Visiting Canada from the US - Cell Phone?

[SDSorority]

Hi all. DH has an iPhone with Verizon, and I have a regular cell phone (that's not so smart ) also with Verizon. We're going to Canada in a few weeks, and want to be able to have a cell phone (preferably the iPhone) to use, but we don't want the international roaming to rack up $$$$$$$$$$$. I heard Kevin talking about his $$$$$ iPad charges while they were in Halifax and St. John's, and that got me thinking. Should we get a prepaid phone, phone card, or does Verizon offer some sort of Canada and US plan? I presume that we would want to use the iPhone, and have access to internet (for the GPS) while driving around Alberta. Has anyone done this or have suggestions to the most cost effective way of going about this? We'll be gone for a week.

 

[Fire14]

Hi all. DH has an iPhone with Verizon, and I have a regular cell phone (that's not so smart ) also with Verizon. We're going to Canada in a few weeks, and want to be able to have a cell phone (preferably the iPhone) to use, but we don't want the international roaming to rack up $$$$$$$$$$$. I heard Kevin talking about his $$$$$ iPad charges while they were in Halifax and St. John's, and that got me thinking. Should we get a prepaid phone, phone card, or does Verizon offer some sort of Canada and US plan? I presume that we would want to use the iPhone, and have access to internet (for the GPS) while driving around Alberta. Has anyone done this or have suggestions to the most cost effective way of going about this? We'll be gone for a week.

Check with vzw I thought I saw something on website about adding international for 1 month or something along those lines. Last time I was in Canada I had a stupid phone yet and was close enough to border to get us towers i guess. I do know on my last cruise my phone got turned on and I had roaming charges think it cost me an extra 20 ish before I saw phone on, I'd gotten a few calls and text messages.

 

[Fire14]

I went on vzw website and under explore I chose global services and just went thru differant options that may give you some options to look into

 

[momxx5]

We have done this in the past many times. My mom lives in Canada.

Before the trips I called Verizon to confirm all the details. Basically we "change" our plan for the length of stay in Canada. It allowed us to call each other, to call anywhere in US and Canada.

Once we crossed back into the US, I called Verizon and had us switched back.

Here was the kicker.....on the last trip, once they switched us back it was to the newer plan that replaced our old plan that we were grandfathered into.
Does that make any sense?
I had to do a lot of calling to make things right again.

My advice is to call ahead, speak with a supervisor, get people's names & numbers....that way you will have no surprises.

Wishing you a great trip.
(missing Canada soooo badddd now that we all need passports to come back the US it makes traveling a bit harder)

 

[Fire14]

Wishing you a great trip.
(missing Canada soooo badddd now that we all need passports to come back the US it makes traveling a bit harder)

Not sure where you live or if you fly/drive to Canada but have you looked into Enhanced drivers license or passport cards as those are cheaper options to get back into US from Canada. You can't fly with these options but might be option for you.

 

[it's kelly]

I have an iPhone with AT&T and was in Canada 2 weeks ago. I called to add text messages and for $10 I got 50 messages (this didn't included messages I received as those were unlimited). I didn't add data roaming as the price just wasn't worth it to me since we would only be in Canada for 2 days and roaming was a min. of 1 month. I just turned off the roaming and left my phone in airplane mode unless I wanted to send a text message since I would be charged for any calls that came in even if I didn't answer them.

 

[JB2K]

Here was the kicker.....on the last trip, once they switched us back it was to the newer plan that replaced our old plan that we were grandfathered into.
Does that make any sense?

Makes perfect sense -- whenever a person makes any changes on any cell phone contract, it essentially "resets" the contract to whatever new terms and conditions the carrier has out there.

A good exmaple is if you were with Verizon Wireless, had unlimited data on a smartphone, went to Canada, made some changes to your plan so you could make calls in Canada, returned to the U.S. and "reset" to the usual U.S. plan, your data would no longer be "grandfathered" in as unlimited data (but reset to VZW's new data plans with limits).

My advice is to call ahead, speak with a supervisor, get people's names & numbers....that way you will have no surprises.

Better advice (especially for those folks with sketcky financial situations), completely ditch those contracts that handcuff users for 2 years and go prepaid -- it's one the smartest budget moves going...

(missing Canada soooo badddd now that we all need passports to come back the US it makes traveling a bit harder)

A reminder for those who drive their cars to Canada -- the "Passport Card" is all you really need, and for adults, it's only $30 for 10 years (less expensive for kids -- also, all first-time passport holders have to pay a one-time $25 "execution fee"). If you're a flyer, you still need the traditional "book" passport, which is, of course, more expensive...