Purchasing a prepaid cell in the US to use at WDW

[pooksma]

Hello,

I am wondering if anyone has bought a prepaid cell phone in the US to use while at Disney. Someone suggested this to me and DH~says he does it all the time when delivering cars to the US. With roaming charges through Aliant so high, we're wondering if this is a good way to go.

I would appreciate your comments.

 

[joech]

We bought 2 trac phone with 2 60 minutes card (120 minutes with double air time offer) for around 80 bucks at walmart and we used them for 2 weeks on our last trip. Activation is easy and calling back to canada is simply dialing the tracfone 1-800 number first then the number need to be dialed.

 

[highland3]

Check out the thread at the top of the Canadian Board. There's a sticky all about cell phones.

 

[Microcell]

I just got a cheapie tracfone for my DD on clearance at Target... Are you close to a US city to get one ahead of time?

It was 9.98....

 

[Thumper_ehhhhh]

Hmmmmm we made quite a few calls on our cell phones in May 2007 on our 2 week trip to florida. I dont think we ended up paying more than $30 cad. That's with Rogers. I wouldn't waste my time and energy on purchasing phones just for the trip. But thats just me.

 

[joech]

Hmmmmm we made quite a few calls on our cell phones in May 2007 on our 2 week trip to florida. I dont think we ended up paying more than $30 cad. That's with Rogers. I wouldn't waste my time and energy on purchasing phones just for the trip. But thats just me.

It depends on the carrier and the plan. My Telus phone bill was $150 just for the 10 days trip from last March and I didn't make that much call.

 

[nflder]

With Aliant you can buy US minutes. On our last trip we had 120 minutes and it cost $50. You buy it before you go.

 

[pooksma]

With Aliant you can buy US minutes. On our last trip we had 120 minutes and it cost $50. You buy it before you go.

I didn't know you could do that. Thanks.

 

[Thumper_ehhhhh]

It depends on the carrier and the plan. My Telus phone bill was $150 just for the 10 days trip from last March and I didn't make that much call.

Rogers apparently is paired up with a cell company in the US. I don't remember which one though. Maybe that's why we didn't find it bad.

 

[pooksma]

I didn't know you could do that. Thanks.

So I checked into this and with Bell, because our billing date is the 11th and we leave the 5th, to activate this we would end up paying the $40 for two months billing period. $80 or a $20 tracfone and minutes card? Not much contest as I see it.

 

[Catrinabeach]

We have a friend in the USA that picks us up an AT & T refurbed phone from the web site and sets it up and mails it to us before our trip. We pay 9.99 for the phone with free shipping. then we put time on it.

if you put a 100.00 card it's good for a year. We do that and we can use it for a couple trips or just put more time on before our next trip.

They have 2 plans. 1 is 25 cents a minute (40 cents to Canada) or a 10 cents a minute plan that you pay 1.00 for each day you use the phone. If you don't use the phone one day you don't pay the 1.00 but when you use it you pay the 1.00 plus 10 cents for each minute.

 

[Tinkershelly]

If you don't need to actually speak, you could think about just texting. It worked for us last September.

 

[Thumper_ehhhhh]

Or spend the money on 2 way hand helds radios. 26km range or more. If you want them for actual phone calling thats different but if all you want them for is to keep in touch with the rest of your family this is the way to go.

 

[Rubbertops]

I bought a virgin mobile for $20 (3 trips ago) and just buy a $20 card for it each trip. I have to re-activate it each time, but it's just a quick phone call.

 

[5boyz]

My parents were just in Florida in May and they got a virgin and my mom said she bought a $20. card at the Dollartree, so we are using it for our trip in 4 weeks.

 

[CanadianGuy]

I always bought the US Roaming package for Rogers but after this most recent trip - I wont do that again.

I had MAJOR coverage issues. Rogers is setup to roam in the Orlando area on T-Mobile or Cingular. Let me tell you, more bars in more places my butt. I had a terrible time getting signal to even make or receive a call... even texts were unreliable.

I won't be following that method again. Something has changed with their roaming partners, it wasn't like that last year.

 

[maryliz]

Or spend the money on 2 way hand helds radios. 26km range or more. If you want them for actual phone calling thats different but if all you want them for is to keep in touch with the rest of your family this is the way to go.

Any suggestions on good ones? I know that their "range" listed on the package is for ideal situations, but we bought some Panasonic ones (I think), and they had a 40km range ... couldn't even go from our house to less than one km away. So we returned them. I'd like a set for Disney, but also for the kids to have with them when they're out biking with their friends in the neighbourhood.

If anyone has had any good luck with a set, please PM me the brand, type, and where you got them. TIA

 

[nflder]

With respect to the hand held radios, when we went in 2003 we brought them with us, at the resort it was no problem to use. But when we were in the parks we found they weren't very useful. There was a lot of interference (I'm thinking it was all of the electronic stuff in the park) and it was difficult to hear on them. Now keep in mind this was 5 years ago, I'm thinking technoology has come along a bit since then.

 

[tmli]

I just returned from DL in California. I purchased a tracphone while I was there at Target. It was on sale for $28.99 and included 10 minutes and double minutes for life. I bought a 120 minute card for $28. In total I paid just under $60, got 260 minutes (which expire in Nov of this year) and the phone. Not a bad deal!

Every time I add a card I will get double the minutes for free. The great thing about this phone is that I could choose what area I wanted the number to be from (I chose MCO), also there is no long distance charges. Just a straight minute charge, I can also text (.3 of a minute to send/receive). I also like that as long as you add time before the expiry date, unused minutes carry over as well as length of time the phone is active.

All in all, considering I am in the US at least 5 times a year for vacation, and more if you count cross border shopping trips...I am pleased with my purchase and know we will save money!