Hi Lynda,

Thank you so much for that kind help.

You hit the nail on the head!

She bought 500 minutes from Tracfone via their toll free phone # 3 months
ago and they're all gone.

Same thing when she bought the service plan with 1,500 minutes in Jan via
HSN and they were all gone by April.

Tracfone will not reveal the time for each call archived monthly or
quarterly so you can't research where all your minutes were used.

You must text 611611 Usage after each call which she did originally and
then stopped after a few weeks when the minutes usage each time was short.

It would seem there's something going on and no one but top security people
know about it?

Same thing with unauthorized withdrawals on debit cards. I've heard from
those in the banking industry that it's a quiet epidemic.

I just don't know what the next steps should be to avoid minutes drainage.

Thank you again,

Charles.

Charlotte County Public Library


Date:    Thu, 17 Aug 2023 23:08:26 +0000
From:    Lynda Howell <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Cell phone conundrum

At https://www.tracfone.com/phone-add-ons (Shop -> Plans Add-Ons from their
homepage), there's an option for 500 minutes for $10.  That's the only
option I see for buying minutes through their website -- there may be other
options in stores or as special offers.  If that's what she bought, that's
not related to days of service, and can only be used for calls, so if it
ran out faster than expected, that could mean there's something wrong.  I
didn't think minutes could be shared between devices, but it can't hurt to
check that she doesn't have another device showing on her account.

You can check your usage at any time on their website or by text -- or if
you're on a TracFone phone, you can probably do it in their app.  I
recommend checking that periodically and making sure it's not changing
faster than you expect.  The phone app on your phone probably also shows a
history of calls.  On mine, if I tap a number in the list and tap History,
I can see the length of the most recent call.  Again, check that
periodically and make sure it looks right.

But also notice that many places on their website, and especially on the
cards you'll see in grocery stores, they'll say "30 minutes" in big
letters, but "For talk, text and web" in smaller letters.  Those aren't
minutes, they're units that can be used for texts and data as well -- and
every data-aware app I've ever seen has come with background data use
enabled.  That's not a problem for the add-on I mentioned above, but my
experience trying to buy the 1000 Texts add-on is that the sales rep will
push very strongly towards their regular plans.  It's very easy to end up
with something other than what you asked for.

Lynda.