Prepaid Cell Phones: Tracfone Vs. Virgin Mobile

Is Virgin Mobile or Tracfone a Better Prepaid Choice?

Marie M. Daniels
Prepaid cell phones are a great option for many people. Kids, preteens and teens are excellent candidates for prepaid cell phones. The pre paid cell phones are usually very inexpensive, which is nice if you have an irresponsible child who loses or damages the cell phone.

They also have nicer and more expensive cell phones available on the prepaid plans for more mature kids or adults who don't want a cell phone contract. The nicer prepaid cell phones are great for those of us who want to cut back and lower our cell phone bills.

The freedom of no 2-year contracts, that could be costly or a pain to get out of the cell phone contract. With prepaid cell phones you either have to keep purchasing prepaid money cards or prepaid phone cards. The prepaid phone cards allow you to add minutes or texting time to your prepaid phones.

The other way to prepay is by purchasing a prepaid phone plan. The prepaid plan that you purchase can be monthly or even yearly. You can sign up for these prepaid cell phone plans online with your credit card. It is almost exactly like a regular cell phone only without the long-term contract, and the fact that you will likely be saving lots of money. With both ways of buying minutes for your prepaid cell phones the more minutes you buy the more money you save, just like buying minutes in bulk.

Virgin Mobile Prepaid Details:
The minutes roll over if you Top Up before your month is up. Virgin Mobile does not have a grace period, you must buy a new prepaid phone card by the date on your account or you will lose any roll over minutes you had accumulated. You must buy a new prepaid cell phone card every 30 days. Texting and talking minutes are separate; if you run out of money then no more texts or photo emails will be sent or received. Likewise if you run out of minutes no more incoming or outgoing calls can be made.

Tracfone Prepaid Details:
The Tracfone prepaid cell phones will work on any carrier or any cell tower. This means they piggyback on the other cell phone towers for a greater coverage area. The prepaid minutes roll over and they give you a generous grace period to get new prepaid cell phone cards. You only need to buy a new card every 90 days unless you buy the yearly cards, which last for 365 days. Texting and call minutes are together, so no fooling around making sure you have talk time and call time. They also have free promo codes to enter for bonus minutes. You can find all kinds of Tracfone promo codes all over the Internet. If you get lucky you could find a double minutes promo code that would give you a double bonus.

I currently have both Tracfone and Virgin Mobile prepaid cell phones in use at my home. After having used them both there is clearly a big difference between the two prepaid cell phone companies. The best thing about Virgin Mobile prepaid service is the cool phones that they offer, but they are priced higher than Tracfones. On the other hand Tracfone has some awesome promo codes out there, and they will even send you some promo codes every once in a while. I am a very frugal person and so my pick is that Tracfone is the better-prepaid cell phone company. You can save much more money if you choose Tracfone for your prepaid cell phone needs.

Click the link for promo codes: Tracfone Promo Codes

Published by Marie M. Daniels

Marie M. Daniels is a freelance writer and a Top 1,000 Contributor for 2009, 2010 and 2011. She enjoys writing articles that are helpful for anyone. Her hobbies include: saving money, reading books, holid...  View profile

6 Comments

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  • MsLadyDiva9/21/2010

    I have used both services before and they are both great prepaid services. However, with Tracfone, your balance is deducted when you send or receive text messages along with your calls, so be sure you have enough in your balance.

    With Virgin mobile, they have alot more plans for you to choose. I love that because If I want to talk less or more I can adjust my budget each month. Also some of the new plans they have have include unlimited picture and text messaging, web and data use. Love their selection of phones as well!

  • Mike1/28/2010

    This artile is somewhat misleading. I pay $15 every 3 months for Virgin Mobile. That is $60 per year. Tracphone's lowest cost is $80 per year. So Virgin Mobile is less expensive.

  • Sum Giu10/21/2009

    Depending on where you live, your TracFone runs either on the AT&T or Verizon network.

    Also, several new phones (handsets) have been introduced or will be soon, so the selection is much better.

    Other than that, great article, Marie!

  • Rebecca Caroll10/20/2009

    Well written review and information!

  • Dave Schrader10/20/2009

    I use the prepaid too, hardly ever make calls so it is a better value... :)

  • Tricia Sabol10/20/2009

    I have Virgin Mobile, and if you are willing to put $90 on the phone at one time, then you don't have to top up for an entire year. I don't use my cell phone all that much, so this $90/yr service works really well for me.

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