Walkie talkie alternative. Ever bought a US mobile phone?

[mattnkatsmum]

I am travelling to WDW with my DH, DS(14) and DD (3), so we will do a fair bit of splitting up. Now I know some people by walkie talkies, but apparently so many people do this that you can all end up on the same frequency.

I'm thinking it might a good idea to buy a couple of pay-as-you-go mobile phones when we're in the States. As anyone ever done this? Does anyone know if you can buy mobiles at "Tesco" prices? (I'm thinking £19.99!)

Cheers

Karen

 

[Pootle]

We have a couple of Tracfones (www.tracfone.com) after reading good reports on here. They cost $19.99 each from Wal-Mart and came complete with a few units of air time (not much). We bought top-up cards - minimum value of 60 airtime units, valid for 60 days. They are currently also $19.99 each.

To send a text message, even to the UK uses 0.3 units. Making calls costs more, and your units are used for receiving as well as for making calls. We've used them all over the USA and found them very useful.

Hope this helps.

 

[SammieG]

yes you can. I bought a virgin K9 phone for $45 - we use it a lot in the USA.
Have a look at how the tarrifs work, and how often you have to recharge them, and the amount that you have to put on as a minimum.
We like Virgin as we can top up online and use paypal.

 

[disneycymru]

Karen

When I've seen mobiles in the US they always seemed relatively expensive although you can get the Nokia 6015 for $39.92 at Walmart about £25 inc tax but you have to add the SIM card cost to this. Are you sure the mobile phone you use in the UK cannot be used in the states? £30+ is a lot of call time even if the rates are high although most UK service providers will give you special deals for reduced calls abroad for a small fee. Just a thought as I have used my phone in the US without huge problems or big bills.

Kind Regards

 

[Lizzy Lemon]

Are you sure the mobile phone you use in the UK cannot be used in the states?

I would like to know the answer to this as it would make our lives easier. We want to stay on site without a car so we wouldn't be able to get anywhere to buy one in the USA.

 

[Spook]

We bought a new tri-band phone for our hols in 2004 and didn't get it activated so spent 2 weeks blaming the hurricane for being unable to get a signal

Jan

 

[alisonbestford]

We've just returned and used our tri-band, online O2 account phones over there

No probs at all and, when I received my bill, they haven't charged extra for the texts etc (mine has 500 'free' texts and 50 mins calling time for £19/mth)-they're down as being covered by the plan

The Tracphones I saw in Walmart and Walgreens were $19.99 with 10 'free' mins call time. The cheapest 'top up' card was, I think, $9.99