Update: January 2020
I wanted to add an update. It appears that Tracfone completely removed the $50 One Year of Service Days add-on for some customers but not others. Customers that use BYOP smartphones such as myself report they no longer have the option. Customers that bought their phones directly from Tracfone report they still have the $50 option. Bottom line, check to see if you still have the option. Note that this option is hidden on the Tracfone site, see Add 1 Year of Service to Your Tracfone Account. If you no longer have the $50 option, consider adding four 90 plans for $80, See Tracfone $80 For One Year of Service
I wanted to add an update. It appears that Tracfone completely removed the $50 One Year of Service Days add-on for some customers but not others. Customers that use BYOP smartphones such as myself report they no longer have the option. Customers that bought their phones directly from Tracfone report they still have the $50 option. Bottom line, check to see if you still have the option. Note that this option is hidden on the Tracfone site, see Add 1 Year of Service to Your Tracfone Account. If you no longer have the $50 option, consider adding four 90 plans for $80, See Tracfone $80 For One Year of Service
In January 2019 I heave from a few of my readers that they no longer buy the $50 Tracfone One Year (365 days) Service. I added one to my account last September and so I know it was still available last September. so I checked both the my account of tracfone.com and in Tracfone’s My Account App on my phone and yes indeed the option was no longer there.
For those of you unfamiliar with this service add-on. Tracfone used to offer the option to add an additional 365 service days to your account for $50. This add on did not include any minutes, MBs of data, or texts, just service days. I loved this add-on for two reasons and I wrote about them in the past. First, many people have a huge balance of unused minutes on Tracfone and that balance keeps increasing because people would buy additional plans with minutes to get service days. See Add 1 Year of Service to Your Tracfone Account. Second, it was a great for people who want to use an iPhone or Android phone who only occasionally need phone service. See Expensive Phone – Cheap Cell Service
Has anyone tried to put their new sim back into an old phone from Tracfone that we know worked, reactivating it, purchasing a few years at 50, then transfering it back to the new phone?
I’m not sure if this would theoretically work, but it 100% carries over from the phone it is purchased on; that’s what happened when I bought the new phone. Figure jumping through a dumb hoop once every couple years wouldn’t be so bad if it works.
Phones purchased from Tracfone qualify for the $50 1 Year of Service Days add-on. BYOP do not. I haven’t tried it, but I seriously doubt simply moving your BYOP phone SIM back to a tracfone purchased phone will allow you to add 365 service day add on.
If you currently are not able to add the 365 day add on, transfering your serivice to a new phone from tracfone would allow you to. Perhaps, transferring back to an old phone would too, but many older tracfone phones can no longer be activated on Tracfone’s Verizon network.
That is because they are no longer compatible with the Verizon network Tracfone is using.
So in theory if you have a newer expensive BYOP phone, you could buy a really cheap tracfone phone, transfer your service to it. Add a few $50 add-ons, and then trsansfer back to the BYOP phone. I’d suggest having a new SIM ready for when you move back.
Alternatively, you could add 4 $20 90 day basic plans for $80, you’ll get 360 of service and some minutes, MB, and texts to. If you can find a promo code that works for that plan, putchase the plans one at a time using the promo code, and you could save a few bucks.
I don’t have any promo codes for that, so you’d have to search google.
Tracfone’s selection of new phones are getting better. And using a phone and plan bundle promo code can get you a good deal. See Tracfone Latest Deals and Promo Codes
0 minutes/365 days is available from Tracfone.
Select 30 day time plan
Go to cart “add” 365 day extension from drop down
Cancel 30 day time plan
Will take you back to plan selections
Click on your account to find 365 day extension still there.
Purchase and complete account transaction.
Phone automatically updates!
Cool. I’ll try that out. Thanks for for taking the time to share.
this still works but you have to buy the data or text add on for $10 or $5. With a promo code I got 1.5gb and 365 days for 63.99. If you remove the data the 365 days option goes away too.. not perfect but I’ll take it.
Yes, It works for Tracfone phones, not BYOP. It’s an add on in the cart. If you remove the other items from the cart, the so does the 365 days.
