Prepaid Mobile or Sim

[battymum]

I have searched previous threads about this - but was wondering if anyone had any new information. I am after a cheap sim to use when we are travelling -mainly sms and a few local calls for pick ups etc.

As we will only use it a bit, but will probably buy 2 - i have to work out whether it will be cheaper just to use roaming...

Has anyone heard of 02 Wireless - they have a sim for $9.95 with 50mins talk time - sounds too good to be true. I dont quite understand how they sell recharge in minutes not $.

SMS are 10c - but how do they charge that in minutes.

They also advertise free international calls - how can this be? Say we make a 15minute call to home -does it comes out of the minute balance, the same as if it were a local call?

Sorry - very confused here.

 

[BecBennett]

It's super easy to just buy a prepaid sim while over there, we picked one up at BestBuy in LA, however they were also for sale at the Walmart we visited in Orlando.

I bought a h20 simcard, which worked fine, however one thing I noticed that confused me is that after making a call or sending a txt a little dialogue box would pop up and tell me how much I spent, and how much was remaining, which was really handy, except it would cost me money to also receive txts and phone calls.

It was only 5c per txt and maybe $1.00 per phone call, but I would have figured receiving should be free however maybe that's a US prepaid thing...

Make sure the simcard you buy can be bought everywhere, as the h20 card was available in LA, but I couldn't find them in Orlando, so I probably would have been better off to get a more well known brand, like AT&T, or Verizon.

If I was to do it again I would go AT&T because I was hoping to get the net to work, and I've found a web page that shows you how to do it, but I haven't tried it for myself.

I would imagine that they sell them in minutes because they think it's easier for us to figure out how much we've got left. You buy 50 minutes, talk for 10 minutes, and you know you've got 40 left. However if you buy $50, talk for 10 minutes, how much do you have left?

Obviously if you know the call rates etc. then you can work it out, but I suppose this is laymen's terms??... Same goes for the txts, work out how many seconds of talk time 10c will give you, and that's how many "minutes" a txt takes up...

I guess.....

Can't comment on the free international calls... maybe if you check the fine print it's between certain times, like 1am-3am AU time

 

[Sugarglider]

I am going to run the risk of annoying others but the buying US sim cards seems strange to me. I'm on holiday so I am rarely using my phone - not to the same extent as my usual patterns. If I want to communicate with others whilst here - it is usually via SMS or short calls saying "where are you?" The cost of calls is quite reasonable - they are not the hideous prices of 10 years ago. And when I have paid thousands for a holiday, saving maybe $20 or even $100 on a phone bill seems so minor.
Last time I was at wdw I had to attend a 1 hour board meeting - I could have apologised but I was willing to attend via skype. So I paid the outrageous $9.90 daily internet access fee at the hotel and attended via skype. I also did my email etc that night. But who is going to WDW and then spending all their time on the phone?? I kinda enjoy "disappearing" for a while.
Personally I would rather spend my time in the park or doing something interesting than spending time tracking down a sim card to save a relatively small amount of money.
Just my opinion.

 

[HappyFingers]

im with sugar

i dont want to get hassled by my phone when on holiday

but each to thier own i guess

 

[platypus67]

When I was in the US last December I looked at pre paid sims as we took my DH's unlocked phone with us for this purpose. I couldn't be bothered in the end and just used my cell phone on roaming. I made quite a few calls to my mum and sister in Canada and in the end it cost me about about an extra $80. I'd rather spend the extra and be able to just switch my phone on when I land and know that if someone does need to contact me they already have my number.

 

[battymum]

I guess everyone just expects us to be contactable dont they - what happened to the days of sending a postcard once on your 3 week holiday and it arriving home after you did!

Actually the only people that call are travelling with me anyway!

What we really want the phones for is if our family splits up we can contact each other - besides each SMS on roaming costing us $1, I have found that they take ages to receive, so wont be helpful in finding our kids in a crowded park.

 

[Caroline NZ]

Hi,
Our reason for US Sim cards is the same as battymums. We want them for when we are split up doing different things while in the USA. We aren't using them for phoning anyone else.

 

[BecBennett]

Actually the only people that call are travelling with me anyway!

What we really want the phones for is if our family splits up we can contact each other - besides each SMS on roaming costing us $1, I have found that they take ages to receive, so wont be helpful in finding our kids in a crowded park.

Same, we had about 40 people there for the wedding, plus I had a lot of organising still to do, so I needed a phone. Also because I had to leave my number for a lot of people to get back to me, it made sense to have a US number.

 

[PrincessInOz]

The last time I bought a US phone and prepaid SIM, I paid $60. I got the handset, the sim card and $30 credit on my account for that amount...

I bought it from an AT&T shop, spent 15 minutes in there and walked out working. DH already had an AT&T phone; so the choice of service provider was already taken care of and we had looked up where the closest store was to where we were staying (10 minutes down the road from our hotel) before we left Oz. Being on the same network, all our SMS/calls to each other were unlimited for $1 per day.

We have family in the US and they are all on AT&T. We always call them and they call us to see where we are to meet up for coffee or a meal, particularly in California. Plus, if DH is working, it's nice for him to be able to contact me during the day to find our how we're doing and vice versa.

I've had that handset for about 2 years now and figure I've gotten my money's worth out of the service.

Everyone's travel and reason for needing a phone is different. If your travel party pretty much sticks together all the time and you don't call anyone else, then it makes sense to global roam using your Aussie service.