disposible cell phones

[bdoyledimou]

a little bit of stressing now..

it's been almost 20 hours, and the phone we activated yesterday still doesn't show up as activated.. I am guessing.. you have to actually be in the US, on the network for these to activate, i hope i didn't blow the 300 minute card!!!

Has anyone activated these while IN Canada, or have you all activated only in the US?

 

[jmann]

I took my ex's Net 10 last October and it did not work for calling home. I was in Port Huron so I went into Best Buy and picked up a Virgin US phone for $9.99, I had to put at least $20 on the phone and I was good to go. The girl set it all up for me there and in less than 30 minutes I had a phone. The cost to call home was really cheap. Net 10 looks cheaper but I'm not sure. I just used the phone to call home for my kid and text work.

 

[jasmom]

we bought 2 net 10 phones last year when we went to disney. They worked great.You can text as well. You have to be in the states to use them. I tried to use them just on the Canada side of the boarder to see if I could and they had stopped working. I think you could call 911 if you needed to. We are planning on reactivating them for this year. Thanks for the info about using a Canadian credit card at their site. I figured I would have to buy a card to activate them once I got to the states. Last year I had tried to buy a virgin phone for the states on the website and have them shipped to Disney. I even had my father- in- laws american credit card and I couldn't get it to work.

 

[GrtWtNorth]

a little bit of stressing now..

it's been almost 20 hours, and the phone we activated yesterday still doesn't show up as activated.. I am guessing.. you have to actually be in the US, on the network for these to activate, i hope i didn't blow the 300 minute card!!!

Has anyone activated these while IN Canada, or have you all activated only in the US?

Yes, you need to be in the US for your Net10 phone to activate. I activated mine in a shopping mall 20 miles from the border. Took 10 minutes. No problem.

FYI, the international calling feature is off by default on Net10 phones. Call them to unlock it if you want to call or text Canada. I learned the hard way that unlocking this requires that the phone be turned on, in the US, and in a location with good cell reception for up to 24 hours for this to work. (Net10 sends some kind of text-message that activates international calling.) In my case, I was flying and traveling through cell phone dead zones -- it took three calls to customer services and nearly 6 days to activate international calling. I plan to re-activate my phone at the Seattle airport en route to Orlando. However, if international calling is off again, I won't call to activate the feature until I arrive in Orlando.

 

[Mortlives]

My kids have pay as you go phones from virgin. We live on a border city and travel often to the states and they will not work there. I was told at future shop that i was unable to have them work in the US unless I signed up for a plan.

They said for all the years I was with them that they were "Working around the Clock" to make this happen. I finally switched carriers. Looking forward to texting in Disney.

 

[scrap_heaven]

This is very interesting. Can you use the same phone while driving down to disney from the border without paying long distance within the US?

My parents and I will be driving in seperate cars so this would be a great solution instead of using our canadian phones, which nearly cost us $300 on our last trip.

 

[Applemomma]

another question....

thinking of doing the net10/walmart thing but wondering about keeping it charged? does anyone by a charger? bring one from home? we've got a couple different ones here I'm wondering if I could match up.

 

[GrtWtNorth]

This is very interesting. Can you use the same phone while driving down to disney from the border without paying long distance within the US?

My parents and I will be driving in seperate cars so this would be a great solution instead of using our canadian phones, which nearly cost us $300 on our last trip.

I used Net10, but most US pay-as-you-go have similar rates. You pay only by-the-minute. No long distance. All calls are $0.10/minute to/from anywhere in the US, including Alaska and Hawaii. Calls from the US to Canada (and other foreign countries) were slightly more expensive, $0.15/minute.

Text messages were $0.05 to US phones, $0.10 to Canadian phones.

 

[GrtWtNorth]

thinking of doing the net10/walmart thing but wondering about keeping it charged? does anyone by a charger? bring one from home? we've got a couple different ones here I'm wondering if I could match up.

All Net10 phones will come with a wall charger, and many will have both a wall charger and a car charger (including the Samsung T201G $39.99). I wouldn't recommend bringing along additional chargers.

