Tracfone Ends Triple Minutes for Life- What you Need to Know (Updated)

Facts about Tracfone's Triple Minutes for Life Changes

Updated March 2018

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.

We've 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? Let's take a look (but first, here is an update!).

**Update!** All New Phone Activations May Come with Triple Minutes Now!

We wanted to add an update to the information here as Tracfone has made some changes, and may continue to adjust the Triple Minutes program.

Triple Minutes appears to be Back

Tracfone appears to be offering Triple Minutes as a promotion for any new phone activation. So if you activate a new phone, it seems that Tracfone is giving everyone Triple Minutes as a 'bonus'. We have not confirmed if this is occurring for every new phone activation, or just certain phones. See the information from Tracfone in the screen capture to the right:

We have received feedback from several readers who activated a new, LG Rebel 3 with airtime bundle (1500 talk, text and data) and received 4500 talk, text and data!

Let us know in the comments below your experiences, and if this happened for you.

 Tracfone had a very poor year in 2017, losing a number of customers, and so they may be trying to backtrack and reinstate the popular triple minutes program, at least for now. We will continue to update as needed.

**Update!**

Tracfone Triple Minutes for Life Changes - The Facts

Here are the facts about Tracfone's changes to TMFL program.

• NOTE: See the update above - Tracfone now appears to be offering triple minutes to all new phone activations (after Dec 5th 2017)
• 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 and Android 7.0 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 (Unless you are switching to a non-smartphone).
• 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 minutes 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 doesn't 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 isn't 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.

Tracfone Smartphones that Do Not have Triple Minutes

Here are phones that we have confirmed do not include triple minutes, although with Tracfone recently offering triple minutes to new phone activations, it may be possible to get triple minutes with these phones.

• Samsung Galaxy Luna J3 Pro
• ZTE Zfive2
• ZTE Majesty Pro
• LG Rebel 2

There may be more devices, and many of the newly released phones will likely not include triple minutes.

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

Continue the discussion on our Facebook page where we post the latest news and info with our growing community.

Catch up on some of our recent posts including 10 Tips for Improving your Cell Signal and How WiFi calling Works.

We also updated our list of the Best Android Apps which includes a variety of the most popular and most helpful apps to have on your smartphone.

Don't forget to visit our Cell Phone Reviews page if you're shopping for a new phone, or the BYOP page to learn about bringing an unlocked phone to Tracfone.

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