Everyone these days seems to have a cell phone. Not everyone can afford the latest and greatest technology. If you're like me, you just don't care about the latest and greatest and a prepaid cellular service like Trackfone suits your needs perfectly.

Lets assume that you don't know anything about cellular phones for a minute. That way I'll be sure to cover everyone. If you're already an advanced cell phone user, just bare with me for a minute.

If you want to buy a mobile phone, you'll first have to choose a service provider. There are several cellphone service providers to pick from. Some that you may be familiar with are Verizon, US Cellular, Sprint, Vonage, and of course Trackfone.

The process of buying a cell phone is pretty simple. You choose the service provider that you want to go with. You choose a monthly plan that is in your budget. For example, you might choose a plan for $50 a month that gives you 700 minutes per month of talk time.

The service company does a quick credit check to decide if you qualify. If your score isn't high enough, they send you out the door without a phone.

If you qualify, then you have to choose a cellphone. These can range from $50 to $500 depending on what features you can't live without.

They activate your phone, give you a phone number, and smile as you walk out the door. Of course there are some additional catches. Use too many minutes and you'll quickly run up a bill that is likely to wipe out your children's college funds. Cancel your service and you'll have to fork out a couple of hundred dollars for breaking the mandatory two year contract.

There are several advantages to using Trackfone over using a traditional cellular phone carrier. With Trackfone you don't have to pass a credit check. You don't have to sign any contracts. You can never use too many minutes and get a whopper of a surprise bill at the end of the month.

The process of getting a Trackfone prepaid phone couldn't be more simple.

1. March on down to your local Walmart or similar store.
   
2. Find the Trackphone isle and pick out a phone that Trackfone that meets with your approval.
3. Buy a tracfone minutes card. They come in 60, 90, 120, 200, 400, etc denominations.
4. Charge the cell phone battery fully.
   
5. Call the 1-800 number on the phone and they'll have you enter a few codes into your phone to activate it. They'll tell you what your new phone number is at this time.
6. Wait about 10 minutes for the phone to be activated and you're a proud new cell phone owner.

With Tracphone, it doesn't matter if you're rich or poor, black or white, tall or short. young or old. Anyone who want's a phone can have one.

It's worth mentioning that the minutes on your phone carry over from month to month.  If you buy a 60 minute card, those minutes will expire in 3 months unless you buy another card.  You get a 3 month extension for every card you buy. 

Let your phone run out of minutes and past the expiration date and you loose your number.  You can always add minutes and reactivate the phone later but you'll be given a different number.

If you buy your phone on the Trackfone website, they often have special offers that you can take advantage of. Of course you have to use a credit card to purchase it and wait about a week for the phone to arrive but you can get some great deals.

A deal that they nearly always run is a phone and a double minutes for life card. The package usually costs $49.99. I've bought several of these phones and have always been very happy with them. It's really their best deal. If you buy a 60 minute card for $20, you actually get 120 minutes for the same price. That means that each minute you use the phone will actually only cost you 17 cents instead of 34 cents per minute.

Another thing that you can do is use promo codes. Trackfone will frequently send you text messages that include special promotional codes that will entitle you to free minutes if you use the promo code when you activate the minutes. It's quite common for them to issue 60 free minute codes when you buy a 120 minute card. Of course there are other codes as well.  Look for the best code for the card that you are buying.

I usually do a Google search to find a current promo codes to use when I add minutes. I usually buy the 120 minute card for $29 and I have double minutes for life so I actually get 240 minutes. I use a promo code to get an extra 60 minutes free so I get a total of 280 minutes for $29. This works out to only 11 cents per minute.

You can add minutes directly from your phone but I always recommend adding minutes on the Internet. You're only allowed to use a promo code one time per phone. By using the Internet to add your minutes to your trackfone, you can try several promo codes if one doesn't work on your phone. If you add minutes from your phone, you're out of luck if the code doesn't work. You don't get a second chance to add a different code that might work on your phone.

Some people may be reluctant to buy a trackfone because they are worried about the coverage that they will get with the phone.  There really isn't anything to worry about.  Trackfone actually uses other companies cell phone towers.  In my area, they used to use Cellular One towers but I think they've changed to Verizon towers.

My family has been using trackfone prepaid wireless for five years now and we've always been very happy with the service.  It's a great way to budget the amount of time that your kids can talk on the phone. 

No more surprises at the end of the month when you find out that your kids used so many minutes that you can't afford to make  your house payment.

Buy a phone from Trackfone and I'm sure you'll love it.

You can use your trackfone to send text messages just like any other mobile phone.  You will be charged .30 minutes for each text that you send or receive.  In my case that works out to about 4 cents a text message.  If you don't go crazy, that's plenty cheap for almost any budget.

You might be surprised to know that you get free voicemail, free call waiting, free call forwarding, and free long distance in the US with your track phone.