Verizon Adds New Plans on Total Wireless, Rebrands as Total by Verizon
Big changes have come to Total Wireless, owned by parent company Tracfone, which was acquired by Verizon in 2021. These changes include a complete rebranding, and new plans.
Total Wireless is now Total, by Verizon, and has new prices and plans for it's prepaid service. In general, the plans are a similar price, and offer more data. But for unlimited data, customers will have to pay $50-$60, and at that price, there are plenty of other competitive options.
For price-conscious Tracfone customers, the question is, will Verizon be making significant changes to plans and prices on Tracfone? We haven't heard of any updates, but this may be the first step in Verizon's long-term plan for the Tracfone brand, and family of brands.
Changes to Total Wireless (Now Total by Verizon)
The main changes to Total are a rebranding, and updated prices and plans.
Total by Verizon - New Plans:
$30/mo - Unlimited Talk/Text and 5GB Data
$40/mo - Unlimited Talk/Text and 15GB data
$50/mo - Unlimited Talk/Text/Data plus additional benefits
$60/mo - Unlimited Talk/Text/Data plus unlimited Talk/Text to 69 countries, Disney Plus, and more
Tracfone also offers a $30/mo unlimited Talk/Text plan, but it comes with only 4GB data. And Tracfone's $40 unlimited plan comes with only 8GB data. So these plans from Total offer more data, for the same price.
But, Tracfone offers several cards and plans at a much lower cost compared to Total, such as the $20 unlimited talk/text plan with 2GB data. And, as we all know, Tracfone is the better choice for budget buyers and those that don't need a lot of data.
Bottom line: Total by Verizon's plans are focused more on the high-end prepaid customer. Their $50 and $60 plans are just too expensive for the average prepaid users and there are a number of cheaper unlimited plan options out there, as we outlined in our list of the Best Alternatives to Tracfone. These include Visible (owned by Verizon), Google Fi, Mint, and Tello which all offer unlimited talk/text/data options for under $40.
While Total's $30 and $40 are interesting, they only benefit users who fit that specific category of data usage (5-15GB used per month). And there's no mention about data carryover that we could find.
When Will Verizon Make Changes to Tracfone?
We've actually seen some minor changes recently, which consisted of data amounts for the unlimited cards getting updated, but we haven't seen any major changes and nothing has been released at this time to suggest any big changes coming to Tracfone.
Tracfone's website has been extremely problematic. With many customers reporting everything from account access issues, to being unable to add or buy airtime. Plus, Promo Codes have been unreliable, with some codes working for one account or phone, but not another.
It is possible that Verizon is working on developing a rebranding for Tracfone, and thus is letting some of these major website issues go until a new site is launched. Or Verizon may just be focusing attention on some of Tracfone's other brands, and ignoring the issues all-together.
Whatever the case may be, we know that Verizon is working to get all Tracfone users switched over to the Verizon network, and sometime in the near future they likely won't offer access to any other network besides their own.
Will Verizon change Tracfone airtime cards and plans? That seems unlikely, but not out of the question.
Share your thoughts on these updates and changes on our Facebook page or in the comments below.
If you're shopping for a smartphone, be sure to check out our List of the Best Tracfone Smartphones, which includes some of best current smartphones available from Tracfone. And for cost-conscious people, we just published the Best Tracfone Smartphones under $100 list.
You can also Bring Your Own Phone to Tracfone, including devices like the Moto G Stylus, iPhone, and more
See our Latest list of Deals and Discounts on Tracfone cell phones, but be careful, you might find a deal too good to pass up!
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Would love 5GB for $10 to come to Tracfone.
ReplyDeleteChange TracFone, how about a 20 year motto of TracFone, "If you don't use it you keep it! It's that simple!" ? Nowhere to be found on Verizon-Tracfone Wireless's website when lately you hear of Verizon-Tracfone Wireless intentionally losing grandfathered balances of its customers!
ReplyDeleteThese days before the switch back to Verizon SIM fiasco you are better off activating your unused locked TracFones and unlocking them on day 61 then bailing and leaving TracFone Wireless for good; hearing all about the customers who Verizon-Tracfone Wireless has on purpose lost customers grandfathered balances!
Along with only now giving 500 bonus rewards points for adding new lines when it was as much as 10,000 points just recently!
Pay attention people!
I am a 14+ year customer of Tracfone. I chose Tracfone for my very first mobile phone and loved the simplicity and value of it. However, Tracfone has steadily increased the complexity of their service plans and keeps thwarting the ability to have a simple way to pay for mobile phone service. I am looking at tello.com, as its plans are simpler, cheaper, and offer a way to have choices that can be customized to what you need. I am looking to use up my Tracfone service, and then I plan to take a closer look at Tello.com. The Verizon takeover of Tracfone indicates that the long-term goal seems to be to drive customers who want value and simplicity away from Tracfone, which is disappointing.
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