TracFone or Simple Freedom

I think tracfone's rates are very high. i do not know about simple freedom

 

I like Virgin Mobile. Rates aren't bad.. and the best part is you only have to put 20 dollars on the account every 90 days unless you use it up sooner.
My mom has this.
http://www.virginmobileusa.com

AT&T Free2Go is pretty good too. Only 10 dollars on the account every 90 days and you can use any at&t tdma phone.. so I took my old 5165 and activated for my fiance'.. (he just wanted a emergency phone) .. works great! you can always find a cheap phone off of ebay for this...but here is the link.
http://www.attwireless.com/personal/free2go/index.jhtml

My 16 year old cousin has tracfone and she hates it.. doesn't use the phone that much because it's too expensive and so basically she has a 50 dollar phone to play games on. I don't know too much about Simple Freedom except it's about the same rate as Virgin Mobile and AT&T...but you don't get up to 90 days to not have to put money on it.

Good luck...and welcome to the forum.

 

Get ATT Free-2-Go

No activation fee
.25 flatrate nationwide
.10 TXT outgoing
FREE UNLIMITED TXT incoming
$10 for 90 days (40 mins)
and Great CS

 

I mean if you don't really have a budget or a small one ATT is there for you (me thats why i have it)

No Contract
Flat rate of .25 per min
UNLIMITED FREE Incoming Text Messages
.10 for Outgoing Text Messages
Great TDMA (Digital Service) with Analog Backup
Nationwide Service
Enexpensive phones and they aren't half bad lookin' either
And you have 90 days to use your minutes (which comes out to about 3 months)
And the lowest denomination card is $10 so multiply 10 x 4 = $40 in a year you will spend if you refill every 3 monthes - which is a very good deal for me
They are going to upgrade us to GSM in the future (when merged with Cingular) and WE should be able to KEEP our ATT Wireless features instead of going with Cingulars
Can't WAIT for GSM

And if you let your account dwindle down to NO money you can leave it there for up to 3 monthes then they will notify by mail taht you account has froze and give you 2 more monthes to reopen it. If not your account and number will terminate which makes you get a new number.

O yea and if your account or when your account reaches $5.00 then they will TXT you to let you know that your account has $5.00 in it or lower. (it is really handy to know this sometimes)

Also they have nice costumer service.

Best thing of all about every year there is a deal coming around (well this year there were two but anyways) - usually a discount on a phone or free minutes (like this year they had $40 off a new ATT Wireless phone and buy a $25 refill card and ATT Wireless will give you 20 minutes free EACH month for one full year) now i call that generous

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With Verizon they have better nationwide coverage (if coverage is what your looking for) but if your looking for low rates ATT is the way to go (Verizon has .35 CONNECTION FEE but .10 per min after that) and all cards expire in 30 = bummer
And phones are a little more expensive than ATT

Now please don't go with Cingular (they don't give true nationwide coverage) and an activation fee applies of $15 and .35 per min peak .10 off peak and .10 for ALL TXT messages incoming and outgoing. - not a good deal at least for me

Now Simple Freedom they are pretty good at Wal-Mart you can buy the simple freedome digital (CDMA) phone Nokia 3585i for 56.97 and all airtime cards expire in 60 days. You get Alltel's and Verizons nationwide Coverage which makes to be the biggest coverage offered by any prepaid service.

Also Alltel has their own prepaid which is not true nationwide either (they only service the southeast, midwest and southwest) and its a $35 activation fee BUT as long as you use at least one min per month your card will never expire

 

What network does tracfone use?

 

I am thinking ATT TDMA, Analog and GSM (cause tracfone has prepaid in AMPS, TDMA and GSM and ATT is the only carrier that has all technolidgies) and they could use some Cingular

 

I belive they are a Cdma network and they use lots of different carriers through agreements....

 

They also have an analog network... but they don't sell their old analog phones anymore from what I've seen.

I used to have Virgin Mobile and I thought they were pretty good. Nice phone selection, only 25 cents a minute for the first ten minutes a day, then 10 cents after that, free voicemail/caller id, etc., and you can top up with $20, $30, or $50 cards and not need to do this for 90 days. It's pretty good... you should try it out. Someone else posted the link but here it is anyway lol www.virginmobileusa.com.

