Have you been "Black Listed" or "Cut Off" by Tracfone, or other merchants that have limits on the number of items you ordered?

Have you been unable to place orders from the Tracfone web site for an extended duration? Have you ordered your "limit" of phones and now want to place more orders? This procedure will show you how to legally set up an account that can be used to place orders with Tracfone, or any other merchant that has a limit on the number of items ordered to a name/address.

Whether you activate the phones or not has nothing to do with Tracfone's "limit" for phone orders. Whether you activate your phones in an account or not, has nothing to do with it. Tracfone has a record of every shipment sent to every name/address/credit card. The magic number seems to be 50 phones ordered. When I ordered my 50th phone they cut me off and none of my orders would process successfully after. Others have said they didn't know for sure but thought it was about the same amount for them.

How to set up a virtual MasterCard account to make purchases from online merchants

Here is what you will need.

An email address.
A name to set the account up in that you will use to buy the tracfones.
A legitimate address for FedEx to deliver to. Remember that someone will have to be home to sign for the packages. Tracfone does send shipping confirmation with the tracking number, so you will know when the packages will be delivered. FedEx will attempt delivery 3 times before the package is returned to the shipper. There is no way around the signature for delivery.
A checking account that does not charge for ACH transfers. It doesn't matter whose name the account is in as long as you can get verification of a deposit. It is best to have a separate account. Most banks now offer free checking with no min. balance.
A temporary virtual credit card account using the name and address from #2 & #3.
A PayPal account set up using the name and address from #2 & #3.

Here is how to get all the above requirements.

Use any email address that you have not used with Tracfone before.
Use the name of your wife, relative, neighbor etc. Do not use a name you have used to order from Tracfone before.
Get permission from a relative, neighbor etc to have the packages delivered and make sure someone can be there to accept the packages.
You can open a checking account or use your existing account. Remember to make sure they do not charge for ACH transfers.
Go to PaidByCash.com and follow the procedure for getting a virtual MasterCard. This will cost you a one time fee of $4.95 and none of the information is verified in any way by PaidByCash or anyone else. You can fund the card with cash or debit card, no credit card.
- Set the account up using the name and address you chose for #2 & #3. Use a full name, do not use initials.
Go to PayPal.com and sign up for a personal PayPal account using the name and address from #2 & #3.

Now you have to verify the credit card account & the checking account with PayPal.

Add the virtual credit card from PaidByCash to the PayPal account.
- PayPal will do a $1 pre-authorization to the account to verify the account information and the personal information (name and address). This will verify that all the information given matches. This confirms the address as being authentic.
  The $1 pre-authorization will drop off after 5 days.
Add the checking account to be used as the backup funding source for the PayPal account.
- You will need the bank name, account # and the routing #.
- PayPal will send an email to the email address you signed up with. This email will be used to confirm the bank account.
Confirm the checking account.
- Once you know the amount of the 2 deposits, go to the email that PayPal sent and click the "confirm your bank account" link in the email. Once the checking account is confirmed, you are all set.

All of the information was verified by PayPal (name, address, credit card & bank account) so there is nothing illegal about anything.

The last step is to set up your PayPal Virtual MasterCard. This is the card you will use to order from Tracfone.

Download the "PayPal Plug In" from the left sidebar in your PayPal account. Follow the instructions to set up the plug in and create a virtual MasterCard. The name and address used for your PayPal account is the name and address that will be used for the virtual MasterCard account information.

Now you are ready to place an order with Tracfone or any other online merchants

Now, at this point you are probably wondering how to get the money out of the virtual credit account you created using PaidByCash.
Well the easiest way would be to send it to me using PayPal, lol.

OK, seriously, after the 5th day the pre-authorization from PayPal will drop off and the full amount you opened the account with will be available using the virtual account information provided to you by PaidByCash.

Since you have the virtual card listed with your PayPal account you can use it for payment at any merchant that acccepts PayPal or Google Checkout. Google Checkout accepts PayPal as a payment option.
By paying with PayPal, you can elect to pay using the virtual card first and then any remaining balance can be debited from the bank account. That way you can use the money initially deposited into the virtual account.

Note: When using PayPal as the payment method with a merchant, or on ebay, you can not use a credit card for payment if you have funds in your PayPal account. The funds in your account have to be used first.

You can use it like any other credit card for payment anywhere online. Keep in mind when you first fund the card that you will want to get 100% of the money off of it, so maybe calculate an amount that equals the payment for something you will purchase. Remember to calculate shipping and tax if necessary.
If you have multiple PayPal accounts and one is a Premier or Business account you can send yourself a payment equal to the balance on the virtual account.
If you have a small amount left and need help getting it off of the account contact me and I will tell you how to do it.

