Cell phone use at WDW

[CanadianGuy]

T-Mobile refers to them as "prepaid SIM's" .. so I used the same language.

Either way I think we fundamentally agree. Most phones I have ever seen you can only put in one SIM at a time. So you take out the Rogers SIM and put in whatever you got the US carrier. Comes with the phone number and everything. No 'activation' required.

From at least one website..

T-Mobile
Prepaid SIM card: 60 Minutes: $12.99
Ready sim card for any GSM phone.
60 National minute anywhere in the USA, Roaming included. Comes with 10 digit phone number pre activated. This sim card will work on any phone offered on our website or any unlocked gsm phone.

 

[DiRTyBuNNy]

I hate to argue but that's simply not true. Rogers is the only carrier that fully supports SIM cards in Canada I believe. Regardless.. Bell/Aliant/Whatever does not support them period.

The SIM or BRAIN of the phone is removed with the SIM card. There is nothing to identify the phone to the network as Canadian - or anything else - if the SIM card is removed. This is only true with Rogers.

I haven't seen pre-paid SIM's in the states but they probably exist. If you can find 'em.. there would be no roaming fees.

-

Further.. last time I went to Florida (8 weeks ago), I paid Rogers some amount.. I think it was 75$ for 240 minutes over one month or something like that. They have a U-S Travelling add-on. The minutes are prorated for however long you have the option on your bill.

One little catch. Last year I cancelled the plan the day I got home. And then some calls I had made when the plan was active, were actually reported to Rogers by the US Carriers on my bill AFTER I shut the plan off. I called Rogers and these were credited.

On my most recent trip.. I left it on my bill for 7 days after I got home and then cancelled. And everything was reported correctly.

And I reiterate, if you use one of these plans, there are NO roaming fees.

Good luck!

Knox

Um..I have no idea how I'm wrong because I never mentioned anything about Rogers not using SIM Cards. I know they do. I was more commenting on the fact that it's a lot easier to just buy a prepaid phone (or a prepaid SIM) in the US and slap it in the unlocked phone that currently has a Canadian SIM. If you use a Canadian SIM you will pay roaming rates on the American network along with applicable charges from Rogers. What part of that is wrong?

--Mr. DB

 

[CanadianGuy]

DB:

I misunderstood your posting. And to compound matters my explanation of what I was trying to say was poorly organized. My fault.

It sounded to me as if you were saying that even if he put in a US SIM card, he'd still be charged roaming rates because his phone was originally Canadian. Since that's not what you were saying, then of course.. I apologize.

I do think the Rogers roaming package is the easiest of all. But of course, that's just my opinion...

Knox

 

[DiRTyBuNNy]

DB:

I misunderstood your posting. And to compound matters my explanation of what I was trying to say was poorly organized. My fault.

It sounded to me as if you were saying that even if he put in a US SIM card, he'd still be charged roaming rates because his phone was originally Canadian. Since that's not what you were saying, then of course.. I apologize.

I do think the Rogers roaming package is the easiest of all. But of course, that's just my opinion...

Knox

No problem..no hard feeligns..I was just as confused as to what I said that you took issue with so I tried to explain better...as the kids say "it's all good"...

yeah..I would say to anyone that if you're not tech savvy and know how to open your phone and change sim cards and deal with that..just call Rogers and get the roaming plan...

--Mr. DB

 

[disneyred]

thanks to all.... I love you people on these boards, it just opens up
all sorts of possibilities which is what I wanted to hear...

and yes.. i will be calling Rogers to get more info about the plan you guys mentioned here !

many thanks again.

 

[nosnobunny2006]

And I reiterate, if you use one of these plans, there are NO roaming fees.

Good luck!

Knox

Thanks for the back up. I don't pretend to be a techie, nor do I understand all the ins and outs of cell phone technology. But I do know how often I use my Rogers cellphone in Florida and I do know that I've never paid more than $25 in extra charges in all the years I've used it. People quoting hundreds of dollars in charges leaves me completely bewildered.

