If You're Considering a TracFone, Please Consider This

For a long time, I had a cell phone contract that was way too much for my phone needs. Most of my calls are brief, and local, but occasionally I do travel and need to have inexpensive, reliable access. To get that I was paying a fair amount each month -- and most months my airtime usage didn't exceed 30 minutes. What a waste!

When we moved, coincidentally shortly after my cell contract expired, I began looking into other options. Immediately I honed in on TracFone, because I could buy the phone anonymously, there are no service contracts, and outside of purchasing the phone, I pay only for the airtime I use. Just the thing for a privacy-minded person -- especially one on a budget!

But when I began looking at the phones online I noticed that some phones' descriptions (e.g., Motorola V170) had one line of text that others' descriptions don't (e.g., Motorola V60): "Single Rate for every call: local, long distance, and roaming." I tried and tried to figure out exactly what that meant in terms of service, but found nothing on the site that was helpful. No, I didn't call the company, because: 1] I don't like to use the phone, and particularly don't like calling "customer service" lines which typically don't provide anything I'd call "service"; and 2] it's been my experience that one won't get clearer answers when talking with a human than reading available material on a company's web site, since they're generally reading from a canned script. So, being on a very tight budget, I opted for a model with that "single rate" service.

Over the holidays, I visited a friend who lives in an even more remote area than we do. She also has a TracFone, but she opted for one of the two-tiered rate models -- fortunately for her, it turns out. She was complaining to me that even when she's at home, she always gets charged the roaming rate for her calls; that's 2 units per minute of airtime, contrasted with my constant rate of one unit per minute of airtime. Here's the difference, though: she could get a signal at her house, whereas I was never able to. Not being a techie, I'm not sure exactly what's going on here, but my guess is that some networks are more expensive than others. My single rate phone can't access them, but hers can; and she is charged more for that service.

I've no problem with being charged more for more expensive service, of course. But I really disliked not having any service while visiting my friend -- especially because I didn't know when I selected a phone that I was limiting my access. I consider myself lucky that my phone works at home. It would have been a very unpleasant surprise if it didn't.

So if you're considering a TracFone and you live out in the sticks, you'll probably be better off with the two-tier rate phones. They're the ones that don't have that "single rate" phrase I quoted above. Yes, that's the only thing in the ad copy that differentiates the two types of phones. Shame on TracFone for not making the service differences clearer. (But yay on 'em for recognizing some folks' preference for privacy, and filling that niche.)