TracFone

• No Contract
• Airtime Flexibility 
• International Calling

No Contract

TracFone is "America's #1 National No-Contract Wireless service provider." They offer no contract, bills, daily or monthly fees, with nationwide coverage on America's best and most dependable networks, like Sprint. TracFone is a pay-as-you-go wireless phone service, which means you can pay month-to-month or as needed. They have various customer service options offering live chat, email, and phone service, from 8 AM to 7 PM EST.

Airtime Flexibility 

TracFone products and services are easy to understand. Each prospective customer follows the same three steps prior to enrolling in the service:

1. Choose a phone - customers need to purchase their phone up-front since there are no contract discounts or promotions to bind them to the service. The TracFone inventory offers a few different phones, including Android smartphones and iPhones.
2. Activate - once you order your phone, customers simply need to follow the activation instructions found in the package. At this stage, customers will need to have an airtime card or service plan.
3. Add airtime - to continue service, customers will continuously need to add "airtime" to ensure minutes, texts, and data are available. This can be done over the phone, online, or in one of the retail stores.

TracFone has unlimited carryover, which means your unused minutes, texts, and data never expire as long as your service is active and in use within each six month period.

The carrier also triples everything, which means that when you buy a 60-minute Airtime Card, you'll get 180 minutes, 180 Texts, and 180 MB of data at no extra charge.

International Calling

Some international service is included with every TracFone account. You can purchase a $10 global calling card to cover additional calls to Mexico, United Kingdom, Germany, India, and Colombia.

• Expensive Minutes
• Customer Service Concerns

Expensive Minutes

Pricing is something that has also caused concern amongst the TracFone consumer base despite the overall affordability of the business model. The minutes are pretty expensive, and because you have to purchase them upfront, you may end up spending a lot more on minutes than you would on another unlimited plan. The tradeoff is that minutes carry over from month to month so if you buy more than you need, you can use them next month.

Customer Service Concerns

Despite having several customer service options like live chat, text message, email, and phone availability to address a problem or complaint, many PureTalk reviews describe challenges understanding customer service reps or getting the help they need.