This payment system also eliminates the biggest problem you will encounter with ordering from Tracfone

Each time that an order is attempted at Tracfone, a pre-authorization for the full amount of the order is placed on the credit card, and funds equal to that amount are frozen for a period of 5 days. It doesn't matter whether the order completes successfully or not, the funds are still tied up.

If you use a debit card from your checking account, you are tying up cash funds every time you try to place an order.
If you had to attempt to place an order 4 times in order to get 1 order to complete successfully, you would have tied up an amount equal to 4 times the order amount. ($50 x 4 = $200)

This process will allow you to pay for the orders using your personal checking account, and never have any funds tied up due to pre-authorizations for orders that did not complete.

Tracfone orders:

Don't be disappointed if your orders don't go through when you try to order from Tracfone. This has become very common with both first time purchasers and veteran Tracfone buyers.

This is the message you will receiver when your order does not complete.

Your order could not be completed due to authorization problems with your credit card. This could be caused by a declined card or an error in the information you've provided. If you feel your card is valid, please re-enter the required information.

This is the same message everyone gets when their order does not complete. It does not mean the only problem, was a problem with your credit card. You can check and re-enter the information if you like, the order will likely not go through the second try either. Some purchasers experience receiving this message repeatedly no matter what type of payment they use.

This error message started showing up rather frequently about the middle of February. Prior to that I had no problems placing orders. Others have also confirmed that they started getting the error message about the same time. Some have even called to place orders on the phone and the customer service rep processing the order gets the same message. It is something we have learned to deal with. Some have much better luck than others and have no problems.

But each time you attempt to place an order, more or your available credit on your credit card is placed as a pre-authorization and is frozen for 5 days. If you use a regular credit card account and try to place an order for $50.00, and the order does not complete, your available credit on that card is still reduced by $50.00. If you try repeatedly to place that order, your available credit will be reduced each time that the order is attempted. These pre-authorizations will remain on the account for 5 days from the date it was placed.

This does not seem right, but it is the way it is with Tracfone. Most merchants will do a pre-authorization for $1 to verify the account and personal information. They will then come back and do an actual transaction when your order ships. The $1 pre-authorization will remain for up to 5 days and then drop off. Tracfone does a pre-authorization for the full amount and then comes back and finalizes that transaction on the day the package is delivered. Make sure you have enough open credit on your account to allow for these so called "declined" transactions

The funding source for these virtual debit cards will be the funds in your PayPal account. If you do not have any funds in your PayPal account, the checking account will be used as the backup funding source. An amount equal to the purchase you made using the virtual debit card will be transfered from the checking account to the PayPal account. The transferred amount will be used to fund the purchases made. Remember, you will have to maintain a positive balance in your checking account to cover any transfers that are made.

You never have to put any money in the PayPal account.

This is the best feature of all when ordering from Tracfone.

Law is that the merchant can not complete the transaction on your credit card until your merchandise has shipped. This is why you sometimes get multiple charges for amounts less than the total order if the merchant ships your items at different times or ships them separately. PayPal will not debit your checking account until the transaction is final. This means that if you place an order, the pre-authorization shows in your PayPal account but does not actually process until the merchant places the final transaction. With Tracfone, this is the day the package is delivered.

If you have funds in your PayPal account when any pre-authorization comes in, then funds equal to the transaction amount (or all funds if less than the authorization amount) will be frozen until the transaction completes or drops off after 5 days.

This is why it is best to not have any funds in your PayPal account when ordering from Tracfone using a PayPal virtual card.
Every "declined" order will just sit there on the account until it disappears on the 5th day. The orders that do process successfully, will sit there on the account until Tracfone finalizes it. It is on that day that PayPal will initiate the ACH transfer from the checking account to cover the amount of the transaction.

You could attempt 4 orders, and if only one goes through, 3 will sit for 5 days, and the 4th will process when Tracfone sends the request to finalize.
If you want to you can put the money in the PayPal account after you know the order went through and PayPal will use those funds to cover the transaction. PayPal will not deduct the funds until Tracfone sends the request to finalize the transaction. If you try to place another order between the time you add the funds and the final request comes in for the order, PayPal will use those funds for the pre-authorization on the later order.
If you are adding funds to your PayPal account from a bank account keep in mind that the transfer could take several days to complete.
You can add funds from another PayPal account immediately.

Now, enjoy the hassle free way of ordering from Tracfone and other online merchants.

By using the virtual cards offered by PayPal you can in essence pay any merchant using funds in your PayPal account or your personal checking account without giving out any personal information on the web.

I have tried to do my best to explain this process without getting to complex and having to explore every possible scenario. I have used this system and verified every aspect of it. I will be more than happy to answer any questions, and welcome any feedback on what I have attempted to convey in this message. You can contact me here. Send me an email