Best place to buy mobile phones?

[Margaret]

Hi can't sleep so thought I would post this ...... 20 days to our holiday now and I need some advice. We want to purchase some cheap mobile phones to use while we're on holiday so we can stay in touch. Is Walmart the best place to get them from? I bought some from there about 5 years ago and was able to order them online beforehand so they were at the shop ready for us. I brought them home with us and remember putting them somewhere "safe" but can't find them now lol. We are staying on Indian Creek
So excited

[steph_goodrum]

Margaret
Bit of a long shot I know but are youu and/or any of your family on the 3 network at home? If so the plan you use at home allows youu to usethe same number of minutes,text and date in 16 Countries (one of which is the US) just as if you were at home with no roaming charges or charges to receive calls? Works really well, my daughter and sil have just spent a few weeks over there and we and they were able to use their normal numbers to make and receive calls freely and chat without worrying about the cost.

Failing that Walmar usually has a good selelction of cheap phones often with double minute bundles etc.

If not

[msmiff]

Batteries on 5 year old 'phones if not used or charged will be pretty well dead anyway !!!
Walmart best place for "cheapies"....

[SDJ]

Margaret
Bit of a long shot I know but are youu and/or any of your family on the 3 network at home? If so the plan you use at home allows youu to usethe same number of minutes,text and date in 16 Countries (one of which is the US) just as if you were at home with no roaming charges or charges to receive calls? Works really well, my daughter and sil have just spent a few weeks over there and we and they were able to use their normal numbers to make and receive calls freely and chat without worrying about the cost.

Failing that Walmar usually has a good selelction of cheap phones often with double minute bundles etc.

If not

Margaret, the same applies if you are with BT. Whatever your home BT service includes, it will be the same in US. We are signed up for the US monthly line service which is next to nothing (£1 or £2 extra monthly) so we get free calls from our mobiles to UK whilst in US. We also have the Virgin Cell phones over in US which we have had for years and we top up every couple of months. We got them in Target.

Also, if you can get all the family or whoever is going with you to download the Whatsapp, you can message each other at the parks or anywhere that has wifi.

[Margaret]

Thanks for all the advice, none of us are on the 3 network or use BT unfortunately. Think I'll start looking on the WalMart site

[steph_goodrum]

Margaret, the same applies if you are with BT. Whatever your home BT service includes, it will be the same in US. We are signed up for the US monthly line service which is next to nothing (£1 or £2 extra monthly) so we get free calls from our mobiles to UK whilst in US. We also have the Virgin Cell phones over in US which we have had for years and we top up every couple of months. We got them in Target.

Also, if you can get all the family or whoever is going with you to download the Whatsapp, you can message each other at the parks or anywhere that has wifi.

Sandra
Can you tell me how that works please? We have our homephone with BT and pay £5 per month for international calls (600 mins) but if we call UK mobiles even in this Counry we have to pay for them (are your mobiles on O2?) Just thinking about our best options when our mobile contracts are due to be renewed in Sept.

[Tony G]

I'd agree with everyone who said Walmart is the best place to get cheap phones. They have a plethora of them!

I'm switching to the Three network, just so I can take advantage of their 'feel at home' service.

[Andrena]

Vote for Walmart too. The girl in the store set them up for us in minutes.

Andrena

[SDJ]

Sandra
Can you tell me how that works please? We have our homephone with BT and pay £5 per month for international calls (600 mins) but if we call UK mobiles even in this Counry we have to pay for them (are your mobiles on O2?) Just thinking about our best options when our mobile contracts are due to be renewed in Sept.

We also pay for calling mobile phones in the UK whilst in the UK. We pay (not sure of the amount) to BT for USA calls (not sure but a couple of £'s) from our landline in UK to US. Our UK mobiles contract is with Vodafone, but we can download the BT App which we have on our i-phone, log in, a screen comes up and we dial any UK numbers. That would not have worked for Margaret actually, as she is wishing to phone others in her party in the US. Silly me. However, the WhatsApp would have worked for her if her party members download it.

We have Tel3 Advantage in the villa, but if we are out and about and wish to call our home phone to collect messages, or speak with our family, we don't pay anything at all with the BT App and our Contract. Hope that explains it!! It has nothing to do with your mobile contract it is the BT contract that you make the calls from.

[steph_goodrum]

I think so, thanks Sandra, we neither of us have smartphones currently but that may change. I was heading towardschanging to 3 but will look at this option first. My hubby is worse at technology than me so 3 may be easier so he knows he can just call and we have some mobile phones with plenty of credit we can use for local/USA calls.