pay as you go mobile phones

**ianconway** · 19-04-2006, 19:52

I'm interested in getting US pay as you go sim cards for my next trip, to use in my old tri-band mobiles.

Can anyone tell which is the best company to buy them from?

I've looked online, but every company i found seems to disconnect you if you don't top up after 28 days. I also found they charge you for incomming and outgoing calls.

Help anyone...

**blott** · 19-04-2006, 19:59

I think you'll find all US mobile companies charge for both outgoing and incoming calls. Unfortunately, it's the way it works there.

Certainly Tracfone have an annual PAYG plan. Did you try looking at Virgin?

**pieman790** · 19-04-2006, 20:27

We have an american Pay as you go and like Blott said you pay for out going and incomming calls and the credit only lasts for a short period of time. The credit is per unit and not per second so as soon as you make/receive a call its one unit.
They do not have sim cards in America and you have to buy the complete phone but having said that you can pick up a Nokia "Brick" type phone for about $40 with $10 worth of credit on it.
We use our British phone as a back up now as the option was working out too expensive and text as much as possible as it can work out at approx £1.20 per min for a call.

**DaveL** · 19-04-2006, 20:39

You can buy a pay-as-you-go SIM card for your 'unlocked' Tri-band phone from any T-Mobile shop or one of their carts in the malls. The cards are about $35 and the value you put on determines how long it will stay valid.

A $10 top-up card lasts 30 days and anything above $25 lasts 90 days. Once you have spent $100 on top-ups then anything you have on the phone and any cards you buy in the future last for a full year.

Hope this helps you decide what would be best for your own usage. Before you buy a Tracfone check out what some of the user Tracfone web sites say about them. You may want to enter the phrase 'tracfone sucks' into your favourite search engine

Dave

**DiannaUK** · 19-04-2006, 22:00

We bought Virgin pay as you go phones in the US which we use whilst over there. About $30 each from Target if my memory serves me well.

You can top them up on line from the UK to keep them active and you only have to top up every 90 days with a minimum of $20.

We visit regularly though so this may be more worthwhile for us as opposed to someone who only visits infrequently - not sure which category you might fit into.

Dianna

**KevinT** · 20-04-2006, 00:14

Ian,

About 3 years ago I bought an AT&T (now Cingular) Go phone which is a low cost complete cellphone /sim card package. Once bought, you just paid for some time to be credited whenever you needed it. The sim card did expire if not topped up after 45 days, but each time I visited, I just took the phone back to a AT &T(Cingular)shop and they put a new sim card in for nothing, so I just bought more time. (Only downside was a new cellphone number each visit)

I now use the same system as DaveL (T-Mobile USA sim card in my UK unlocked triband Samsung)
and have exceeded the $100 topup point so my sim card lasts for a full year. I can top up fom the UK by phone easily and find it very convenient. As we approach MCO or Sanford I just change the sim in my phone and the US sim is active from the minute we land.