Transferring Your Current Tracfone Service to an iPhone 6


A reader, Liz writes…

Our neighbor gave us her a Straight Talk iPhone 6. Her service will end the 14th for the iPhone. I want to transfer my husband’s Tracfone service from his iPhone 4 to this iPhone 6. I am confused to which sim I would use.

I say its the CDMA LTE NANO SIM but could be wrong as always, lol…if you have a chance to let me know which nano one it would be I would be so appreciative once..my husband has like 6000 min, text and data on the old iPhone…

I don’t have a preference to the Att nano or the Verizon towers, just want the phone to work for my husband, since he’s had the Tracfone iPhone 4 he’s used it way more than the Tracfone android he had, he texts me more and send me pics when he’s out, half the time he does not hear the phone ring tho as it’s not loud at all so it goes to his voice mail which is visual which is nice, so getting the iPhone 6 I think once everything is changed over he will like it more, the camera from the 4 is ok but the 6 takes really nice pics! Fingers crossed it goes easy, the 14th I will check the serial number.

Any info would truly be appreciated! Thank you.

Hi Liz,
You can transfer your husband’s service from his iPhone 4 to the iPhone 6 but their are a few things to be aware of.

First, if that iPhone 6 was used for less than 12 months on Straight Talk it’s activation locked, meaning it will not work with a different carrier. See Straight Talk’s unlocking policy and check the status for that iPhone 6 here. hhttps://www.tfwunlockpolicy.com/wps/portal/home/.

Turns out that Straight Talk is one several different Tracfone brands so even if this iPhone 6 is locked to Straight Talk, it still will work with Tracfone. However, You might have a problem activating it on Straight Talk’s Verizon (CDMA /LTE) network. I have found, as have many smartphonematters.com readers, that a Tracfone ATT SIM just works when you use it with a Straight Talk phone.

When you transfer your service from the iPhone 4 to the iPhone 6, you’ll have to decide to either transfer it to the AT&T (GSM / LTE) towers or the Verizon (CDMA /LTE). Switching to the Tracfone AT&T towers is easier and straight forward. Switching to the Verizon towers may not be possible, and will require more time and effort and you’ll likely need to talk to Tracfone support.

If you transfer his service to the AT&T towers, you’ll give Tracfone the new SIM number, transfer the service, put the SIM in the iPhone 6 and you’ll be ready to go. But if you try to transfer it to the Verizon (CDMA) towers, you’ll need to give Straight Talk the iPhone’s serial number (MEID/IMEI) so they can check if the phone is “compatible”. By “compatible”, they mean eligible. They check that number to see if they can register that phone on their verizon towers At this point, Tracfone will see that it is already registered to Straight Talk. The website might say the phone is not compatible, or already registered to another brand. If this is the case, you’ll have to talk to Tracfone support. If the iPhone 6 was unlocked by Straight Talk, then their is a good chance they will register it for you. If it isn’t unlocked, Tracfone will likely say you can’t use it.

Your husband’s iPhone 4 is currently using the Verizon network. If both the AT&T and Verizon network have good coverage in your area then using either network is an option. If not, he might find the coverage isn’t as good. The next issue is Visual Voicemail. His iPhone 4 using the Verizon towers currently has visual voicemail. If he switches to Tracfone’s AT&T towers he will definitely have regular voicemail. If he is able to use the iPhone 6 with the Verizon towers, he MIGHT get Visual Voicemail. It’s not guaranteed, but it might work. If it doesn’t work, he’ll have regular voicemail.

I hope this is clear enough. Finally two suggestions. If that iPhone 6 is more than a year old, consider taking advantage of Apple’s new battery replacement program. When the battery in an iPhone gets older, the phone runs slower as the battery cannot properly power the phone to run at full speed. For 2018, Apple is addressing this with a $29 battery replacement service. This is a great deal. For details, see https://www.apple.com/iphone-battery-and-performance/.

Also, given that your husband has a large amount of carryover minutes, text, and data consider choosing the lowest price plan when it is time to refill and adding the $50 1 year of service days to his account. That way you’ll be lowering the amount you spend while maximizing service days added to the account and can use up some of that balance.

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