Traveling to the US; SIM Card for Cell Phone

[meierjn]

Good afternoon... My wife and I will be traveling to the Pheonix area in the next couple of weeks (for a couple of weeks) from our home in Canada. Our cellular provider doesn't offer and decent roaming options anymore. I am "tossing around" the idea of picking up a SIM for my wife's phone when we get down there to avoid the costly roaming charges. I've never done this before, so I have a few questions:

What are some of the cellular providers in the area that everyone recommends?

We would have to be able to text back and forth to Canada... Do the SIMS that can be purchased allow you to do that?

What are some of the issues with using another SIM? I know that we will be issues a local phone number so messaging apps like WhatsApp will not work the same, but what are some of the other issues we may experience?

Thanks in advance!

 

[SeilerBird]

Go to Walmart and buy a cheap burner phone.

 

[jackiemac]

Hi

Some of the snowbird might have good answers.

You can get a prepaid sim which will possibly allow calls and texts back to Canada. You can get these in a Walmart. There will be different offerings.

Hopefully a local can confirm best provider.

A few things to check

1 that it covers Canada
2 that it is activated quickly- I remember getting one that took a few
days which was a pain.
3 that your phone is compatible

This is a link to Walmart I've double checked despite it saying Robot or Human

SIM Cards in Cell Phones - Walmart.com

Shop for SIM Cards in Cell Phones. Buy products such as Straight Talk Keep Your Own Phone SIM Kit, No Airtime - Prepaid at Walmart and save.

www.walmart.com

It's a bit of a minefield these days so have a good look at the information.

One other option, if you have newer phones, is to use what is called an E-sim. This allows you to use your current phone but gives you a virtual new phone number. I saw one on the Walmart site called H20. There is also an app called Nomad that sells them too. You must have a compatible phone.

If you need more info please ask.

 

[Isaac-1]

Consider a cheap prepaid "burner" phone from either Visible (Verizon prepaid subsidiary) or Cricket (AT&T prepaid subsidiary) there is also "AT&T" Prepaid which is the same as Cricket prices, but sold in only certain stores. Most of the others are 3rd party plans. Cricket is pre-paid.

The big advantage of Visible is that you can use the phone as a wifi hotspot for your other devices.

If you just need basic talk / text and cheap $.01 per minute international calling and not much data Trac Fone is still hard to beat, and sold in most Walmart and Dollar General stores, basic android phone is about $30-40, phone cards with X minutes / days are sold there too, 30 day unlimited talk/text plus 2GB data is $20 for Tracfone.

 

[jackiemac]

Visible didn't show 5g. Not sure if that's an issue though.

 

[PerroSucio]

Fellow Canadian here. I’ve had a US AT&T sim in my phone for the last 5 years, because Canadian cell service providers still want to charge long distance, and ridiculous roaming charges. I pay $40. US a month for unlimited free calling anywhere in North America including México. Unlimited free picture and word text, and 15 gigs of high speed Internet. Find your first AT&T store when you cross and pick up a SIM card. My wife is on my account with her identical plan and pays $30.00/ month.

 

[jackiemac]

An alternative is if you have Starlink - the RV version would allow you to use it for WhatsApp etc. whilst parked.

 

[meierjn]

Fellow Canadian here. I’ve had a US AT&T sim in my phone for the last 5 years, because Canadian cell service providers still want to charge long distance, and ridiculous roaming charges. I pay $40. US a month for unlimited free calling anywhere in North America including México. Unlimited free picture and word text, and 15 gigs of high speed Internet. Find your first AT&T store when you cross and pick up a SIM card. My wife is on my account with her identical plan and pays $30.00/ month.

Thats a pretty good plan. I wonder if a person can just get it for a limited time, like a month?

 

[TonyL]

Fellow Canadian here. I’ve had a US AT&T sim in my phone for the last 5 years, because Canadian cell service providers still want to charge long distance, and ridiculous roaming charges. I pay $40. US a month for unlimited free calling anywhere in North America including México. Unlimited free picture and word text, and 15 gigs of high speed Internet. Find your first AT&T store when you cross and pick up a SIM card. My wife is on my account with her identical plan and pays $30.00/ month.

We have the prepaid plan, not bad coverage but customer service is non existent.

 

[jackiemac]

Thats a pretty good plan. I wonder if a person can just get it for a limited time, like a month?

Yes you can. Just end the contract.

 

[PerroSucio]

Yes you can. Just end the contract.

There is no contract, you simply stop paying.