Airtime Deal at Pamida

I have to admit that, due to the holiday season, I haven’t been as in tune with TracFone deal news as usual, so this one almost slipped past without me noticing. I hope you get the news in time to make use of it, though.

Through Friday, Pamida stores are offering TracFone 60 minute cards for just $14.99, or $5 less than regular price. If you happen to have a Pamida near you – they are located only throughout the midwest, and usually found in small cities and towns -  this might be a good time to stock up. They do advertise a limit of four cards per person per day, though.

In the past, we’ve seen some airtime deals advertised only to learn that the deal was actually a misprint. In those cases, some stores would honor the price while others would not. In this case, though, it appears to be legitimate, as the card is shown distinctly separate from the phone offers, and the limit on the number of cards purchased also makes it appear more legitimate.

Pamida is also offering TracFone’s base-level handsets for $8.99. You can get either the Motorola W175 or Kyocera K126, depending on what is available in your area. I don’t think these are particularly good deals, though, as you can usually find phones very cheap or free if you purchase bundles directly from TracFone, as I discuss often. But if you need a phone now, this deal might help you out.

Email with your TracFone

Here’s a cool cell phone trick that you might not have tried before. Many people don’t realize it, but each sms-capable cell phone can also send and receive emails, at the same price per message as normal text messaging.

It is possible to send an email directly from most TracFone models to  a regular email address. This is what works for me: create a message that you will send to “36245″ (note that this spells out “email” on your phone’s keypad). In the body of the message, first type the email address you wish to send a message to, followed by a space. After that, you can just write your message. Then, send the message to number 36245.

You can also use this to determine the email address of your phone. Send an email from your phone to your email address, and look at the address that appears in the “from” field. It should be something starting with your phone’s ten-digit phone number, area code first. This will be your phone’s email address, which you can now use to send messages from your email account to the phone or, even better, give your phone’s email address to your friends to allow them to send you a text message from their email.

If you plan to make use of the ability to send messages to email accounts, you might also want to take advantage of your phone’s text message “template” or “save draft”  function to save typing on some commonly-used addresses. This way, when you want to send a message to a common recipient, you can save the time it takes to type out the email address, and at the same time eliminate the chance that you might forget the address.

It should be noted that all text messages will be limited to 160 characters per message. If you go over this limit, part of the message may be deleted, or you might end up with multiple message (i.e. part 1 of 3, part 2 of 3, part 3 of 3, etc.) if you attempt to send a message with more than 160 characters.

I should also point out that I have not tried this on ALL TracFone models. Those that I have been able to get it to work on include the following:

• Motorola w175, w260, and w376g
• LG 225 and 600g
• Nokia 1100

I had trouble making it work with a Motorola C139 and an LG 3280. If you have been able to get it to work with these or any other models that I’ve not tested, please share your experiences in the comments section. Thanks!

TracFone Promotional Codes updated

I’ve updated the promotional code database again, probably for the last time this year. I incorporated the new codes I told you about last week, as well as one more: code 96886 appears to be awarding 60 bonus minutes when applied to a 120 minute card.

As usual, the newly added codes are in bold in the database. There are some good ones in there, especially 14938 for 60 bonus minutes on a 60 minute card. Many of those codes that I added this time around have a stated expiration date of 12/22/08, so use them within the next week if you want to be sure they’ll be valid. Of course, more often than not the bonus codes are valid well beyond the stated expiration date, but if you’re counting on using one of them it might be best to stay on the safe side.

That’s it for today, but I’ll be back later this week with another post.

Holiday Gifts from TracFone

TracFone Promotional Codes

TracFone has issued a few new promotional codes that are reported to expire on December 22, and there are a couple of decent values. I’ll work on getting these added to the database, but for some reason it seems like the entire internet is slow at the moment so I’m focusing on getting the word out to regular readers, and I’ll update the list when I can. Here are the newest codes I’ve found:

• Use code 14938 to get 60 BONUS MINUTES on a 60 Minutes Card.
• Use code 57165 to get 50 BONUS MINUTES on a 200 Minutes Card.
• Use code 41595 to get 100 BONUS MINUTES on a 450 Minutes Card.
• Use code 90611 to get 250 BONUS MINUTES on a 1 Year, 400 minute card.
• Use code 45415 to get 250 BONUS MINUTES on a 1 Year Double Minutes, 800 Minute Card.
• Use code 23350 and SAVE 10% when enrolling in the 50 minute Value Plan.
• Use code 62226 and SAVE 10% when enrolling in the 100 minute Value Plan.

I’ve bolded the two codes that I think are especially valuable. 14938 is a very good deal – if you already have double minutes for life on your phone, a 60 minute card could get you 180 minutes total.

