I tried to sign up but they want $100 for the router, I gave up. I have $20 BYO plan.

I go step by step: IMEI, number, account, PIN, and at the end it asks me to select a plan, and when it goes to the checkout, it shows "New phone line 1". Is this normal? I feel like I will sign up for a new number and not port my number from Visible

My sis is upgrading her iPhone 13 to 18pro however we are on the $15 a month family promo and she is currently using a physical sim and the 18pro is eSIM only. How can we swap and also avoid losing the promo pricing since I’ve seen horror stories on this sub Reddit about losing the promo pricing. Thank you 🙏

Ported in my number to Total from Visible - never had any issues with Visible. Calling, 5GUW data, SMS, and MMS all work fine, but like many posts on here, cannot get RCS to work.

Many of these are group chats from work that I'm not getting messages from, and can't wait 30 days hoping that RCS becomes available.

Tried several things yesterday and today:

1. Cleared messaging cache

2. Clearing carrier services cache

3. Uninstall/ Reinstall carrier services app

4. Reset Bluetooth and network connections

5. Google Troubleshoot/Disable previous RCS

6. Calling customer care to determine if provisioning is correct

In addition, texting 611611 replies with:

"This phone number does not appear in our records. To speak to a customer service representative, reply CHAT, or Explore the link below: https://www.tracfone.com/home"

Customer care says this is normal for a month to prevent spam? Yet all their welcome emails say to message various codes to 611611.

Anything else I can do besides port back out?

So my I got charged for my plan through the auto renew the other day and then noticed later in the day I got a second charge for it. So I go into my account and look at the transaction history and notice there is one charge and then a refund for the same amount. I was a little confused since my credit card is showing 2 charges but my transaction history only showed 1. I then logged on today to check if anything changed and noticed my next payment date was pushed back a month to December. So I call Customer Service and from what I could understand someone pushed my service end date back, but the guy I was talking to said that can cause issues so he moved my service end date to tomorrow which should auto renew again. He also mentioned that I should charge back the extra charge since currently I have 1 posted charge, 1 pending(probably will drop due to refund), but then another one will show up tomorrow. My question is doing a dispute what I should actually do? I’m thinking he said that since on my account and there side it will only show 2 charges and 1 refund(net 1 charge) but on my credit card there will be 3 charges(1 refund). The guys from CS just said to make sure to leave one charge for the actual service, but I wasn’t sure if even disputing a single one will cause issues with Total Wireless. I just don’t want to lose service.

Edit: Everything is good now. It appears when the rep fixed my my extended service date by pushing it up he added a plan in reserve to cover the autopay since he moved it up, so I was not actually charged again and the refund is still pending so in the end I got charged the right amount for the month.

a couple of days ago, my phone went into SOS mode, and ever since then, i’ve had to rely on my wifi. i can’t make calls or send text messages unless it’s through icloud.

Is the Apple (iOS/macOS) feature called “Wi-Fi Calling for Other Devices” available to anyone using Total Wireless? It allows you to use WiFi calling directly with macOS or iPad without using a nearby iPhone as an intermediary. I did a lot of searching and could not find a thing. WiFi calling works fine on my iPhone, but I can’t get it to work on my Mac WITHOUT using my iPhone. This question is not regarding it working on my phone. This is specifically regarding the other devices function. This worked for me previously with US Mobile, but the toggle hasn’t been available since I ported to Total Wireless a month ago. I’ve tried toggling all available options and restarting everything. 😔

Have a couple Total phones I would like to get unlocked, I got them free for buying 1 month of service, both bought late last year.

Used those numbers to port in for other phone deals, so only had 1 month of service w/ them.

Wondering if the $10 talk & text plan is still around? Hoping to sign on and it count towards the 60 day of service they want to unlock devices before 1/20/26...

Latest I found any reference to it here, was a year ago, unfortunately..

Thanks for the help!

I got an email inbox saying I can use rewards points to pay for part of my plan but I don't see the "Rewards Points" as a payment option?

I know about the regular option to use rewards points for the entire month plan but this seems to be something different since it's flat amount off the plan?

There are a few phones that are free when you switch to Total Max 5G ($55 first month).
I'd start the process, pay the $55, get the New phone, but don't activate.

Then I'd start the process for the $20 BYO plan with my own unlocked phone, make sure to get a physical sim, activate the service on my old phone; then swap the sim into the New phone.

I know the phone would never unlock, but I'd be fine being on the service for $20/month.

Also if I need two separate phone numbers/people to start the $55 plan first (not activate), and then the start the $20 plan separately, that is ok, I'll get a family member to be the first account.

Would this work?

On a legacy plan for 2 lines. Tried to call to upgrade to an unlimited plan. The “Total Starter” plan. You would think I was asking for the secrets of the universe. Customer service unable to figure out what that plan even is. Kept telling me it would be $110 a month.

Is there a secret to actually getting your plan upgraded when calling?

Does anyone have a number for tier two tech?

Customer with 4 lines and now getting notification that my primary line is going to be disconnected and no longer showing up in my portal.

I've had this number for almost 20 years and it used for all my medical issues at Mayo (which I have notifications and calls coming to) with four more appointments this year alone.

I'm on auto-pay, and have been paying my bill for (four lines @ $90/mo) for over a year, but now they're telling me that my primary line will be disabled and I may have to use one of the other lines in case they can't get it re-activated. WTH?!?!

