Can any Americans help me?

[killkylie]

Hi,

I'm coming over to LA for a month from Ireland this summer and thought it would be better to get an American SIM card for my phone rather than pay massive amounts to use my own. I've a tri-band phone so its no problem.

But i've no idea how it works with you guys. I'd just want a Pay-As-You-Talk SIM. How would i get this cheaply? And how do i top it up with money? And how much appox would calls cost within America?

Remember i'm Irish so you need to explain every wee detail to me. Thanks to any1 who can help me.

Richard

[mundets]

Alrighty...so you wanna have a prepaid phone in the LA area...
A good service provider you could use would be T-Mobile. Visit their website for more info:
http://www.t-mobile.com/prepaid/overview.asp

[killkylie]

Thanks for replying. Do you top-up phones the same way we do here? You just go into (almost any) shop and buy a voucher and then ring a number on your phone and input the voucher number?

[gangstar]

No one buys top up vouchers here in the Uk any more. Nearly everyone use the swipe cards. Much easier and quicker.

[cdover]

Originally posted by killkylie
Thanks for replying. Do you top-up phones the same way we do here? You just go into (almost any) shop and buy a voucher and then ring a number on your phone and input the voucher number?

Yes. But only when I'm in the Phil. and don't want to spend LOADS on international sms' and calls.

[mpressive]

Hey, interesting topic... I was wondering the same.

Question to the Americans: Do you have any pay-as-you-go networks like our Virgin network?

To ellaborate, over here, walk into any v.Store, pick up a SIM card for £10 (which includes £5 worth of calls) and thats it, away you go.

No other costs, no registration required, no activation code, just a sim card with a number. Easy to top-up with vouchers that can be purchased practically everywhere.

Same question to any Canadians out there in the Toronto area.

[ariss]

the person that posted the information about the tmobile prepay sim card forgot to mention one very imporatant thing.

Im not too sure how it is in california but i live in ohio and over here one can NOT buy a pre pay sim card by itself (tmobile or any other provider). Tmobile has the "easy speak" and AT&T has the "go phones". So since the providers throughout the united states are the same I highly doubt that you will be able to purchase the sim card individually in california.
however if you do decide on buying the "package" they will generally run around $80 depending on waht phone you decide on buying. keep in mind though that after you buy the "package" the sim card will work on the phone that you use in ireland so you can just go ahead and buy the cheapest phone.
hope i helped

[mundets]

Ah yes...I forgot about that...
You can't just buy a SIM card...you gotta buy the package...
It comes with the phone and the SIM, and the packages range about $150 on up
And you can buy more credits at most major establishments (7-11, Eckerd Drug, etc...)

[rhedgehog]

I beg to differ! Have a look at Expansys.com

try this link http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=111495

T-mobile USA easy speak SIM with 120 minutes already on it. No package, just the SIM

£34.95, which works out about $60. I'm off to Florida in June and I've ordered me one of these for exactly the same reason!

[killkylie]

Please people stop trying to confuse me ;) Can i buy just a PAYG SIM-card in the US and then top it up whenever i want? Not a phone or a contract or anything. Just a SIM and then i can top-up.

[rhedgehog]

please excuse me being ****ty, but I have to explain all this sort of stuff at work countless times a day! You get kinda P***ed off with it after a while (about 5 minutes!)

1:- Easy Speak is the name of the T-Mobile USA PAYG service.

2:- you CAN NOT buy just a PAYG SIM in the USA, You must buy a phone as well.

3:- You CAN buy the PAYG SIM on its own on the following link

http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=111495

4:- It comes with 120 minutes of credit already on it.

5:- when you have used the 120 minutes already on the card, you can top up from most major shop chains

simple when you talk in monosyllables huh?

[killkylie]

Thank you very much. That's exactly what i needed to know. Remember i'm Irish. Not too smart. I needed it spelt out to me. Thanks.

[rhedgehog]

S'ok, It's just that i work in a call centre for most of the phone companies in the UK and i have to be polite then, so i tend to take out some of my anger in various forums on the web.

No offence meant.

just working out some of my anger to save the small furry things around where i live:D

[mpressive]

sweeeeeeet. Thats the US leg of my trip sorted, can anyone help out with the Canadian side? Toronto area.

Looking for a prepay sim same as the one available from expansys but works in canada.

cheers.

[gangstar]

Do you guys in america buy talk time like 100 mins for 10 dollars or soor do you buy 10 dollars worth of calling credit in which you pay say 30 cents a minute on calls and 10 cents on a sms?

In the UK, only 3 (the 3G provider) use the first method all the others use the latter.

[Michael]

Originally posted by gangstar
Do you guys in america buy talk time like 100 mins for 10 dollars or soor do you buy 10 dollars worth of calling credit in which you pay say 30 cents a minute on calls and 10 cents on a sms? In general we pay fixed monthly fees for an allotment of minutes and SMS messages, depending on options chosen in the plan.

For example: $40/mo for 1000 minutes of talk time with unlimited nights (after 9pm) and weekends.

Often SMS messages are billed per message, but if you buy a data plan you might get some number of them "free". I get 500 a month due to my GPRS data plan, for example.