TracPhone recs?

[sasha_feather]

In an effort to cut costs, I'm looking for a tracphone. Here is a little secret about me, and that is, I hate shopping for things I actually need. Jesse the K gave me a rec, but I thought I would ask here as well to see if anyone has experience or advice on what to buy.

What I would like ideally:
--not a whole lot of minutes; I don't make tons of calls
--lots of texting
--a texting keyboard on the phone itself, and even better, a flip phone (because flip phones are cool and you can't hit the buttons accidentally)

Tell me what to do, internet! Advice appreciated!

Comments

[annaoj]

I used Virgin Mobile from 2003 until, well, a week ago, when I broke down and got an iPhone.

They have some pretty good plans, some of which include unlimited texting.

If you'd be interested, I'd totally be willing to mail you the phone I last used, with wall charger and car charger, for the cost of postage. It has a keyboard, and still works pretty well. A link to the phone manual: http://www.virginmobileusa.com/resources/phones/prepaid/manual/kyocera-wild-card.pdf

[sasha_feather]

That would be *totally amazing*! I will email or PM you my address.

[owlectomy]

Are you looking specifically for a TracFone-branded phone, or any phone that's pay-as-you-go with no monthly contract? (I had a TracFone many years ago and the service was lousy then, but it's been four or five years so I have nothing useful to say about what they might be like now.)

Virgin has a $25-a-month plan with 300 talk minutes, and unlimited texting, data, and web. My sister is really happy with them and they have a cheapish phone with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard (LG Rumor 2, at the bottom)

I have a pay-as-you-go thing with AT&T, but I have been having SO MANY dropped calls that I'm going to switch. I think their network can't handle all the iPhone-having hipsters in New York.

[sasha_feather]

I don't care about brands-- I care mostly about money right now, and the Virgin Mobile deal sounds good. Thanks for the info!

[corvid]

I use a Tracfone. I've got the really simple model - it's an LG flip phone, stripped down, no camera, no customizable ringtones, none of that.

I'm reasonably happy with the service at Tracfone. The biggest issues I've come up with were a lack of service in Canada as of '08 (they didn't have a reciprocity agreement with a Canadian provider, so I couldn't even roam), and the voice mail is sometimes squinky. If I miss a call, sometimes it's a few weeks before I get the notification that there's a voice mail waiting for me, so I do periodically just call into my voice mailbox just to see if something came in while my phone was turned off.

If you get a chance, the double minutes for life deal is nice, but the only way to redeem minutes once you set that up involves going through the Tracfone web site - you can't just pick up an airtime card and punch a few numbers in.

[sasha_feather]

My current phone is weird about voicemail too!

Thanks for the info. :)

[kal]

You might want to check the Madison community archives on Elljay. Not all carriers have good coverage in Madison - I looked into switching and found some may advertise and sell equipment but don't really back it up. I remember T-Mobile was one such carrier (can't remember about Virgin Mobile). US Cellular is worth checking, they tend to have good prices. Also, check into whether you can get a discount anywhere because of where you work (HR should have that info or co-workers may know).

[sasha_feather]

Thank you!!

[hypatia]

ooh, good point. tmobile has absolutely zero coverage and no roaming agreements in madison.

[ladyjax]

I'll raise my hand as a former Virgin Mobile user. When I had it, I found it to be reliable and reasonable as to cost. My only caveat was that if I was in certain buildings, I couldn't get calls in but that was years ago and the technology is probably much better now.