Purchased Tracfone Moto G Stylus w/phone plan on it from HSN. I have a couple questions.

[diddlydudette]

I've been getting varying answers on how long I have to activate the plan on the phone. I got this for my mother in an attempt to teach her how to use a smart phone. She's currently still on a flip.

Her current PagePlus plan won't expire for 2-3 months. I actually called Tracfone and they said as long as I want to wait. I teased and said 3 years? They said that's fine. I don't trust that answer. lol Maybe someone has had personal experience and will know for sure.

Also, can I go ahead and use the phone to teach her how to use it and to let her get acclimated to it without activating the phone? Do I just go thru the prompts and phone will start without activation? I worry about losing her plan on the phone by pushing something I shouldn't.

Thanks.

[hpham]

The phone won't activate until you decide to activate it through TF web site, a chat rep, or using the app.

You can show your mother how to run the apps (using WiFi), can't really show how to make/receive calls/texts until the phone is activated. (You probably can use Google Voice and Wifi for that, but it will only make things confusing).

[Tracfancier]

If you purchased the phone with bundled airtime do NOT remove the installed SIM and test the phone with another active SIM or the bundled airtime will be purged by TF from the originally installed SIM.

[diddlydudette]

The phone won't activate until you decide to activate it through TF web site, a chat rep, or using the app.

You can show your mother how to run the apps (using WiFi), can't really show how to make/receive calls/texts until the phone is activated. (You probably can use Google Voice and Wifi for that, but it will only make things confusing).

Thanks. I will go ahead and let her start playing around with it. I've been putting it off thinking I might mess things up.I just never had a phone preloaded with a plan before so not sure how it worked.

I also got a reply from a Tracfone rep and they confirmed but I'm unable to thank them because their inbox is full so hopefully they see this post.

[diddlydudette]

If you purchased the phone with bundled airtime do NOT remove the installed SIM and test the phone with another active SIM or the bundled airtime will be purged by TF from the originally installed SIM.

Great. Good to know!! Thanks for the warning.

[hapollo8]

I've been getting varying answers on how long I have to activate the plan on the phone.

Her current PagePlus plan won't expire for 2-3 months. Maybe someone has had personal experience and will know for sure.

Also, can I go ahead and use the phone to teach her how to use it and to let her get acclimated to it without activating the phone? Do I just go thru the prompts and phone will start without activation? I worry about losing her plan on the phone by pushing something I shouldn't.

Thanks.

if you plan to activate within 5 months, you should be ok. I just activated my HSN last week after buying one in January.

History:
I've purchased 2 phones bundled with 1500x3 buckets in the past 2 years. 1st was from Ebay Tracfone directly in June 2020. Activated it almost 1 yr later on 5/31/21. Could I have waited past 1 yr? Unknown as many posts on forums said 3 months, others said 1 yr and I didn't want to push it. Coincidentally, FreedomPOP finally stopped offering the free plan in May 2021, so activating was perfect timing.

Purchased another from HSN bundled with 1500x3 as well back in Jan 2022 in anticipation of activating later in the year but activated it on 5/27/22 5months later to merge the unused minutes expiring on the 1st one.

Removed the SIM and installed a blank MicroSD card on the un-activated 2nd phone from HSN and set up the phone thru Wifi, transferring all the old setting to the new phone thru backup/restore (probably not necessary going from a flip to smartphone in your case though)

BUT, since everything with Tracfone is fluid and YMMV. Things are always subject to change as seen on this forum.

In the end, i think it depends on where it was purchased too. Since 1st phone was direct thru Tracfone on Ebay, they know when it was purchased. In the case of HSN, Tracfone may have no record of the purchase and you may be able to go longer. BUT activating an Android 3 yrs later isn't a great idea since it will already be nearly obsolete as by then security updates and OS releases will be so far behind, the phone will probably be outdated since the bundle is tied to the phone, making it less usable.

[diddlydudette]

if you plan to activate within 5 months, you should be ok. I just activated my HSN last week after buying one in January.

History:
I've purchased 2 phones bundled with 1500x3 buckets in the past 2 years. 1st was from Ebay Tracfone directly in June 2020. Activated it almost 1 yr later on 5/31/21. Could I have waited past 1 yr? Unknown as many posts on forums said 3 months, others said 1 yr and I didn't want to push it. Coincidentally, FreedomPOP finally stopped offering the free plan in May 2021, so activating was perfect timing.

Purchased another from HSN bundled with 1500x3 as well back in Jan 2022 in anticipation of activating later in the year but activated it on 5/27/22 5months later to merge the unused minutes expiring on the 1st one.

Removed the SIM and installed a blank MicroSD card on the un-activated 2nd phone from HSN and set up the phone thru Wifi, transferring all the old setting to the new phone thru backup/restore (probably not necessary going from a flip to smartphone in your case though)

BUT, since everything with Tracfone is fluid and YMMV. Things are always subject to change as seen on this forum.

In the end, i think it depends on where it was purchased too. Since 1st phone was direct thru Tracfone on Ebay, they know when it was purchased. In the case of HSN, Tracfone may have no record of the purchase and you may be able to go longer. BUT activating an Android 3 yrs later isn't a great idea since it will already be nearly obsolete as by then security updates and OS releases will be so far behind, the phone will probably be outdated since the bundle is tied to the phone, making it less usable.

Thanks so much!

[SoNic67]

I've been getting varying answers on how long I have to activate the plan on the phone. I got this for my mother in an attempt to teach her how to use a smart phone. She's currently still on a flip.

I gave my mom one of my older phones (Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge), to "get used", like 3 years ago. Also at that time I added a cheap internet and WiFi to her house cable TV and landline plan, so she can use it in her house.
She's still using her 5 year old flip phone for calls and out and about, but at least she is comfortable on using WhatsApp when she's at home.

PS: I managed to link WhatsApp activate to the flip phone number. That phone has a huge, one piece, SIM card that won't fit in a modern phone. When I tried to tell WhatsApp to use that phone number it recognized that the phone does not have data (2G voice only). Luckly, inside of some menus I say "activate GPRS data" and turning that on allowed WhatsApp to accept that phone number.