Best US PAYG sim for cell phone for visitor from UK

[Sue's Mum]

I was not quite sure which board to use for this question.

We need two pay as you go sim cards for our cell phones. DD is staying at SSR and we are staying at BWV so we need to keep in touch, to make arrangements to meet etc. That is all we will be using the phones for. We have an unlocked cell phone each.

I am looking for advice on which provider will best suit our needs and where to get the sim cards from, please. We are travelling in three weeks.

What about AT&T sims which I can buy on Ebay or is there a better option?

 

[QuickRewardsBecky]

I like the T-Mobile prepaid plan - there are no minimum charges for daily use, and if you prepay so much, they double your minutes...but I'm not sure how the SIM cards work - aren't there certain "bands" of phone that use certain cards? For instance, a Sprint phone can't use an AT&T SIM card, I thought...?

You may want to check the coverage maps to make sure any provider has good reception in the Orlando area. T-Mobile can be spotty but then again, so can AT&T.

 

[SandrA9810]

Disney uses Nextels all across property (and managers get blackberries), so overall Sprint has your highest cell reception anywhere. You're likely to get a reception sitting in Le Cellier's, or Spaceship Earth.

I have AT&T and never had problems with coverage anywhere on property. Except for in those large buildings that usually made you loose a signal (kind of like you always loose it when you step into an elevator).

Any PAYG phone will come with a base pack of minutes, and everything you need to know to set it up. So no matter which company you go with, you'll get the right activation stuff.

The smaller companies like Tracphone and Net10 use the major carrier's cell towers. So probably AT&T or Verizon.

There's two types of phones, in the way they activate with the service. AT&T and T-Mobile use a SIM card. It's a little chip that says this card is for this phone number. Like when I get a new phone, I just take my old SIM card out and pop it into the new phone. With Sprint, that little card is like it's inside the phone. So the phone is attached to the number, and if you change phones you have to activate the new phone. As a temporary phone, it doesn't really matter which way you go.


The easiest is probably going to be AT&T GoPhones. I believe they start off at around $10 with about an hour of air time. You can either buy a more expensive phone to get more minutes, or just buy an additional airtime card.

You should also read the back of the packaging, to see which one has easier access to adding more minutes. Like is there one that you can do it by calling a customer service line. You don't want to buy too many minutes, but you don't want to be stuck on the last few days out of contact with each other.

Unless you've already jailbreaked your phone, you can't just take an AT&T SIM card and pop it into your phone. Each phone is made for a specific carrier and will only work with that carrier. Unless you jailbreak it, which most people don't do this. And the only way to get an AT&T SIM card is to purchase the phone package.

Just remember, for the most part texting uses about a 1/2 minute or something minimal like that. So sometimes that may use fewer minutes than actual chatting which will round up to the next minute if you use any part of a minute. So 2 min and 15 secs on a call will cost you 3 minutes.

 

[MAH4546]

I was not quite sure which board to use for this question.

We need two pay as you go sim cards for our cell phones. DD is staying at SSR and we are staying at BWV so we need to keep in touch, to make arrangements to meet etc. That is all we will be using the phones for. We have an unlocked cell phone each.

I am looking for advice on which provider will best suit our needs and where to get the sim cards from, please. We are travelling in three weeks.

What about AT&T sims which I can buy on Ebay or is there a better option?

We don't use pay-as-you-go Sim cards. You will need to buy an actual phone, but they cost as little
as $10 here. Look at Virgin Mobile, TRACFone and Boost.

SIM cards are available, but not at mostly all retail stores (you'll need to buy online) and it's going to probably cost more than just buying a phone. Even the few carriers that do use SIM cards, it's often cheaper and easier to just buy the phone.

 

[DisneyMomma81]

We don't use pay-as-you-go Sim cards. You will need to buy an actual phone, but they cost as little
as $10 here. Look at Virgin Mobile, TRACFone and Boost.

SIM cards are available, but not at mostly all retail stores (you'll need to buy online) and it's going to probably cost more than just buying a phone. Even the few carriers that do use SIM cards, it's often cheaper and easier to just buy the phone.

Never mind.

 

[NotUrsula]

We don't use pay-as-you-go Sim cards. You will need to buy an actual phone, but they cost as little as $10 here. Look at Virgin Mobile, TRACFone and Boost.

Not true. You CAN use a pay-as-you-go SIM card ... BUT you only have once choice: T-Mobile. It is the only one on the US market that will work with a GSM European phone.

It is entirely possible that buying an entire Pay-As-You-Go phone just for US use will turn out to be cheaper for you; it depends on how you intend to use the phone.

 

[bettymae1121]

I've used T-Mobile in WDW and it worked fine, only a few indoor areas that I didn't get a signal (like waiting in line for Soarn'), but I'd say 99% I had at least a few bars.

 

[Emma1987]

I had a look at the price of standard pay as you go phones to buy in USA. I couldnt find anything for $10 lol....

Anyone know anywhere around Disney that you can buy cheap mobile phones with minutes included? They would be handy for the family to have for 2 weeks next year

 

[NotUrsula]

AFAIK, there are two that are $10, but you're right, pickings are slim at that price. $20 is more accurate, and on these phones that will not include airtime, that will normally be an add'l $20 card for the time that you will be using it.

Tracfone (www.tracfone.com) has phones priced in this range, but their service does not include a web browsing option, and you may or may not have texting available. The per-minute charge on this one is cheapest.

