Temporary mobile phone to use in USA
sibley88
Posts: 65 Forum Member
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Hi All
I am planning to travel to the USA next weekend, and I will need a temporary US phone to allow me to call UK landlines and mobiles.
Using my current iPhone is out of the question thanks to £1.50/minute rates and 50p sms charges.
Does anyone know of any good US prepay packages which would be cheaper or any decent international sim package which offers decent US to UK call charges?
I am planning to travel to the USA next weekend, and I will need a temporary US phone to allow me to call UK landlines and mobiles.
Using my current iPhone is out of the question thanks to £1.50/minute rates and 50p sms charges.
Does anyone know of any good US prepay packages which would be cheaper or any decent international sim package which offers decent US to UK call charges?
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Comments
I used a Toggle Mobile sim card when in New York last month.
Calls in USA and to UK @ 3p per minute. Text messages 9p. Data 15p per Mb. No charge to receive calls. You get a permanent UK number and can add a US number which lasts 30 days.
Some people have reported problems using Toggle, but it worked fine for me. I bought a card for £2.50 from a well known auction site, which gave me £2.50 credit and the chance to check it out. Then topped up on line (£20 minimum, but they give you extra £2 credit - so total cost £22.50, total credit £24.50)
Check out Toggle web site. Card can be used in several countries.
I am not connected to Toggle in any way!
Why don't you get your current provider to unlock your iPhone (many can do it really quickly), and then buy one of those dedicated travel SIMs (Truphone, Holiday Phone), or go into a phone store when you get there and get a PAYG SIM from AT&T or T-Mobile?
That's still likely to be cheaper than buying another phone!
Personally I have a Tru SIM, and that's about 10p for calls, 10p for texts and 20p per MB for data. It's still not super-cheap for data, but it does at least let you use maps or look stuff up on the net when you're out and about. I find it convenient because they give you a phone number, and that's permanently yours for whenever you travel. They're reasonably cheap in the EU as well.
$45 top up got me unlimited data, unlimited texts and loads of minutes. Would very much recommend it we had no issues at all. It runs on AT&T's network.
Good point, but is that live yet?
3p a min to call a UK mobile on Toggle does sound good.
Which provider are you with, and how long have you been with them. Many of them will unlock the phone for free on contract, and you don't have to be at the end of it.
Some only charge £10-20 - again, still cheaper than buying another phone.
Unless your phone was bought SIM free from Apple, you'd need to unlock with any SIM whether it's international or UK. It's usually as simple as filling out a form on their website and then putting another SIM card in.
Not sure, hence the 'I think' might be worth investigating though.:)
It's not. It's just a rumour from a poster on here, albeit one with a good history of pre-release info.
Not official or working yet though.
I am currently with T mobile, have been with them about 4 years. I am on a friends and family discount, which carried over from when I used to work for T mobile retail.
I could try calling them I guess.
Here's the online form: https://explore.ee.co.uk/unlock
I seem to remember someone posting on here that they're not that quick, so worth following up the online request with a phone call!
Yes but Straight Talk gives you unlimited data. I've never heard of Toggle to be honest but Straight Talk is quite popular with Americans as it is sold ok Walmart.
It is part of Lycamobile group, so not necessarily an unknown provider.
They also allow you to port your UK number to them, If you do this it guarantees that you won't have issues with billing like you sometimes get on other smaller UK MVNOs.
It makes it easy to get a SIM before you arrive, though cheap data would be better on a local SIM once you arrive.