Mobile Phone Sims

[djdigitald]

Anyone know where I may be able to buy a US sim card for my Mobile that I will be able to use when I am there next week?

[parrot 2]

dont think you can to be honest. I lived in Orlando last year and tried to do that myself but no luck so just ended up using my English sim and running up a £500 bill in 3 months of just texting !!!

You could purchase a mobile phone out there though from KMart etc.... for about $80 i think but expensive as they pay for all incoming calls and texts !!!!

[Nostromo]

Some of the US mobiles seem to be sealed units with no easy access to the Sim Card. is that a usual thing? I could also not get any local card for my Orange phone in the US.

If you inform your billing company about your travel, they may suggest a tariff that works out the most economical for your calling pattern.

[gromit]

Alternatively we have an account which we prepay and then dial an access code and the calls are really cheap. This works from any phone that allows 1-800 numbers. We do take our mobiles with us but only text or make really urgent calls, but the phone companies do seem to be getting better rates for overseas calls than previously!

[andreah]

We used our UK phone and went to t mobile and paid $25 for a sim to go our uk mobile. we could then get top up cards whenever we needed them.

[rosie]

Same here Andrea.

As long as its an unlocked tri-band phone you can just buy a sim card in the US. We paid just over $130 for the sim card with $50 credit plus 2 $25 top up cards from a T mobile stall at the Florida Mall. Works great too

[KJH]

Hi Andrea,

do you mind telling where it was that it cost $25.00, and was that on pay as you go or a tariff?

Thanks

Kaz

[ellie]

You can certainly use your tri-band phone in the US with a sim card - my daughter is working in Miami at the moment and has done just that - she went to T-mobile and bought a sim card for about $40-$50. However, the one thing that you need to remember is that it will cost you to receive a call as well as to make one, and that does add up.

However, she has also purchased a Metro PCS phone which has no contract, and can be 'topped up over the phone or the internet - they even send you a text to remind you it cost about $40. You get unlimited calls to a local number - at the moment this is only the Miami area, but she thinks they are going to extend this service to other areas. The beauty of it is that you we can phone her for just 2p and she does not pay to receive the call. Although she cannot make international calls on this phone it makes it so much cheaper for her to receive calls. This may be one to watch for the future, in case they decide to operate a similar system in other areas.

[KevinT]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by andreah
We used our UK phone and went to t mobile and paid $25 for a sim to go our uk mobile. we could then get top up cards whenever we needed them.
[/quote]

hi Andrea,
I would also be interested to know about the $25 sim.
I have a UK triband (unlocked) and particularly asked at all of the phone stores and booths I came across in FL.whether you could just buy the sim, and all of them said no because the sims worked only with the contract phone. I do also have an AT&T cellphone which is a "Go"phone and has no contract. AT&T give me a new sim card each time I go as the pay as you go sims only last 60 days if you dont top up payments (the payments also run out after 30 days) so I then only need to buy the top ups. But the Go phones cost around $80 to $100. The other pay as you go phone is the Tracphone. My AT&T sim will transfer into my UK triband but if I do that I cant access GPRS services but can receive and send calls. I know that T mobile have also brought out a pay as you go scheme but when I asked in October, there were also restrictions on sim life and call top ups. When did you get the $25 dollar sim? Does it have a life of more than 60 days?

[djdigitald]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by andreah
We used our UK phone and went to t mobile and paid $25 for a sim to go our uk mobile. we could then get top up cards whenever we needed them.
[/quote]

Would be interested to find out where you got this as well