02 use in New York

albionrovers

Hi

My daughter is on £15/month PAYG 02 Simplicity. What do I need to get her for a trip to New York to let her txt/facebook pals at home - apart from topping up a grand?

Also what about us as a family of 4 communicating over there? Currently have an 02 £7.50 bolt-on which lets us communicate as a family for free.

Replies appreciated.

Jon_01

If your phones are unlocked then getting sims over there is the cheapest way of keeping in contact with each other. You can pick them up in drug stores or chains like Walmart or Target.

Some have data but you'd need to check on the pack before you buy, it is more expensive over there.

Each sim is $10 inc credit (but you pay to receive calls as well as make them over there so the credit won't last as long as it would here).

Wintermute

It's going to be a bit of an expesive one to be honest, but I've got an idea that might help, I'm assuming you're an O2 pay monthly customer as you mentioned the £7.50 family bolt on.

As Jon 01 says the best idea would be to pick up a PAYG SIM over there, but on your account[/b[ take out the international favourites bolt-on. This bolt on is £10 a month and it'll give you 3000 minutes to call 3 numbers in certain countries, US mobile numbers included and it'll also allow you to setup a local "call me" number in the states, so your daugter can call you for a price of a local call. I'd set this up before she goes, give her the "call me" number, tell her to call you when she picks up a PAYG SIM and then you can add that number to the international favourites bolt-on so you can call her using your 3000 minute allowance and she can call you at the price of a local call.

With her US SIM she'll hopefully have some sort of 3G access so she'll at least be able to keep in contact with her friends via facebook, but texting's going to still end up quite expensive, but not as expensive as anything involving her using her mobile number or SIM over there.

Hope this is some help.

nsabournemouth

Why does she want to keep up with friends via facebook? If she has to then a WIFI connection so she can tell everyone what she had for dinner.

albionrovers

nsabournemouth wrote: »

Why does she want to keep up with friends via facebook? If she has to then a WIFI connection so she can tell everyone what she had for dinner.

Because she's 12, a bit like you.

Thanks to others, very useful.

4$£&*(£$&*(!

albionrovers wrote: »

Because she's 12, a bit like you.

Thanks to others, very useful.

I agree with nsabournemouth, if she wants to use Facebook then go to an internet cafe or use Wi-Fi when it's available, otherwise stay off it. Roaming data usually costs more than international calls or texts and isn't essential.

If instead you want to resort to calling other FM's then fine, you pick up the bill when it comes back.

spannerzone

Either get a PAYG phone when over there or use wifi if the phone has it - many places give out free wifi so could be the cheapest / free option. Do be careful of super costly data / roaming charges when abroad!

When I was in the US recently, I made changes to my phone's setup so it could not make any data connection whatsoever to make sure my smart phone didn't do some daft update and cost me £500 !