Roaming USA

Talent

Hi, we've just spent a month travelling the USA. The cheapest way we found to keep in touch was to buy a USA Virgin mobile for $9.99 and a $20 topup. We got it from BestBuy. Used sparingly for quick messages it will last a month. However, you must be aware that with pay-as-you-go in the States you pay to receive calls (local and foreign) as well as outgoing calls, so don't chat!! Most hotel and motel have free wifi and it was easy to text someone on the mobile to say when you could Skype on the laptop.... simples.... as Mr Meerkat puts it. Don't assume the motel wifi is working though, we got caught out once with a lame, "Sorry, we're waiting for a repair". So try to connect from the carpark first!

amf

We will be on hols in USA for a month this summer and we will be buying a Net 10 phone with 300 domestic USA minutes. It costs $30 from Walmart or Target. You can set it up for calls to UK landlines - it takes 48 hours - and the cost is 1.5 times the domestic call charge of 10c per minute.

mrcamp

You can also use yoor phone if it's unlocked and has the USA bands. Then you can get a tmobile or AT&T prepaid sim cards from one of the so many stores around. I agree that free Wifi is available in just about all the hotels, so that can also come in handy.

True, we pay to receive calls, however callers do not pay extra for calling a US mobile. We do not differentiate between mobiles and landlines. It's called RPP receiving party pays. Vs CPP (Calling Party Pays) , where incoming calls are free, but the caller pays heavily for calling a mobile.