I was able to buy the 50 dollar service addon today. while was no longer available on the smartphone service plans(it was there previously) it was actually still available for the basic plans(or at least the cheapest one that I checked) that still work for smartphones as well. My total was $65.63. My phone was a HSN one that came with a one year plan. didn’t go that route this year because I didn’t want to give up my physical buttons. figured I should specify since BYOP phones seem to be treated differently according to other comments.
Yes. Works with phones purchased from Tracfone, but no longer BYOP. Thanks for the comment. $15.63 in taxes and fees? May ask what state you live in? And that for the comment.
Go to ebay not as cheap but not bad if you byof
So you are able to buy 365 service day add ons on eBay and apply them to your BYOP phone? My solution has been to buy four $20 90 day plans for a total of $80.
Yes ebay has 1 year extention plans for tracfone. Read sellers discription And follow sellers instructions and you should be fine.
I know this is late, but in August 2020 I went to add just 1gb of data for $10. When I got to the checkout, low and behold the Add one year of Service was one of the options. Knowing this HAD previously disappeared, I grabbed it and sure enough it added 1 year to my date.
Thanks for the comment. Glad you got the add on. I still don’t see it for me.
Here is my understanding. At one point all Tracfone customers qualified for the $50 one year add-on. At first you could only select it when purchasing a plan. Later a number of us learned you could play the game of selecting it in the cart at checkout and then removing the other items, However, my understanding is that only customers who bought their phones from Tracfone are eligible for this now, not us Bring Your Own Phone customers…. di you buy a Tracfone phone or are you a BYOP customer?
Thank you Gary. I did them same as you and found the 365 days of service. That is all I need. Buy minutes and data when I need it. Not often. My phone was purchased from Tracfone.
That is great. I so wish the had this for BYOP customers.
Did the same…bought a cheap card and this was an added option…thanks…
As I understand it, the $50 service days only option is only available to phones you buy through TracFone and not BYOP. I have two lines through TF and this seems to be the case. One of the phones is BYOP and the other I bought through TF. I only get the $50 option when I’m buying for the phone I bought from TF. Not sure why but, well, it is what it is.
Yes. This seems to be the case.
They just made it harder to find. Selectthe one year plan with 400 additional minutes. THEN below it will appear additional service items. Select 1 addition year at 49.99. Then go to your order and unselect 1 year with 400 minutes. What’s left is the 1 year at 49.99 and it goes through fine on your credit card.
What you describe is correct for some customers, but not others. I discussed the method you mentioned in an older article and video. This approach is no longer available on four different BYOP smartphone accounts I have personally checked and it isn’t there. Others report the same thing. Glad hear you still have it.
Just used John Moon’s info and it worked like a charm. It did make me select the “new” Smartphone plan for 365 days with 1500 minutes at a cost of $125 but then when I went to the shopping cart the 1 year of service time for $49.99 was available to be added. I then simple deleted the $125 card and paid only for the 1 year service plan only. Verified my new service end date was active and the charge to my credit card was correct… good to go. I will add that my original EOS date was Jan 26 2020 and I expected the year to simply change to 2021 but my date changed to Jan 25 2021… only one day so I don’t care BUT be aware that the new day date may change to the current day date… so if you are adding the card a significant amount of time before your actual EOS day you might lose time. Also my order added in some “tax” amounts but I live in a state that does not have sales tax so that was a surprise but only a couple $$ so NBD but when I checked out it removed that amount and charged me only the $49.99.
Sure wish you would have a card for only SERVICE PLAN since I do not get very much. Can I trade my accumulation of text in for minutes or air time?
As far as I know Tracfone does not offer that option.
Tracfone currently sells their 365 day plan on eBay for $40. It includes 1200 min, 1200 texts, and 3GB of data good for 365 days.
If the links below don’t work, search eBay for:
Tracfone Prepaid Wireless Smartphone Plan+SIM-1200 Min,1200 Txt, 3GB Data
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Tracfone-Prepaid-Wireless-Smartphone-Plan-SIM-1200-Min-1200-Txt-3GB-Data/283493024108
https://www.ebay.com/itm/283448464240
Juily,
Than you for taking the time to share that. But, I want to point out, that is not a service plan card. It’s a preloaded sim. If you buy that, you will not be able to add the one year to an existing tracfone number. You’ll need to activate the SIM card.
