August 29, 2019

Best Deal on Prepaid Minutes - Tracfone Airtime Guide

Airtime Comparison - Which Tracfone Card Should you Buy? 

Welcome to TracfoneReviewer, a blog about all things Tracfone related! 

best deal on tracfone minutes
Best deal on Tracfone Minutes
Is it cheaper to buy the 60 minute card every three months or the 1 Year Card? What is the cheapest way to buy service days? We hear these questions, and more, quite often, and wanted to share the answers to these questions, as well as others, with our readers.

Find out the cheapest way to get  talk, text or data, and we will also share details on which airtime cards offer the best value..

With Tracfone airtime cards, there isn't a 'best' card for everyone, because it all depends on how much airtime you use, and if you use your talk, text or data more.

So we have included several common scenarios, with the best airtime card for that situation.

Cheapest Way to Add Service Days:
Tracfone recently stopped offering their 365 service day card for $50 which is not good for users who just need additional service days. There are still some options for getting additional service days at a low cost.

The cheapest way to get more service days is to get the 60 minute regular airtime card for $20. It comes with 90 service days, making it about $80 for a year's worth of service days. Another good option is the 1 year/ 400 minute card that retails for $100 (but there are often $15 off promo codes available).

Cheapest Way to Add Only Talk Minutes
Tracfone just launched a new Talk-only add-on card that gives users additional talk time and nothing else. The card is $10 for 500 talk minutes which works out to be 2 cents per minute. Learn more with our Guide to the Talk Add-on Card.

Cheapest Way to Add only Texts:
The cheapest way to add texts to your phone is to buy the 1000 text card for $5. That works out to just half a penny per text.

This card is only available for smartphones. Learn more in our Guide to the Text Only Card from Tracfone and remember that there are promo codes for this card as well!

Cheapest Way to Add only Data:
The cheapest way to add data to your smartphone is to buy the 1000 MB (1 GB) card for $10. This card, like the other add-on cards gives you just data with no additional service days. It comes out to 1 cent per mb of data. Get more details and tips on using data in our guide.

Best Deal for Texts and Data (and some talk minutes):
The best deal for adding both texts and data is to add the $15 smartphone card which gives you 500 texts, 500 MB data, 30 service days and 500 talk minutes. The value of all of this airtime is $1750 not including the 30 service days, which is a fantastic deal. If you don't need service days or talk minutes, just add the text, talk, or data only cards. If you want more talk time, consider the 750 minute $35 card which also gives 1000 texts and 1000 MB.

Best Tracfone Airtime Card
The best airtime card to buy is the one that fits with the amount of minutes you use. Some cards are a better value than others, but if you're not using the airtime anyway, it doesn't really matter. Of course, airtime never expires, as long as you still have service days.

The 500 Minute ($25), 750 Minute ($35) and 750 Minute ($50) smartphone only cards are all less than $20 a month, and give the best value on talk, text and data minutes.

Tracfone also just started offering unlimited airtime cards which include unlimited talk and text, and fixed amounts of data and 30 service days. The cards are priced from $20-$30 and are great for heavy talk/text users. Get all the information on these new unlimited cards in our guide.

Conclusion:
With Tracfone, you get to monitor what you use, and purchase the airtime you need. Airtime usage may change from month to month, allowing users to purchase a different airtime card depending on the need.

If you prefer not to worry about purchasing more airtime every few months, Tracfone's auto refill might be a good option. We have already created a Guide to Tracfone auto refill which includes a look at the best value.

Tracfone Airtime Comparison - Smartphone Cards, Regular Cards and Unlimited Cards

Tracfone has been making some changes to their airtime card offering and adding some new options. Here is a breakdown of all the current airtime card options available to Tracfone users.

tracfone airtime cards breakdown
List of Tracfone Airtime Cards - Regular, Smartphone-Only and Unlimited Airtime Cards
Tracfone now offers three types of airtime cards (not including their add-on cards). Any of these cards can be added to a smartphone, but a non-smartphone can only use the regular airtime cards.

Looking at which options are the best value, the smartphone cards generally offer more talk, text and data compared to the regular airtime cards. The $15 smartphone card is a great deal if you need more of everything, with the value of all that airtime at $17.50 (not including the 30 additional service days!).

Finding the best airtime card is all about managing and tracking your airtime usage. And if you are running low, choose the card that makes the most sense depending on what you need. We will sharing a cost breakdown of each card soon.

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We hope this information is helpful, and please leave a comment with any thoughts or questions. Be sure to also follow us on Facebook with a growing community of Tracfone users.

If you're still new to Tracfone, consider our Beginners Guide to Tracfone which will share a variety of information to get you started.

Make your airtime stretch even further with 7 Tips to Make your Airtime Last Longer.

Finally, see what phones are new with our List of the Latest Phones from Tracfone.

Thanks for visiting!

24 comments :

Unknown said...

Will they ever bring back the 3000 minute cards or are they two cost effective

Anonymous said...

I just called Tracfone and they said the cards are no longer triple minutes for smartphone users. I know the smartphone cards never were, but now the pay-as-you-go cards are only double minutes. Is this correct or did I misunderstand?

Hoody said...

I don't think so, I just bought a 60 min card for my BYOP this month and it tripled.

Anonymous said...

I have always had the one year card on my phone and only added the extra data when needed. Here is my question. If I add a 30 day card on to it will the 30 days add on to my year end date. The $20 smartphone only card sounds like one I might try since I already like to add data and text. A one time purchase would get me also minutes. This new no triple minutes on fones is confusing. QVC has a fone today that I would probably upgrade to but doesnt have triple minutes so i am passing till I figure out if my fone i have now would work better for me.

