OFFICIAL: Tracfone/Net10 Phone Deals

[Yeswap]

My expiry is Dec 1 so I realize that this won't get to me in the mail by then.

But - real dumb question - how do I decide which flavor to buy?

My wife's phone is: LGL 163BL

My phone is: moto e (XT2052DL)

AFAIK, both Verizon and ATT are strong hereabouts.

Also, the offer seems to be 1200/1200/3GB and a year's service.

Sorry for the question and advice/help is much appreciated!

Thanks for the correction. As for Verizon vs AT&T, AT&T is your best bet for both phones. The LGl 163BL only works with AT&T (or T-Mobile). The XT2052DL can handle AT&T, T-Mobile or Verizon. But TracFone doesn't like to activate these BYOP SIMs with Tracfone branded phones. and they require an IMEI when activating Verizon SIMs. If you give them the IMEI of the XT2052DL they may refuse to activate it. That's not an issue with TracFone AT&T where no IMEi is required.

[chazz101s]

Thanks for the correction. As for Verizon vs AT&T, AT&T is your best bet for both phones. The LGl 163BL only works with AT&T (or T-Mobile). The XT2052DL can handle AT&T, T-Mobile or Verizon. But TracFone doesn't like to activate these BYOP SIMs with Tracfone branded phones. and they require an IMEI when activating Verizon SIMs. If you give them the IMEI of the XT2052DL they may refuse to activate it. That's not an issue with TracFone AT&T where no IMEi is required.

Thank you for that key information. (I had seen before on this forum what you said about IMEI and Verizon; however, it's not something that I would have recalled before fouling up my purchase at TF Wireless! Thank you again.)

I ordered two ATT SIMs because I mismanaged my account and I don't want to be so close to expiry again.

However, I'm wondering about how soon the SIMs must be activated. Twelve months? Any time we choose? Something sooner than 12 months?

Also, we've got accounts, both of us, with buckets, etc. Does the ATT SIM activation work like buying one of the bargain HSN phones - that is, doing TF chat to be sure we don't lose what we have?

Sorry for the further questions and thanks again, big time.

[Yeswap]

Thank you for that key information. (I had seen before on this forum what you said about IMEI and Verizon; however, it's not something that I would have recalled before fouling up my purchase at TF Wireless! Thank you again.)

I ordered two ATT SIMs because I mismanaged my account and I don't want to be so close to expiry again.

However, I'm wondering about how soon the SIMs must be activated. Twelve months? Any time we choose? Something sooner than 12 months?

Also, we've got accounts, both of us, with buckets, etc. Does the ATT SIM activation work like buying one of the bargain HSN phones - that is, doing TF chat to be sure we don't lose what we have?

Sorry for the further questions and thanks again, big time.

I don't know how long the SIMs are valid for. I suspect at least 3 months. But seeing as TracFone days of service and minutes etc. "stack" you don't lose anything by activating long before your current expiration. TracFone's eBay store has a history of occasionally shipping these SIMs without the airtime so it's best to activate them ASAP.

You activate these SIMs just like the HSN phones with bundled airtime. Tell the chat rep you want to upgrade your current phone to the new BYOP combining the old and new phone's service days and units .

[minij]

Question. It takes a year to unlock a tf iPhone. I bought a BYOP 365 sim I’m thinking of jumping on the SE2 deal.

So after buying the 1/month $25 plan can I transfer the current 365 to the new SE so I can get it unlocked in a year?

It looked like that would work, but a relative said it wouldn’t.


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[hpham]

Question. It takes a year to unlock a tf iPhone. I bought a BYOP 365 sim I’m thinking of jumping on the SE2 deal.

So after buying the 1/month $25 plan can I transfer the current 365 to the new SE so I can get it unlocked in a year?

It looked like that would work, but a relative said it wouldn’t.

TF will only unlock a TF-branded phone (after 12 months of service). It's not clear from your post if the SE2 is TF-branded or not. Also, to be eligible for unlocking, the phone must be activated (and probably used) with the SIM that came with the phone.

