freezing my tracfone account

[corvairbob]

i have tracfone for my phone service but the wife got a new phone from metro and they gave her a free line. it is something they call a coupon line i have had it get turned of now 3 times, but one was because i put the sim in my tracfone phone and then it stopped for some other reason and then the wife had the last family member drop her line so now the wife is down to 1 family plan line and the free line. i expect that line may go off again, so outside of getting a new phone for me that is a dual sim tray phone i figure if i can suspend my tracfone service for a few month so i do not lose my time and data.
so does anyone know if this can be done? i'm thinking no but i have to ask. if not i think i will keep getting the 20$ for a few more times and if metro drops me again i will leave it off and just go back to the tracfone sim. but hey if i can put my account on a hold for a bit that would be great so i have time to fully test this metro sim.

thanks

[hpham]

if i can suspend my tracfone service for a few month so i do not lose my time and data.
so does anyone know if this can be done? if not i think i will keep getting the 20$ for a few more times.

You can't suspend your TF line. But you can let it get deactivated by not renewing if it will expire soon. After it was deactivated, you can restore its previous buckets (not phone number nor days) by reactivating it with a time card within 60 days.

[corvairbob]

ok thanks i do not quite know what you mean by buckets unless you are saying i will lose the days but i figure that would happen as the days ran out. i have 6k minutes and 6k texts and 2gb of data but i hate to lose all that for just testing out the free line on the metro pcs system i got from the wife. i have read on some other forums that metro sometimes will stop the free line coupons for no reason but i can't verify it as it has yet to happen to me. that is why i wanted to put my tracfone into some type of suspended status, this way if metro failed to keep my free line active i could go bacl to tracfone without issues. it seems they ould not do anything with that number being i have all the minutes on it. even if they started subtracting minutes each month it would be better than losing everything

but if that will not happen or work then i will just buy another card and turn it on for a cycle or may be to and see. then if metro still is working just see if i can sell me TF minutes. there should be a way to sell them to another person even at half price they should be worth something to someone.

thanks

[hpham]

TF uses "buckets" to define where your units are stored (talk bucket, text bucket, data bucket). You can restore your buckets if reactivating within 60 days of service expiration.

Let's say your current exp date is 7/30/22. Let the phone expire, then reactivate it about 55 days later (for a safe margin) with a $15 500/500/500 30-day "card" on TF website. When it expires again, reactivate it about 55 days later. Rinse and repeat.

[tlippy]

How about switchimg to T.F.'s Auto refill plan? $20/90 days. I've been on this plan since it's inception. Never loose your buckets

[corvairbob]

ok i did not know you could do that. i always went to a store and got the 20$ card for 90 days and they x 3 on that card. so where do i go on the website to get those buckets. for as much as i use the phone that might be perfect. i do see auto refill but when i checked on that i did not see or maybe recognize that plan. thanks

[hpham]

ok i did not know you could do that. so where do i go on the website to get those buckets. for as much as i use the phone that might be perfect.

Were you replying to me or to tlippy? Are asking about the $15 500/500/500 card or the $20/90-day auto-refill?

[corvairbob]

Were you replying to me or to tlippy? Are asking about the $15 500/500/500 card or the $20/90-day auto-refill?

i was talking to you. i did not know you could let the account expire. and then you said this and i also got a tracfone person and they said i can let the account go dormant for 60 days at a time but would lose my number. so if i'm going to lose the number there is no point in letting it go.

but it will be cheaper to get a new card every 90 days as to every 55 days for the test. but if i keep the number i may switch to that as it looks to give way more minutes and texts and data than the 2$ card does for 90 days.

i got this free number from metro and i have got more scam calls on this number in 3 weeks that i got on my trancfone number in 11 years. so i will just buy new cards for maybe a year and do a test with the metro number and if that metro number gets turned off in that time for any reason i will not have it turned back on iw ill put the tracfone sim aback in the phone and be done with it. it the metro number works good for me in tha tyear i will see if i can sell the tracfone minutes and get something back form them.

thanks

[Tracfancier]

To sell the airtime you must port your phone number from the phone, or lose it, and then re-activate it with any paid airtime and a new phone number. You cannot re-activate it with the "old" airtime you plan to sell. The new phone number could be the airtime buyer's phone number. This may be more trouble than it is worth considering the complexity.

[Senkoboy]

With the low cost of a new bundle, phone, 1year service, plus minutes, used phone with minutes value is low.

[corvairbob]

that is one way to do it i guess. then you always have a new phone.

[sillyette]

With the low cost of a new bundle, phone, 1year service, plus minutes, used phone with minutes value is low.

Yes, those HSN or QVC bundles are the best deal around. I'm fondly thinking of my HSN Moto E5 bundle that I got for $30 a few years ago. I like the E5 as a phone too.

HSN has been raising their bundle prices though. I hope it's just because of the general inflation all round. Hope the bundle prices go back to their $30 levels!

[LittleBear916]

I had watched one of the presentations on HSN about a bundle and one of the hosts had said people upgrade their phone every year because it's economical to do so because of the value of the bundle.