I have one question for the Rogers add-on plan. We rarely travel on a calendar month. More often than not, it's mid-month to mid-month. Are the Rogers' plans based on a calendar month? If they are, they wouldn't likely work for us.

Beth

 

[CanadianGuy]

Beth:

I turn mine on for the full month but you don't have to.

Let's assume your billing date is the 1st. You can start the plan on the 14th .. and you'll get 1/2 of the minutes for that month and be billed 1/2 of the monthly rate

And you can discontinue it on the 15th of the following month.. and you'll get 1/2 of the minutes for that month.. and be billed 1/2 of the monthly rate.

Me? I'm a nervous sort.. so I turn it on the 1st of the month I'm travelling so I can have the full amount of US minutes for those few days at the end of the month when I'll be there. And I leave it on the account till about 10 days after I get home.. (to allow for 'late reporting' from US carriers to Rogers).

This works out for me perfectly. I usually buy the plan I indicated so it's a bump up that month.. but this covers me perfectly. I took a few 15 or 20 minute calls from work on my last trip and so the 240 minutes was just about perfect. I had a few left over... but not much.

I'm not fortunate enough to stay down there for a month.. but good on ya!

Knox

 

[calgarygary]

I'm just going to through an idea out there for your consideration. You are obviously not concerned about using your existing phone number if you are trying to get a replacement sim card so why not just get a phone from Virgin.com. Their phones start at $19.99 with a $20. credit for time so they are free. I emailed them asking if they can be sent to a Canadian address but activated for Florida use and was told yes. It's pay as you go so there will be no surprises after the fact.

 

[Cixelsyd]

I'm heading to DL for five days during the Christmas holidays, and am pondering what I should do for making phone calls. I'm with Rogers Wireless and have been charged ridiculous international roaming rates several times in the past. I try my best not to use my cell whenever I head south, but situations always arise when I just have to make a call with it every now and then.


I'm thinking of getting a prepaid sim card, and am wondering if anybody knows any good deals for it, or if there are better solutions that have worked for you in the past. Thanks very much!

 

[CanadianGuy]

My past three trips I've called Rogers and added the USA Roaming Add-On. You keep the same plan you have now.. and it adds USA minutes for the month of your trip. I call to add this at the start of the billing cycle BEFORE my trip and then cancel it at the end of the billing cycle after my trip.

If I know I didn't use it hardly at all, then I wait 7 days after I get home to cancel it. (so the billing from the states has time to get reported back to Rogers while the plan is still in place)

Those USA ADD ON packages minutes include roaming and long distance.

40$ = 60 minutes
60$ = 120 minutes
75$ = 240 minutes

I've gone with the 60$ option the last few trips and that has completely covered me.

You can just buy a prepaid Trac-Fone in the states for about 25$ that includes about 120 minutes. But I much prefer having my own number from Canada go with me in case anyone needs to reach me in event of an emergency etc.

Knox

 

[lolinmr]

Buy a calling card for $10.00 (1000 minutes) and use your hotel or pay phone..... unless you need to receve calls while your at the park.

 

[nosnobunny2006]

I also am on a monthly Rogers plan and use my cell phone all the time in Florida. Granted I'm very conscious that the cash register is ticking and keep my calls short. But even with that I've never had the outrageous bills that I keep reading about. My calls cost approx. $1 per minute. I can handle that.

Beth

 

[ChisJo]

We opted to get a calling card right through our home phone company. The cost was $10 for prepaid minutes, it is charged right to our phone bill, the minutes never expire, and the cost for US to Canada calling is 3.3 cents per minute. I figure that's a great deal. We will have our cell phones with us to check the missed calls. We can check our voicemail using the calling card, and if the call warrants a return, than we will be able to do so without ridiculous charges. We too are with Rogers for our cell phone provider, and just to add enough minutes to make it worth it for our upcoming trip with not worth the money (our monthly billing fell halfway in between our trip, and to add US minutes, we would have had to do it to BOTH months....not worth the $80, considering we can get WAY more minutes through our own phone company!).

Also, since the minutes never expire, I am confident that we will have these for a long time. We don't actually get a calling card that we would probably lose or misplace, just a phone number that we have to call to input our phone number and pin, and then off we go!

