Mobile Phones in the US

[Pooh's-Honey-Pot]

Hello!

Just trying to figure out the best way to stay in contact on our family trip . . . we will most likely be heading off in three different directions each day but would like to meet up at times.

DH and I have iphones which we can use there (though would be fairly expensive) but the others don't - my dads mobile is a complete 200 year old brick which no way is triband, and I doubt my brothers is much better!

I don't fancy walkie talkies as we will probably be too far apart some days, so what's the best thing to do? Has anyone used tracphones? i was reading about them earlier and they seem fairly good value, but I can't see where I can buy them in the UK?

Cheers!

 

[iluvtot]

Hello!

Just trying to figure out the best way to stay in contact on our family trip . . . we will most likely be heading off in three different directions each day but would like to meet up at times.

DH and I have iphones which we can use there (though would be fairly expensive) but the others don't - my dads mobile is a complete 200 year old brick which no way is triband, and I doubt my brothers is much better!

I don't fancy walkie talkies as we will probably be too far apart some days, so what's the best thing to do? Has anyone used tracphones? i was reading about them earlier and they seem fairly good value, but I can't see where I can buy them in the UK?

Cheers!

Hi,
I have been trying to sort phones out all day!
Last year I bought net10 phones online from walmart and had them delivered to OKW. They were $29.99 each + tax, and came with 300 mins, which was ok to use to text and phone in the parks, and to phone home to a landline (not mobiles).
The 300 mins lasts for 60 days, but if the phone isn't reloaded with credit within that time, the phone is deactivated.
DSIL earlier this year had a conversation with Net10 which led her to believe they could be reactivated online. However, I have tried today, and eventually emailed them. They replied really quickly, but said I would need a new sim card. Seems such a waste of the phones I have, but too much of a hassle, so I have now decided to buy new phones online from Net10 direct for delivery to OKW. They offer free land shipping in 3 days, and I am only going to get the cheapest phones, which are Motorola's at $19.99 with 300 mins ( for 60 days) If you are going soon after we get back, I would be happy to pass them onto you. You can top up online or buy top up cards if necessary, but ast year we came back with over 100 mins on each phone! I did that last year to DSIL, and as she went twice, she kept them going untill Dec!!

Jules x

 

[Pooh's-Honey-Pot]

Ohh - that would be great! Would pay you obviously! We go in October, then again December. I could top them up again in October (within the 60 days) which should take me to December!!

 

[irisheyes123]

I use tracfone have been using them for the last few trips Got new ones this trip in june payed $9.88 in walmart and got 30 minutes with it you have 60 days to use it I topped up with $20 got another 120 minutes and got 90 days they added that to the 60 days so got 150 days so will do me for my october trip too the phone I had before that I had for 3 or 4 years and was able to reactivate that online by topping up

 

[dazza5931]

Hi guys would like to know if u can use these phones for calling mobiles in uk my wife phones her mum every day when we are away and her mum only has a mobile so would appricate any info on costs for phoning mobiles in uk

 

[irisheyes123]

Hi guys would like to know if u can use these phones for calling mobiles in uk my wife phones her mum every day when we are away and her mum only has a mobile so would appricate any info on costs for phoning mobiles in uk

I know with tracfone you can't you use to be able to text back but that stopped now was not able to do it last trip someone else might help you with other mobile phone providers

 

[iluvtot]

I know with tracfone you can't you use to be able to text back but that stopped now was not able to do it last trip someone else might help you with other mobile phone providers

Nope, not with Net10 either. Sorry

 

[rpbert1]

I bought the H2o Universal Sim for $9.99, comes with a few dollars on it, and topped it up myself , have lent it to someone going in a few weeks, and they will top it up as it runs out in Nov, so hopefully will keep it going for us next year, I put a $29 card on it when i was there, and it was on the minute plan, i used it to phone home on a cheap call Number they give you, and it was 14cents a min, to recieve calls in the US cost 14 Cents as well, and Texting was extremely cheap, but i prefer to phone, there was still $30 on it , and thought if someone can use it and maybe keep it going i could use it next year, as i would loss the $30 in Nov anyway.

 

[jonoble]

I've been looking for a pre-pay SIM on a US network, or some other way of keeping data charges down when I'm over there. I wouldn't really be using it for calling, but I do want to be online with my phone for various reasons. H2O Wireless doesn't seem to say anything about data as part of their plans.

Anyone got a good solution for that?

 

[london75]

I bought AT&T Go Phone SIMS on ebay. Just activated them today which was a bit of a pain but worked eventually.