Check the description carefully. See my video about it on my YouTube channel.
I JUST SUCCESSFULLY ADDED 365 SERVICE DAYS ON THE $49 PLAN, AND EXTENDED AIRTIME ON THE $9.99 PLAN. TOTAL CAME TO $64.24 WITH TAX. MIKE IS CORRECT, YOU HAVE TO GO THROUGH THE CHECK OUT PAGE TO GET THE SERVICE DAYS OPTIONS. HOWEVER, THE WEBSITE IS A NIGHTMARE TO NAVIGATE.
That used to be the case and still is for some customers. However for me and many others using BYOP smartphones that option is no longer present. I lost the option on three phones. It was disappointing. Thanks for the comment. That is how we figured out that customers with Tracfone bought phone’s still have the option.
There maybe a wrinkle, that I saw on another website, that could possibly, change the options and results that some community people are getting . That is to not sign in on the TracFone site, until you have your selections in your cart, and you are ready to buy .
Many have found out, you can select anything to get you to the checkout screen, where you can find and select under the heading: ‘More for your phone’ The 365 extra service days for $49.99 is hiding there . I got to the checkout screen using ‘smart phone plans’ and by using ‘basic phone plans’ and supplying my telephone # . Be sure to add “The 365′ item before you release the plan you selected, that got you to the checkout screen .
Thanks for sharing. It did not work for the three accounts I tried. From what others have said is that if you bought your phone from Tracfone you can still find the option in the cart. but that they pulled the offer for those of us with BYOP phones.
Do you buy your phone from Tracfone or is it BYOP?
I have a 365 day service extension card but I’m not ready to use it yet. My service is good until November when I plan to utilize the card. Will it still be good then? I guess I’m asking if it expires.
As far as I know yes. I’ve never heard anyone tell me they had a card expire. I think you’ll be ok. If your service expires in November adding the card now should push your service days out to one year pas the expiration date, Not one year from the day you apply it.
Thanks for all the info! It worked for me on June 15 2019. I have an old basic phone (BYOP, I think).
I picked the $19.99/90days/60min plan. Entered my phone no. (but not my login password). It then offered 365days/0mins for $49.99. I deleted the $19.99, and was charged $49.99 + tax. 365 added days showed up immediately on my phone. Thanks!
Glad it helped!
Your information was of such help for the past two years for me because if I remember correctly, Tracfone had increased the 365 day Smartphone plan to $149.00 at one point. One thing that lessened the blow of finding out that it’s no longer available, is that Tracfone periodically texts offers and one of them was quite nice for how I use my phone: 2.5 GB extra when buying a 365 day Smartphone plan. This was around Valentine’s Day. It’s expired but I’m hoping to see it around Father’s Day. Based on what they charge for 1 GB of data, that basically brings the $125.00 plan down to $100.00.
Thet may have a deal for father’s day. I’ll post if I see one…
This thread has been very helpful to me. I was just able to add 365 days of service on my account for a 15 month-old iPhone SE that I bought from Tracfone. I followed the same sequence that others described:
* I added 1000 texts to my cart for $5
* At checkout, I had the option to add 365 extra service days for $49.99, which I selected
* I deleted the 1000-text add-on for $5
* I finished the checkout.
* My account page shows my last day of service extended for a year.
Thanks for the help. Hope this is helpful to others.
Thank you for sharing. Apparently some of us have lost this option, while others still have it. I am glad you were able to add service days, that was / is one of the best deals tracfone has.
I’ll add that I added on 1-3-21 another year for the second time, now to 12-22-22. The site got weird when I deleted the 1000 texts for $5 so I left it there, and I might even use them. I purchased a 4G smartphone in 12-19 via the QVC Tracfone deal for $49 including a year with 1500 minutes, data, AND text so the QVC deal does count as purchased from Tracfone. I’ll have enough for my low usage via the towers for about $180 for 3 years. So under $5 a month. Very good service to date, but I don’t stream videos riding on the bus, etc. One happy camper.
