Hi

We are travelling to the US next month and spending a week in Anaheim. Our mobile phones here in Australia are really really expensive to use in the US so I am wondering what others do when they are over there?

Is it possible to by a pre paid card or something over there and use our phones so that it is cheap to contact each other while there?

We are so used to having a mobile each and using it to find each other or chat throughout the day that we think it will be hard to not have that over there.

What do you do (if you're from Aus) and what do you suggest if you're in the US?

Thanks

Is it possible to by a pre paid card or something over there and use our phones so that it is cheap to contact each other while there?


no, unless something has changed in the past year, you can't use our phones in america with a different chip like we can when heading to the UK. in fact, even the global roaming thing didn't work in america last time we took phones with us - i'm not sure what the difference is but its something big. you can buy relatively cheap phones with a prepaid card but its only worth it if you are going to be there for a while.

First, I'd call your cell phone company and ask them what they suggest.

Second, you can buy a phone card and use it at any public phone. They cost as little as $10 and go up from there depending on the number of minutes you have. The bad part is that you will not have a cell phone but that can also be a good thing. :)

I agree with bassett that you should call your cell company first and see what they can do for you. Be careful though, I know some providers here won't let you change your plan over in the middle of a billing cycle, and then when it does change, you can't change it back. (Thank God I don't have one of those!)

Second, if cell phones are absolutely necessary and you can't work things out with the company, I suggest geting a pre-paid PHONE. You can pick up a couple of these for about $20 each at the 7-11 down the street from DL and they come with a certain number of minutes (120 or so). The phones usually aren't very attractive and definately not the latest thing, but they work.

Think about the amount of time you and DH will really spend talking to each other on the phones in the parks (be brtually honest and even exagerate some because you never know what might come up) and decide from there what the best plan is for the two of you!

Liz :cool:

One option to look at is TracFone, they do have some cheap $20 Nokia phones they are selling at Target and their plans now include free long distance to Australia. You can buy Tracphone services at the Target down the street from Disneyland off Harbor Blvd. Since you are just looking for a cheap option which is prepaid, this might work fine.
http://tracfone.com/

What do you do (if you're from Aus) and what do you suggest if you're in the US?

Thanks

If you're only trying to keep in contact while at the park, you can try the 2-way FRS radios. We used those and could keep in contact with each other anywhere in the park. They're cheap. We could even talk from the hotel to the park when one of us took the kids back for a nap. But if you're going to be more than a few miles away from each other, it won't work for you.

Oh! Walkies! I didn't even think of that! Great idea!

Liz :cool:

Hi

We are travelling to the US next month and spending a week in Anaheim. Our mobile phones here in Australia are really really expensive to use in the US so I am wondering what others do when they are over there?

Is it possible to by a pre paid card or something over there and use our phones so that it is cheap to contact each other while there?

Are your phones world phones (i.e., tri- or quad-band phones)? I ask because the U.S. GSM frequencies in use are 1900 (for the most part) and 850 so if your phones don't support either one of those frequencies, a pre-paid SIM card for use on U.S. GSM mobile phone networks (there are a few but Cingular/AT&T is the largest GSM provider over here) won't do you any good. Also, I am not familiar w/ Australian mobile phone policy so the following is just speculation on my part...but you may need to check whether your phones are provider/subsidy-locked like just about almost every single GSM phone offered by our mobile phone providers over here; such a locked phone would probably prevent the use of a "foreign" SIM card even if your phone is capable of working on our network...in which case you would probably need to obtain a subsidy unlock code from your provider before being able to use such a SIM card.

If you were planning on using your personal mobile phones over here in the U.S. primarily/solely for keeping in touch with your family/group--like Petersgj mentioned, you might be better off just buying some cheap FRS handheld radios.

I was just going to post the same info. We have two providers that use GSM technology: AT&T (formerly Cingular) and T-Mobile. This is the kind of phone that has a chip that you can swap out in the phone -- a SIM card. All the other providers use technology that is imbedded in the phone in a way that there is no chip to change out.

And as was mentioned the US uses different frequencies than the rest of the world does, so need a phone that handles all the frequencies.

In Europe the phone companies doesn't "lock" the phones, here in the US they do, I have no idea what they do in Australia, but you need to find out first. The providers here lock the phones so that they will only work with their own SIM cards -- so a T-Mobile phone will only work with a T-Mobile SIM card. But for about $30 US, you can get your phone unlocked so that it will work with any SIM card.

I personally would look into the SIM cards and use the FRS radios as a backup. The radios are OK, but they are pretty spotty in the park for several reasons: they don't work well when someone is in a building or behind a building and so many people have them that the channels are all jammed up. And you can't leave a message if you don't reach someone. With a cell phone, if you are trying to reach someone who is on a ride, they likely won't hear the call or answer it, but you can leave a message that they get as soon as they get off the ride. With the radio, you have to keep calling until you get an answer.

Edit to add -- I want to mention that SIM cards are not as available here in the US as they are in Europe. Over there, you can pick up prepaid SIM cards all over the place. Because phones are locked here, there isn't much of a market for the cards. I don't know what you are used to in Australia, but if you are going to go the SIM card route, I would buy them over there (online if not in a store) rather than relying on getting them here. Just the opposite advise I would give someone going to Europe.

Hi

We are travelling to the US next month and spending a week in Anaheim. Our mobile phones here in Australia are really really expensive to use in the US so I am wondering what others do when they are over there?

Is it possible to by a pre paid card or something over there and use our phones so that it is cheap to contact each other while there?

We are so used to having a mobile each and using it to find each other or chat throughout the day that we think it will be hard to not have that over there.

What do you do (if you're from Aus) and what do you suggest if you're in the US?

Thanks

We are coming over to DL in April from Australia and we wanted to do exactly the same thing.

My research led me to;

http://travellerspoint.ekit.com/ekit/MobilePurchase/Services

They usually have a US Simcard with Cingular available for US$29 witha $10 credit but it doesn't appear there at the moment. Contact them to find out availability.

The details on the US Cingular Simcard are here;

http://travellerspoint.ekit.com/ekit/MobilePurchase/Service_us_dom

They ship in Australia from Melbourne express post for $7. It was next day delivery.

You must have a tri-band phone and it needs to be unlocked. ie not locked to a single network. ( just try a friends sim card who is with a different network to see if it works).

If you each get one and take the $1 a day option each you can have unlimited mobile to mobile calls.

Obviously I haven't tried them yet but I have the new Simcards OK.

Some car rental companies rent cell phones as well. At least they did a few years ago. Not sure how much they cost but it may be another option for you.

We are bringing two phones with us now - they are unlocked from our network here and ready to use in the US - but I'll need to buy 2 sim cards - any suggestions?

I found this (http://www.telestial.com/sim_bridge.php?COUNTRY_ID=US)site that offers pre-paid SIM cards. I dont know how good of a deal this is or how good the company is that offers the service, but its a start.

I would have mentioned myworldphone.com except they apparently only accept wire transfer payments for international customers; however, they do take PayPal, and I believe PayPal can process Australian payment transactions.

This is a place that I nearly used.

http://www.cellularabroad.com/usppsc.php