US sim card changes

[JennyN]

A friend just returned from the US and Canada, he was told over there that he could not buy a US sim card without a US address and US credit card. He was told this had only come in recently. Has anyone come across this. We bought one in December but I'm wondering if it has changed since then.

 

[WAMUMOF4]

A friend just returned from the US and Canada, he was told over there that he could not buy a US sim card without a US address and US credit card. He was told this had only come in recently. Has anyone come across this. We bought one in December but I'm wondering if it has changed since then.

We couldn't find one to buy to put in DH's phone when he got here our only option was a prepaid phone so we have just survived with 1 phone.

 

[Royal Consort]

A friend just returned from the US and Canada, he was told over there that he could not buy a US sim card without a US address and US credit card. He was told this had only come in recently. Has anyone come across this. We bought one in December but I'm wondering if it has changed since then.

AT&T have been doing this to prevent a whole lot of temporary sim cards floating around and to also 'protect' their mobile phone plans, whatever that means.

They will apparently no longer put money on an account from an international credit card like they used to. Some people gave their address as their hotel in the past when they required a US address for sale but with the credit card, this could be a bit trickier.

Quite frankly the whole SIM issue in the US is an absolute farce.

We are going to go with T mobile and will get stuck on the EDGE (of glory, and I'm hangin' on a moment of truth... la la la...) speeds. It should be ok for maps and general 'I'M LOST IN A BIG CITY' freak-out situations.

 

[Feej]

I was on T-Mobile last year on my trip and it was fine for all the usual stuff like, email, maps, FB etc. I wouldn't be too worried.

 

[darren123]

Hi all we are here now
Purchase a h20 card from eBay waste of money totally useless
Went to an at and t store and paid $25 cash for a iPhone sim card and also $15 credit since then added $25 credit talk and text only
I can call and text back to Australia
Cost is 10 cents a minute for local calls
Called step dad for fathers day spoke to him for about 5 minutes cost around $8 credit
Once the sim expires that is it
I have learnt my lesson with buying sims of eBay
Hope that helps

 

[Andona]

Hi all we are here now
Purchase a h20 card from eBay waste of money totally useless

Sorry to hear you had problems with your H20 sim, what a pain!

I've been getting a lot of my information from this massive post on the Whirlpool forums http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1296230&p=40

Other people on there had posted about having problems with H20 sims - they look like one to avoid!

Andona

 

[ExcitedSam]

I did read somewhere with the AT&T cards to get around it is to use your Hotel address and also buy a visa or mastercard giftcard (not 100% on the type but you get the drift) to pay.

I have bought a T-mobile sim, the other way just seemed to hard!

Last time I was on Hawaii you could buy pre paid land line cards, not sure if they still have them but we had a $10 one and called home everynight and it lasted us 6 days! just an option. It costs a local call to connect.

 

[becpee]

I bought one off Travelgear and received it Friday, I synced my phone today and checked it works and yep, it picked up T-Mobile, so i'm good to go

 

[ExcitedSam]

Bec good to know it worked! I should get mine this week.

 

[SnowWhite09]

Can someone please let me know what T-Mobile is and how you get it? Sorry if this is a silly question, but I'm not up with the mobile overseas thing.

 

[Andona]

Can someone please let me know what T-Mobile is and how you get it? Sorry if this is a silly question, but I'm not up with the mobile overseas thing.

Snow White - T-Mobile is an American Telco company ( like Telstra or Optus here)

If you want to use your mobile phone in the USA you have 2 choices:-

• Use your Australian Telco's "International Roaming" system. You will continue to have your own mobile phone number
• buy an American Telco's sim card, buy one of their mobile phone packages and pop their sim into your phone while travelling. This will give you an American phone number to use while you are away.

If you don't plan to use your phone much at all and you don't want to use data on your phone at all then it's probably easiest just to use International Roaming. You'll need to check with your Australian telco that your account has been set for Roaming AND, if you have a smartphone. you'll want to make sure that you have edited the settings on your phone to turn OFF Data Roaming. That's because Telstra and Optus etc charge ridiculous fees for International Data Roaming. Bills for international data roaming can run into the thousands if you're not careful

If you have a smartphone ( like an iPhone) and you want to be able to use Maps and Facebook etc on your phone while you're travelling then you should definitely look into buying an American sim with a data plan. If you want to make a fair few calls in the USA you're also probably better off to have an American sim as you can buy pre-paid plans that give you unlimited calls to American landlines and mobile numbers as well as unlimited texts to America phones and cheap texts to Australian phones.

So if you want to be able to call tour companies and hotels etc in the USA to make confirmations, AND if there's a few of you travelling and you want to be able to call/txt each other cheaply - it's probably a good idea to get an American sim for all your phones.

Because of differences between the systems and frequencies that the Americans use and we use - you really only have two choices of major Telco in the USA. AT&T and T-Mobile.

You can wait till you get to the USA and go into one of their stores and buy a sim and a plan from them on the spot. They both have prepaid plans with varying limits/costs of calls texts etc. If you only want to make calls then either would be fine.