Net10's web site isn't very clear - they don't list the accessories that come with each phone. Possibly because they want to encourage the sale of the Net10 accessory kit ($9.99) which includes wall and car chargers for all their phones.

 

[Applemomma]

All Net10 phones will come with a wall charger, and many will have both a wall charger and a car charger (including the Samsung T201G $39.99). I wouldn't recommend bringing along additional chargers.

Net10's web site isn't very clear - they don't list the accessories that come with each phone. Possibly because they want to encourage the sale of the Net10 accessory kit ($9.99) which includes wall and car chargers for all their phones.

Thanks....if I had been thinking clearly I would have remembered that ALL my phones have come with a wall charger. Chaulk it up to the heat getting to my brain!!!

 

[North7]

Yes, you need to be in the US for your Net10 phone to activate. I activated mine in a shopping mall 20 miles from the border. Took 10 minutes. No problem.

This hasn't been the case for me. I've activated my Net10 phones at least 4 times from Kingston, ON prior to each trip. I've done this using two different methods... 1. purchase time online and 2. used cards purchased on a previous trip. I did set up an online account and usually there is a message stating that I need to enter some codes into the phones. This is an easy process and only takes a couple of minutes.

 

[CanadianGuy]

I just bought one when I went down in June.

The phone I got (from Net10) .. was $39 and included 300 minutes. I was in Florida for 9 days. I bought this at Walmart in Orlando near Disney.

The phones do not include calls to Canada as a 'default' -- but on their website - you can sign up for international calls and that will deduct an additional 5c a minute (on top of the normal 10c) for the international calls.

I didn't need to call Canada so I didn't enable that option.

I ended my 9 nights in Florida with about 84 minutes left on my phone. So it worked out lovely.

 

[scrap_heaven]

If I purchased a phone now, they have some on the website for $19.99 and free shipping does it keep the same number as long as I keep it full of minutes it?

Also what is the fee to re-activate one of these phones?

 

[MammaKat]

Has anyone bought online from Net10 and had them shipped to the Resort to be there when you get there?

I was considering this - ordering online 6 days before we go as their website says 3-4 days shipping (free)???

 

[GrtWtNorth]

I've activated my Net10 phones at least 4 times from Kingston, ON prior to each trip.

You're lucky to live within range of US cell phone towers. I don't have that luxury myself. I lose signal on my Net10 within 5 minutes of driving into Canada.

 

[GrtWtNorth]

If I purchased a phone now, they have some on the website for $19.99 and free shipping does it keep the same number as long as I keep it full of minutes it?

Also what is the fee to re-activate one of these phones?

Net10's policies are detailed on their web site. From what I recall, yes, they will preserve your number as long as your minutes do not expire.

FYI, you can request a new number at no cost, any time.

Net10 does not charge a reactivation fee. However, if you're like me and allowed your minutes to expire, you will have to buy additional minutes to re-activate your phone, and you may have to get a new number assigned.

 

[tgropp]

I was in Port Huron last weekend and went to Target to check out a disposable phone and the girl that was helping me told me that there was no such thing....that the cheapest phone that they had was a plan at $30.00 a month. Do these phones still exist or are they just not available at Target anymore

 

[bdoyledimou]

I was in Port Huron last weekend and went to Target to check out a disposable phone and the girl that was helping me told me that there was no such thing....that the cheapest phone that they had was a plan at $30.00 a month. Do these phones still exist or are they just not available at Target anymore

I got mine from Walmart.. not Target.
They were just hanging on a rack in the electronics section in one of those impenetrable plastic clamshells that takes a chainsaw to get open.

 

[Ted in Halifax]

in one of those impenetrable plastic clamshells that takes a chainsaw to get open.

I know what you mean ....

 

[DisneyRookie2007]

I just visited the website this morning. Phones as low as $14.99 - but no mention of free minutes - is this a special promotion at certain times of the year? They also mention free ground shipping on orders over 19.99 - but didn't see if it pertained to Canada or not. Any insights ??