Cell Phone for a Trip

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Feb 6, 2010
Messages
4,836
Location
Central Texas
Seeking advice on an inexpensive cell phone & carrier for an upcoming trip. (Yes, that's right...never bought a cell phone to date! Last man alive w/o one...). I'll be on the road with someone needing to contact me and me them, from time-to-time.

Trac-phone? Something decent, no "smart" phone at this point. I have a headset to plug into it (if they still have headset jacks...). Coverage may be quite sparse in the Tx. pan-handle.

Suggestions? Advice? Good deals?
 
I have a Trafone, works pretty good.

Phone was $2.49, yes two dollars and forty nine cents...

A year of service was $100.00

Came with 400 minutes of talk time, but look on retailmenot dot com for codes to add 250-400 extra minutes.
 
Have been using Tracfone for a long time. My last phone was $5 from Dollar General. It was not in their ad, but was a bargain on the day I needed a new phone. Today Dollar General has an LG for $12 in their wireless phone ad. You can choose to purchase a short term card or do the annual renewal like I do.
 
Been using Tracfone for several years. Just got my mother a nice LG via HSN that came with 1200 min, data and pile of texts, on a one year plan delivered for $80 and the phone will triple any minutes that's added to it for life. You can't buy the minutes etc for this money nor is this option available from Tracfone
 
Last edited:
iPhone 10. Welcome to the 21st century
laugh.gif
 
Originally Posted By: sleddriver
(Yes, that's right...never bought a cell phone to date! Last man alive w/o one...).

I have a headset to plug into it (if they still have headset jacks...).


There's always the Motorola Brick:



 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: SatinSilver
Hmmm, that is a pretty good deal. Here's the link for it:

https://www.hsn.com/products/lg-rebel-2-4g-lte-5-android-tracfone-w1200-minutes/8452557

I may need to get one.


That is a good deal. $60 today. The phone is cdma so it may use the Verizon network. If you don't use a lot of minutes this is a good way to go to have a backup/ emergency phone. Plus it seems like a competent phone running an up to date version of android, it should last you a while.
 
I would check the coverage areas of sprint Verizon t mobile and at&t. See what has the best coverage then find a low cost carrier like Consumer Cellular, Boost, tracfone or whoever uses the network with the cheapest and best coverage
 
We have an ancient Motorola flip phone and a $100 per year plan. It buys so many minutes/year which carry over as long as we renew within the year. We renew a day or two before it expires. The available minutes just keep accumulating. We use it on trips and carry it for emergencies.

It works well enough as a phone. We carry a small lap top on trips for e-mail and internet and have a very good digital camera and a GPS.

We could replace all that for $1000 and a monthly fee, but then we'd have to replace it every 2 or 3 years. So no thanks.
 
Originally Posted By: JimPghPA
I have a Tracfone. When you travel do not expect it to always connect, there are spots where it simply will not work.


It depends on the carrier you get with Tracfone. Who is your carrier?
 
Originally Posted By: ecotourist
We have an ancient Motorola flip phone and a $100 per year plan. It buys so many minutes/year which carry over as long as we renew within the year. We renew a day or two before it expires. The available minutes just keep accumulating. We use it on trips and carry it for emergencies.

It works well enough as a phone. We carry a small lap top on trips for e-mail and internet and have a very good digital camera and a GPS.

We could replace all that for $1000 and a monthly fee, but then we'd have to replace it every 2 or 3 years. So no thanks.
Bingo!

I remembered someone gave me an old flip-phone. Just found it. It's a Moto, silver, on the back it says Tracfone. I plugged in a mini-USB cable and it appears to be charging (orange outline). It also has a headset jack!
 
My tracfone model ends in "C" which means Verizon-capable.

When I bought it through their website I typed in my zip code which disallowed some Sprint-only options.

Tracfone also pleasantly surprises buyers with bonus minutes after you buy directly from them. Eg go for 90 days then you might get an option for another 365 for $50. So shoot low!
 
Carriers do not always keep up their older "bands" or whatever that older cellphones transmit on. I had a sprint flip phone I was holding on to and the service went downhill drastically all of a sudden, I even activated a brand new copy of the same phone that I had, just to make sure that it wasn't a problem with the handset. I'll never know what the deal was, but it was actually cheaper to update to a new phone and carrier with more minutes, texts, gbs.

Sometimes you have to keep up to date these days if you want stuff to work.
 
Originally Posted By: JamesBond
Carriers do not always keep up their older "bands" or whatever that older cellphones transmit on.

Our Motorola works with any of 4 different bands which permits it to be used most places in the world. Or at least that was the case when we bought it.

We're in Canada and so far our flip phone works. Cell phone plans here are very expensive, so I'm holding out.

I had a corporate Blackberry smart phone at one point and I thought it was awful. It worked well enough as a phone and it had a great keyboard but the screen was so tiny you often couldn't read the pages you could find on the internet. So the internet search function wasn't of much use. Truth be told, I prefer our Motorola flip phone which doesn't purport to be anything but a phone.
 
Turns out the phone battery, a Moto BQ50, is Tango Uniform: Won't accept a charge.

Not sure of the model number of the phone. It's not printed on the exterior. Might have to be powered up to view it. Amazon has new batteries for ~ $4, but they wouldn't arrive in time, plus not sure if this phone is compatible with current wireless networks?

Oh well....
 
Update:
The model is a Motorola W380. The Moto-Tracphone screen appears, then says "unable to charge". Evidently I can't use any function even though it's plugged in via mini-USB for power? It does have a SIM card underneath the battery.

I took it to WM for 'advice' and received none. Not sure why a friend suggested this. Dead End. I called Tracfone, they quickly answered, gave them the IMEI # and said it was way past due!! Guess my buddy didn't make that last payment! Ha...The rep said it's no longer compatible due to 2G migration?? Difficult to understand her thick Aisan accent.

Did some research on CR on-line. Prepaid ranking is Project Fi, Page Plus, Republic wireless, Cricket, MetroPCS, Straight Talk, Tracfone, Boost, Net10, T-mobile, Virgin, Verizon, ATT & Sprint. First 3 rank excellent for value.

Tracfone gets excellent for voice, txt & "freedom from tele-mrktrs". Dang lousy/poor on support however.

Only two flip phones on tracfone's site are the ZTE Symbol T LTE for $80 and the LG 442BG (P4) for $20. No stock on the later. Looks like there phones are sold at WM, 7-11, BB and Walgreens.



90 days of service, 120min. x2 air time (210min for 90days?) for $20 will work.

Any other regular Tracfone users here?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top