Money and Phones

[flyag]

Hi all,
Heading to the States and Canada in a few weeks and the only loose ends are what credit cards should I take to minimise exchange rate and other fees AND what to do about phone coverage and internet access for my iphone and ipad. Any advice greatly appreciated.
PS after days of tearing my hair out trying to sort out a rental car out of Washington DC I found A.F.F. and was introduced to net flights and hey presto saved $400.
Great site

 

[robd]

Credit card - 28 degree mastercard.

 

[Robmn]

Credit card - 28 degree mastercard.

I would have to agree with that - used it for some time now. (Was Wizzard Card) Good exchange rate, no annual fee. Master is accepted everywhere I travel.

 

[Shy180]

Hi all,
Heading to the States and Canada in a few weeks and the only loose ends are what credit cards should I take to minimise exchange rate and other fees AND what to do about phone coverage and internet access for my iphone and ipad. Any advice greatly appreciated.
PS after days of tearing my hair out trying to sort out a rental car out of Washington DC I found A.F.F. and was introduced to net flights and hey presto saved $400.
Great site

28 Degrees and AT&T prepaid sim('s) worked well for us late last year....AT&T were quick, easy and helpful.

 

[robd]

28 Degrees and AT&T prepaid sim('s) worked well for us late last year....AT&T were quick, easy and helpful.

I have both of these (the AT&T sim from last trip, all loaded up and ready to go) and will probably get the Citibank Plus card for cash withdrawals.

 

[Travel Guru]

Where's the easiest place to get ones hands on an AT&T Pre-Paid Sim?

TG

 

[Shy180]

Where's the easiest place to get ones hands on an AT&T Pre-Paid Sim?
TG

Just head to the nearest AT&T store with ID and a credit card, use your hotel as your address.

 

[Travel Guru]

Just head to the nearest AT&T store with ID and a credit card, use your hotel as your address.

Cheers thanks.

TG

 

[robd]

Where's the easiest place to get ones hands on an AT&T Pre-Paid Sim?

TG

I actually bought mine off Ebay before I went to US and activated it on-line, so it was ready to go as soon as I landed.

 

[AVC]

There's pretty much only two providers for tel. AT&T and Verizon.

But go with AT&T, they're the Telstra of the US.

You can even get prepaid SIMs in places like Target.

 

[calroth]

I actually bought mine off Ebay before I went to US and activated it on-line, so it was ready to go as soon as I landed.

We also bought our AT&T prepaid SIMs (GoPhone) off eBay... but found that we couldn't activate it online as it required a US credit card. We charged them up after touching down in the US.

You can even get prepaid SIMs in places like Target.

A handy place for phone recharges is 7-Eleven. They're quite common, and they stock most brands of recharge card and gift card. (Not sure if they have SIM "starter packs" though.)

 

[Robmn]

I haven't bothered about a phone sim, don't make many calls OS. Just use roam to make calls but generally text. Local calls are just local calls, its the incoming calls from Australia which cost the money and if you have another sim in the phone you can't receive them anyway.

 

[calroth]

I haven't bothered about a phone sim, don't make many calls OS. Just use roam to make calls but generally text. Local calls are just local calls, its the incoming calls from Australia which cost the money and if you have another sim in the phone you can't receive them anyway.

Good advice if you have a regular mobile phone.

However if you have a smartphone (or anything with Internet access), you should turn data access off before taking it out of flight mode. And research how much roaming data is likely to cost you. Because this is how some people have ended up with $1000 bills!

 

[dougieboy]

I ordered a sim card via Tru-Phone in April 2011 and received it 3 days later via courier in Brisbane. I chose a new york number, loaded it up conveniently with credit online using their website, and activate and check it was functional before leaving Australia. No problems encountered. It worked on my iphone. It was convenient as i could use this number for companies such as limo-res to confirm arrival times/ if they were running late, to rendevouz with new friends using sms, and google maps when I got a little lost in a foreign city. I still have credit on the account, and you can activate/deactivate without any hassles.

Are you renting a car in DC for any particular reason? I used the metro train/sight seeing bus tours, no problems and very easy. Shuttle bus from reagon national was $12 to Westin on M street, but don't stay there. Enjoy yourself and the museums!

 

[drewbles]

Where's the easiest place to get ones hands on an AT&T Pre-Paid Sim?

TG

Drop me a PM I can help you there

 

[drewbles]

There's pretty much only two providers for tel. AT&T and Verizon.

But go with AT&T, they're the Telstra of the US.

You can even get prepaid SIMs in places like Target.

AT&T
T-Mobile

Verizon are not the company you want to go with as their 4G is not UMTS (which is what most the world is).

There are also many other MVNO's such as Simple Mobile (SIMPLE Mobile | Unlimited Cell Phone Plans) and there's also Sprint (but they're like Verizon).

Keep in mind, using T-Mobile will also limit your options as they use 1700mHz for their 4G, which many handsets do not support.

Suggest the OP looks at the Communication & Internet Thread for further assistance

*edit*

And if anyone is curious as to the MVNO's operating in the USA, here's a small number of them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_mobile_virtual_network_operators (there's a lot more they don't list).

 

[drewbles]

We also bought our AT&T prepaid SIMs (GoPhone) off eBay... but found that we couldn't activate it online as it required a US credit card. We charged them up after touching down in the US.

You can use AU credit cards via http://www.paygonline.com (the AT&T recharge portal). You just need to format the address and use the right suburb (I only just added credit to mine, and used my AU credit card to do it).

One thing with the AT&T plans now though, is that if you say you have a smart phone, they get narky with data, so say nothing

Also, you can no longer add a data pack to their 10c/minute or $2/day plans. You now need to either pay $25/month and add a data pack, or pay $50 a month which gives you unlimited calls/text and 1gb of data. It's rather annoying. The $50 ends up being your best option if you plan on using more than 200mb (200mb is $15 and then your $25/month, so $40).

 

[flyag]

Rental car in DC as we are then driving into PA, WV, and OH to visit friends and then up to Oshkosh WI. We are using the Bolt Bus from NY TO DC $18 for two and public transport for in DC. Simple mobile's $ 40 pre paid seems ok too. Im guessing the unlimited data will be useful for using my iphone or ipad as a GPS.

 

[Travel Guru]

Can't PM you Drewbles, you've exceeded your quota.

TG

 

[auriga]

If I buy something like this NEW AT&T ATT SIM CARD GO PHONE (PRE-PAID) 3G | eBay
then can I just activate it online? And then go to https://www.paygonline.com/websc/index.jsp and put in some credit? Is there a minimum amount of credit that needs to be added?

Thanks!