Phone in the US for a Month?

[bsi]

I will be going to the US for about a month soon. Florida area. If I do nothing, my Rogers phone uses Cingular as the service. My bills skyrocket.

I am toying with buying a throwaway phone down there. I will probably use about 100-200 minutes, half of which would be calls back here to Canada.

Will this approach cost me more than just eating the upcharge from Cingular/Rogers?

 

[Meister]

I'm not sure if it is cheaper, but you could get a pay-as-you-go cingular phone for 20-30 dollars and then pay .15 cents a minute for Canada calls. That's what I do, but I also visit the US at least once a month.

 

[ig-88]

Go to any Wal-Mart and pick up a Tracfone.

http://www.tracfone.com/home_page.jsp

You can usually get a phone for $20.

You can also get an airtime card for 60 minutes (units) for $20.

 

[21pro]

the tracfones are nice... especially if you buy it in the USA

i used to use a calling card to call to Canada from the u.s.a. and receive calls on my cell phone w/ a N.A. package... surprisingly, it was much cheaper before.

now i just use tracfone.

 

[Larry_Fyne]

Pizza Hut in the US is giving away the Chocolate phone (is it LG? Can't remember) when you buy a pizza.

 

[registrar1]

The pizza isn't the deal killer ... it's a 2-year plan that you have to sign-up for with Verizon. Not sure if a Chocolate (LG) is worth a 2-year plan.

 

[registrar1]

I second fsg's recommendation. That being said you need to look at the price differential between your current plan and a 'Digital One Rate' from Rogers. It's $85 for 250+50 minutes (in either direction). You can switch to a plan for a month and then switch back. The only other caveat off-hand is that the 'Digital One Rate' might mess up any sharing you have setup on your current account/plan.

 

[Craps7]

I did a quick scan of the larger prepaid providers in the US, Sprint, Cingular, Virgin etc. All but TracPhone charge additional $'s for calls to Canada. If a lot of your calls will be back to CA then only look at TracPhone or adding Digital One rate to your existing plan.

If most of your calls will be within the US 48 there are couple of carriers that provide unlimited service for a fixed price. MetroPCS is one with a lot of FL covered.

 

[drrogers]

I use Cingular prepaid in the US on my Quad Band V3. $40 gets me a local US # sim card, with $10 airtime. Calls anywhere in US are .10 and to Canada .25 Incoming from Canada is at .10 I buy additional time usually in $10, $15 or $25 blocks as I need. Works out good for me. But I will certainly look into TracPhone on the next trip - it might work out better. The Rogers US airtime charges are ridiculous - what suckers we are to use it and not take advantage of one of the US carrier plans. The other advantage to Cingular is it is good to use in a lot of the Carribbean which works for me as well.

 

[euripides]

Try Cellular one. I buy 750 minutes for $100U.S. Calss to canada are a little more per minute. They let you know when the time is almost up and you can add more.

 

[bsi]

Thanks for all the advice. It looks like switching to Digital One for a month will only cost me about $40 more than I pay now and I keep using the phone I already know.

However, that Tracfone looks like a great alternative and I will check it out when i am down there.

You guys are great!