Buying a Sim thats works in America for my English phone, any help?

tikiwagon

Hi we going to the states soon and want to use our mobile to call friends out there(cell and land lines). What is best to do as we took our 02 phone out before and got charged a fortune. Is it better 1) to buy a sim card out there(are the same as ours?)and put it in our phone,2)buy a cheap phone out there or 3) just take ours?Can we just go into shop out there and buy a sim that will only last for a couple of weeks? or buy one over here before we go?
Thanks

Jon_01

A Three payg sim in a smart phone. £15 top up for unlimited data. Install Skype (which is giving a months free worldwide calling at the moment) and you're good.

kingrulzuk

tikiwagon wrote: »

Hi we going to the states soon and want to use our mobile to call friends out there(cell and land lines). What is best to do as we took our 02 phone out before and got charged a fortune. Is it better 1) to buy a sim card out there(are the same as ours?)and put it in our phone,2)buy a cheap phone out there or 3) just take ours?Can we just go into shop out there and buy a sim that will only last for a couple of weeks? or buy one over here before we go?
Thanks

If u looking for just calls and text then get a cheap PAYG unlocked phone and when in USA buy a LYCA sim card. Get a 23$ unlimited calls and text plan which gives some Data. Its also free to call uk with a Lyca
to Lyca calls: http://www.lycamobile.us/en/

mrcamp

You can walk into walmart, target, bestbuy, etc. and get a sim card from tmobile/AT&T, or any of the other MVNO. Assuming your phone is unlocked. If not, just buy a sim/phone combination at any of the stores above. You can even walk into an tmobile store and get a free sim. As long as you buy topup credit. The USA does not differentiate between mobiles and land lines. So, it costs the same to call either.

grumbler

kingrulzuk wrote: »

If u looking for just calls and text then get a cheap PAYG unlocked phone and when in USA buy a LYCA sim card. Get a 23$ unlimited calls and text plan which gives some Data. Its also free to call uk with a Lyca
to Lyca calls: http://www.lycamobile.us/en/

Some sheap UK phones can be two-band, not tri-band, and hence not work in USA.

macman

Make and model of your handset?

Roger1

Consider Togglemobile. Calls to and within USA (and a dozen other countries) for 3p/minute when using a local number. No charge for receiving calls. See togglemobile.co.uk for details.

Doing this will also give you a US number in advance of your trip.

Three's Feel at Home is good for data and calls to the UK. Local US calls would be at roaming rates (15.5p/minute, I think).

grumbler

Roger1 wrote: »

...Three's Feel at Home is good for data and calls to the UK. Local US calls would be at roaming rates (15.5p/minute, I think)....

...unless you use some UK geographical access number for calling to US in which case it can be as little as 0.5-1p/min with 4-5p connection fee.

javahart

You can actually use TUGO (an O2 app) which lets you make calls over Wifi and uses your bundled minutes. If you don't have access to wifi all the time, try using one of the MiFi units with global data. Companies like "cellular UK" provide "data abroad" on post or prepay basis.