If you want to use data then it gets a little more complicated. T-Mobile is the easiest option for calls/data - they have plans that will allow you to use both calls/data BUT because their 3G data frequency is different to ours you will NOT get 3G data on your phone with T-Mobile. You will still be able to get data but it will be at 2G/Edge speed. This is reported to be adequate for maps , checking Facebook, and some apps ( e'g' the Disney app) but would probably be too slow for uploading many photos to Facebook/Instagram etc

If you want 3G data speed your only choice is AT&T. If you don't have an iPhone you should be able to walk into an AT&T store and get them to set it up for you. If you have an iPhone then they will tell you in the store that you can't have data. This is not true , you just have to buy the data plan online from their website and then set up all the APN settings yourself. (There are straightforward instructions for doing this )

A lot of people prefer the idea of buying their American sim while they are still in Australia and having everything setup and ready before they get to the USA. There are businesses in Australia that will sell you an American sim and set it up for you ( as much as possible). This option costs more than buying the sim in the USA BUT you pay for peace of mind and convenience.

One business is http://www.travelgear.com.au/ They will sell you T-Mobile sims that are set up and ready to go. Travelgear also sell iPad sims if you need one.

If you want an AT&T sim there is a business called http://mobipassport.com.au/ who will rent you an AT&T sim and send you all the instructions you need to set it up or data etc.

They have heaps of info on their websites about all this.

Some people have, in the past, purchased AT&T sims on Ebay and bought an AT&T plan online etc with no problems. But others have had issues with it.

There are also a few other companies around that sell USA Sims at varying costs eg. http://www.usaprepaidsimcard.com.au

I'm heading to the USA in 12 days - I've bought sims from Travelgear and Mobipassport (AT&T and T-Mobile) I'll be posting back a review of my experiences with both of them once I get there.

Andona

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

Snow White - T-Mobile is an American Telco company ( like Telstra or Optus here)

If you want to use your mobile phone in the USA you have 2 choices:-

• Use your Australian Telco's "International Roaming" system. You will continue to have your own mobile phone number
• buy an American Telco's sim card, buy one of their mobile phone packages and pop their sim into your phone while travelling. This will give you an American phone number to use while you are away.

If you don't plan to use your phone much at all and you don't want to use data on your phone at all then it's probably easiest just to use International Roaming. You'll need to check with your Australian telco that your account has been set for Roaming AND, if you have a smartphone. you'll want to make sure that you have edited the settings on your phone to turn OFF Data Roaming. That's because Telstra and Optus etc charge ridiculous fees for International Data Roaming. Bills for international data roaming can run into the thousands if you're not careful

If you have a smartphone ( like an iPhone) and you want to be able to use Maps and Facebook etc on your phone while you're travelling then you should definitely look into buying an American sim with a data plan. If you want to make a fair few calls in the USA you're also probably better off to have an American sim as you can buy pre-paid plans that give you unlimited calls to American landlines and mobile numbers as well as unlimited texts to America phones and cheap texts to Australian phones.

So if you want to be able to call tour companies and hotels etc in the USA to make confirmations, AND if there's a few of you travelling and you want to be able to call/txt each other cheaply - it's probably a good idea to get an American sim for all your phones.

Because of differences between the systems and frequencies that the Americans use and we use - you really only have two choices of major Telco in the USA. AT&T and T-Mobile.

You can wait till you get to the USA and go into one of their stores and buy a sim and a plan from them on the spot. They both have prepaid plans with varying limits/costs of calls texts etc. If you only want to make calls then either would be fine.

If you want to use data then it gets a little more complicated. T-Mobile is the easiest option for calls/data - they have plans that will allow you to use both calls/data BUT because their 3G data frequency is different to ours you will NOT get 3G data on your phone with T-Mobile. You will still be able to get data but it will be at 2G/Edge speed. This is reported to be adequate for maps , checking Facebook, and some apps ( e'g' the Disney app) but would probably be too slow for uploading many photos to Facebook/Instagram etc

If you want 3G data speed your only choice is AT&T. If you don't have an iPhone you should be able to walk into an AT&T store and get them to set it up for you. If you have an iPhone then they will tell you in the store that you can't have data. This is not true , you just have to buy the data plan online from their website and then set up all the APN settings yourself. (There are straightforward instructions for doing this )

A lot of people prefer the idea of buying their American sim while they are still in Australia and having everything setup and ready before they get to the USA. There are businesses in Australia that will sell you an American sim and set it up for you ( as much as possible). This option costs more than buying the sim in the USA BUT you pay for peace of mind and convenience.

One business is http://www.travelgear.com.au/ They will sell you T-Mobile sims that are set up and ready to go. Travelgear also sell iPad sims if you need one.

If you want an AT&T sim there is a business called http://mobipassport.com.au/ who will rent you an AT&T sim and send you all the instructions you need to set it up or data etc.

They have heaps of info on their websites about all this.

Some people have, in the past, purchased AT&T sims on Ebay and bought an AT&T plan online etc with no problems. But others have had issues with it.

There are also a few other companies around that sell USA Sims at varying costs eg. http://www.usaprepaidsimcard.com.au

I'm heading to the USA in 12 days - I've bought sims from Travelgear and Mobipassport (AT&T and T-Mobile) I'll be posting back a review of my experiences with both of them once I get there.

Andona

Andona - you are my techie hero my luv.

 

[Andona]

Andona - you are my techie hero my luv.

Awww, Thankyou. .....but I take lousy photos!

Andona

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

You are the Ying to my Yang then