Virgin Mobile (www.virginmobileusa.com) also does, and their Paylo Basic plan (their very cheapest) will cost you $20 to activate for 90 days on top of the cost of the phone: that will get you talk, texting and browsing, all of which deduct time from the phone account. Their only $10 phone is the Samsung 340 (formerly called the Mantra), which is a great little phone with a good battery; we have two of them in our house. Unfortunately, the website is sold out of them at the moment.

The problem with the really cheap PAYG phone in the US right now is that those plans are being phased out in favor of unlimited monthly access rates, which are nice if you are using the phone often. However, because the companies make the most money off the fancier smartphones w/ those unlimited plans, they have been dropping the cheapest basic phones.

The simplest place to buy these phones in Orlando would be Target; there is one on Orange Blossom Trail en route from the airport to WDW, off the Greenway (South Exit 417). Walmart normally doesn't carry that many national brand prepaids any longer because they are now selling their own brand, called Straight Talk (which isn't really priced attractively to someone with your needs, it assumes a longer-term commitment and gives the best rates for buying time in quantity.)

If your CC will work on a US website, the easiest way for you to get the phone is to order it online (w/ airtime) a week or so before you come, and have it shipped directly to your resort to be held for your arrival. You can activate the accounts by calling on your room phone.

 

[SandrA9810]

Walmart still carries Boost, Net10, AT&T GoPhone, and TracPhone.

Most of them offer an "unlimited monthly plan". They're mostly trying to compete with companies like MetroPCS. But they still do have basic phones with per minute usage, which would be better for a one time use deal. I did notice their $10 phones were on clearance, and the next lowest is $20. These all include the activation fee, and a small amount of minutes to use.

There's a description of each option on a placard above the phones.

 

[Skye23]

forEvery Tracfone I've ever owned had texting available. It costs .3 (1/3) of a minute per text sent or received. Between my family members we've got 5 tracfones at the moment and I manage the minutes for all of them. We just got my Dad a new one because his old one was 5+ years old and finally dying. It was an LG 410 (or 420, I forget). Its a flip phone, has texting, downloadable ringtones and wallpaper (if you care), camera, and internet. I've used mine to check prices on Amazon.com, read stuff on wikipedia etc. Be aware though its a very limited internet because of the display - nowhere near what a blackberry would have. Still you can use it to do some internet things if they're text and not graphics oriented.

Oops I forgot - it was $14.99 for the phone and it comes with the "double minutes for life" feature so that means that whatever minute card you buy - it doubles. Depending on how little you plan to use it - a 60 minute card might do the trick for each phone (doubles to 120). Particularly if you text most things to each other. If you decide you don't want it when you leave the US there are a ton of charities that take used cell phones for battered women etc. Or you could take it back and give it to the next person you know heading to the US to use for the same reason.

 

[Sue's Mum]

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to respond to my question. I am really grateful. There is some super information and I am going to do some more research now into actual phones.

I have got a Tracphone but it is useless as I have not kept any info (like number, etc!). I might as well dispose of it.

 

[Sue's Mum]

If your CC will work on a US website, the easiest way for you to get the phone is to order it online (w/ airtime) a week or so before you come, and have it shipped directly to your resort to be held for your arrival.

That sounds good to me. Are you able to post here a website address?

Thanks, as doing that would save us having to shop after a long flight and early morning!

 

[SandrA9810]

I think you can order phones at Walmart.com, they do site to store too.

 

[Skye23]

You can reactivate your current tracfone. You just go to the tracfone website, choose reactivate, enter in the sim card info from the phone (which you can get from the phone's prepaid section in the menu). They assign you a new phone number (pick a zipcode around Disney as your "home") then you add some minutes and you're good to go. I've done it before when we forgot to add minutes/days to a phone and we lost the number. Sometimes you can do it all online, sometimes you have to call customer service but either way its pretty simple usually.

 

[Sue's Mum]

Thank you, Skye. I will consider that option.

 

[Emma1987]

http://www.virginmobileusa.com/cell-phones/lg-101-phone.jsp

This is what I've found today. So is it as easy as going to a store and buying one of these with credit on it for $20?

 

[uktivo]

Could i just clarify...

I have an unlocked andriod Samsung Galaxy S2 phone. Can i buy a PAYG sim when I arrive in Orlando, one that gives me both data (3g or 4G) and of course phone / sms?

I'm happy to pay upwards of say USD50/100 for the 2 weeks I there..

is there such a thing? if yes, where from please?

Thanks

 

[powellrj]

http://www.virginmobileusa.com/cell-phones/lg-101-phone.jsp

This is what I've found today. So is it as easy as going to a store and buying one of these with credit on it for $20?

Yes, just go and buy one and activate it and you are good to go!

 

[JB2K]

We don't use pay-as-you-go Sim cards. You will need to buy an actual phone, but they cost as little
as $10 here. Look at Virgin Mobile, TRACFone and Boost.

SIM cards are available, but not at mostly all retail stores (you'll need to buy online) and it's going to probably cost more than just buying a phone. Even the few carriers that do use SIM cards, it's often cheaper and easier to just buy the phone.

We most certainly do have "pay as you go SIM cards" in the U.S. Those carriers are:

• AT&T GoPhone
• T-Mobile Prepaid
• Net10
• Straight Talk

Hope this helps...