You will start by buying a Phone and a Tracfone Minute Card. You can only use a Tracfone Phone for Tracfone service, you cannot use a Verizon, At&t, T-Mobile, Alltel, Net10 or any other phone with Tracfone Service.

Then you activate the phone by calling Tracfone on a land line or by using the web.

You will have to key in some numbers into your phone and then it is active. It is really easy.

Adding a Tracfone Minute card is even easier. You can add Tracfone minutes directly from the phone or from the Tracfone website. You will add the 15 digit PIN code into your phone.

I have gotten a lot of extra minutes on my Tracfones by using Bonus Codes. Tracfone Bonus codes are a five digit number that will increase the number of minutes you get when you are adding a card to your tTacfone.. Check out the Tracfone Bonus Codes.

Tracfone W376g and Lg 200c

Tracfone Service Time

Most Tracfone cards will put 90 service days onto your phone along with the minutes. If you do not have service time left on your phone it will not work even if you have minutes left.. The remaining Tracfone minutes always show on the display of your phone. The Service end date will also scroll onto your screen. It normally says “Add Airtime by 12/21/10 or service ends.” hwtracwrks

Buying Tracfone Cards

Phone cards for Tracfone come in different denominations. The different options are $20, $30, $40, $80, $100 and $200. As you spend more money on the card you get more minutes per dollar. With the first four cards you will add 90 days of service time with the card. The twenty dollar card costs you three minutes per dollar and the eighty dollar card gives you 5.8 minutes per dollar. These numbers double with Dmfl installed. The $100 and $200 Tracfone cards add a full 12 months to your service time.

Tracfone Double Minutes for Life Card

Be sure to check out what Tracfone DMFL is before you pay for your Tracfone. Here is a great article on Tracfone DMFL. It is an expensive mistake to add a phone card to a Tracfone without DMFL.

Tracfone Service Time and Minutes Roll Over

With Tracfone your minutes and service time will add on to your current balance. For instance if you have 20 minutes and 60 days left on your Tracfone and you add a 120 minute phone card you will end up with 140 minutes and 150 days left. With Double Minutes it would be 260 units (2+120+120) and 150 days of service.

The Most Costly Tracfone Mistakes

Check out my article on The Most Common Tracfone Mistakes.

Get $3 off on any Tracfone or accessory $19.99 or more with coupon code 23444.

Here is a great article on How Tracfone Prepaid Works.

How Verizon Prepaid Works

Verizon Prepaid has several options

Prepaid Basic which offers 25 cent minutes.

99 cents per day which allows you unlimited calling to other Verizon Wireless phone users and then you will pay 10 cents a minute on all other calls. Every day that you use your phone you will pay the 99 cent fee. Texts are 10 cents to send and receive.

199 cents per day which allows you unlimited calling to other Verizon Wireless phone users and then you will pay 5 cents a minute on all other calls. You also get Unlimited Nights and Weekend calling with the $1.99 plan. Every day that you use your phone you will pay the $1.99 fee. Texts are 5 cents to send and receive.

399 cents per day which allows you unlimited calling to other Verizon Wireless phone users and then you will get Unlimited calling every day. Every day that you use your phone you will pay the $3.99 fee. Texts are 1 cent to send and receive. This is basically their Prepaid Unlimited Plan. $3.99 per day for Unlimited Calling to any phone in the United States.

Text Message Bundles

If you are on any of the Verizon Prepaid Plans you can get the Message Bundle Plans. For $20 per month you get Unlimited Messaging. For $10 per month you get unlimited texting to Verizon Wireless phones and 250 additional messages. If you go over the 250 you will pay 20 cents per message with the Basic plan, 10 cents with the 99 cent plan, 5 cents with the 199 plan, and 1 cent with the 399 Unlimited plan.

How Tracfone Works

Tracfone is a simple Cost Per Minute prepaid cell phone company.

You purchase the Tracfone phone and a Minute card.

Then you activate the phone by calling Tracfone on a land line or by going online.

You will have to type in some numbers into your phone and then it is active. It is really easy.

Next you will add a Tracfone Minute Card.

When adding a minute card if you use a five digit Bonus Code you might get more minutes. Check out the Tracfone Bonus Codes.

Basically you buy Tracfone minutes on a card and add them to your phone. You will get 90 days of service time on most Tracfone cards. You must keep minutes and service time on your phone to use it. The remaining number of minutes and the service end date will usually show on your display. vzprepaidvstrac

Buying Tracfone minutes

Tracfone minute cards come in different sizes.  You can spend $20, $30, $40, $80, $100 and $200.  As you spend more money on the card you get more minutes per dollar.  With the first four cards you get 90 days of service time with the card.  The twenty dollar card gives you three minutes per dollar and the eighty dollar card gives you 5.8 minutes per dollar.  These numbers double with DMFL.

