American Sim Cards for only $10

kalrizienne

Hey All you MSE-ers

If your off to the states for your holiday this year and have a Tri or Quad band phone, then you could save yourself a mint by getting an american PAYG sim card.

For 10 bucks you can get yourself a beyond wirless sim card that includes 36 mins of free calls.
By using the sim you wont have to pay any international roaming charges which can be as much as £1.50 per minute on some networks.

You can also but additional vouchers online or in the stores.

A couple of things that you need to remember is that your phone needs to be unlocked so you can use the sims nd that in america you pay for receiving calls about 9c per minute as well as making calls.

And by using one of the cheap call services such as http://www.call18185.co.uk/ your friend s an family could call you in the USA and you dont pay international charges.

Here's the link for you all:

http://beyondwirelessgsm.com/product_info.php?products_id=70

Horlock

very nice idea - would definately be up for that if I were going to the US

chachiluz

does anyone know if there is a similer one for Spain?

M_Thomson

This product is for US residents only. It says online they do not accept international orders.

dinglebert

This seems interesting. There is also an international unlimited dialing card. It seems that if you combine the sim and the card you would be able to make phone calls back to blightly from the USA at the same cost as dialing locally. This seems to infer that for the $22 you will get 36 minutes in phone calls from the mobile back to the UK. After this you get 30 minutes for every $10 if you buy topup cards in US or 36 minutes if you prebuy. There are also lower charges if you spend more money in a oner eg 204 minutes for $34.

I'm also now a bit confused. I presume Beyond GSM will get good coverage in the likes of New York. They also state that

NOTE: Your handset must operate on GSM frequencies 850 and 1900 in dual, tri, or quad modes.
I did a quick check on mine a v220 and it seems to operate on Tri-band GSM 900/1800/1900 does this mean that because I don't have 850 it won't work or does it mean because I do have 1900 it will work?

So is this value well my current O2 tarrif would make me pay 90p per minute to phone home from NY. Therefore if I covert the $22 to being around £12 then on O2 I would get just over 13 minutes for my money instead of 36.

Sorry I was working this out as I typed. This card seems really good value for money. Wonder if its the only one or if the rivals also do something like this?

Browntoa

you can get the same by buying a PAYG Virgin USA sim

M_Thomson

dinglebert wrote:

This seems interesting. There is also an international unlimited dialing card. It seems that if you combine the sim and the card you would be able to make phone calls back to blightly from the USA at the same cost as dialing locally. This seems to infer that for the $22 you will get 36 minutes in phone calls from the mobile back to the UK. After this you get 30 minutes for every $10 if you buy topup cards in US or 36 minutes if you prebuy. There are also lower charges if you spend more money in a oner eg 204 minutes for $34.

I'm also now a bit confused. I presume Beyond GSM will get good coverage in the likes of New York. They also state that

NOTE: Your handset must operate on GSM frequencies 850 and 1900 in dual, tri, or quad modes.
I did a quick check on mine a v220 and it seems to operate on Tri-band GSM 900/1800/1900 does this mean that because I don't have 850 it won't work or does it mean because I do have 1900 it will work?

So is this value well my current O2 tarrif would make me pay 90p per minute to phone home from NY. Therefore if I covert the $22 to being around £12 then on O2 I would get just over 13 minutes for my money instead of 36.

Sorry I was working this out as I typed. This card seems really good value for money. Wonder if its the only one or if the rivals also do something like this?

You can't order the card above if you live outside of the US.

dinglebert

M_Thomson wrote:

You can't order the card above if you live outside of the US.

I know it took me so long to compose my message that by the time I had finished you had posted before me!

kalrizienne

i took delivery of my two sim card yesterday.

after contacting Beyond CS you choose the state as alabama (as there isnt a non-US state option) but you can chosse the country for delivery.

Also choose the regular US Postage charges think mine was $8 for two sims and hey preston they came in 3 days via UPS

redux

Info on US GSM SIMs including virtual operators on
http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/usa.html

note that other networks, including Sprint Verizon and Virgin, use CDMA phones which are not available here

I might choose BeyondWireless myself, and it is interesting to hear confirmation of what they told me about shipping abroad

There are also said to be plenty of T-mobile and Cingular SIMs on eBay

Rather than the unlimited int'l calls option, a Bizon or other calling card with 2c per minute calls (on top of the normal SIM cost) might be more worthwhile.

For people on O2 contract, get an 0844 number from Cheapercallrate that forwards to the US number, then divert incoming O2 calls to the 0844 number from inclusive minutes. From UK landlines the 0844 is 2p per minute, or people can use 18185 etc to call you.