Renting a mobile phone for the USA

[neo's white rabbit]

I'll premise this with the fact I'm not a big fan of the ever ringing/singing/ 'where did you get that ringtone?' little beasties. However our trip in May requires we have one with us, so I thought I'd pass on what I've discovered to anyone else who may be interested.

www.rentaphone.co.uk have a service whereby you can pick up and drop off a phone at either Gatwick or Heathrow, or have it delivered and collected from your home for £10 each way, for use with full interstate roaming in the USA.

They charge £4.50 per day for the phone (and all the bits that come with). However, if you have an American Express card and use that to pay for the rental it goes down to £2 per day.

Calls are charged at 30p per min incoming/outgoing in the US and 70p per min incoming/outgoing to the UK. You need a calling card for the latter which they provide in £10 up to £50 denominations(£10 increments) You can also set it up that if you fall to £2 on your international card they top it back up to your chosen level. There's no refund on the card, but you can hang on to it for another trip.

The person I spoke to was very helpful and pleasant and faxed the booking forms straight to me.

One thing, on collection you have to have a cc with £300 spare on it which is their insurance that you return it, pay for calls and so forth.

I've seen mention of rather high costs for renting when you get there (anything up to £12 per day), so this seemed like a well-priced, short term solution. They can also advise you what your number will be the day before, handy for passing on to anyone here who might need to contact you.

And SimonV - I did check your Airwave recommendation from the book, but the URL is no longer working and they seem unfindable via any websearch - other than a newspaper report that they've been robbed a few times recently!

 

[Elle]

Why not take your own? You may have to upgrade to a tri-band but certainly with vodaphone the costs are reasonable. We use ours out there all the time, you get off the plane and it picks op the local service and hey presto. I am fairly sure texts are either free or the same price as here in the UK.
Elle

 

[neo's white rabbit]

Thanks for the tip Elle.

The truth is I'm such a Luddite when it comes to mobile's I rarely if ever have the thing turned on in the UK LOL The phone I was using up until recently looked like something that should have been donated to the Science Museum. The only reason I have one is here is for security and safety when out and about with the kids or travelling. What can I say, call me odd

For me spending £32 to rent a phone for the duration of our trip is an OK solution.

Out of interest...does anyone know if Pay As You go cell phones exist in the USA that you can just go into a store and buy? Like the ones you get here and then buy top up cards? I'd be more keen to buy a cheap phone there for my reguar trips to the US.

 

[SimonV]

Hi there. Yes, I'm aware of the situation re Airwave (i.e. non-contactable) and am trying to get one of my Orlando contacts to check it out.

Thanks,

Simon

 

[neo's white rabbit]

Hope they have some success as it seemed like a very good idea.

 

[matty624]

We've rented and hired phones in the past. A few years ago (2000 I think) we rented from Alamo at the airport. It was a small phone and came with all the usual stuff. I seem to remember it costing something like £30/week, alot I know, but we had two small children with us and also needed to keep in contact with the in-laws who were also in Orlando. Since then we've taken tri-band phones.
It's great when you split up, even in a shop, to know you can give dw a 3 second call to locate her and salvage the credit card limit!
Unfortunately, when I recently changed one of our phones, I accidententally got a dual band replacement, rather than tri-band. So it looks like we'll have to rent one phone this year.
I've heard that you now can get pay as you go phones in Florida, Walmart I've been told sell them. This in unconfirmed and unless someone knows for sure I'm going to rent this August.
Ian

By the way, my trip counters wrong, anyone know what I do to fix it? Thanks.

 

[mickeyfan1]

Yes, you can buy pre paid phones in the US. I can't vouch for Walmart, but there are convenience stores called 7-11 that sell them. They may be around $50.00 US, and that may not be a good deal, because once you go home, what are you going to do with it? Except you can resell it to a friend who is coming over, they can just buy more time on it. You call an 800 number and give them a CC number. they charge you for a set time, 30, 60 , 90 minutes, etc. It would save you fom having to have 300 pounds available on a CC.

 

[neo's white rabbit]

LOL Matty624 on the 'rescue the credit card'! The AMEX deal via rentaphone UK works out at £14 a week, which seems fair to me.

Mickeyfan1 - Thanks for the info. I travel to the US regularly so buying a US phone could be an option for me, strangley I'd use it more there than I ever do with a cell phone here!

More to the point, how do I get a counter going? I know I saw it someplace and now can't refind the instructions...

 

[neo's white rabbit]

OK, I found the place for the counter, it's in Tech Support.

Matty I think you need to delete the one you have out of your signature and start again...but maybe a look at Tech Support would confirm that for you.