Tracfone Money Saving Tips and Tricks
Most people who use Tracfone prepaid service are looking for the best deal and lowest prices on airtime and smartphones. And we're got a list of the best Tracfone money-saving tips and tricks to help!
Even using just a few of these tips could save lots of money on both smartphones and airtime. We also have additional information for some of these tips linked, so follow those to learn even more.
Let's get started!
Top 7 Tracfone Tips and Tricks to Save Money
1. Check and Track your Airtime Regularly
Knowing how and when you are using your airtime is the first step to getting the most from Tracfone's prepaid service. If you are using a lot of texts or calling minutes, maybe switch to an unlimited talk/text plan. If you notice you use a lot of data during your commute, maybe download those videos or media beforehand over WIFI to save the data.
There is also a long history of Tracfone making mistakes when it comes to keeping track of customer's airtime balances, so keeping an eye on it yourself is the best bet.
Here are the top 3 ways to track your airtime:
- Text 'Balance' to 611611
- Use the 'Tracfone My Account' app to check airtime and even add a widget to your home screen
- Log into your account on the Tracfone website
2. Find the Best and Cheapest Plan that Fits Your Needs
Tracfone offers a lot of different cheap plans but finding the best one for your needs can be a little tricky. You don't want to pay for things you are not using.
For users that require minimal talk/text/data, the 60 Minute card for $20 with 90 service days or the 1 Year/400 Minute card are both cheap options for a lot of service days with a small number of Tracfone minutes.
Want an even cheaper way for a year of service? Get an airtime bundle with a new smartphone from HSN or QVC. Now you will have to switch devices to a new phone, but that process is usually pretty fast and easy, and there are several options for under $100. That includes a year of service, a new phone, and usually 1500 minutes.
For those that use their phone more frequently, consider Tracfone's unlimited talk/text plans which include varying amounts of data. For these plans, managing your data use is important but additional data can also be purchased as needed.
See more about the Best and Cheapest Tracfone plans including best unlimited plans.
3. Buy Tracfone Smartphones when they are on Sale
Tracfone offers their phones through a variety of retailers and they are often going on sale for great discounts. These retailers, such as Amazon, eBay, BestBuy, HSN and QVC, offer many different models of Tracfone smartphones and will put certain ones on sale at different times.
Some of last year's devices are on sale for more than 50% off, and Tracfone usually offers major deals around Black Friday.
To find the latest deals, head over to our monthly deals list which we update with the best prices.
4. Use Auto-Refill and Save
Many of Tracfone's monthly plans offer a small discount when you enroll in auto-refill. So not only do you not have to worry about buying a new airtime card each month, you get it at a discounted rate. Not all plans offer that, so be sure to check that the one that fits your needs the best has it.
The 60 minute card with 90 service days is just $17.99 with auto-refill making it just $6 per month for service and a small amount of airtime. The unlimited talk and text cards offer a discount for purchasing in 3, 6 or 12 month increments.
The best auto-refill discounts are for the basic phone cards, and you should choose the one that offers the amount of airtime you think you will need.
5. Use the 1 Year Airtime Cards
Another great money-saving option is to consider a yearly plan, which comes with a full year of service along with varying amounts of airtime. There are several different options at different price points, but they each offer a certain amount of talk, text and data.
The 1 Year/400 minute option costs just $99 and comes out to about $8.25 per month (but there are also promo codes that can be used for an additional $15 off, see the next tip)
The $20 unlimited plan which offers 2GB data per month, can be purchased in a 12 month increment for $192 which is just $16/mo and includes 24GB data. Tracfone offers other unlimited plan options, which are all discounted when purchasing 12 months at a time.
Whichever plan fits your needs, they all offer a lot of convenience, while also delivering a fairly low cost.
6. Use Tracfone Promo Codes
Tracfone used to offer a wide variety of promotional codes to get extra airtime for free when adding a card. However, since Verizon acquired Tracfone, we have not seen many new codes.
There are still a few codes for certain airtime cards that can get extra minutes for free or a discounted price and Tracfone offers some discounts on new phones. Visit our Tracfone Promo Code page for all the codes, and to get $15 off the 1 Year/400 Minute card use code 83597 at checkout.
7. Use the Rewards Program - Sign up with 7,000 Points!
If you are not already in the Tracfone rewards program, check it out here (and get started with 7,000 points using code CTGU-D940 in your dashboard referral box)
Reward points are earned by purchasing airtime and a variety of other methods, and they can be used to add airtime or even get gift cards. We did a full write up on the Tracfone Rewards program so take a look to learn more.
There are sure to be more tips and tricks for Tracfone and if you have one, share it down in the comments or head over to our Facebook page to join the conversation!
For more on the basics of Tracfone, visit our Beginners Guide.
Also take a look at our List of the Best Tracfone Smartphones under $100!
Finally, learn how to Make your Airtime Last Longer and also check out our recent post on How Data works with Tracfone.
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