 

[Cixelsyd]

Thanks you guys for all the helpful suggestions! I'll probably get a calling card with my home phone company, and resist receiving or making calls on my cell while at the park. Plus, it might just make a more enjoyable disney immersion experience to cut down on all the phone calls!

 

[disneyfan2]

We opted to get a calling card right through our home phone company. The cost was $10 for prepaid minutes, it is charged right to our phone bill, the minutes never expire, and the cost for US to Canada calling is 3.3 cents per minute.

Do you mind stating what cell compnay you use? Will they charge you roaming fees for each call. When we went last year, our cell co. said the roaming fees are $1.50(+ minutes ) they suggested a calling card as well but said the roaming fees are still high.

 

[TimNDansMom]

We've used T-Mobile Pay As You Go in the past...just a cheap phone bought at Walmart in Detroit before a trip. For $25 it came with 30 minutes/60 days if I remember correctly.

For a recent trip we bought a Tracfone for $15 at Walmart in Detroit which came with 20 minutes total during online activation at tracfone.com (which we did in our hotel room with the laptop) and bought a $10/30min card to add to that, which also adds 45 day to the service end date. You can make international calls for the same price as calling in the US by calling a 1-800 number first or by assigning up to 10 1-800 numbers to your most dialed international numbers, for faster dialing, which is explained on their website. So DH programmed the phone with all the numbers we might need here at home, into the address book. It was nice to be able to call home and not see all the minutes eaten up because we were calling Canada. I returned to Florida this month and just bought another $10 card to add to what was left from the previous trip last month. The desk top tells you how many minutes you have left and when the service end date for the phone is if you don't top it up. Right now our service end date is March 10, 2008.

 

[nosnobunny2006]

We've used T-Mobile Pay As You Go in the past...just a cheap phone bought at Walmart in Detroit before a trip. For $25 it came with 30 minutes/60 days if I remember correctly.

For a recent trip we bought a Tracfone for $15 at Walmart in Detroit which came with 20 minutes total during online activation at tracfone.com (which we did in our hotel room with the laptop) and bought a $10 card to add to that. You can make international calls for the same price as calling in the US by calling a 1-800 number first or by assigning up to 10 1-800 numbers to your most dialed international numbers, for faster dialing, which is explained on their website. So DH programmed the phone with all the numbers we might need here at home, into the address book. It was nice to be able to call home and not see all the minutes eaten up because we were calling Canada. I returned to Florida this month and just bought another $10 card to add to what was left from the previous trip last month. The desk top tells you how many minutes you have left and when the expiry date for the phone is if you don't top it up.

We considered this option before we realized how affordable my regular cell phone was. The only catch is that nobody at home knows the phone number with the throw-away phones. While it may work for us calling them, nobody at home would know how to get in touch with us. Hmmm.... that might not be such a bad idea after all.

Beth

 

[TimNDansMom]

LOL Beth, I know what you mean, but we emailed the phone number to just a few family members, we thought should have it and if anyone else wanted to reach us, they could go through them. We bought it mainly to keep in touch with the boys at home and if DH went off golfing so we could meet each other later. Plus DH and I were able to keep in touch when I went back this month with a friend.

 

[kellyla]

We bought a Tracfone alsn their website you can get a Canadian phone number that family and friends can use to call you after you register your phone..They phone the local number(I got a Hamilton number)it then in turns rings at your Tracfone number.That way there is no long distance charges(great for when my boys would call us).I dont have to top up my phone until March 2008 and they are always sending me bonus codes to get extra time for free.

 

[ChisJo]

Do you mind stating what cell compnay you use? Will they charge you roaming fees for each call. When we went last year, our cell co. said the roaming fees are $1.50(+ minutes ) they suggested a calling card as well but said the roaming fees are still high.

it's not with my cell phone provider (that's rogers), it's with my home phone provider (in alberta, i use shaw). The calling card is directly through the home phone company. if we use the calling card, we will use a pay phone. I agree with one poster....not having the use of the cell phone while on my trip will probably make for a better trip anyways!