TracfoneReviewer Team said...

Re Anonymous:

Yes, if you add the $20 smartphone card the 30 service days will be added onto your existing service days. That card is a great value if you also want talk/data.

Anonymous said...

Unless I'm missing something, I think that you have some math errors in both the table and the chart. For example, 300 talk minutes for $20 is $.0066 per minute, not $.018, and 15 minutes per dollar, not more than 350.

Anonymous said...

Do smartphone only plan minutes, texts, and data rollover like regular plan cards that triple? Or do they expire at the end of 30 days if a 30 day plan? I like the rollover feature of regular plan cards.

Anonymous said...

I use my TracFone for talk & text. I seldom use data. I was given an older, unlocked smart phone. Sounds like instead of passing off my TMFL phone, I should keep it for adding minutes, then switch out the SIM for use.

Anonymous said...

Can I use your $9.99 30 minute Airtime option and then add 365 days for $49.99 to increase service days on my smartphone?

Dean said...

I also do not understand the numbers in your table and chart. If I buy a 200 minute airtime card for $40, I get 600 talk minutes. If I buy 2 300 minute smartphone only cards at $20 each, I would spend $40 and get 600 talk minutes. Therefore the cost per minute is the same. You do get some extra text and data airtime, but that does not lower the cost of the talk minutes.

TracfoneReviewer Team said...

RE: Dean

In the graph in this post, the cost of service days, data and texts are factored out to leave just the cost of talk time, which in the case of the 300 min card, leaves it really skewing the results. This is because you get $10 worth of data, $5 worth of texts and $4.167 worth of service days with this card resulting in just the cost for the 300 talk minutes at just under $1.

In your example, where you can buy a 200 min card for $40 vs 2 300 min cards for $40, you would get the same talk time for each, but the 2x 300 min card would be a much better value (you would get 600 talk, 2000 text, 2000 mb data and 60 service days vs 600 talk/text/data and 90 service days)

If you don't need texts/data, then it doesn't matter which option you go with. But, if you use all three, then the 2 x 300 min smartphone card is better value. Also, if you just need service days, the 60 min card is the best value.

Hope that is clear enough.

pkd said...

For my "dumb" phone account, when I select the $9.99 Pay As You Go Plan on the checkout screen I see:
MORE FOR YOUR PHONE, with options including
365 Extra Service Days $49.99 with a box checked and REMOVE next to it, but I can't add it to my order.

Callahan said...

Thanks for this post, the cost analysis table was really helpful.

ThePaintedTiger said...

Just went to add Smartphone service, and the 365 day airtime for $49.99 option is gone, only Texts, Data, and Global Airtime are given as add on options. Too bad, I only really need the airtime.

Unit Shifter said...

I would love to see more focus on "optimizing for service days". I'm aware there's one entry for 13 months for about $60, but my time use isn't zero, it just tends to be very low to low.

I actually find it cheaper to buy certain HSN bundles with cheaper phones which sometimes are out the door with a year of service with a new phone for less than just any airtime bundle if you take care of the right yearly sales. Whether or not that can be relied upon, there are some other optimized "low to very low" usage scenarios where days of service is primary.

Anonymous said...

I agree that there are errors in the spreadsheet calculations that Anonymous writes in June 30, 2017 post.

I have uploaded a screen capture of a revised spreadsheet to
https://i.imgur.com/4UDf2PP.png

The minutes, texts, and data amounts are from Tracfone's website.
The values for "Basic Phone Plans" reflect the values as of December 4, 2018.
The new smartphones are not getting triple of anything.

If you are in a bind and you need to add minutes, the cheapest card to buy is the $20 Smartphone Plan card which gives you 30 days/300/1000/1000.

The spreadsheet uses values that 1000 texts = $5 and 1000 MB data = $10 which are the add-on cards that one can buy.

.

Jim said...

The numbers in the chart do not appear to be correct. Please recheck your math!

CucuKids said...

FYI. Tracfone no longer offers the option to add 365 days of service for $50 as an add on just before checkout.

Anonymous said...

""FYI. Tracfone no longer offers the option to add 365 days of service for $50 as an add on just before checkout.""

They do if you have a Tracfone branded phone

Anonymous said...

Best overall deal appears on tracfone ebay store $49.95 for one year, 3g data and 1200 texts and 1200 minutes.

PoodleSisters said...

Actually, one can still take advantage of the 365 service day option for $49.99. First, add a classic 356 day plan for $125.00. You will then be given the option to add 356 Extra Service Days for $49.99. You then delete the Classic 356 Day Plan, and you are left with just the 356 Extra Service Days for $49.99. It does work!

Anonymous said...

Wow, thanks Anonymous @September 1, 2019 at 5:24 PM, that's a great deal!

Anonymous said...

2/14/2020 ; added 450 min card to triple min phone and used promo code 83775 (50 min). 450 X 3 added to phone but was requested to call 18008677183 to complete trans action. I was told promo was added and it turned out it was not added. So, Promo 83775(50min) was not added. Promo didn't work.

Anonymous said...

I have a smart phone.
I have low usage.
I buy 1 year service plan for the 365 days.
I also check this web site
https://tracfonereviewer.blogspot.com/p/tracfone-promo-codes.html
I found code 22448 PROMO and got $50 discount off 1 year plan!
HOWEVER - The Tracfone MY ACCOUNT web page which I used to buy the plan was BAD.
The web page accecpted the PROMO CODE and showed adjusted price.
But when completing, Tracfone charged my card the full non-promo price (bait and switch?).
Took me 2 phone calls to Tracfone to try and get this fixed. I was told they would adjust the price for $50 discount. I have to wait and see if it actually gets corrected...