Martin Pratt. In this article How much mobile data you need? Easy ways to keep track of your mobile data Simple tips to save your mobile data How to keep track of your minutes Simple tips to save your minutes. How Which? How much mobile data you need? More on this Best and worst UK mobile networks EU roaming and international calls explained Mobile network coverage map.
Related articles Best and worst broadband providers How to buy the best mobile phone Which? Best Buy mobile phones Which? Best Buy cordless phones. Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share by email. Latest News In Which? Best Black Friday deals revealed by Which? Best Black Friday Nintendo Switch deals for Some companies now offer flat fee wireless or cellular service, for example, and others offer prepaid cell phones.
Anytime minutes can also be called whenever minutes or service minutes. She is especially passionate about reading and writing, although her other interests include medicine, art, film, history, politics, ethics, and religion. Tricia lives in Northern California and is currently working on her first novel. Traditional cell phone providers have done business mainly through long-term monthly contracts with customers.
However, they also are stepping up and sweetening prepaid offerings to get a piece of this growing market. Here are some strengths for each, again based on surveys and reviews. Ranked above industry average in J. T-Mobile To Go -- Sidekick with camera and keyboard and Motorola Razr phones, plus a wide array of phone features, including free incoming text and picture messaging and competitive pricing.
Highest rating from PrepaidReviews. Verizon INpulse -- Same good quality and customer service as the traditional plans; large selection of phones including keyboard-equipped LG and Motorola Razr; unlimited calling at night and to other Verizon phones. Readers Choice award from PC Magazine for highest ratings among prepaid carriers based on superior call quality. Rated best for frequent talkers, based on low minute rate, by WirelessGuide.
Maybe you'd like to use a prepaid cell phone for calls to or from other countries. Go to the next page to learn more about international prepaid cell phones.
How prepaid users buy additional minutes: 36 percent buy a card at a local retailer and 36 percent buy through the provider's Web site. Making international calls from your prepaid cell phone may be easy -- if you're calling from the United States and your prepaid plan offers an international option.
If you plan to make calls from another country, however, you probably want to consider other options, like an international prepaid cell phone. Let's say you're calling from within the United States, using a Virgin Mobile prepaid phone as an example. For some countries -- like Canada, Puerto Rico or Jamaica -- you don't even need to dial Virgin Mobile charges the international per-minute rate for the country you're calling plus your standard airtime rate.
There's no additional international charge for calls to Puerto Rico or the U. Virgin Islands. If you're calling from another country, however, you're likely to have a problem with your phone's compatibility with local networks.
Cell phone networks in the United States use several different technologies to transmit information. Cell phone users in those countries can buy one phone and simply switch to a different SIM card for phone access in each country. But unless you have the phone unlocked to work with other cell phone providers, you'll probably have to pay your company's international roaming rates.
Your service probably won't give you the code to unlock the phone, but several Web sites offer unlock codes for free or a small fee. SIM cards for various countries are available from Web sites such as Telestial. If you're going to be spending an extended time in a country, another option is to buy a prepaid cell phone once you arrive.
In almost every country, you get unlimited incoming calls for free. For lots more information on prepaid cell phones and related topics, see the helpful links on the next page. Sign up for our Newsletter! Mobile Newsletter banner close. Mobile Newsletter chat close. Mobile Newsletter chat dots. Mobile Newsletter chat avatar. Mobile Newsletter chat subscribe. Cell Phones. How Prepaid Cell Phones Work.
Prepaid cell phones are a great way to monitor teens' phone usage. Who Uses Prepaid Cell Phones? Read More. Advantages of Prepaid Cell Phones " ". Parents of teenagers. Enabling the phone's wi-fi is not required. However this method does not tell you the service expiration date. So it seems you don't need data to be on. It did not work the first time I tried with data off and thought that it had to be enabled so I turned it on and proceeded again with success.
Now I know it can be done with data disabled. Up until today, I had one of the tiny Samsung tracfones, and for some reason it rarely ever charged minutes for texting. The keypad was too small so today I got an LG tracfone and got everything transferred fine. But the LG does charge for texting I'm thinking of upgrading to another android tracfone. Would I be able to transfer all my minutes and phone number? I read a couple reviews that said when they upgraded to an android phone their minutes couldn't be transferred, but since I'm already using an android phone, it shouldn't be a problem, right?
He is not factoring in triple minutes. I received a data card as a Christmas gift Is there any way to exchange it for airtime? I don't know if anyone else has mentioned this, but I found it very confusing to try to get my minutes balance on my Android from the website Well, heck, I guess I am supposed to remember that they explain the MEID is also the serial number, on the red card I got- but that's not what my phone shows- nowhere does it say the MEID is the serial number-they have separate listings for each one.
So imagine my confusion when I keep trying to enter the last four of my serial number and get nowhere. The cust. And they rather talked down to me as they explained that the op guide also mentioned that. I couldn't recall- I was more interested in finding out how to plug it in, and turn it on!
And if my phone had the correct serial number next to where it said "serial number"-- no problem. The reps said I was looking at the manufacturer's serial number where did it say that it was the manufacturer's s.
So I asked if they could clarify the web page to say "Enter the last four of your serial number also called MEID DEC ": but they said they could not change the website. Is it controlled by the Mafia? I finally got a supervisor who apologized for the confusion, and said they would change it. Somehow, from past experience, I doubt they ever will.
Call me a skeptic. But I am going to hope I am the only one with this confusion. However, having written tech manuals for computers for over 16 yrs, I think I can say that having two names for 1 item serial number is stupid- and it's going to be confusing to more than one person I have a couple of non-Android Tracfones we will be transferring numbers to new Ultimate 2 Tracfones.
