On Thu, 22 Dec 2005 12:07:10 -0500, chicagofan
wrote:
| The Real Tom Miller wrote:
| Tom Miller) wrote:
| | the service is almost completely straightforward -- no gimmicky
| | rebates, no airtime promos, no spam-bait "deals."
|
| Same as for TracFone, if customers *go to their web site* and read about all
| of their offerings.
|
But below you talk about "going to the website" and looking for
promotions in order to save money.
If you look on the website, every single offer is a "special promo."
Every time you buy a card, you have to second guess their marketing
staff and pre-estimate your future use. Really, it's nothing but
gimmicks.
|
| I just looked on the Tracphone website to see what kind of deal they
| offered and noticed that you have to add minutes to the phone every 60
| days. With VM, you have to add $15 to your account every 90 days.
| Which is the better deal?
|
| I'd say it depends on your usage. I paid $90 for the annual service, which
| is $7.50 month. I can add minutes if I need them. In 2 yrs. I haven't had
| to, because of buying when promotions were available.
So you have to front $90/year to get a good deal, but I front as
little as $15/quarter. And except for the $15, I never have to buy
minutes until I actually use them. As I use the service, I use up the
$15. Then they charge my credit card another $15 and so on. All I do
is use the phone. You have to buy minutes before you use them and then
keep track of your use and replace them with a card.
|
|
| With a VM credit/debit card plan you don't need to actually do
| anything, but with Tracphone you have to find a store and buy a phone
| card and enter the number before your remaining minutes and usage time
| run out.
|
| OR buy additional time on the internet or by phone, or sign up for their
| monthly auto-pay plan.
|
|
| With Tracphone, the minutes added to the phone expire after 120 days
| and each of the cards have an expiration date too. With VM there is
| nothing to expire if you choose the credit/debit card plan.
|
| Their web site says [and it is my understanding] that time purchased does
| not expire, with ACTIVE service. How you choose to keep your service
| *active* is up to you.
"To keep your TracFone service active, you must purchase and add a
TracFone Prepaid Wireless Airtime every 60 or 365 days depending on
the card denomination. Add airtime before your due date and your
remaining minutes and service days will carryover and be added to your
phone, to a maximum of 120 days with any combination of regular
airtime cards or 730 days with any combination of annual plan cards."
With VM you have to add at least $15 worth of time every 90 days. If I
don't use the phone at all, the credit card adds $15 to my balance
every 90 days and I have a larger balance to use. (actually, I have
mine set for $20, but I could set it as low as $15). The balance never
expires, although if you never used it you would build a large balance
eventually. But this has never happened to me.
|
|
| I'd say the Tracphone asks you to pay way too much attention to your
| phone or else you'll lose your money. And you have to guess in advance
| how much you will be using it in the next 60 days to buy the "right"
| size card. To make it an easy, convenient plan to use you would have
| to buy one of the annual plan cards with a significant outlay of money
| up front.
|
| OR you could sign up for the same service with TracFone. They also have the
| option of monthly auto-pay plans. Your choice...
|
If there's an auto pay plan, this is more interesting. However, I did
not see it on the site. They have a plan called "auto pay" but it
seems to be a $15 monthly fee promo plan that still requires that you
buy airtime cards. You would have to front $80 to get 10 cents/minute
and still pay $15/month in addition. And out-of-area costs twice as
much, so you're paying 20 cents/minute.
|
| Too complicated for me. Too expensive for me. I just want to
| use the friggin' phone and not have to worry about buying phone cards,
| what day it is, how many minutes I'm going to be using in the next two
| months, and how many minutes I have left.
|
| Not many TracFone users do either. 
I'm not selling TracFone, but your
| message was really distorting what is available through TracFone, and I
| thought people should be encouraged to read the site info for themselves.
|
| http://tracfone.com/rates.jsp?nextPa...jsp&task=rates
I agree. Read the site yourself. I did not intend to distort the
Tracphone plans, but I can't find these good deals on the site myself.
But then, I'm not looking very hard.
It still sounds like a lot of dickin' around to make a phone call. And
I really don't like the doube charge for roaming.