Phone Deals

A couple of weeks ago I posted about the bundled deals available from TracFone (click here to review that post). Most of those deals are still available, with the exception of the LG 3820, which was one of my favorites. However, I should also point out the LG 225 deal, which I mentioned last time but didn’t go into detail on.

I have to be honest that I’ve never tried that phone myself, but it seems to be quite popular. It does have a camera, but no Bluetooth, and many people seemed to be impressed with the voice quality and signal reception. Since I’ve been asked about it quite a few times, I’ve ordered my own 225, and I’ll be posting a review of it here when I get time amid all the holiday hustle and bustle. And right now, it’s free with a One-year card, and the phone automatically receives DMFL on activation, so it seems to be a pretty good value. I’ll be getting 1100 minutes (after DMFL and a 300-minute bonus code), 14 months of service (including the 60 days at activation), and a brand new camera phone for just under $100. If the phone’s any good, that’s a pretty nice deal.

Other TracFone Savings

A couple more words on getting deals on TracFone.com orders. They are now offering free 3-day shipping on $19.99 or more (click here to see for yourself). Throughout the fall, TracFone has offered free shipping on orders over $35, but now that threshold has been reduced. This means that some of the lower-priced bargains can be ordered with free shipping.

And  if you do order from TracFone, it looks like Promo Code 23444 is still working to take $3 off your order. It supposedly expired at the end of November, but I used it myself just yesterday.

So, if you are able to combine the free shipping and the $3 discount code, you might be able to order a 60-minute card and free refurbished Motorola V170 for $16.99. That’s cheaper than the price of the card alone anywhere else!

Walmart Double Deals

Finally, there are still various double minute deals being offered at some Walmart stores. These deals seem to be available in-store only, and often include an accessory pack, but the specific items available vary from store to store. The Motorola w175 and w260 as well as the LG 200c have all been spotted in Walmart in packaging that includes an accessory pack and also indicates that the phones will include double minutes for life. This deal seems to be specific to those phones sold at Walmart stores; I haven’t heard of the deals being offered anywhere else. So if you’re out shopping, it might be worth a look to see if your local stores has a bargain for you.

Additional Info on Family Dollar Rebate

As several readers have pointed out, I left out some critical information in yesterday’s post about the Family Dollar Rebate. The mailing address for the rebate is not visible on the form that I linked to, so here it is:

Family Dollar TracFone Rebate

Dept. 5214

Lubbock, TX 79491-5214

Also, this is included in the fine print on the form I linked to but it’s worth pointing out again – the rebate is limited to one per household.

More TracFone deals

First, I have to apologize for the [non] deal last week at KMart. I guess I got a little too excited imagining the possibilities of half-price airtime cards. I should have included a warning in that post that the deal sounded too good to be true. As it turns out, it WAS too good to be true, for most people at least – I have heard just a couple of stories of people either getting a KMart manager to override the scanned price and correct it to 50%, or of others that were able to get Walmart to match KMart’s advertised price. Anyway, I hope that I haven’t caused you any hardship with my premature reporting of that “deal.”

But, this time I do have a couple of bona fide bargains to share. The first is an old deal that had gone away but is now available again, and the second is a completely new deal.

The first is the bundle of a new LG 3280 and an 800 Minute, Double Minute for Life Card directly from TracFone for $99.99, with free shipping. This deal had been available for a few months this fall, and then was removed from the site for a couple of weeks. It’s back now, though, and still an excellent bargain. The 3280, if you can find it, is usually $40 or $50 in stores, and the 800 minute DMFL card is regularly $140. So this deal represents a pretty significant discount. In fact, it’s a great deal even if you never use the phone. (And, if that’s the case, I’m willing to buy the phone from you, further lowering your cost for the airtime card.) For more on finding this deal, check out my info page here.

Also, through Sunday at Family Dollar stores, you can get a nearly free TracFone after rebate. The phone will cost $8 plus tax at the store, and you can then send in for rebate of $8 after that. So for the cost of sales tax and a postage stamp, you can get a free phone. The phone selection is limited, though, to pretty much the lowest-level TracFones available. You can choose from the Motorola C139 or W175, Kyocera k126c, or Nokia 2126, depending on what is available at the store near you. My advice is to grab whatever 2126’s you can find, if any at all, as those are coveted models among veteran TracFone users.

If you received a Family Dollar sale circular this week, you can find the rebate form near the front of that flier. If not, you can print a copy of the form here:
Rebate Form
The fine print on the form says that copies will be accepted, so this should work for you. One other tip here: I always recommend that when applying for any rebate, you save a copy of all submitted materials in case you run into any problems receiving the rebate.