is the prepaid wireless service tracfone a reliable service?and not a third party provider?

Answer 1

Stay away from TracFone. I used to sell this crap and it's not worth the trouble. You can buy the phone and a 60 minute card, but that doesn't mean you're getting 60 minutes. First your minutes aren't actually 'minutes', they're units. A call within your service area is 1 unit per minute. However if you're out of your service area it may cost you a 10 unit connection and 3 units per minute. Keep in mind that your service area is only about a 2 mile radius from your purchase location. You're better off to go to Cingular or another cellular provider and check on their prepaid options. Also, Cingular is pretty good about not nailing you for bad credit and requiring a deposit to sign a contract.

Answer 2

It works well. Just be sure you read all the fine print and really understand exactly what they are offering. Know your calling zones. If you end up paying roaming charges your calls could be much more expensive than you may have in mind. It will be clear to you when a call is roaming. I used this service happily for a while until my travel for work interfered and I needed a regular national service that had more continuous coverage areas. If their calling zone is where you need it to be, and you really do not want to have a regular cell phone account for any of the many resons that one may have to avoid them, this can be a good solution. Keep in mind that this is not the cheapest way to have phone service if you use many minutes. This works best for the person who uses their phone sparingly.

Answer 3

Had trackfone for the XYL and got scammed more than once. Big news... Verison has best rating for customer satisfaction and T-mobile is second. Go figure, Verison is the most expensive and T-mobile is the least. We now both use T-mobile prepaid and you can get the cards most any where or get more time right on the phone.