Tracfone question

We're travelling in the USA in September/October (hiring car and driving).
We start in Atlanta, thence to Tn and on to the New England area for most of
our time. We want a mobile (cell) phone to keep in touch with family in
Australia

Will a pre-paid tracfone give us reasonable coverage in New England? I was
considering a gsm 900/1800 model.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks

On Mon, 23 Jul 2007 20:47:53 +1000, "A Mate"
wrote:

We're travelling in the USA in September/October (hiring car and driving).
We start in Atlanta, thence to Tn and on to the New England area for most of
our time. We want a mobile (cell) phone to keep in touch with family in
Australia

Will a pre-paid tracfone give us reasonable coverage in New England? I was
considering a gsm 900/1800 model.

In general, Tracfone GSM phones use the AT&T (formerly Cingular)
network, although local carriers are used in some areas. You could
check the AT&T wireless coverage maps.

On 2007-07-23 06:47:53 -0400, "A Mate" said:

We're travelling in the USA in September/October (hiring car and driving).
We start in Atlanta, thence to Tn and on to the New England area for most of
our time. We want a mobile (cell) phone to keep in touch with family in
Australia

Will a pre-paid tracfone give us reasonable coverage in New England? I was
considering a gsm 900/1800 model.

Any other suggestions?

My only suggestion: stay away from Tracfone.

We had our first experience with cell phones through them. It was
awful! We bought it in our home town, prepaid of course, and I tried to
make a call while we were driving somewhere else. They asked me for a
credit card number; what nerve!

I called customer service when we got back. They decided we were
"roaming" and said they could do nothing for us; if we wanted help, we
would have to go where the problem occurred and use a land line from
there to get to them. Have you ever heard anything so stupid?

We took the phone back and got a full refund. Only good thing I can say
about them.

"sechumlib" wrote in message
...
On 2007-07-23 06:47:53 -0400, "A Mate" said:

We're travelling in the USA in September/October (hiring car and
driving).
We start in Atlanta, thence to Tn and on to the New England area for most
of
our time. We want a mobile (cell) phone to keep in touch with family in
Australia

Will a pre-paid tracfone give us reasonable coverage in New England? I
was
considering a gsm 900/1800 model.

Any other suggestions?

My only suggestion: stay away from Tracfone.

We had our first experience with cell phones through them. It was awful!
We bought it in our home town, prepaid of course, and I tried to make a
call while we were driving somewhere else. They asked me for a credit card
number; what nerve!

I called customer service when we got back. They decided we were "roaming"
and said they could do nothing for us; if we wanted help, we would have to
go where the problem occurred and use a land line from there to get to
them. Have you ever heard anything so stupid?

We took the phone back and got a full refund. Only good thing I can say
about them.


Just go into any Radio Shack in the USA or buy a Virgin pay as you go phone
on ebay or virgin online for $20, then just top up with your credit card or
even paypal! no contract, 18cents a minute or pay $6.99 for the month and
get calls at 10 cents a minute, international calls to australia are 20
cents a minute plus the regular call cost so can be as low as 38 cents a
minute.

On Jul 23, 10:05 am, sechumlib wrote:

We bought it in our home town, prepaid of course, and I tried to
make a call while we were driving somewhere else. They asked me for a
credit card number; what nerve!


I have a Tracfone that I have used while traveling away from home.
They charged me one unit per minute while I was in my home area code,
and two units per minute while I was roaming in other area codes (it
did not work outside the USA). I have never run out of units, and
they have never intercepted a call to ask for additional payment.

If you do get a Tracfone, there are many bonuses that can be found by
googling. They give you either extra units, extra days before you
need to buy more minutes, or both.

On Mon, 23 Jul 2007 13:06:26 -0700, "
wrote:


I have a Tracfone that I have used while traveling away from home.
They charged me one unit per minute while I was in my home area code,
and two units per minute while I was roaming in other area codes (it
did not work outside the USA). I have never run out of units, and
they have never intercepted a call to ask for additional payment.

The GSM units from Tracfone, which the OP was planning to use, do not
charge extra for roaming within the US.

On 2007-07-24 09:13:46 -0400, BobT said:

On Mon, 23 Jul 2007 13:06:26 -0700, "
wrote:


I have a Tracfone that I have used while traveling away from home.
They charged me one unit per minute while I was in my home area code,
and two units per minute while I was roaming in other area codes (it
did not work outside the USA). I have never run out of units, and
they have never intercepted a call to ask for additional payment.