In regard to airtime: I am led to believe that our existing airtime will be tripled and split into three buckets on the new phones. Adding airtime directly to the Ultimate 2's will be different as the minutes are not tripled, they are whatever you pick.
Therefore, would it not be advantageous to add airtime to the old phone prior to transferring service and porting numbers to the new phones as whatever is on the new phone would effectively be tripled? Well, with all due respect, reading would help you a lot before complaining especially at this review.
You write "I found it very confusing to try to get my minutes balance on my Android from the website". If you had read above you would see that there is an app "Tracfone My Account" that you can get on Google Play and put a widget on your phone allowing you to update your balances automatically simply by tapping Update on the widget. Then you complain here about stuff that you should go to the Samsung forum about.
Tracfone doesn't have anything to do with how Samsung displays information, nor do all of us buy a Samsung brand phone, so Tracfone can't be held responsible for all the variety of "standard" ways phone companies display. And if you had read the Red Card from Tracfone, you would know what your SN was so you wouldn't have to look it up on the phone.
It really is a good place to start. Of course, if you had wanted to know what MEID stood for you could google it and you would see it meant SN, as well as IMEI and ESN and even "serial number" or SER , or any other of a dozen ways that people make up names for that 1 item, however stupid and confusing it might be to everyone who doesn't read the directions.
Having read countless tech manuals in my 70 years, I can tell you that reading them always helps a lot even if the writers force you to learn all the acronyms, technical jargon, and arcane terms they coin to explain something that could be called by some standardize term. But somehow, from past experience, I doubt that this will cause you to change your habits either.
Hi - I am evaluating if the Tracfone Smartphone plans will meet my needs. My question: is it possible to buy service days only with the Smartphone plans? So, If it is possible to buy service days only for the SmartPhone airtime cards, what are the prices and days offered? Thanks very much. With a Windows 10 phone, if you buy an airtime card, do the minutes triple? For example, a minute airtime card gives you minutes, texts, and MB. I checked on this and found the answer with a chat session on tracfoneforum.
Jean: Yes, you can purchase an additional plan. John: How much does it cost? Jean: Please allow me a moment while I check on this. John: Ok - thank you! I have an old fashion tracfone. I would like to upgrade to a tracfone smart phone. I never text, rarely call; mostly have it for a possible emergency or an occasional call.
The reason I want to change would be to be able to access the internet google remotely. What cost effective option would you recommend. Will I have to pay any new costs or just the usual minutes? If you turn off Data and only use WiFi it doesn't cost anything.
If you can't then it will cost you Data, but if you rarely use it, then you won't have to worry much about running out. Remember a smartphone is just a phone with a computer. It has a camera, GPS, and lots of tools apps as well, but don't worry about those. BTW, once you find out all the stuff you can do with a smart phone, I'm sure you will use it more. Email, maps, use it as a flashlight, camera, contact list, grocery lists, important numbers to remember like the oil filter number for your car, etc.
You'll be amazed at how smart you will be after a while. LOL Good luck. If I am changing my tracfone lg over to an android, how do my remaining minutes change over. Into the 3 pools, divided equally or just in talk. You have to turn off the mobile data option under "more" when connected to free Wi-Fi or TracFone still quietly charges you for somehow using their network services.
They don't tell users this upfront. It's a gotcha thing. They told me That Card did not offer that feature Bait and switch! I complained to HSN Before I purchase I want have a few questions. If she is on our home wifi and texts with her friends will it use her texting minutes? If she is on out home wifi, will it use her data. OR does it work like a regular cell phone switching between the two?
I just wasted too many airtime units trying to get a straight answer from someone working with a script. When I use my phone to check my email account. It takes about 5 seconds to load my email index and when I click on new emails it takes all of another 5 seconds to list them.
I look at a couple and then logout and off of the web. Now I expected a hit in my DATA units but instead, not as well, I got a 91 unit hit in my air time for what was 3 minutes in real time. I want to know why my airtime gets beat up instead of my data units getting used. My Tracfone script reader wasn't even close to coming up with a close answer. I want to switch from a Tracfone flip-phone to a Tracfone smartphone.
Will something similar happen on a smartphone? Will I be charged for 2 texts since it is a 2 step process on a flip-phone when I try to open a group text? Also will group texts on a Tracfone smartphone be displayed as an "ongoing" conversation or will I end up seeing each person's reply to the group text as a separate text like it does on my flip-phone? Alice, texting charges on a smart phone are separate from the phone charges separate accounts , whereas text and voice are the same account on your flip-phone and I can't understand why you are charged twice.
Have you contacted TF to ask why? I've never had two charges on the smart phone. On the other hand, I've no experience with group texting, as I use my email for groups and download using secure wifi which is free. I'm pretty sure she will be charged regardless because texting relies on phone service. You might want to check out this website for how to send text for free from a computer.
To prevent use of data, you must turn it off and wifi on. I find the tendency is to default to data more profitable when available. Having only wifi on at home is cheaper. Use Google Hangouts or similar app to make calls using your wi-fi then you shouldn't use up your minutes.
Make sure to turn off location and mobile network. If I use my Trac smart phone to take a picture, does this use count against any of my time allocations? If so, which one talk, text, web? If I am at my favorite restaurant McDonalds and use my Trac smart phone to get on McDonalds internet, does the time I spend on the net use any of my Trac time?
If so, from which pool? Thanks, John.
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