Pay as you go US phones?

[mamabear0222]

Has anyone ever used any of these no contract cheap disposibles when travelling to Disney? We will be there for 2 weeks, and only I own a smartphone. (My hubby has a company phone he will not take)

I am concerned about becoming separated from him and trying to meet up etc. I want a way to stay in contact with him if I run to the store, or gas station whatever if he's back at the condo and Im elsewhere with a kid or alone.

I think for my phone I'll purchase the US plan through my carrier for the month, but for him Im unsure what to do.

We have an old dinosaur phone, but the carrier tells me I cannot use this in the US unless I sign up for a monthly bill before we go.......

 

[M&Mmum]

We have two and we use them whenever we travel. They expire but it just means you get a new number each time you reactivate. Ours are through Virgin. I think we pay $35 and it gets us unlimited texting and more than enough minutes for a 3 week trip.

 

[PinkMagnolia]

Last Spring, I bought 2 Virgin Kyocera flip phones for $10 each at Wal Mart, then put a $10 Virgin phone card on them... They were perfect!

They aren't the best phones in the world, but were perfect for our use in the park when we did separate.

You can buy phones like this almost anywhere - Target, Publix, Wal-Mart -- I did call a mobile place at the Orlando Airport to see how much they were there, and they were a LOT more expensive (I think I remember it being around $70 for the phone itself)

 

[sherilaine]

I have thought about doing this too - buy two phones and then just buy a 30 day plan or something when you get there - we travel to the U.S a few times a year and it would be nice to have a cheap phone we could just use when there rather than worry about buying an extra plan for ours.

I will check back to see if anyone else has more info to offer.

 

[Disworldluv]

Tracfone is a good quality service. Phones are inexpensive: $14.99 to 19.99.
and time commitments are 30 days up to a year or more. I, personally, have used this service for 7 yrs. now, buying yearly contracts for just under a $100.
Whereever in the US I have used this phone, service has been very good.

 

[formill]

One person in our family bought a tracfone and has used it on 2 trips now-only problem we had with it was others in our group had Canadian cells that we added on text to while in Florida (Koodo $20 for a month) and tracfones can not text to a Canadian cell number- work around was to text to the email version of our Canadian cell phone number and that worked.
http://www.tracfone.com/terms_conditions.jsp
Our most recent trip and from now on we will probably just rely on free wifi that seemed to be everywhere-kids all have smart phones or ipod touches now with text apps and we found free wifi everywhere in Florida- restaurants, Target etc.

 

[SGDisneyFam]

If your phone is unlocked through your provider check out roam mobility.

The plans are sooo cheap compared to what we pay and the SIM cards can easily be swapped out in your existing phone. I'm excited to have data plan for the first time ever in the US!

 

[disneybaker]

What kind of smartphone do you have? Why don't you look into straight talk SIM cards, sold exclusively through walmart. Swapping SIM cards basically allows ou to switch carriers . Then you will have your phone with all your info on a different network, I just changed my iPhones Verizon o straight talk cut bill in half

 

[tgropp]

These phones are great and inexpensive. One year we went on a cruise and used the phones in San Juan, St Thomas and St Croix since those U.S. islands are counted as states in the plan. We were even sailing by St Croix one night and the phone still worked. They will work in Hawaii and Alsaka also.

 

[Tanooki]

Hi!
Got back Monday night from an 11-day trip where the 12 of us drove to WDW in 2 minivans. We bought 2 Tracfone from Walmart (14.98$ each) and 2 60-minute card (20$ each) so we'd be able to contact each other during the trip. I can't say enough good things about these phones! First, they came very well equipped for the price : hands-free speaker, car charger, clip-on carry case, etc. and then all the minutes that you put on them are automatically doubled as long as you own the phone!
Of course, you can't make international calls with them so if you want to call home, this is not a good option. But you can still receive calls from Canada...

Anyway, these worked great for us and I recommend them. It was actually cheaper to buy one phone (35$) than to add the US option (voice only) on my own phone with Bell, which would've been 40$.

Have a great trip! I can't wait to start planning the next one

 

[dawnm8877]

I have to say that I did some looking into the $9.88 tracfones from Walmart and I was impressed with the look of the actual phone and that they are still available for that price! (The one I looked at was an LG that was very similar to my SIL's regular cell.) I had read the sticky about the US cell phone issue and they were $10 then and that was a few years ago. In the end, I did not purchase any because I need to be able to call back to Canada easily (guess I'll pay for the US talk package from Bell) and three of the five adults going on the trip have smart phones so we are hoping the free Wi-Fi coverage will work for us.

Thanks for all the reports and info from all you 'experienced travelers'.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Another TracFone user here. Can't beat it for a small investment.

 

[Maddysdaddy]

Hi!

Of course, you can't make international calls with them so if you want to call home, this is not a good option. But you can still receive calls from Canada...

In the sticky, I talk about how to sign up for Google Voice. At a basic level, it's pretty much like VOIP - what you end up doing is using your US phone to call Canada via Google's US number and through the magic of the interwebs, you have free calling (and I think texting) back to Canada.

You sign up for a Google phone number once (I picked one with a Malibu area code because my 8 year old wants a beach home there - better do well at dental school kid) and it's yours forever. That way when I pick up a US sim on my trips down south, whatever number T-Mobile assigns to me becomes irrelevant as I just go online and link that number to my Google account. Since my Google number never changes, that is the one that my family and office call.

 

[dhluvsDisney]

We have owned 2 U.S. Tracfones for so many years now I can't remember how long. They are wonderful. We just keep ours active by paying $20 every 90 days to keep the phone number. Those posters that are saying you can't call to Canada with these phones are uninformed. We have been doing it for years. There is just a 1-800 that you can find on Tracfone's website that allows you to do this. We used to buy pre-paid phone cards from PC to call back to Canada, but having just been calling with the 1-800 instead. VERY cheap to do! I even called my dad at home from San Juan Puerto Rico back in January. Worked like a charm! Never had any problems with them and their minutes just keep rolling over!

 

[twinz]

I second roam mobility. I bought the phone (mine is blackberry like) and I love that it is not expensive at all to use. It was $49.99 for the phone and it's around $3.95 per day for text, phone and data (100mb per day). It's shipped from BC and was here in under two days.