receiving texts and data. But there is an important difference that makes this not a great deal for everyone. Let me explain: For a non-Android device, each text costs 0. So with minutes, you would get texts. On an Android phone, each text is 1 text because texts are their own 'pool'.
So with minutes, you would get texts you would also still have minutes for talking, and MB of data. But there is a solution. We've done a Comparison of Smartphone Airtime Cards vs. Regular Airtime Cards and found some very interesting results, so take a look if you want to find what card is the best deal. The text refill card is an easy way to reload your phone if you get low on texts. If you are a heavy texter but want an Android phone, look into downloading apps that text for free.
Simply visit the Google Play Store and search for 'free texting apps'. If you have further questions on how minutes work, feel free to leave a comment below. Now, we want to go over one more important point: How Triple Minutes for Life Works on Smartphones from Tracfone And BYOP We've noticed a number of readers who have questions about how Triple Minutes for Life works with the smartphones, and especially the new smartphone airtime cards.
Tracfone Smartphones released after April may not include Triple Minutes for Life, where as older smartphones will still have triple minutes. This is disappointing to many, but the Smartphone only airtime cards did not triple anyway, and are generally a better deal for most users.
How to Check Your Minutes Balance on Android Phones Tracfone airtime for Androids This is a question many are asking, because there is no automatic location on Tracfone smartphones for accessing your current minutes balance like there is on non-Android phones. We've created a full guide with 4 ways to Check your Airtime on a Tracfone Smartphone or you can continue reading below.
But there is an easy way to check your balance. Simply sign into your account at Tracfone. You should see your phone listed there, and one of the options will be to check your current balance. Click this and after a few seconds you should see what your remaining balance looks like. You can do this either on a computer, or from your phone.
That concludes this guide to how minutes work on Android phones. We hope you found this useful, and leave a comment with questions or thoughts. Find us on Facebook with a growing community of helpful people. Be aware that Tracfone Promo Codes don't work on Android phones, so this is also a small downside of the new smartphones.
Check out the latest and greatest sales, deals and discounts on Tracfone devices and minutes for some huge savings we've found around the internet! Thanks for visiting! Newer Post Older Post Home. Subscribe to: Post Comments Atom. It even says the Valet won't work in my zip code, but I'm currently using one. I live in a good sized city, too. If I buy one of the new ones, will it work? You don't add promo codes to the device itself- you fill it in when you are adding the minutes thru your online account.
At the end of the form there is a question asking "do you have any promo codes? The minutes were tripled to begin with so I'd purchased 60 mins which turned into then the promo code bumped it up to so that was a good deal.
I currently have a Trac flip phone and would like to switch to a Trac smart phone, but having difficultly finding a retailer locally that has phones that do NOT require a plan. What would be a good phone that I can do that with? I'm having a really hard time trying to get internet service, and cannot seem to find any information anywhere. Doesn't it automatically work for internet?
They certainly made it sound like it does. The Wi-Fi sources that come up as available all require a password Any ideas?
Can anyone tell me a tracfone model that is NOT a smartphone that will display the sending and receiving texts on the same screen? I have one that displays the text messages on separate screens and I don't like not being able to see the entire conversation on one screen. Did you get an answer? I have the same problem,do you or anyone know of a real person or number that I can talk to?
To get data working on the QVC tracfone once your home page is there,put your finger up top and swipe down. Why do I have to redeem a code to get messenger for Facebook? Loosing patients fast! How do I transfer my remaining minutes on my non android phone to an identical phone which has never been activated? Please reply.
Thank you! What do you think of auto refill. Are there any cons. Next question, I went with the BYOP and when on my account showing different options for purchasing airtime, ex if signing up for auto refill it asks if you have a promo code. I thought you couldn't use promo codes with smartphone? Thanks for all your helpful information, I really appreciate it as I find Tracfone's site and customer service, user unfriendly.
Are there any Tracfones that can connect to my computer via the USB so I can download photos and upload music? Great site, thanks for the effort. It is a less expensive version of the Galaxy S5, and it doesn't have some same features. Other options might be the LG Stylo 2. Whenever I get a group text message I get an alert that says I have a text but when i try to read it it says "can't download now Smartphones will!
Just install a micro SD card in it. Go to and treat it like it is a flash drive!!! I wish You Well;. How does auto refill work? How does one end it? Is it possible to speak with a human for support? New problem with TF today, I used the website to add data to one of four phones I manage. I know how to do this as I've used the website many times before. The data was put onto the wrong phone.
TF absolutely refuses to move the data, and refuses to refund the money. Do I cancel the transaction on my credit card? This is a serious web design error, there should be a last minute confirmation of this detail. TF said to me there is no one who I can bring this up with.
When thing go wrong with TF it is a mess! I called customer service with 3 different reps for tracphone because my calls were suddenly being forwarded and tracfone customer service nor myself could get the phone to stop doing it, nor could they ascertain where the calls were going.
The phone, LGg was also giving very poor sound quality. After the service rep said, "now you can have a phone that is only for you and not shared," I was given a reference number for a replacement phone.
When a few weeks passed and I didn't receive the phone, customer service said they had no record of the reference number I had been given and I was then also told, I could not have a replacement phone.
I'm also charged twice a month but receive minutes for only one of the charges. Please adivse. When upgrading or swapping it would greatly save time because the funds would be credited to a single account no matter what the devices on the account were. Tracfone texts are charged either way no matter what type of cell phone or android phone you use.
How do Tracfone minutes work with texting? Tracfone charges every incoming and outgoing text at 0. So, if you use your cell phones to text more frequently, then you might consider using other Tracfone plans such as their unlimited day minutes and text plans or use an auto-refill option to reload minutes automatically. Kevin has over five years of experience working in various Tech startups and providing Technical solutions. He has contributed to many Tech publications and websites.
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