Tracfone vs 7-Eleven Speakout

Tracfone vs 7-Eleven Speakout

Tracfone vs 7-Eleven, What is the difference?

7-Eleven Speak out is a new MVNO owned by 7-Eleven. They have contracted with AT&T formerly Cingular to provide a simple easy to use prepaid cell phone plan. You can purchase an already activated phone. When you go to the checkout they will install a charged battery for you.??

7-Eleven SpeakOut 15 cents a minute

Most users of Speakout will probably choose to buy refill minutes at the local 7-Eleven at 15 cents a minute. This is a simple prepaid option. You can only purchase 7-Eleven Speakout phones at a 7-Eleven.

7-Eleven SpeakOut Unlimited Nights and Weekends

A New Option from 7-Eleven SPeakout is their Unlimited Nationwide Nights and Weekends. This plan is $40 per month and you get 200 anytime minutes. Extra anytime minutes for this plan are available at 50 minutes for $5. You can get this plan without signing a contract. You buy the phone and pay for one month of service. You can decide to not renew, there is no penalty or account closing payment required. You can change back to buying cards and paying 15 cents a minute and then change back to the Unlimited plan. 7-Eleven has made this as simple as possible. The Unlimited plan will not work on some of the older Speakout phones.

SpeakOut Handsets

All the SpeakOut handsets are GSM phones which work on the AT&T network. Unusual in the prepaid phone world is the handsets are Unlocked. This means that you can remove the SIM chip from this phone and put one in from an active T-Mobile account or AT&T account and this phone will work. You cannot install SIMs from Tracfone and NET10 and get them to work because their SIMs are locked to the phone they are activated in.

SpeakOut Prepaid Roaming

7-Eleven SpeakOut phones will not roam. If AT&T does not have coverage where you are trying to get reception your phone will not work.

7-Eleven SpeakOut Review

The advantages to this plan over the Tracfone and NET10 plan are:

  • Ease of setting up your phone.

  • The handset you purchase is unlocked.

  • Unlimited Night and weekends available on a month by month basis

The disadvantages to SpeakOut are:

  • The price for minutes.

  • Inability to roam.

  • Cards only available at 7-Eleven.

  • Limited selection of handsets.

The Tracfone LG 3280 on the left and the LG CG225 on the right

Tracfone Rates are higher and lower

When you purchase a doubler card from Tracfone which will bring the price of the Tracfone phone to about the same price as a comparable SpeakOut phone you will be able to get minutes cheaper with Tracfone.

All Single Rage Tracfone phones roam for Free. Some of the older Tracfones will charge you 2 units per minute while roaming. If you travel much be sure your phone is a Single-Rate.

Net10 from Tracfone is a much better deal.

Minutes from NET10 are always 10 cents and if you sign up for the Easy Minutes plan you can get them for 7.5cents a minute.