Now trying to add credit which I've bought from Pinzoo. Now waiting for Pinzoo to call me to verify I am who I say I am as a first time customer.

Then it looks like I'll need to be in the US before I can apply the credit as AT&T want to text some code to the US number which obviously doesn't work here!

Better be worth it!

The reason is, they have 100MB for $19.99 which is rubbish compared to the UK but should keep my work email and various useful iPhone apps going.

 

[lenny l]

deleted

 

[crabbie1]

Can I ask.Im not very good with mobiles.We are going and both me and DB are on orange contracts. Didnt want to take my phone ,well my sim at least as I know if people call me I get charged etc and 40p for sending and recieveing texts. I have 3 or 4 pay as you go sim cards and will be planning on phoning my mom a few times and a few texts but thats all oh and for DD to call her dad few times.
What is the best solution? To put £20 on a pay as you go uk sim and get a £10 post office card . Then im thinking if we get split up in the park its best to have two phones so should I take two paygo sims and just use them for our calls in the uk.Dont think US sims work in uk phones do they?

 

[jonoble]

mrsimcard.com looks really useful - thanks so much for that Lenny.

I think for what I'd need, the $79.99 15 day plan with unlimited 3G data would be fine. That's going to save me loads over what I would pay in roaming data charges!

 

[london75]

Bear in mind going DIY as always works out cheaper.

My SIM card from ebay was $8
Topup of $25 and they give me $10 free
$19.99 of that goes on 100MB internet leaving $15 credit at $0.25 per minute = 60 minutes.

Total price £20 ish

 

[goofieslonglostsis]

Bear in mind going DIY as always works out cheaper.

My SIM card from ebay was $8
Topup of $25 and they give me $10 free
$19.99 of that goes on 100MB internet leaving $15 credit at $0.25 per minute = 60 minutes.

Total price £20 ish

We're doing the same thing. Seeing the price for the internet data, I'm assuming you've got yourself an AT&T SIM?

If so, could you help me out with some things I haven't been able to figure out on their website?
- I know I can add a dataplan of $19,99 for 100 MB to the prepaid, but HOW would I add those?
- where did you get your topup? Have been looking into some places, but haven't run into any yet that give extra$ free. And don't we all love the word free? Or am I just not reading the descriptions right of the top up cards and does that come with it normally??

 

[london75]

We're doing the same thing. Seeing the price for the internet data, I'm assuming you've got yourself an AT&T SIM?

If so, could you help me out with some things I haven't been able to figure out on their website?
- I know I can add a dataplan of $19,99 for 100 MB to the prepaid, but HOW would I add those?
- where did you get your topup? Have been looking into some places, but haven't run into any yet that give extra$ free. And don't we all love the word free? Or am I just not reading the descriptions right of the top up cards and does that come with it normally??

A slip of paper came with my SIM for Pinzoo.com and I ordered two $25 topups for $23 each. Now a word of caution, for the first order they want to ring you to verify so that's been a bit of a pain. They are West coast USA so 7 hours behind, however, after a few emails as I didn't want to ring them back due to the cost wiping out any benefit, they've just rung this afternoon and all sorted.

So as above, total spend of around $70 for 2 sims loaded and not expiring for 90 days.

In fact, if anyone wants to operate a SIM share, I'm happy to start it off by PM. I'll have 2 PAYG AT&T SIMs available from 10th Sept onwards. 1 is a Micro SIM so iPhone 4 or get your own adapter.

Andy

 

[goofieslonglostsis]

A slip of paper came with my SIM for Pinzoo.com and I ordered two $25 topups for $23 each. Now a word of caution, for the first order they want to ring you to verify so that's been a bit of a pain. They are West coast USA so 7 hours behind, however, after a few emails as I didn't want to ring them back due to the cost wiping out any benefit, they've just rung this afternoon and all sorted.

So as above, total spend of around $70 for 2 sims loaded and not expiring for 90 days.

In fact, if anyone wants to operate a SIM share, I'm happy to start it off by PM. I'll have 2 PAYG AT&T SIMs available from 10th Sept onwards. 1 is a Micro SIM so iPhone 4 or get your own adapter.

Andy

OK, so now I'm going to proof how little I know of this subject. Warning; this can cause people to laugh so hard, reading further is at own risk!

Let me get this straight; with that AT&T SIM you do NOT have to use the AT&T cards to load them? I'm lost! Had a look at the website you mentioned, but felt kinda lost so was hoping you can explain it to me like the toddler I am when it comes to this.

