Expert: DebiN - 5/8/2010

Question
HI,
Bought a (Samsung) Tracfone with double-minutes feature; all's well... Then learned I could port my home phone number to a Tracfone (and dump AT&T!), so made arrangements to do that, which took several weeks. In order to activate the newly ported number, bought a second (cheap Motorola) Tracfone, also with double-minutes feature. Turns out the cheaper Motorola is not a very good phone; it needs constant battery recharging & is hard to use with poor audibility. Therefore, would like to do following:
1. Transfer the minutes off the Motorola onto the Samsung device.
2. "Port" the phone number off the Motorola to the Samsung device.
To do this, will I have to have a NEW SIM from Tracfone? Do I do this over the telephone or what? Have read some horror stories online, so what are the odds that Tracfone can make these changes without screwing up my service or losing some of my minutes? (Am assuming I'll need a third temporary Tracfone device during the transition?) Thanks for any assistance or clarification.

Answer
You shouldn't have to port to move from one Tracfone to another. Your SIM card is your number, not the phone. Tracfone can move your number to a new phone simply by recoding the IMEI number of the new phone into the profile for your number. You can also just buy a SIM unlocked quad band GSM phone and put your Tracfone SIM into it and it will work. You won't be able to track your minutes via the phone or use any of the internet features, but you will be able to use the phone. I'm not at all familiar with the double minutes gimmick and am concerned that your only phones are pay per use, but that's your choice, I know. So in answer to your question, no porting is necessary. Call Tracfone and ask them if they can transfer your minutes from the one number to the other and let them know that you need a new phone. Remember, you can't have two numbers sharing one phone so you will need another phone if you want to keep both numbers. If you only want one number, then just transfer the minutes to the other and make sure that Tracfone has that number associated with the phone you want to use. Hope this helps. Thanks. DebiN