This is a screen shot tutorial for transferring service from an
Active CDMA Tracfone to a GSM Tracfone
using the activation process on the Tracfone web site

You cannot transfer anything to an active GSM phone online. If your GSM phone is currently active you will have to call Tracfone Customer Service in order to do any transfer to it.

You must transfer the phone number when transferring from CDMA to GSM on the web site.
If you only want to transfer the minutes and days from an active CDMA phone, you will have to call Customer Service.

Transferring service from CDMA to GSM means you will be "porting your number" from the CDMA carrier (Verizon) to the GSM carrier (AT&T). This process usually takes some time and the process may not be completed immediately. I have had success where the number was transfered immediately to the new phone, but most cases have taken at least one day, usually 2, to complete. If the process completes immediately it will probably require some code entry on the GSM phone. Calling Tracfone customer service will, in all likeliness, not increase your chances of having the process complete any faster.
If you are transferring to a phone model older than the W376, and transferring 900 minutes or more, the process will probably necessitate a phone call to Tracfone to get the minutes transfered after the number port is complete. It seems that a transfer of 900 minutes or more will not program into the phone over the air, it requires code entry into the phone. The W376 and later phones will receive large minute programming over the air.

Please read through the whole process before you start so that you will be familiar with it and see the possible options involved. Take a special note to page 10 concerning available service days.

The New phone has to have a brand new sim card.
See the Tracfone sim card information page here Tracfone & Net10 Sim Card Information

You are not required to have an account to transfer from an active phone to a new phone, but you do have to be an "existing customer". Only existing customers have currently active phones. Recent changes allow you to initiate an activation or transfer from within your account without having to log in again or reenter your information. As of 10/21/08 there is a new look to the accounts pages on the site.
If you have an account, you do not have to log in or add the new phone to your account if you do not want to.
If you do not have an account you can create one during the transfer process if you like but it is not required.

This tutorial is only basic. I do not go in depth with each page. If you have problems you can contact me at the link at the end of the tutorial.

If you want to take advantage of the possibility of receiving up to 300 bonus minutes with the activation or reactivation of a phone contact me prior to activating your phone.

View my other tutorials and Useful Tracfone information

Start from the Tracfone Home Page

Choose this option if you do not have an account or do not wish to use your account for this particular transaction

Choose this option if you already have an account and want to log into it and process this transaction through it.

I chose to process the transaction using my account when I made this tutorial so if you choose not to use an account your page 7 will differ slightly but you should have no problem following and providing the correct information.

Create an account or you can skip the account creation process.

When you click the submit button here your old phone will be deactivated. The new phone will not be active until further in the process

If you are transferring to a USED GSM phone you may not get the "Skip Step" button on this page. If you do not get the skip button, just click "Continue"

If you have zero service days on your old phone and the gsm phone was previously used (no free service days to be added) then you may have to add an airtime card to complete the transfer. If neither phone has service days available the skip button won't be there and the continue button will return a message concerning the adding of an airtime card.

REMEMBER: AT THIS POINT YOUR OLD PHONE IS NOW INACTIVE AND YOU MUST COMPLETE THE PROCESS. THE NEW PHONE WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED ACTIVE UNTIL AFTER THIS PAGE.

If you mess up here you will have to call tracfone and tell them you were initiating a service transfer online and the process did not complete. You will have to add an airtime card on the phone with them in order to get the process back on track.

I lost my screenshot for the next page. I will correct it when I can. You will get an error message telling you the process cannot be completed at his time, try again later. Read how to proceed below

Not the result we would like to have but still this is the most common. There is no "try again later" since the CDMA phone is deactivated after page 9.
If you add the new phone to an account it will probably show as inactive because the number porting process is pending. The first thought is to immediately call Tracfone but don't.

Their normal response is that it could take 24 to 48 hours for the process to complete so calling before 48 hours is just a waste of time.

Let me interpret the error message for you and tell you how to proceed.

This message means that the transaction is in process but could not be completed at the present time.
Wait 48 hours, if you have not received the minutes or any messages on the GSM phone call Tracfone customer service.
A call to Tracfone after 2 business days will determine that the transfer did not fail & the number port is pending.
They can verify the number of minutes in the transfer and what the new service end date would be once the transaction is complete. This is based on the parameter info you entered during the process.
After 48 hours if your tracfone has not received the transfer of minutes or service days or is not active call Tracfone.
Remember, if you are transferring more than 899 minutes to any phone other than the newer ones you are going to have to call Tracfone before they process will be completed.

Here are a few different results I have experienced with these types of transfers.

Instead of receiving the error on page 11, I was directed to enter codes into the new phone. Once the codes were entered, the old phone number was showing in the prepaid menu on the phone and the service end date and minutes were displayed on the phones main screen. The phone did not actually become active until about 6 hours later.

The error message on page 11 was received. A Welcome Back text message was received on the new phone after about 18 hours. Another text message telling me the number port was complete and the phone was ready for use was received after about 36 hours. The display on the phone still showed the old, expired, service end date and the old number of minutes. I waited until the next day (after the 48 hours period) and called Tracfone. I told that I had initiated a service transfer online and that I had received a text telling me the number port was complete but that I now needed to have my pending minutes and service days added to my phone. The rep took the IEMI for the phone and said she was the pending minutes. She said in order to activate my phone they would have to send me a new sim card. I told her I did not need a sim card because the phone was already active with the number from the old phone, I just needed her to complete the transfer of minutes and days to the new phone. It wasn't immediate, several supervisor updates and she did also ask me how the weather was and how my day was. At least she didn't ask me for all my personal information like they normally do, but she gave me 4 sets of codes to enter into the phone and my phone displayed the correct service end date and the correct number of minutes.

I had one other time that was similar to the one above but I waited 5 days before I called. The end result was the same but this was earlier in my transfer experience and I did not know I should call instead of just waiting.

The old phone will probably show as inactive in an account because, as far as the system knows, the number was transfered off of it during the process. The old phone may still work for a while and if it does you can continue to use it until it quits working. The minutes to be transfered to the new phone were based on the parameters entered during the online process and are in the system. (You will not receive compensation for the time you can't use your phone during the number port process.) The customer service rep will see the minutes pending when you call them to complete the transfer. They should ask you how many minutes you had on your old phone and they may ask you for the parameters again so be sure to record the information you enter during the online process.

View all my tutorials and much much more Tracfone information here: TheJMart Tutorials and other useful pages

Check these forums for Tracfone help - Tracfone Forum at Fatwallet, Tracfone Forum at HowardForums & Tracfone Users Group at Yahoo

This is a thread I maintain at Fatwallet with lots of usefull Tracfone information and all the current Tracfone offers and retail deals.

I welcome feedback on this page and any input to help make it easier to use. Email me here

If you need help with any transfers or other Tracfone information you can contact me through the email link above.