Just about everyone has a cell phone these days. I am seeing very young children with their own cellphones. Not only that – they are smartphones too! Does a 5 year old really need a smartphone?
My husband and I were adamant about not letting our kids have cellphones until they were teenagers. Due to an incident that happened at day camp one summer when they were little we purchased TracFones for them. We didn’t want to incur the expense of adding them to our current plan and we didn’t want to spend a small fortune on phones. TracFone suited our needs perfectly.
If you are not familiar with TracFone it’s a phone service where you pre-pay minutes – or “pay as you go” so to speak.
When our kids had their TracFones we would purchase minutes for them as needed. Our son never used the phone so his minutes were never an issue. In order for his minutes to carry over we had to add more minutes (we would go for the least amount possible). He eventually ended up with so many minutes we swapped his phone with our daughter’s phone. She would burn through her minutes in a matter of days. She was fine at first but once she learned all about texting she would text through her minutes each month. For her birthday and Christmas we would give her a lot of minutes for her TracFone. She loved it.
Eventually we moved our kids on to our phone plan (with our daughter’s texting it just made better sense). Although my husband and I were very pleased with the TracFone service. We could gladly move our kids back to TracFone in a heartbeat if we could but they are crazy about texting and surfing the Internet.
TracFone has come a long way since then. Now they offer smartphones which I think is pretty cool. If you are someone who doesn’t use their phone 24/7 to text, update your Facebook status or Instagram photos of your lunch, I would recommend TracFone based on our experiences.
Now consumers can purchase Android smartphones and corresponding plans fro TracFone for as low as $7.00 a month and that includes data.
If you are looking into getting your child or grandchild their first cellphone for the holidays you should consider TracFone. Their Android plans allow you to use just what they need each month without spending the extra cash to do it.
Unlike traditional cellphone plans, TracFone offers;
- Flexible plans with three times the talk, text and data – for example, you can purchase a 60-minute card that automatically triples to 180 minutes, 180 texts and 180 MB of data for $19.99 for 90 days or only $7 a month
- These Plans are all available on an assortment of affordable Android-powered smartphones from leading brands like Samsung, LG and Motorola.
- Phones and Plans are available on the TracFone website and will be rolling out to participating retailers across the U.S. this month
- Helpful app that tells you how much talk, text and data you are using at any time – available mid-October. I love this idea! I wish we had such an app when my kids had TracFones. We could have kept on top of our daughter’s usage.
- Convenient Android-only data cards that let you add data as needed, as long as you have active service (data cards do not triple) – 300MB ($10), 750MB ($20), 2GB ($50).
- Ability to Carryover® unused minutes, text and data for as long as service is active.
TracFone also offers a lot of extras including Refer-a-Friend (earn $$$ for each referral you get), Trac N’ Safe (offering hundreds of discounts) and more.
TracFone smartphone allow you to download your favorite apps too!
TracFone can also be used to make International calls so that you can keep in touch with family and friends around the world.
As you can see, TracFone is just like any other phone service with the exception that you don’t have to worry about contracts or monthly bills. TracFone is low cost and low cost to keep. It puts YOU in control of your service.
Personally I think TracFone is a great starter phone for an older child or teen, especially if your current phone service providers charges for texts and data usage. TracFone does too but the worse that would happen is that your child will use up all their minutes. With other phone services you might get a surprise $3,000 bill in the mail. It does happen. Google it. You’ll be shocked at what you find, like Washington High School student Sofia Rubenstein, 17, who ran her phone bill up to $1,100 from nearly 7,000 texts. There is also Gregg and Jaylene Christoffersen whose daughter Dena ran up a $4,756.25 bill by making nearly 10,000 texts in the matter of a month. With TracFone once the pre-paid minutes are used up – that’s it! You can’t run it up anymore (the phone won’t work once minutes are used up).
I also think Tracfones are great for seniors or people who simply don’t need a phone for every day use (more so for emergencies) and people who like to stick to a budget.
For more information about TracFone please visit www.TracFone.com. You can also check them out on Facebook and Twitter.
Do you have any experience with TracFone? Feel free to share your experiences and/or thoughts.
Kimberly
*I have partnered with Tracfone to bring you this post. The opinions expressed are entirely my own and not influenced in any way.
Debbie Welchert says
I don’t have a phone and this sounds perfect for me. I would use it basically for emergencies. I will be checking to this more. Thanks for the info.
alicia k (Petite Pilates Pixie) says
Hmmm but do they carry iPhones? i love mine