Tracfone Apple iPhone SE 5G (3rd Generation), 64GB, Black – Prepaid Smartphone (Locked)

Great value
Needed a replacement for my 7 year old iPhone SE. This one adds 5G and works great.

This Tracfone is what I hoped it would be
I wanted a Tracfone that would use Tracfone’s Verizon network because Verizon has a tower closest to my home and they seem to have adequate coverage elsewhere. The supplied Tracfone directions and SIM card for this SE 3rd gen worked for me. The activation on Tracfone’s webpage went as advertised with no trouble. Transferring my data and settings from my old iPhone went perfectly. My first call worked as well as text and email . I found information online that indicates a SIM card’s associated network based on the first six digits of the SIM card id: 890126 = T-Mobile, 890141 = AT&T, 891480 = Verizon. Mine were 891480, indicating my preferred Verizon network. It would have been nice if the supplied info on Amazon had included this network information. If it had not turned out to be Verizon I probably would have returned the phone for a refund.

Phone is great – will not be recommending Tracfone anymore, though…
Over the years, I’ve bought numerous Tracfones. A couple for myself, and several for relatives, coworkers, and friends as second phones for them. Until now all were Androids and I never had an issue activating them online and getting them up and running for those I got them for… until now. So I got this iPhone SE for myself since my other one is old, and need this for work purposes. It came with the phone, and a packet from Tracfone with a physical sim card, and activation numbers. Seems straightforward. I go in to activate the phone and it keeps telling me my physical sim (inserted) was an “electronic sim” and would not continue. Tried otherwise, and it still froze up – so I had to call Tracfone “customer service”…Rep 1 tells me from their non-U.S. call center that I had to “buy a new number as well as a plan”. No – you do not have to buy a new number. He kept asking me for my credit card. I hung up and called back. Rep 2 says the physical sim I was sent doesn’t show up as anything other than an e-sim, and he gets confused, so transfers me to an upper level tech person. Rep 3 is almost as confused and proceeds to tell me that the sim number that came with this “can’t be used on Tracfone, but instead needs to be used on Straight Talk Wireless” (also owned now by Verizon alone with Trac, and plans cost more there). After some discussion about no, I was not going to do that, somehow he then figures out how to activate this on a Tracfone plan (less money). I won’t go into much more as it would be a small novel, but the entire process took no less than two hours to get this thing up and running.In the end, I had to put it on a temporary plan just to get this done and will switch to what I wanted later, hoping the phone and plan continues to work properly along the way. But I have never, ever, experienced such a “cluster” with Tracfone, and after this, probably will not be recommending them to anyone again. Too many other options. Again – this PHONE is a nice little iPhone for those who just want the most basic iPhone – nothing wrong with that. But I would suggest buying it unlocked if you get the SE, so you can use it on a service OTHER than Tracfone.

WHAT IS BEING SAID IS TRUE AFTERALL!!!!!!!!!!
This 5G iPhone SE 3rd Generation has a new esim card that makes it way more difficult to activate if you even can. I was told that it could not be activated over the phone and I had to do it online instead. I couldn’t even do that because the website was pretty much telling me the same thing and shouldn’t have been as difficult as it was. To each their own, but I don’t recommend this model at all.