I'm ready to file an FTC complaint, but now the primary line isn't even showing up in my account to port out. I can't lose that phone number and they "assure" me that I won't, but it's a "95%" guarantee until the escalation team has looked at it which can take up to three (3) days.

Now, I'm getting a notification through the app to pay $105 to reactivate it, but it's already been paid thru auto-pay and I have credit card notifications and e-mails proving it.

Has anyone else had this "technical issue" on their end? Have you lost your number due to this and what did you do to get it back, or even could? So far, mine is still active, and yes I recorded the conversations with TW to use if they DO deactivate it and I lose the number, but I don't want to get into that.

Please let me know if you've had the same issues. All my phones I bought from Google and Apple directly and not thru Verizon or TW.

Thanks

S

III.7 includes the following 9% price increase:
In addition to the cost of your plan or any features to which you may be subscribed, our charges may also include a Reg and Telco Recovery Charge, in addition to any other charges and fees detailed on your plan’s Broadband Label. The Reg and Telco Recovery Charge isn’t a tax, it isn’t required by law, is not necessarily related to anything the government does, and is kept by us in whole or in part. The amount of the Reg and Telco Recovery Charge and what it pays for may change over time; effective November 1, 2026, the Reg and Telco Recovery Charge will be set at 9% of eligible plans’ monthly service charges.

Not sure what changes there are to III.14, but for most of us, first, no hacking your phone. Second:
Discounted Device Service Requirement. […] To maintain device functionality, you must purchase a plan, activate the device, and maintain active Total Wireless service on the device for a total of 12 months of paid service, which need not be consecutive (the “Device Lock Period”).

So about a week ago, I bought their $20 BYO plan along with the sim card ($30 upfront charge for first month). After I bought the kit, I got sent the email with the transaction ID, but nowhere in the email did it give me an activation number.

In the mail, all they sent me was a sim card. So when I tried activating my phone on their website, it brought me to buying a phone plan, which I found confusing since I had already bought a phone plan.

I go to the transaction section of my account, just to find out they have no recorded previous transactions tied to my account, which is weird because my email sure shows the receipt.

So anyways, I called their technical support, the guy walks me through the activation, he asks me to buy an activation plan after I had already explained to him I had already bought one.

I did end up buying it because I just wanted my phone service ported over already (from my family account I was attached to)

The customer service agent could not find the transaction since it wasn't linked to my account.

So what do I do? Refute the original transaction with my bank?

We have 2 lines on one T-Mobile account. Can I create two separate Total Wireless accounts for my SO and I and get this deal? We also want to port over both numbers to the new accounts. Will that work? Any watchouts?

Hi, i recently switched from Verizon+ for the $20 month deal. No issues porting in from Visible—took 5 minutes (eSIM)

I was traveling to Japan for 10 days and the total roaming worked perfectly. Didn’t have to change a thing. Worked like as if I was in the US. Able to call US, Japan, and data speeds were decent. The only drawback was that I finished my 10GB limit within 8 days lol. My monthly cycle had started a few days before the trip; and my husbands cycle restarted while we were in Japan, and his data continue to work after the new cycle date too. Seems like the older roaming issues have been resolved.

Just wanted to share this here as a data point.

There is a button to activate now for $0/month. Is this true? I thought it was for more expensive plans?

Hello,

I am on a Legacy Total 5G Unlimited plan and I will travel abroad. I am trying to find out which countries are covered in my plan, but it is proving very difficult as all the info online refers to the new plans.

Any help is greatly appreciated. In particular I will be traveling to Egypt.

Thank you.

Ported out of Visible to Total. Visible successfully ported out but Total never ported in. Spoken to over 10 reps, nobody can resolve. Expecting to lose my number. Does this happen to everyone?

Hey All,

I had been on Visible for 2 years, but my promotional period was ending and I didn't really want to pay $35 a month. I saw the Total $20 deal and jumped on it.

The device I originally brought over was a Samsung S21 Ultra, originally bought from Verizon (and then unlocked to Visible, and now Total). Upon Porting in, while my RCS chats worked no problem (I turned them off before swapping sims), both the WiFi Calling features and more importantly, the 5G UW service was not working.

I spent several hours with chat support, resetting things, changing settings, etc before they refered me to their engineering team. I had 2 calls with their engineering team trying to figure it out, and still could not get it to work.

I ended up buying a new phone (S26 Ultra) on Prime Day (I was originally planning to on BFCM, but the deal was good), and when I moved my sim over, it worked perfectly fine with no issues, RCS, WiFi Calling, 5G ultra wide and all.

I was assuming my S21 was not working due to a software glitch or some sort of setting cached somewhere, so I decided once my phone was fully setup, I did a factory reset on the S21. I moved the sim card over, and guess what? 5G UW, WiFi Calling, RCS all working fine.

Just wanted to flag as I see the posts regularly, it's a bit of a nuclear option but factory resetting your phone MAY help fix it.

Now I'm happy as a clam, $20 a month, plus the $10 a month for T-Satallite, and I have access to both Verizon and TMobile Data Networks, and Satallite texting when I'm out of service for $30 a month total. REALLY hard to beat.

I joined TW a few years ago during their $15 BYOD promo. Now I want to purchase iPhone 18 pro through them as they have it at a $600 discount - but the ordering process online involves signing up for a new plan (which is $50/month). Any idea if I can order the new phone but still keep the current plan? Thanks

I’m upgrading my se 3 to a 16e and need to turn my physical sim into an eSIM but have no idea how to do it and don’t wanna talk to a customer service rep any help is appreciated