John Borwick's blog

Since last April or so, I have used a pay-as-you-go Tracfone as my sole cell phone.  The phone itself cost $10 including some cell phone minutes.  The good things about this phone include

• Incredibly cheap–with a special deal, I just paid $30 for 90 days and 300 minutes (120 minute card * double minutes for my cell + 60 minute bonus )
• Has three games (“Rebels”, “Crazy”, and “Soccer”)
• Reasonably good cell phone coverage
• Small
• Text messages cost 0.30 minutes each, and you can delete unread text messages without being charged for them

However, the phone has a few limitations:

• No internet
• No keyboard so you’re text messaging like it’s 1999
• Does not use any technology invented since 2000, such as cell phone keyboards
• May get picked on for owning this phone

Despite the limitations, this phone has worked out well for me.  Here’s how I use it:

• I have a Google Voice account and Google Voice phone number
• I don’t know my Tracfone cell phone number–only Google Voice knows
• I pay for a Skype incoming phone number, $60/year.  This number is hooked up to my Google Voice phone number.  I never make outgoing calls with Skype–I use Google Voice’s web site to place my Skype calls, which will call Skype and then call the other party.
• When someone rings my Google Voice number, all my phones ring.  I only use my Tracfone if I’m not around another phone.
• When someone texts my Google Voice number, I check it on-line via Google Voice if possible.  Then I can delete the text without reading it from the Tracfone.  I almost always wait and respond to text messages via the web because it is so horrible to text with the Tracfone.

Using the 80/20 rule, we can guess that 20% of your conversations take up 80% of your cell phone minutes.  I almost always have these long conversations on my home phone or work phone–the only exceptions over the last year have been when I’m at conferences, and I can now use Google Voice plus my Skype number to talk on my computer at conferences.

My only issue with this setup is that, when I do text or call from my Tracfone, my caller ID shows up.  I have been thinking about whether I should block the caller ID.