Thanks for sharing. Based on reports from customers, and most recently my own experience, the BYOP phones lost this option while the tracfone purchased phones still have this option. Nice score on QVC.
This just worked for my sister, who has an LG Android with Tracfone. Like everyone here, she has LOTS of “time” left, but is running out of service days. In the past, we have always been able to purchase 365 extra service days for $49.99. Today, we were able to add a plan card to the cart, then the extra service days showed up. We added that as an option to the cart, deleted the plan she selected originally, and voila! She now has 365 extra service days for $49.99 plus tax. Unfortunately for me, I switched over to my daughter’s old AT&T iphone, and I am NOT able to get these extra service days on my phone, which is a shame, as I also have LOTS of minutes/text/data left and only need extra service days. Bummer. Thank you to everyone for the information!!
Glad to hear it still works for your sister. Seems like it still works for basic phones and their low cost Android phones. I really miss that add-on a great way to use up minutes or my fav was to keep a smartphone active when it doesn’t get used to often.
I used this service for the past few years. Now I’m not sure what options I have left. I did buy time but didn’t get the option for the 365 days of service.
Some readers have reported they still have the option. It appears it may still be available for basic phones and a selected set of low cost Tracfone smartphones. I checked three different phones I had set up, all BYOP smartphones none had the option any longer. Now instead of spending $50 per year to use up the remaining minutes you’ll need to pay $125 for more minutes and a year of service days. Very disappointing. I’m still looking for a way to see if I can get the option back.
it shows available in mine just like last year, on 2/25/19. put the cheapest card in then it showed below. i added it and removed the cheap card. done.
Great. The option was missing on three different accounts I manage. All had the option previously. Others reported it missing too. But, I’m hearing from other like yourself that still hsve the option. Best I can tell customers with BYOP smartphones lost the option, customers with basic phones and select android phones purchased from tracfone still have the option. Thank you for sharing. May I ask what type of phone you have?
Thanks to the tips here, I picked the lowest plan available for my fone, the 30/30 plan, and at check out I was able to add 1 year service days for $50. After adding that, I was then able to deleted the 30/30 plan that got me to the check out page. So I was able to get the 1 year additional service for just the $50 with no added taxes or fees. This is great for me since I still have 2851 minutes in the bank already.
The last time I did this, I bought a whole year of service with minutes and also added an additional 365 days, so I was paid off for two years. But that didn’t really make sense given that I already had plenty of minutes. Just adding service days like this is good deal. That’s just $4 a month for mobile phone service! It will take me forever to burn up 2.8k minutes.
Glad to hear you were able to add the one year of service. I wish it were still available for me.
Bummer. So it must be because I am still using an ancient flip phone which is grandfathered in some way. I’ll keep this possibility in mind before considering an upgrade. It would be nice to know for sure what determines the availability of this buying option.
It has been suggested that it still works for older basic phone and a few of the least expensive smartphones they sell that use an older version of android. If you decide to update your phone consider adding an extra year or two before upgrading. The balance will carrier over.
Thanks for posting this. That’s a bummer. Too bad I didn’t renew it back in December, but who knew? I appreciate knowing that it’s not just that I couldn’t find that item on the Tracfone site.
Yea. I miss this option. Apparently some people with basic Tracfone phones still are able to get this add on.
I also just tried to add it for my son’s smartphone. Although it was not an option, I chose the lowest service card available and then upon check-out, I was allowed to also purchase the $49 card, which added 365 days in addition to the 30 days. So, 395 service days, 1gb data, 1000 texts for $75 with all fees.
Glad you got it. The option is missing from three different accounts I manage for family. By the way did you know, that once you are in the cart you can add the extra days at the bottom and then delete the plan from the cart so that you only pay for the service days add on…
Hi – FYI – the $50 1-yr service only option is still available on tracfone online (i just got it for my phone today) but it looks like it’s only for tracfone original phones (not a BYOB) – My android galaxy luna had the offer but my BYOP iphone did not
Hi KL,
Cool. Thanks for taking the time to comment and share that. I no longer have any tracfone phone active so I can’t see that from my account.