Tracfone Minute Doubler Card

Be sure to check out what Tracfone DMFL is before you purchase your Tracfone. Here is a great article on Tracfone DMFL. I would only add minutes to a Tracfone that had DMFL on it.

Tracfone Service Time and Minutes Roll Over

If you add minutes or service time before your phone has completely run out the remaining minutes or service time will roll over.

Get $3 off on any Tracfone or accessory $19.99 or more with coupon code 23444.

How do I change my Phone number with Tracfone?

You will have to call Tracfone Customer Service if you want to change your phone number. Sometimes you will not be able to get a local number with your current phone. Where I live in Montana At&t and other GSM phones do not have very good coverage so Tracfone will not give you a local number unless you are using a CDMA phone that works on the Verizon Network.

Tracfone and Net10 LG 200c and Samsung R451c

Summary of Verizon Prepaid vs Tracfone Wireless

If most of the people you talk to are on Verizon Wireless the Verizon Prepaid plan can work well.  If you want to chat for more than just a couple of minutes with other Verizon users this can work very well.  I have three adult children that are all on Verizon.  I was talking to them with Skype and burning their minutes.  I bought a Verizon Prepaid phone and it cost me a dollar on the days I used it but it saved them a lot of minutes.

Messaging vs Chatting

If you use your phone to get messages to people then you will probably do OK with a Tracfone.  Send them texts or quick two minute phone calls.  If you want to talk on the phone like you do on a land line you will spend a lot of money on a Tracfone.  If the people you want to talk to are all on Verizon then a Verizon Prepaid Phone can work out well.

Converting Verizon Wireless Prepaid to Verizon Contract Service

Your Verizon Wireless Pay as you go cell phone can be converted to a Contract phone if you have used it for six months or more as a prepaid phone. You will not have to sign a contract to add this to a contract. I added a prepaid phone to my son’s contract for $10 a month on a month by month basis. I got a Long Term Contract rate without a long term contract. Verizon Prepaid vs Tracfone Wireless

For the best deals on Verizon Wireless phones Click here.

Tracfone and Net10 are similar Prepaid cell phone companies. What are the differences between Net10 and Tracfone Prepaid?

Straight Talk is a Very Low Cost Unlimited service and a very high value $30 a month service . Straight Talk only has two options which you can change between on a monthly basis.

If you are spending $30 a month or more on your cell phone the best deal available is the Straight Talk “All You Need” plan that gives you 1,000 minutes and 1,000 texts, 30 meg of data and unlimited 411 calls.

If you are using more than 1,000 minutes a month the $45 Unlimited plan from Straight Talk is impossible to beat with a National Carrier (Verizon) providing the network.

Motorola Razr V3 and Samsung R451c Qwerty Phone from
both Straight Talk.com

Compare Straight Talk and Tracfone Advantages

$20 phone card gives you three months of service time. You get 60/120 with double minutes 33.33/16.66 with doubler cents a minute and $6.33 per month.

$80 phone card gives you three months and 450/900 with double minutes 16.66/8.8 with doubler minutes and $26.66 per month.

$100 yearly phone card gives you 400/800 with double minutes and 12 months service $8.33 per month and 25/12.5 with doubler cents a minute.

$200 yearly phone card gives you 1500/3000-dmfl minutes and 12 months service $16.66 per month and 13.33/6.66-dmfl cents a minute.

Minutes and Activation time Roll-over with Tracfone.

Tracfone.com has a DMFL (double minutes for life) option you can purchase for your phone usually $25 or $50. This doubles your minutes on every card you put in your phone for the life of the phone. Many Tracfone Phones come with DMFL already installed on the phone. Never add minutes to a Non-DMFL Tracfone phone. The minutes are way too expensive.

Straight Talk Wireless vs Tracfone Prepaid Advantages
$30 a month plan gives you 1,000 minutes, 1,000 text messages, 30 megabite of data er month. No charge for 411 calls. 3.3 cents a minute not counting the text and data. Minutes do not roll over on this pay as you go system.

$45 Unlimited plan with Unlimited text and Unlimited data. No charge for 411 calls. There is no other Nationwide calling plan that comes close to matching this plan.

Nicer phones are available from Straight Talk than Tracfone. Although many of the same phones are available from both companies. Always figure the cost of adding in DMFL to your Tracfone when you are comparing prices.

All Straight Talk phones use the Verizon Network for making calls.

Summary The Plan I would Buy Depends on My Usage

I would choose the Tracfone.com plan. I do not use a lot of minutes and my favorite plan is the $200 3,000 minute plan from Tracfone. My usage is all over the map, some months I don’t use more than a hundred minutes and some months I will use four or five hundred. I am almost always around a land line to talk on so my cell phone is more for messages. This changes my Straight Talk Wireless vs Tracfone Prepaid strategies.

