Tracfone Ends Triple Minutes for Life What you Need to Know

Facts about Tracfones Triple Minutes for Life Changes

Tracfone Triple Minutes for Life

Tracfone has decided to end the Triple Minutes for Life (TMFL) program that gave all smartphones (both Tracfone branded and unlocked) as well as many feature phones triple the minutes when adding the regular airtime cards. (When adding the 60 minute card, for example, you would get 180 minutes , plus any bonus airtime).

There has been a lot of speculation and questions about whether phones will keep Triple Minutes for Life, if new phones will have it, and if Tracfone is really removing a very popular feature from their phones.

Weve gathered information about the changes and contacted Tracfone directly, and now want to try and clear things up and provide the facts for everyone concerned about this.

First off, none of the Smartphone only cards would triple anyway, so these cards are completely unaffected, and if these are the cards you usually get, you are unaffected. In general, the smartphone cards are a better deal (especially for texts and data)l, and you can take a look at our Tracfone Airtime Comparison to learn more about which cards are the best deal for different situations.

But many Tracfone customers still use the regular airtime cards, especially the 60 minute card and 1 Year/400 Minute card. Plus, most bonus codes are for the regular airtime cards.

So what exactly is changing, and how will it affect you? Lets have a look.

Tracfone Triple Minutes for Life Changes - The Facts

Here are the facts about Tracfones changes to TMFL program.

• All phones that already have Triple Minutes for Life will continue to have it.
• New Smartphone releases will not include Triple Minutes for Life (Phones released after April 2017 and with Android 6.0 or newer will not come with TMFL, although some Android 6.0 smartphones do come with Triple Minutes)
• SIM cards for BYOP phones will no longer include TMFL
• All your airtime will transfer if you switch from a phone with TMFL to one without.
• Regular airtime cards can still be added to non-TMFL smartphones, but only the face value will be given. (a 60 minute card will give 60 talk, 60 texts, and 60 MB data.)

The important information here is that no phone that already has triple min utes will lose that feature. But newer phones released by Tracfone will likely not include triple minutes.

This is a significant shift that Tracfone is making, and may drive away some long time customers. Why would they do this? Here is their response from the FAQ section on their website:

Why Tracfone is Making the Change to Triple Minutes for Life:

"As technology continues to improve, we found that more people were using smartphones and smartphone plans. People are especially using more data. So, we wanted to accommodate you by providing higher data plans with greater value." - Tracfone FAQ

That doesnt make a whole lot of sense as to why they need to get rid of TMFL, but it is true that the regular airtime cards are not a very good deal for data or texts.

Tracfone also cited technical compatibility as another reason for the end of triple minutes, but that isnt very likely either.

Whatever the reason, Triple Minutes for Life will no longer come with new phones, but all existing triple minute phones will continue to keep it.

Share your thoughts or questions about these changes below, and if you have additional information or corrections please also let us know.

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Dont forget to visit our Cell Phone Reviews page if youre shopping for a new phone, or the BYOP page to learn about bringing an unlocked phone to Tracfone.

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