iv used tracfone for years, I dont have a job at the moment, and i seldom ever actually use my talk minutes, I like that I can keep a little talk minutes but just keep loading up text as I need them. I can go weeks/months without putting money on my phone which I like rather than a monthly bill.
I would suggest going for any of the smart phones because most of them will triple your minutes/text/data
I recently switched to the ZTE Citrine, because I forgot my last phone was in my pocket and I went swimming xD. I actually really enjoy this phone compared to my last one. The signal on it isnt great (two bars instead of my usual 4) but im honestly wondering if its because it has a larger range? because I never actually have a problem with dropped calls or bad service xD.
Iv had SO many phones that I could give you reviews on, but Im not home. Two that I would recommend NOT getting, just because we've had a lot of problems with them...
LG 306G: I used this phone for about a year myself but then passed it onto my son.
Problems: =The clock will randomly jump many hours ahead or behind. problematic because it seems to always happen at night when you dont notice, so if you need to wake up and you're using your phone as an alarm clock like me, its not reliable xD, after looking up help online, I found this was a common problem with this phone.
=The phone will randomly mute so you cant hear your call, but they can hear you, and unmuting it wont work? this happened to my son a lot, and it happened to me when I tested it.
Samsung Galaxy Stardust: Not really a bad phone, it was my last one, only stopped working because it got wet. But the screen glitched a lot, would suddenly looks like bars, all I had to do to fix it was tap the power button, but if it happened while I wasnt looking, it would start to burn into the screen, and id have to keep it turned off for a while to fix it. Not sure if this was just MY phone, I never really looked into it, but I figured Id just throw it out there
Other problems with tracfone, If you run out of days and you dont add more within, like 30 days, you might loose your number and any minutes/text/data you had left on your phone
Post Merge: June 28, 2016, 09:44:50 AMI've had one in the past. The coverage and service was fine, but what I didn't like is starting when I was down to about 25 minutes, it would constantly leave me voicemails to buy more minutes. Then, the minutes expire if you don't buy more. That was awhile back but it was enough to get me to stop using it. Have you looked into Boost?
iv never had this happen, It might be something specific to the phone you had, Iv had phones that would send texts when you get low, or phones that just notify you via notifications of some kind. Or like you said, It could just be an older service that they dont use anymore.
Post Merge: June 28, 2016, 09:50:36 AM
They have this samsung core tracfone bundled with the 1 year card for 89.99, so less than a card by itself
http://www.hsn.com/products/samsung-galaxy-core-prime-tracfone-w1200-minutes/8064467
Edit: Oh and they don't sell it in stores but you can buy a cards that just add texts or date online. It's $5 for 1000 texts or $10 for 1gb data.
Thats actually an incredible deal, The core prime isnt a terrible phone, if youre looking for something that does its job, which seems to be the case with most Tracfones xD Theyre not "incredible" but they get the job done. :p But that minutes bundle is a great deal.