TracFone Emergency Cell - $80 a Year

Today, we say goodbye to Verizon and parting is such sweet sorrow. I wonder why I paid $90 a month to just talk to my husband at work but we had been with Verizon for 4 years and were very pleased with the service but not the cost.  For those who don't know, we are getting rid of our cell plan and going cell-phone free except for an emergency cell.

I had originally posted in my phone deals post that TracFone was $99.99 a year but last night I realized once I was at Wal-Mart that the cheapest is actually just $79.52.  Let me explain how all this works.

You buy the cheapest TracFone at $9.88, this is a one-time purchase, unless of course you break your phone or lose it.  Then, you need to buy airtime and minutes.  There are many cards but since you are using this just as an emergency cell - you will get the minimum minutes.  The cheapest I found was the 60 minutes / 90 days of service card for $19.88.  This keeps your phone active for 90 days and gives you minutes.  You simply buy 4 of these for the year - 90 days x 4 = 1 year.  So yearly costs would be just $79.52.  Now you are covered for a year and don't have to do anything till next year.  You will also have 240 minutes + 10 minutes that come with your TracFone for a total of 250 minutes to use for the year for emergencies. 

Here is what comes with your TracFone:  phone, battery, charger, activation card with serial number (keep this as long as you have your phone), instruction guide and coupons if you wish to purchase more minutes.

Simple.  Efficient.  All you need.  This is my emergency TracFone! ;-)