 

A friend of mine has Simple Freedom and likes it. 25¢ a minute, 24/7, as long as you are in either Verizon or Alltel territory. Elsewhere you will pay 50¢ a minute.

There are cheaper plans, but Simple Freedom uses the Verizon network, unless there is Alltel service in the area, which means here in the Northeast where I live it is Verizon all the way. The phone you get is the Nokia 3585i, not the coolest phone out there, but it has just about the best reception of any phone. I have US Cellular service and also use a Nokia 3585i, and its ability to receive a signal where others cannot, is absolutely awesome.

You must replenish every 60 days for at least $20, which means minimum monthly cost is $10. The phone costs $69.72 at Wal-Marts and comes with $10 of airtime (40 minutes).

With Simple Freedom, your "local area" is the entire nationwide Verizon and Alltel networks, whereas Tracphone assigns you a specific local area based on where you originally sign up. Simple Freedom allows you to add time online, using a credit card, or you can buy cards in Wal-Mart.

Some of Tracphones telephones are reconditioned units, whereas the Simple Freedom phone is brand new.

Hopefully, this helps you make a decision. If it were up to me I think I'd go with SF, because of its use of the Verizon network, and because "local" is nationwide. Some Tracphones also use the Verizon network, but some use Cingular. I have no idea how they determine which is used in a specific area.

-way

 

about the network

Tracfone NEVER used CDMA they have/had AMPS, TDMA and now GSM

First analog then the TDMA (cuase i saw they sold the Nokia 5165) and now are GSM with their NEW nokia gsm phones

NEVER WAS CDMA

 

I would STRONGLY recommend Virgin Mobile. If I were forced to get a pre-paid, i'd get Virgin. Like Gid said, it's only 25 cents for the first 10 minutes of the day and 10 cents afterwards. They charge NO ROAMING! They have the slider, extremely nice phone. You can text message and everything. I hope you go with Virgin. Let us know what you decide. Verizon and ALLTEL charge roaming if you get out of their network. Again, I STRONGLY RECOMMEND VIRGIN. Sorry, I forgot to say :welcome: to WA! See you around

 

Hey man go with ATT Free-2-Go awsome rural coverage

 

Welcome . I tried.

 

I've been using TracFone for a week and a half now and have been very pleased with them. :thumb:

Activating the phone was easy (done via their web site) and the phone was receiving and sending calls within 10 minutes of activation.

Compared to what I had been paying on a monthly basis with the previous carrier (over $25/month!) , I'm now spending considerably less than that with TracFone.

 

yes, is it true that when you go out of your area code you get charged double the per minute rate

 

There are a few things you have to take into consideration here. Virgin Mobile is Sprint PCS prepaid. Tracfone uses many different carries in different parts of the country. Some are older TDMA, some are GSM, and some like here in upstate NY are CDMA and work on Verizon. Simple Freedom uses Verizon as well. Verizon also offers their own prepaid service. Taking all this into consideration I would look at who has the cheapest minutes, who offers the best coverage for your needs and who offers the lowest priced recharge. Just my 2 cents.

 

My Nokia 1221 is TDMA.

I've had no problems with it on the local network and the call quality is excellent.

TracFone's online store offers several different models (both Nokia and Motorola), the Nokia 1100 is a GSM phone. In my area, I've only seen the Motorola 120 and v60i phones along with the Nokia 1221 offered by TracFone.

 

Go for Simple Freedom. Tracfone is ok but the rates are quite rather high.

 

CORRECTION: Virgin Mobile is NOT Sprint PCS prepaid... it is a completely SEPERATE company MVNO'ing off-of Sprint PCS.

Edward: "(over $25/month!)" That's not much at all compared to most people .

 

The rate plan I had been on was $10.99/month and calls during the day were 39 cents per minute. When I upgraded the phone from an analog to a digital, the $10.99 plan and 39 cents per minute rate stayed the same, except as digital, it included 500 minutes free on nights and weekends.

90% of the calls were made during the daytime and at almost 40 cents per minute, it added up. What they did not make in the monthly rate, they made up in the per-minute rate.

I am expecting to pay considerably less overall with TracFone.

 

Now that is outrageous... with ATT Free-2-Go i get ATT's TDMA prepaid netowork, ATT AMPS network and Cingulars TDMA Nationwide Network for no roaming charges (at just .25 per min) but then when i am on the rest of ATT's TDMA network i get charged .69 plus .25 per min. Now that is nationwide flat rate coverage.

And i only pay 10 every 90 days for 40 mins at .25 per min and get all that coverage. It is A GREAT DEAL

 

Hey EdwardP could you PLEASE give me the name of your carrier so i can get the deal w/ 10.99 per month w/ 500 mins and free nights and weekends

that is GREAT

is ther a contract

 

...saying bye to TracFone.

Unfortunately, I have to give up on TracFone. :hellobye:

I started having some difficulty with calls, the signal strength was no more than 2 bars, and occasionally saw "No Service" in the display.

The thing is, it is not really TracFone's fault since they are a reseller of service. In this area, they resell Cingular's service.

I spoke to a few of my colleagues and they all recommended T Mobile, in fact, one of them has been with T Mobile since the VoiceStream days.

 

As evidenced in the profile, I have also purchased a phone from Simple Freedom. Locally, the phone is on the Verizon network.

Have had it for a couple of days now, had to call Customer Service to iron out a couple of minor issues, which were easily and quickly resolved.

Unlike TracFone, Simple Freedom provided a local phone number.

Based on my own experiences with TracFone in the past and with Simple Freedom just in the past three days, I would say Simple Freedom is MUCH better than TracFone. The first Simple Freedom phone was returned to Wal Mart. The Alltel folks (Customer Service) really tried their best to get it to work for me and I believe they went the extra distance to get it to work. In the end, their Technical Support department had me on one line and a Verizon tech on the other line. Based on test calls, it was determined that the phone was defective. The apparent problem was that once the phone was turned on, it was not properly broadcasting to the network that it was on, so although the phone could dial out, it would not receive any incoming calls unless the phone was already on an active outgoing call and an incoming call was displayed as call waiting. Otherwise if the phone was idle, it would not receive any incoming calls.

The second phone works perfectly. :thumb:

The Simple Freedom phone is a Nokia 3585i (CDMA) and is very easy to use. When I first powered it on, I was very surprised to see that it pulled the current time and date right from the network.

Be informed that not every Wal Mart has the phone packages, but most of the stores in my area carry the refill cards. Sam's Club offers refill cards along with the Simple Freedom Professional package which includes the 3585i, a charger that plugs into a car cigarette lighter and an earbud. The Wal Mart package includes the phone and a Nokia AC charger.

Links: Simple Freedom Nokia 3585i

 

EdwardP, glad you are happy with Simple Freedom. My neighbor has it and is also happy with it.

I believe the situation is this, as respects whether or not the local Wal-Mart will have the phone for sale: If Verizon (or Alltel) is licensed in the market where the Wal-Mart is located, then the SF phone is carried. If neither Verizon nor Alltel is licensed in that area, then all SF calls would be 50¢ a minute, making the SF phone too expensive to use, so Wal-Mart doesn't carry it.

The 3585i is a great phone, excellent RF, just about the best there is in pulling in a signal.

-way

 

I have Simple Freedom for my son and it works fine and I feel it is the cheapest overall. I was told that the reason Virgin Mobile doesn't charge for roaming is that they don't have roaming, so if your not on the Sprint network, you don't have service. The phone package from Walmart is very inexpensive and the phone itself (Nokia 3585i) is a workhorse with great reception.

Suliman

 

Within a 10-mile radius of my location, there are three Wal Mart stores. All of them carry the refill cards, but only one store carries the phone package. Not sure why the other two do not.

Ironically, the same store which carried the phone package, also carries Alltel-branded refill cards which are NOT valid with the Simple Freedom service. Since Alltel does not have any operations in this area (that I am aware of), this particular Wal Mart is probably offering them as a convenience to travelers.

The one thing I do not like about the Simple Freedom service, is that even with the phone powered off, if a call comes in, you're charged airtime (25 cents). I can understand being charged if the phone is on and the call is not answered. But being charged when the phone is OFF, I have an issue with. Other than this, the service is great.