If I used all of my 3,000 minutes in seven months it would be the same as me buying the $30 Straight Talk cards every month. Seven months at $30 equals $210. If I am able to stretch the 3,000 minute Tracfone plan for more than seven months I am getting cheaper cell phone service.

The magic number is 428 minutes a month. 3,000 minutes/ 7 months= 428 minutes per month. If you average over that you are better off spending the $30 a month for the Straight Talk Plan.

Compare Straight Talk and Tracfone Summary Two

If you are using just a few minutes a month Tracfone is great, you can keep your service active for less than $7 a month. If you use 400 minutes a month you can purchase the $200 1,500 minute card and get 3,000 minutes with DMFL. This will cost you less than $30 a month. If you use over 400 (428) minutes a month purchase the $30 a month 1,000 Straight Talk Plan or $45 a month unlimited plan.

Happy Calling

Get the Straight Talk Unlimited Plan for $45 or the $30 Monthly plan direct from Straight Talk.com

So if you want the cheapest cell phone monthly and you use under 428 minutes a month Tracfone has you covered for less than $30 a month.

Get the Best Price on Straight Talk Phones from Straight Talk.com

Check out Straight Talk Wireless

The New Straight Talk Samsung R810c Finesse is the first Smartphone touchscreen from Straight Talk

Check out this reveiw of the Straight Talk Wireless Samsung R451c

How well does the Straight Talk LG 200c hold up. What features are included with the LG 200c?

Review of the Straight Talk LG 100c

Compare the advantages and disadvantages of Tracfone vs Net10 vs Straight Talk Prepaid wireless company plans. Which companies’ phones will work best for you?

Check out Straight Talk Pricing. How competitive is your

How well does the Straight Talk LG 200c hold up. What features are included with the LG 200c?

Get the Best price on Tracfone phones and Minute Cards at Tracfone.com

Buying the DMFL Card

The DMFL card used to cost $50 now the price has dropped to $20 or $25.  Often you can get a new or refurbished phone for the same price as DMFL.

All of the nicer phones like the Lg 600, LG 225, Motorola W376 and Motorola W370 all come with DMFL installed.

If I let my service expire will I have to buy DMFL again?

No  Once DMFL has been added to your Tracfone you will always get double minutes when adding a card.

Can I transfer DMFL it to another phone?

Normally no.  It normally will cost you $50 to add it to a phone.  I have gotten Tracfone to transfer it once when the phone it was added to died shortly after DMFL was added.

Motorola Razr, Motorola W370, LG cg225

How to get DMFL

I recommend only getting DMFL by getting it already installed on a new phone.  You can purchase a new Tracfone with DMFL for less than buying the card.

Transferring DMFL Minutes

You can add minutes to a DMFL phone and then transfer them to a non DMFL phone.  The minutes will stay doubled.  You must transfer all the minutes and all the service time that is on the phone (Example if you have 240 minutes on a phone you can not just transfer just 100 minutes.)  You can reactivate the phone you just transferred minutes off and it will still have DMFL.

Buy a Tracfone DMFL phone from Tracfone.com and get free freight on orders of $19.99 or more.

Get $3 off on any Tracfone phone of $19.99 or more with coupon code 23444

Here are some recent articles

How to Buy Tracfone Minute and use Bonus Coupons

Compare W375, lg 600, LG 225

The Best Tracfone Deals

1200 text message $60

Buying a Tracfone without Unlimited Double Minutes –Mistake  1
The Unlimited Double Minutes Tracfone will always get you double
the minutes listed on the Tracfone minute card. You can get a new Tracfone with DMFL for as little as $19.99, do not buy or use a phone without DMFL.

*******The new LG 600g Bluetooth phone from Tracfone

Adding minutes to a Tracfone without DMFL–Mistake 2
Unless you use less than 20 minutes per month it is much cheaper to use your Tracfone if it has DMFL. Never add minutes without using a DMFL card.

Not using Tracfone Bonus Codes –Mistake 3
It is simple to use Tracfone Bonus codes when you add a minute card to your phone and you will receive between 20 and 200 minutes extra depending on the Promo code you use.    Go to Tracfone Bonus Codes.  The Tracfone Bonus code will always have 5 digits.

Buying a DMFL card –Mistake 4
I do not recommend buying an Unlimited Doubler card for your phone. You can usually purchase a new Tracfone with the DMFL installed for less than buying the DMFL card.  It is not so bad anymore to buy a DMFL card, they used to be $50 and you could buy a DMFL phone for $30.  Now the card is $20.

Buying $20 TracFone Cards if you talk a lot. –Mistake 5
It is always cheaper per minute to purchase larger denomination Tracfone cards.  The lowest cost per minute currently is the the $80 four hundred fifty minute card.  This comes to 8.88 cents per minute if you have a Unlimited Doubler phone card.  If you use Promo codes you will get the minutes even cheaper.

