Help? Simple Tracfone Q

In My Humble Opinion
1

Asking for Tracfone help here because I have problems getting info from them. Will spare you details.

Simple situation:

I’ve had the same Tracfone phone number for 9-years, using an Alcatel flip phone only for voice+text. The phone broke; I ordered+recvd a reconditioned Alcatel flip as replacement; want to keep same phone #–

Trying to activate new flip online, I see Tracfone’s online activation screen requires an “account number.” I’ve never had a Tracfone acct #–always bought a basic 90-days/60-minutes card, added days+minutes, and that was it. Never heard about an “account number.”

Do I need to set up account to activate online? Or can I activate by calling them? Or will that also require an acct #?

2nd Q: Can I just toss the broken flip? No need for its SIM number/card, etc? For the new flip, I have the serial number [aka IMEI, MEID, ESN], and the SIM number, on the bright red “Start Here” pamphlet–that’s all I need, correct?

Have other Tracfone users had problems–technical and customer-service related–that started with Verizon’s takeover a few yrs ago?

Admitting ignorance here: I’ve heard that in some situations, an “old” SIM card must be removed from a phone and put into a new phone–what’s that about?

Thanks–

2

If the old phone has a SIM card and the new phone uses one (not all of them do anymore), move it over to the new phone. In my limited experience, that’s often all you need to do.

3

The SIM is what identifies your phone as being your phone. If you swap it over (and it fits) the new phone may show up as connected to the old number instantly and effortlessly.

4

I was trying to remember the one time I switched a Tracfone SIM from a broken one to a new one–I remembered it was a somewhat extended process. But now I remember that it took maybe 10 minutes or so doing something before it was ready to use, but didn’t require any type of intervention on my part.

5

When I replaced an older phone with a new one, I called Tracfone and they walked me through the process.

6

This is also what I was going to say. If I have any trouble, I just call.

That said, if your phone does have a SIM card, just try swapping the SIMs like everyone else says.

7

Call or live chat their customer service.

I find I always, or nearly, get the best outcomes by doing that with any place.

The customer service systems get a bad rep, But they’re really ok.

8

Tracfone doesn’t allow simple SIM swapping. A SIM is locked to the phone id. (I suspect this is to “encourage” people to replace their broken phones with ones from them.)

You gotta call them.

9

Not true. I’ve done it myself. (I mentioned my swap at the SMDB here.)

10

It’s not quite that simple. It depends on the type of SIM card. They do (or possibly did) have Tracfone specifica SIM cards that were linked to the phone, but they also have BYOB (“Bring Your Own Phone”) SIM cards.

I’m not sure if they still do the former since Verizon took them over. But, even then, you are right that the OP may have been affected.

(My mom was on Tracfone more than four years ago. I was able to swap her SIM card, even when I bought the new phone from Tracfone.)

11

We just replaced my mother-in-law’s phone, and that’s all we needed to do. To be fair, it was 3 years old, not 9, and it was with AT&T prepaid versus TracFone.

It’s worth setting up an account, if you can, simply because it can make things easier re topping it up online. We do have a TracFone; I had ported the in-laws’ old house phone to that, and I created an account so I could set up autopay on it. 9.75 a month, or some such, since the only thing we use it for is to listen to, then delete, the scammer phone calls (and the very rare real call).