My husband and I use Tracphones too.
$99 gives a whole year service plus hundreds of minutes. That's about $9/month each.
We don't blab on our phones so we never really need hours and hours of minutes. No monthy fees or anything, plus since they lease piggybacked reception from other towers, we get reception just about anywhere we go, and no roaming fees. Whatever minutes you dont use up when you renew just get added and carried over to the next year, you dont lose them.

And yes, you get a better selection of phones to choose from if you order it from tracphone online.

I LOVE my tracphone.