Tracfone Minutes Expiring- Need Advice

[neena80]

Hi, I am asking around at different cellphone sites, trying to find some advice on Tracfone.

I am not really all that familiar with cellphones (I don't even own one myself), but my 78 year old father has a Tracfone with a year's worth of minutes which are going to run out in a few days. He uses his phone only occasionally when he is out and about to let us know he is ok, and of course it is also there for emergencies. He lives in San Diego county, CA and is perfectly happy with the service he gets. Since his minutes are about to expire, I wanted to stop his minutes from expiring by buying him some more, which as I understand will allow his current minutes to "roll over" until the new expiration date and be added to the new ones that I get him.

My problem is he still has more than 250 mintues on his phone, which would almost certainly be enough to last him another year, since he's not a heavy user. My local store has a lot of different Tracfone card options, but they all seem to come with different expiration periods, and I can't figure out a cheap option for me to add a small number of minutes but to also extend his total minutes by at least another year. I don't want to waste the minutes he already has, but they're going to run out if I don't extend them by rolling them over with a new card. $100+ is a large sum of money for me, so do I have to spend that on one of the yearly cards, or is there another (cheaper) option I could take? Maybe it would be cheaper for me to just let the minutes expire and go for a different product, something that would suit my dad- is there another cheap and reliable service out there that would not require a contract that I could give him for less than $100?

Thanks in advance for any help or advice, I really do appreciate it.

[fonboy]

TracFone has a good plan, and I have yet to see anything that compares with the service and coverage. Educate your Pop on how to save some money and use his cell for some of his long distance calls from the house! Use those minutes!

[BillRadio]

Yes, in the world of prepaid we need to balance our purchases with what is available. Here are your options:
-In the world of wireless, $100 a year is not a big deal. Forget that he has so many more minutes than he can use, you are buying the convenence of a 1-year refill.
-Or you could take it upon yourself to check your calendar for him and refill with the cheaper cards and you're doing more work, but saving money.
-Or, T-Mobile offers a better prepaid plan. T-Mobile2Go, with an initial fill of $100, gives you a 1-year expiration, and subsequent refills can be as little as $10 for yet another year. However, the initial expense may justify just spending the $100 for Tracfone which is a known service.