[minij]

Sorry for the lack of clarity. I was looking at the SE2 deal on tracfone’s website/upgrade option in the app. So if I buy that, can I transfer my credits/time from the BYOP sim to the one that came with the phone?


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[hpham]

I was looking at the SE2 deal on tracfone’s website/upgrade option in the app. So if I buy that, can I transfer my credits/time from the BYOP sim to the one that came with the phone?

The BYOP 365-day SIM needs to be activated (with or without a transfer from an active phone) to get the preloaded days and units. After that, you can activate the SE2 with a transfer from the BYOP 365 SIM.

[Tracfoner]

I replied "No" and did not get the free phones offer.
I replied "Yes", entered my phone number and DID get the free phones offer.

What kind of phone do you have?

[Tracfoner]

Also, if someone does get the free phone offer again, it would be cool if they could copy the URL from the store and share it here. I’d love to see if it shows something special.

[minij]

The BYOP 365-day SIM needs to be activated (with or without a transfer from an active phone) to get the preloaded days and units. After that, you can activate the SE2 with a transfer from the BYOP 365 SIM.

That’s what I thought. I already activated it on an older phone, I wanted to make sure I could get the SE2 unlocked in a year and using the BYO seemed the most logical way.

Thanks for confirming what I thought.


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[hpham]

That’s what I thought. I already activated it on an older phone, I wanted to make sure I could get the SE2 unlocked in a year and using the BYO seemed the most logical way.

I've never requested to have my phone(s) unlocked by TF. From reading posts from people who did, some reps claims the service transferred from another phone doesn't qualify as "paid service", but several people have got their phones unlocked by using the transferred service for 12 months then bought a minimal time card near the end of the 12 months to meet the "paid service" requirement.

Someone who had done it might chime in with details of their experience.

[taxmantoo]

Someone who had done it might chime in with details of their experience.

I transferred service to my refurb 6S. After a year of the 6S with its original SIM being active, I tried to unlock, didn't work, added ten months of airtime (forgetting it was my other iPhone which came with 2 months) and it still wouldn't unlock. Added more airtime, and it was eligible for unlocking. I suppose I can install iTunes on a computer next month and make sure it thinks both my iPhones are unlocked.

[minij]

so I might be better off with a different deal getting a phone I actually want.


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[tomseys]

My experience is similar to taxmantoo's. I unlocked 4 different Tracfone branded iPhones, 2 TF iPhone SE's and 2 TF iPhones 6s's including a friends TF iPhone SE that was being used with Safelink Wireless. The Safelink Wireless one unlocked after a year a couple of days after I put the unlock request in. My two TF iPhones unlocked the same way. I never did receive any follow up email or anything to let me know of the status but as I recall it took about two days for them to unlock. My friends iPhone 6s would not unlock, and I learned after speaking with customer support that in addition to requiring you use the Tracfone branded phone for one year after activation with the sim it comes with, that year must be paid for and bought specifically for that phone. So the 1 year + of service that was transferred to it from another phone at activation didn't count since it belonged to another phone. So he owed I think 8 months time (he had bought 4 months during its one year use) so he paid it immediately and then the phone unlock request went through instantly.

The best way to tell if the iPhone is really/successfully unlocked is to use a different unrelated to Tracfone sim/provider with it and see if it will activate with it and use the service. So I tested all the unlocked iPhones with an international roaming sim from UK's THREE and it worked fine. It did not work with a locked TF iPhone. You can also tell by looking in Settings/General/About on the iPhone and scroll down to "carrier lock". If unlocked it will show "No Sim Restrictions" (even with current activated TF sim in it).

Unlocked:



If locked, it will show "SIM locked".




Also, IIRC, the unlock request showed as "closed" in transaction history once it unlocked.

[minij]

Thank you for the detailed reply. The only iPhone I’ve ever purchased, I got direct from Apple when they were having a special for educators. (Miss those days!) so it came unlocked.

So these locked iPhones are completely new to me.


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