Buying the Tracfone Extended Warranty –Mistake 6
The Extended Warranty for your Tracfone costs $20 per year and is not a good value costs for the Extended warranty is a waste.  My experience with Tracfone phone problems has been resolved by Tracfone sending me a new phone without having the warranty.  The Tracfone phones are cheap enough that the warranty is not a good value.

Buying Tracfone Codes from eBay –Mistake 7
All the codes you can buy from eBay for $3 or whatever you can find at this Tracfone Bonus Codes page.

Still using a Tracfone without DMFL? –Mistake 8
Several phones are available with Unlimited Double Mintes: LG 225 , Motorola W370 with DMFL, Motorola W376g Bluetooth With DMFL, Lg 600g Bluetooth with DMFL, Samsung T301 Slider.

********The Motorola W370 next to the LG 225

The Best Tracfone Deals
Buy a Motorola W376  with 60 Minute Tracfone card and DMFL for $19.95. Buy two and you will have a spare battery and charger if you do not use the spare phone.  Next Day Air is Free Until December 21st.

Use the Latest Tracfone Codes
Check for the Latest Tracfone Bonus Codes You will have to purchase minutes as soon as you buy any Tracfone phone.

Thanks,
Prepaid Cell Phone Guy

Link from The Most Expensive Tracfone Mistakes to the Best Tracfone Deals.

There are two Tracfone airtime codes.
One is a 15 digit number.  You will always have to pay for these codes.  The 15 digit code will be on a Tracfone Minute Card.  It will be on the back of the card and under a scratch off. This is much like the number on Lottery ticket.

The Free Tracfone Airtime Code
The free code will be a 5 digit bonus code. This is the bonus code you will put in as you are putting in the 15 digit code. This will add from 20 to 350 free minutes to your Tracfone. There are several places to get them. The best place I have found to get Free Tracfone Airtime Codes.

Always use Free Tracfone airtime codes.  Otherwise you are paying too much.  It is very easy as you are putting in your 15 digit code to add the 5 digit code.

Some Bonus Codes Only Work Once
Many of the bonus codes will only work once on a particular phone. Some will only work once per two months. Tracfone does not disclose much information about the codes when they release them so after you have used a code on your phone it is trial and error to see if a code will work again.

What is DMFL
DMFL stands for Double MInutes for lIfe on a phone.  When your phone has this you will always get twice the number of minutes that is stated on the phone card.  To convert any phone to DMFL will cost about $50 but you can often purchase a DMFL phone for $20.

Buy the Tracfone Cards that come with a free DMFL Phone
At Tracfone.com you can purchase phone cards that come with a free phone.  A couple of these cards come with a DMFL phone.  These are always the best deal.  I do not recommend buying or adding minutes to a Tracfone that is not a DMFL phone.

Buy Two Free Tracfones
I have always recommended buying two DMFL phones at a time.

The Free Tracfone Phone deals will always offer you a good phone for free if you purchase a high unit or yearly Tracfone card.

I recommend buying two at a time.

1. This gives you a spare battery.
2. Spare Battery charger.
3. Spare Phone  if your phone gets wet or something you have a spare phone that you are already familiar with.
4. Spare card to add when you run out of service time or minutes
5. Sometimes buying two at a time will save you paying for shipping.

It is nice to have a spare charger to use in your car or at the office. Charge up the extra battery and put it in your car or purse is also handy.

Motorola C139 and Tracfone Moto W370 with DMFL

Tracfone Purchase Discount Code
This purchase code gets you a discount when buying from the Tracfone website.  Get $3 off with Purchase code 23444.  Tracfone has always had bonus codes for getting deals on minutes. This is the first Purchase discount code I have seen.

Buy a One year Tracfone card and get a Free Tracfone LG 225 Camera Phone. This is the best deal in prepaid cell phones.  You get a camera phone with DMFL, 1100+ minutes if you use a bonus code and 14 months of service for $100.  Be sure to find the LG 225 WITH the One year phone card Package Tracfone Deal.

Prepaid Cell Phone Guy–PCP Guy for short.  I will find the best and worst Prepaid deals for you.  Wanna spend all your money on your cell phone?  I didn’t think so.  You can sometimes pay less than half what you are currently paying when you know my Prepaid Cell Phone Guy Secrets.

Start by talking less.  If you use your cell phone for messages you will not burn many minutes.  Most cell usage is chatting.  Do it in person.  Chat from a Voip line.  You can talk to anyone online with Skype for free.

Take up a hobby that you cannot be interrupted from.  My writing is so intense that I don’t take calls while I am hard at it.  Not really.

Focus your calls to a time when you can use a land line.  Do not chat on a prepaid cell.

Check out the best Prepaid Yearly Cell Phone Plan.