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Cheap pay-as-you-go US phone carrier

S

smaggs

Newbie
My family is going to be doing a lot of travelling down to the states this year (from Canada) and we don't use phones for their actual purpose a huge amount but still need one to use so that we don't get charged to s**t by our Canadian providers roaming bills. Up here there are couple carriers which are pretty dominant with the cheaper pay-as-you-go plans for people that don't really need phone so I was wondering if there are any equivalents in the states? Will be frequenting San Fran and NYC and really just need the cheapest phone that will work for making calls when needed.

I've tried searching but there's just so many providers, it's time consuming to compare them all, so was hoping that just from your guys general knowledge there is someone (or a couple) that dominates this field.

Thanks in advance
 
"Straight Talk" from Walmart. $45 a month for unlimited with no contract. Just buy a card and it's good for 30 days. Or they have 1000 minute cards too for $30. Phones are anywhere from $39-100+
 
Great stuff. Thanks. Do you know if there is there anything without all the bells and whistles? We really just need minimal talk time for short, say 10 day, trips
 
Take a look at T-Mobile's prepaid plans. I gave an elderly relative a prepaid cell phone for Xmas and it cost me around $30 at Walmart with 10 min of talk time included. If you already have an unlocked GSM phone, you can just buy a SIM card for $10 which also includes 10 min to start. Refill cards are as follows: $10 = 30 min, $30 = 160 min, $50 = 400 min, and $100 = 1000 min. The credit lasts 90 days except for the $100 refill option which is good for 1 year. If you need data, you can buy a day pass for $1.49 but your phone needs to have T-Mobile compatible (1700/2100 MHz) hspa frequencies in order to get 3G speeds.
 
NunyaBidnez said:
Take a look at T-Mobile's prepaid plans. I gave an elderly relative a prepaid cell phone for Xmas and it cost me around $30 at Walmart with 10 min of talk time included. If you already have an unlocked GSM phone, you can just buy a SIM card for $10 which also includes 10 min to start. Refill cards are as follows: $10 = 30 min, $30 = 160 min, $50 = 400 min, and $100 = 1000 min. The credit lasts 90 days except for the $100 refill option which is good for 1 year. If you need data, you can buy a day pass for $1.49 but your phone needs to have T-Mobile compatible (1700/2100 MHz) hspa frequencies in order to get 3G speeds.
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Those sound more like the size plans we need. Thanks for the help guys
 
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