We've got new AT&T SIMS, prepaid through eBay. Basically we just want to use those for quick short calls between mom and me. She has no sense of direction, so getting back to me after a bathroom visit might very well result into a phonecall "where are you". Gotta love her for that. I'll be spending quite some time resting, so a check in call maybe once every 2 days or day and that's it what we're expecting to call. With about 50/60 minutes of calling we can manage very well in our 3 week visit.

The dataplan would be a great thing. Enough for mail checking and keeping in touch with the homefront and dad on his trip to Asia. Having said that; am I right in concluding you're telling us we can use other cards than those of AT&T also?

And what about that PIN-activation? Am I correct in assuming in works for the first time activating the SIM already? Would I have to activate that PIN within a certain amount of time? I'm kinda trying to find a nicer way of saying "I know squat apparently, could you be so nice as to take me by the hand and explain patiently?"

Guess I've been too busy with Amazon and sorting out which bargains will have to come through them and which through IRL shopping.

 

[london75]

OK, so now I'm going to proof how little I know of this subject. Warning; this can cause people to laugh so hard, reading further is at own risk!

Let me get this straight; with that AT&T SIM you do NOT have to use the AT&T cards to load them? I'm lost! Had a look at the website you mentioned, but felt kinda lost so was hoping you can explain it to me like the toddler I am when it comes to this.

We've got new AT&T SIMS, prepaid through eBay. Basically we just want to use those for quick short calls between mom and me. She has no sense of direction, so getting back to me after a bathroom visit might very well result into a phonecall "where are you". Gotta love her for that. I'll be spending quite some time resting, so a check in call maybe once every 2 days or day and that's it what we're expecting to call. With about 50/60 minutes of calling we can manage very well in our 3 week visit.


The dataplan would be a great thing. Enough for mail checking and keeping in touch with the homefront and dad on his trip to Asia. Having said that; am I right in concluding you're telling us we can use other cards than those of AT&T also?

And what about that PIN-activation? Am I correct in assuming in works for the first time activating the SIM already? Would I have to activate that PIN within a certain amount of time? I'm kinda trying to find a nicer way of saying "I know squat apparently, could you be so nice as to take me by the hand and explain patiently?"

Guess I've been too busy with Amazon and sorting out which bargains will have to come through them and which through IRL shopping.

Don't worry, I'm piecing it together too. PIN is another way of topping up, it's actually the same as here 10 years ago where you scratch off the silver on a top up card and type the code into your phone to register the credit. Theoretically you do the same on the AT&T SIM and if you top up $25 within 5/7 days of activating (it varies by website!) AT&T will give you $10 free.

Once you activate the SIM (and don't do this until you are about to go) you can add the credit and then "spend" it on extras like the data plan or just leave it on the account to use up for minutes.

Now it appears that when I try and add credit, AT&T want to send me a verification text message with a new password which I can't receive until I get to the US on Tuesday. Probably cost me my $10 dollar free credit as I activated yesterday but we'll see! I now remember that during activation there was an option to add PIN credit straight away so it might be worth getting your PIN from pinzoo before activating. I now can't get to that webpage without getting this new verification message, poo.

I chose the 0.25 plan which means texts are 20 cents each and calls 25 cents per minute but as we're only using the calls to say "I've got 20 minutes left in the Dumbo queue, meet you by the castle, bye" I think that will last a while. The AT&T site suggest its the most cost effective for 7 minutes and fewer calls per day.

If you want more text messages, there is a $4.99 for 100 messages I think which works out very cost effective. We may yet go for that option too.

Hope that helps!

 

[goofieslonglostsis]

Definately helps! The mention of the ages-ago-silver-scratch-things did make me go . In our neck of the woods you could only buy cards of the provider, others wouldn't work. So that's what had me go "can I use other cards than AT&T?!".

So it's basically AT&T trying to 'bind' customers to activate and up minutes by giving something extra. Smart move business wise, I have to say.

Ah, the Dumbo-castle-call. Many families will be making those types of call.

Fingers crossed you can get things sorted out when you get to the US. Have fun!

 

[london75]

Definately helps! The mention of the ages-ago-silver-scratch-things did make me go . In our neck of the woods you could only buy cards of the provider, others wouldn't work. So that's what had me go "can I use other cards than AT&T?!".

So it's basically AT&T trying to 'bind' customers to activate and up minutes by giving something extra. Smart move business wise, I have to say.

Ah, the Dumbo-castle-call. Many families will be making those types of call.

Fingers crossed you can get things sorted out when you get to the US. Have fun!

Thanks, I think the way it works is that they are AT&T topups but resold via Pinzoo. If you think about it, Tesco get a cut of a top up card price or why would they sell them. Pinzoo are just giving you a share of that AT&T commission, it's still a legitimate top up though.