The original $75.99 ebay deal has ended, but there is a new Tracfone $49.99 annual deal that comes with a SIM card. If you are a new to TracFone, the TracFone company has a deal on their Official eBay that preloads 1200 min/ 1200 texts/ 3 GB data onto a SIM card. This is direct from Tracfone, not sold through a third-party seller. It’s much better airtime credit than you will find anywhere else.
However, you would need to be activating a new phone to access this. You can’t use this to refill your existing phone. You can pair this up with an existing unlocked phone, or buy a good unlocked phone on eBay at a discount.
Disclosure: This site receives referral compensation for purchases. Learn More
Here’s the $75.99 deal I found from before, it ended back in Sept 2018 ….. A while back, with the expiration of my Tracfone service coming up in two weeks, I needed to shop for a new smartphone-only annual plan that normally sells for $125.
This $75.99 card includes 1500 minutes/ 1500 texts / 1.5 GB data plus 1 year of service. I found a deal on eBay and ended up paying $75.99 (instead of $125) for the same, plus an extra 300 minutes/ 300 texts / 0.3 GB data bonus to boot. That’s a discount of $49 or 39% and I got additional bonus minutes/data/texts!
Disclosure: This site receives referral compensation for purchases. Learn More
What I Needed
I wanted to get a Tracfone annual plan because the service period lasted the longest – one full year. If, for that year, I still needed more minutes for calling, I would add on another pay as you go card with more minutes. However, by buying an annual plan card, it gave me peace of mind to know that my service and phone number will not expire for at least a year. It also saves me time in having to shop for cards a few times during the year and key in the long pin codes to activate them.
Why eBay
I proceeded to eBay to look. Why eBay? I’ve always found prices to be competitive (you can compare amongst sellers) and the process easy. There have also been times when the cost was a few dollars more than card’s face value, but then the quoted price included taxes and the service of adding airtime directly onto my phone (nice touch!). For the good value and convenience, I found purchasing from eBay to be worthwhile.
A lot of eBay sellers do the part of adding on the minutes/text/data credits for you, which appealed to me. All I needed was to purchase and leave the eBay seller my phone number. And then presto, the minutes will be added to my phone. No need to scratch and activate a physical card.
There are numerous other options for purchasing Tracfone cards, such as going through their website or app or going to a grocery store. All roads lead to Rome. Choose what works best for you. Anyway, my story continues …
Found a Great Discount
This time round, I stumbled upon an awesome eBay deal for a Tracfone annual card. The seller was advertising a price of $75.99 for the $125 annual card.
They also had another listing for $71.99 for the $99 annual card. With this card, you get 1200 minutes/ 1200 texts / 1.2 GB data for that card if your phone has Triple Minutes for Life. The $75.99 price for a $125 annual plan made the most sense to me, as it offered more minutes/text/data that I forsee myself needing for the year ahead.
On a per minute/ per text or per MB basis, this is the lowest I’ve paid ever for my Tracfone minute. A total or 1800 minutes (after 300 minutes bonus) for $75.99 worked out to 4.2 cents per minute/ text/ MB. This is better than any smartphone-only plan or triple minutes for life deal.
Skepticism
However, I was skeptical. What if the seller is a scam? Then I looked at the feedback for their account. They have been an eBay seller for 4 years, and they have a 99.9% positive rating. I found tons of recent positive feedback on purchases of the same Tracfone annual card I was eyeing! I concluded that the risk was low. And if they somehow were not able to deliver, I felt that I will still be able to ask eBay for a refund.
So I proceeded to make a quick eBay purchase.
It Worked!
I purchased this on a late Saturday evening. It took 2 days before the order was fulfilled on Monday. On top of the 1500 minutes, there was an extra 300 minutes added. Total 1800 minutes/ 1800 text/ 1.8 GB data added. Bingo!
Based on this experience, I would buy from the seller again if I needed a refill. I would recommend this to my friends to help them save some money. The main downside is that the seller says it takes up to 3 days to fulfill an order. If you need your refill urgently, there are other sellers who will probably do this quicker. If I needed to get some quick minutes, I would just buy a cheaper card at the store as a stop-gap measure, but I would probably get this offer to buffer up my balance. I’m going to need those minutes sooner or later.
I doubt this offer will stay open much longer. I don’t think they any seller is going to have an unlimited supply of cheap minutes. I’m just glad the seller delivered this round.
Purchase Tips
If you do purchase, make sure to add your phone number to your order so the seller can credit you the minutes, text and data. In my case, I had forgotten to add my phone number during the purchase. I then sent them a message with my Tracfone number right after.
Also, I did not receive any SMS when the minutes were added. I only found out later by messaging the seller and then checking my Tracfone smartphone app. So give it a day or two, and then check your balance through the Tracfone app or however you normally do it.
Hope this helps. If this also worked for you or if you have any comments, let us know below.
Leave a Reply