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

[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. :)