You are the one that brought up unlocking phones in this thread.:dry:

And as I recall you were the one that said only tracfone gives you a free phone, when this was already proven to be false. Look bottom line here is that TMobile is and always will be one of the most preferred prepaid carriers out there. The low $10/year cost can't be beat, even by tracfone.

By who, when, where and how?

She didn't say Tracfone doesn't give free phones. She said *other* companies do as well. Specifically, with the purchase of an airtime card good for 1000+ minutes this week at Target, you get a free Nokia 6030 which includes FM radio, T-zones, IM, pix, and texting capability. The Nokia 6030 retails for $99 to $119 direct unlocked from Nokia stores.

Now, I DO understand your point very well about the upfront costs being higher with this deal, and I'm not going to try to convert you, really... But I do have to also point out that Tracfone's coverage with t-Mobile as the underlying carrier is *different* from T-mobile's coverage as its own standalone prepaid company. T-Mobile's coverage is better in this case. (If we were discussing Cingular GoPhone vs. Tracfone, I'd back you up on preferring Tracfone any day of the week unless you spent all your time talking to other Cingular customers and lived and worked in strong Cingular native coverage). Cingular GoPhones have inferior coverage to Tracfones on Cingular coverage area due to the complete blocking of roaming on GoPhones, plus Cingular is more expensive per minute than Tracfone when you stack up the deals.

But again, on the subject of free phones, occasionally Cingular runs sales too on their GoPhones to the point where the phone is $10-20 with $10 of airtime included, making it also "free" or almost free by your Tracfone ad definition above.

Earl, I really really do understand what you're trying to say - remember I've also had huge stockpiles of Tracfones lying around just for the cheap minutes, but as time progresses, the deals are getting better on the other carriers too.

Where did I say TracFone was the only one to give a free phone? I don’t recall ever saying that at any time or place.

I think this is where the misunderstanding arose. Although from your recent posts, I now understand what you meant (that it's a free-to-cheap phone, so if you lose it, no biggie), I think originally it was misinterpreted to mean that Tracfone was the only one offering free phones. That combined with your picture link....

Just comparing deals, this is off topic though.

I couldn't agree with you more here notsmellyprepaid. And I'll just leave it at that.

UPDATE: To get back on track... I just found out that purchasing refill cards from B&M retailers in CA does NOT get charged tax (ie: Target). I don't know about other states though, nor do I know if this is only with SOME retailers, or ALL retailers statewide. :clap3:

That's an interesting point that you bring up here chokaay. I know for a fact that all the retail stores here in PA does charge tax on the PP refill cards. Hmmmm maybe I should just order all my cards from CA next time and save on the tax. :smile1:

60 unit TracFone cards sell on EBay for about $10.50. No shipping as they e-mail the PIN and of course no tax.

I have not checked for other pre-paid cards but out of state purchased are not charged taxes. Of course we all declare out of state purchases when we file our state tax return.

Well, I only know this because I purchased a couple refills and phones from Target (on the same receipt), and it seems like tax was only charged on the phone. I also did this at Office Depot, and again tax was only charged on the phone (not prepaid refill card).

However, in your case, flying to CA just to buy refill cards or getting someone here to do it for you may be too much of a hassle and may not be cost-effective (in regards to the first alternative), so you may want to check out Cheap International Prepaid Phone Cards . I have ordered phone cards from them before, and they don't charge tax either. Shipping is free because they just email you the PIN code. They usually discount T-mo refill cards by 3% (other cards may be discounted more), but many times they also have a couple coupon codes for 5% off. Also, they have some sort of "rewards" system where you can earn points on your purchases, redeemable for future purchases, so all together your discount can be counted roughly as a little more than 10%-11% off (according to some people).

LOL, I was just joking with my post above. I know all about CPC as that is the site that I usually get my cards from. I posted a link to the site in the TMobile To Go Forum.
Take care Chokaay, It's nice to be posting with you again. :)

You too! "See" you at the next deal! :phone: :bear_wub: