Does Tracfone Really Save You Money?
These days there are many different options when it comes to prepaid cell phones. Verizon has INpulse, T-Mobile has ToGo and there are also Virgin Mobile and At&T's GoPhone.
First, let's see where Tracfone came from, and examine it's network, then we'll see if you can really save money.
Tracfone was founded as Topp Telecom Inc. in Miami Florida nearly twelve years ago. In 1999, the majority stake was bought by Mexico's largest telephone company, who created a special unit just for wireless sales, América Móvil, of which Topp Telecom (renamed Tracfone) became a subsidiary.
Tracfone claims to be the largest prepaid cellular provider in the U.S., and it also services Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. It operates the sixth-largest mobile network here in America, and owns the largest virtual network (they resell unused bandwidth from other top carriers such as Verizon, Sprint and AT&T) as well. Having the largest virtual network, Tracfone claims that it has a national coverage area (or footprint) over 99% of the U.S. population, due to the fact that it runs off of many other big providers' networks, essentially quadrupling the amount of towers one would have access to as a customer of just one of the other carriers. Now, that we've seen that this company has national coverage and scope, is well-funded, and the leader in prepaid calling, let's examine if you can save money with their service. First off, you will nearly always save money with prepaid services versus a contract cellular plan. This is assuming of course, that you use your mobile phone sparingly, which is the most common reason people choose a prepaid phone over a contract in the first place. However, that being said, there are some drawbacks to prepaid cellular phones, one being the inconvenience of having to "recharge" or "top up" the minutes on the phone, as well as the limitations in the length of service being dependent upon purchasing new minutes within the time-period set by the company. If you are willing to put up with these limitations, Tracfone could well save you quite a bit of money. As well, they have a major advantage over other prepaid carriers, for they allow you to buy minutes on a card that extends the "recharge" period to one full year, rather than the more common 90 days of other companies. Additionally, Tracfone has created an easy to use monthly plans that require no contract, 50 minutes automatically charged to your phone every month for $9.99 or $19.99 for 100 minutes. If you do not wish to have a recurring monthly plan, you can buy minutes ala carte whenever you desire. There best deal is to buy 800 minutes, along with 200 bonus minutes that are all good for one year. As well, this package gives you double the amount of minutes purchased from that point on. When you do the math, it is approximately $.20 per minute, and only $.10 when you purchase a double minutes for life package as just described. Clearly, you can save money by selecting Tracfone for your mobile calling needs. I currently have Verizon, for which I pay nearly $50 every month, and with that I get 450 minutes - of which I use only about 200. That means my per minute charge comes out to about $.25/min, much higher than Tracfone. If you don't use your wireless phone that often, Tracfone is an economical option that could bring you a substantial savings over contract carriers.
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