The GSM units from Tracfone, which the OP was planning to use, do not
charge extra for roaming within the US.

IF you can roam within the US. As I said in an earlier message, the
Tracfone I got (and returned) several years ago didn't allow me to roam
at all, unless I allowed a credit card to be charged for minutes I had
already paid for. Some business plan!

sechumlib wrote:

On 2007-07-24 09:13:46 -0400, BobT said:

On Mon, 23 Jul 2007 13:06:26 -0700, "
wrote:


I have a Tracfone that I have used while traveling away from home.
They charged me one unit per minute while I was in my home area code,
and two units per minute while I was roaming in other area codes (it
did not work outside the USA). I have never run out of units, and
they have never intercepted a call to ask for additional payment.

The GSM units from Tracfone, which the OP was planning to use, do not
charge extra for roaming within the US.

IF you can roam within the US. As I said in an earlier message, the
Tracfone I got (and returned) several years ago didn't allow me to roam
at all, unless I allowed a credit card to be charged for minutes I had
already paid for. Some business plan!

I have owned and used Tracfones for several years. I have never been
asked for a credit card to complete a call.

If this indeed happened, it was probably because the user was attempting
to access a system that did not have an agreement with Tracfone. I have
never encountered such a system, however.

On 2007-07-24 12:10:39 -0400, (RJ) said:

sechumlib wrote:

On 2007-07-24 09:13:46 -0400, BobT said:

On Mon, 23 Jul 2007 13:06:26 -0700, "
wrote:


I have a Tracfone that I have used while traveling away from home.
They charged me one unit per minute while I was in my home area code,
and two units per minute while I was roaming in other area codes (it
did not work outside the USA). I have never run out of units, and
they have never intercepted a call to ask for additional payment.

The GSM units from Tracfone, which the OP was planning to use, do not
charge extra for roaming within the US.

IF you can roam within the US. As I said in an earlier message, the
Tracfone I got (and returned) several years ago didn't allow me to roam
at all, unless I allowed a credit card to be charged for minutes I had
already paid for. Some business plan!

I have owned and used Tracfones for several years. I have never been
asked for a credit card to complete a call.

If this indeed happened, it was probably because the user was attempting
to access a system that did not have an agreement with Tracfone. I have
never encountered such a system, however.

Well, I did. Apparently it's the only kind of system available in
east-central New York state.

sechumlib wrote:

On 2007-07-24 12:10:39 -0400, (RJ) said:

sechumlib wrote:

On 2007-07-24 09:13:46 -0400, BobT said:

On Mon, 23 Jul 2007 13:06:26 -0700, "
wrote:


I have a Tracfone that I have used while traveling away from home.
They charged me one unit per minute while I was in my home area code,
and two units per minute while I was roaming in other area codes (it
did not work outside the USA). I have never run out of units, and
they have never intercepted a call to ask for additional payment.

The GSM units from Tracfone, which the OP was planning to use, do not
charge extra for roaming within the US.

IF you can roam within the US. As I said in an earlier message, the
Tracfone I got (and returned) several years ago didn't allow me to roam
at all, unless I allowed a credit card to be charged for minutes I had
already paid for. Some business plan!

I have owned and used Tracfones for several years. I have never been
asked for a credit card to complete a call.

If this indeed happened, it was probably because the user was attempting
to access a system that did not have an agreement with Tracfone. I have
never encountered such a system, however.

Well, I did. Apparently it's the only kind of system available in
east-central New York state.

Verizon? My old TDMA tracfone roamed automatically on Verizon when I
crossed into NYS. The new one won't because it's now a GSM phone, and I
don't think Verizon does GSM. But that just means it won't display a
signal from an incompatible system. (TDMA is getting shut down, so all
TDMA phones will be obsolete soon.)

Tracfone has been better for me than the subscription phones I had
before. I use the phone rarely except when traveling, so even though
the per minute cost isn't low I pay very little per month to keep it
running.

The service on the TDMA/analog phone I used to hvae was fine all over
the US. Now that I have a GSM-only phone it won't roam on analog, and I
may not get as good service out in the boonies. I'll know in a couple
of weeks when I'm on my vacation trip.