Does Anyone Have Experience with Tracfones?

We had both our teens on Straight Talk (Walmart) for a couple of years before switching to a phone with a plan.
The signal on the pre-paid phones is great because they use the towers from all the top carriers. The billing is done monthly charged to a credit/bank card or you can go once a month and refill it. We just had a bank card tied to it, made it easier.
There weren't any hidden fees, taxes are what they are. But the Straight Talk phones ran around $35 a month with unlimited talk and text.
Tracfone works the same. You can even get iPhones on the month to month plans now.

check out straight talk thru Walmart, just a suggestion 1

I have a tracfone, and while it is great for me because I rarely use it except for an occasional quick call or text with my daughter, I would absolutely NOT recommend it for anyone who will actually use it on a regular basis. This is the link for the cost of the airtime cards: https://www.tracfone.com/direct/Purchase?payGo=true&a...

There is no unlimited talk or text options. Calls are charged by the minute and texts both incoming and outgoing are a third of a minute, and some phones charge that third even if the text fails to go through and needs to be resent. I have no idea how much data costs as I have never used that feature. I'm not even sure if my phone has data :)

Some phones are double or triple minute phones which means if you buy a 60 minute card you get 180 minutes of airtime. Even the monthly plans limit minutes. The highest plan is $29.99 a month and it has 200 minutes. That 600 IF she has a triple minute phone. And again every call and text is charged for. For a tween who is going to use her phone and believe me those texts add up quick, you're going to spend a fortune on refilling her minutes on a tracfone.

Read the fine print. Many of those phones charge you a dollar a day for use. That's right. If you get a text or a phone call or even a reminder message it activates the phone for that day and adds a charge to the bill.

I had a pay as you go phone and it cost me so much more than a regular plan. These pay as you go plans are how they make a lot of money from hidden charges.

If you are getting her a phone and it doesn't have data then she doesn't need a smart phone, there is no need what so ever. Other than it will be super easy for her to text with a keyboard verses a number pad where she had to push the 5 several times to get the exact letter she needs...lol.

I'd just add her to your plan with text and messaging.

I was NOT a fan of tracfones... Where we lived, the signal was horrible! Even when we drove through town, there were spots where calls would just drop.

I much prefer Straight Talk. We use the phones that go off the Verizon towers (the phone packaging will tell you how it works as far as towers or whatnot...) and have never had a problem. The only problem is that if you miss a payment and your phone gets shut off, you risk losing your number. (My FIL forgot to pay on time one month and lost his. Lol.) we have unlimited texts, minutes, and data for $35 a month... No hidden fees or anything.

My SIL is currently using a Net 10 phone (on AT&T towers) and it is HORRIBLE! Her calls constantly get dropped, she can't keep a signal (she will look at her phone, have no signal, and ten minutes later here is one. Grr.) half the time her phone pops up with a missed call message without ever even ringing. It shuts itself down any time she tries to answer or make a call (so she has to wait for it to turn back on and call the person back.) or any time she tries to access data. VERY annoying. :/

That is tracfones cheapest plan you get next to nothing. Tracphone is the most expensive prepay out there. Net10 is pretty good. You should look at Kajeet's web site. I had it for my daughter's first cell phone, it's a cell phone plan for kids with lots of parental controls. I loved it you can look at all calls, block people,web sites or features and has gps tracking so you can find your kid through the phone or find the phone if it gets lost.
Kajeet is no contract cell phones and plans for kids.

We added a line to our package with AT&T with no data for only $10 a month, and it came with a free phone.