Trac Phones

[Rosie]

Do any of you have one.. Do you like it. How is the coverage..what company do you have

[Genevanpreacher]

1 hour ago, Rosie said:

Do any of you have one.. Do you like it. How is the coverage..what company do you have

Hey Rosie.

I have had an old flip phone from Tracfone for years. It was always good on price and coverage wherever we lived. I finally let it die in peace about 2 years ago - it was a 2g phone anyway. Now we use 4g, and that's not the latest.

Net10 and Tracfone are from the same company. I forget who owns who. My wife and I have had Net10 phones for about 12 years I think. Where we just moved to is a dead spot for internet and phones. Except Verizon. We still haven't switched to them but we are getting close. Sometimes we get a signal, sometimes we have to search out a spot in our yard to get it.

Of the two I prefer Net10, but for our area it's almost useless now.

Just be sure and get a smart phone - the way companies are going, you'll need it soon anyway.

Lord bless.

[John Young]

Check out Republic Wireless. They have the best rates for smart phones. I have got $150 Moto G smart phone and unlimited talk, text, and wifi for $10 a month. Cell data is extra though.

I used Net10 before switching to Republic. Net10 was okay unless you had to call customer service then they were a pain.

https://republicwireless.com/

[Rosie]

thank you for your help I will check these out. my problem is i live in a dead zone.. my service is extremely poor.. so I'm not sure if i will do better with a trac phone or worse

[John Young]

16 minutes ago, Rosie said:

my problem is i live in a dead zone.. my service is extremely poor.. so I'm not sure if i will do better with a trac phone or worse

Is this just near your house or your general community? If its just your house then you can get a cell phone that can connect to your home wifi but if it is your larger community then you might check around to see who owns the cell towers closet to you. Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint all have their own tower service. (republic uses sprint). Some areas deep in the country or in rugged terrain cell single simply will not penetrate and perhaps their is a satellite company that you could look into. They are more expensive but sometimes is the only option.

[Genevanpreacher]

3 hours ago, Rosie said:

thank you for your help I will check these out. my problem is i live in a dead zone.. my service is extremely poor.. so I'm not sure if i will do better with a trac phone or worse

Prepaid phones are fairly cheap to experiment with. Maybe purchase a cheapy from Verizon or Sprint and check'em out that way. Most models now are 3 or 4 g and will let you know the strength before you purchase a 'better' phone like a smart phone. 

I am currently using a.Samsung Note 2 (pretty old model) from AT&T - but I ordered a chip from Net10 to switch it over to prepaid Net10. It worked fine. But now that we live here I checked to see if Verizon would do the same chip thingy, they said my phone is too old.

Wee.

But everyone who I talk to in our area all say Verizon is the only one who they can get a service signal from.

Anyone in your area you can ask and get a consensus from?

Maybe neighbors are good for something?

[No Nicolaitans]

I use tracfone, and my wife's phone and our home phone are both with StraightTalk...which again is the same company as tracfone.

I love tracfone. They recently gave me a year of free service for being with them so long.

One thing to realize Rosie, is that you should try to find out which MAJOR cell phone carrier works best in your area; such as, Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, etc...then choose a tracfone (or other brand) that works with that carrier's towers. In other words, different tracfones work best on different towers. I only use LG tracfones, because they use Verizon towers...which are best in our area 

I know it's confusing...sorry.

 

[Rosie]

there are 3 or 4 towers near me and Verizon won't build anymore as they say its sufficient.. it may be but i have trees all around me and i live at the bottom of a hill.... i have Verizon and know they have the best service, so if i switch i may be in trouble... i appreicate all of your help i will look into your suggestions..Verizon wants me to buy at $250.00 booster. not going to happen.. they should send me one free because of their poor service.. everyone here has the same problem...

[No Nicolaitans]

Well, if the signal is poor, I would guess that it probably won't make a difference if you use a different phone...other than getting out of a contract.

Also...just to clarify...some trafones are made to work with Verizon, and some are made to work with AT&T. There's usually a coverage map on the tracfone box telling which one it works with.

[DaveW]

Talk to your neighbors about everyone who has poor coverage sending them an email or letter. Maybe if there are enough letters they will do something?

[Rosie]

thats what I am afraid of N N... of having worse service

 

Dave we all have been thru the works with them... nothing works.. 

[Jim_Alaska]

Rosie,

I have virtually no experience with the issues you talk about. I hate cell phones with one exception; for emergencies while on the road. I would never, never have a cell phone as my home phone, but that's just me. My prejudice against cell phone is reinforced daily when I see all the hoops and fiddling that my wife goes through just to have a cell phone, smart phone, or whatever they are called now.

But that aside; I was telling my wife about this thread and your problem because she is pretty knowledgeable in this area, mainly because we live very remote and in mountainous location. She agreed that Verizon should be the best based on what we see here with different carriers.

She mentioned that I should suggest to you that you may want to look on Amazon for a booster that may sell for way less than $250. Perhaps you don't want to pay anything for a booster because you said you thought that verizon should provide it, but if not, this may be an option that helps.

Hope this is of some help.

[Rosie]

thank you JIm for your help.. Verizon and my neighbors have suggested the booster, but 250 is alot of money, know what I mean... 

[Rosie]

Jim are you telling me that your wife had poor service with her phone with Verizon and since she got a trac phone her service is better as in getting a better signal and not dropping calls

[Invicta]

4 minutes ago, Rosie said:

Jim are you telling me that your wife had poor service with her phone with Verizon and since she got a trac phone her service is better as in getting a better signal and not dropping calls

I expect which service works best in your area depends on which provider has a mast nearer to you. On my provider, here in the UK, 3, if you cant get a signal and you can access internet you can use your phone through wifi..  This works in large stores which are often dead spots but have free wifi. The service is called 3 In Touch, it costs the same as your network calls.