Buy sim card in the US ?

redout

Does anyone know if you can buy a sim card whilst in the US for say Verizon just like you can here instead buying an actual phone. I asked when I was there about a year ago and the guy in the shop looked at me like I had two heads! I really dont want to purchase another phone just to obtain a sim.

Thanks


EDIT: Also heard a rumour they dont use sim cards!

acer aspire

Parts of the Usa / China and Africa use a network called the Quad band network as apposed to rest of europe on Dual & Tri band.

So before you Jet Off make take a look at your Phone specs and see what freq band it is capable of using. If you want to let me know your make and model number I will check it for you

redout

acer aspire wrote: »

Parts of the Usa / China and Africa use a network called the Quad band network as apposed to rest of europe on Dual & Tri band.

So before you Jet Off make take a look at your Phone specs and see what freq band it is capable of using. If you want to let me know your make and model number I will check it for you

Thanks but that is not the information I am looking for.

Sam Vimes

Some of the networks don't use sim cards, they're called CDMA networks. My gf got a sim card over there from t-mobile. I think it costs $100 but you get a lot of credit with it, or minutes as they call it

h57xiucj2z946q

When I was in Arizona, I got a T-mobile SIM card for $10 dollars. As far as I remember, it cam with $10 dollars credit also.

acer aspire

Thats right, the likes of Verizon does not use Sim Cards it uses CDMA instead, the only simcards i know of are T-Mobile and At&T.

Best Regards

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

redout

Damn. I heard Verizon was the best option as they have a deal with Vodafone which makes texts and calls a bit cheaper than their rivals to vodafone numbers. Looks like I'll have to buy a PAYG. Does anyone know if you can just buy the pay as you go phone in a shop or do they want an address in the US ?

towel401

acer aspire wrote: »

Thats right, the likes of Verizon does not use Sim Cards it uses CDMA instead, the only simcards i know of are T-Mobile and At&T.

Best Regards

you should probably buy the sim card off ebay. most phone shops won't even claim to have them in stock, they will rip you off at least $25 for one and thats only after the annoying sales guy trying for about half an hour to sign you up to a 300-month contract. It doesn't matter that you are staying for a few days they will do all they can to try and get you on a contract.

if you insist on prepaid they will probably try to sell you a very crappy prepaid phone, they don't want to see anyone with a decent phone on prepaid. over in north america prepaid has a very bad image - just for kiddies who cant control their spending and old people with zimmer frames. and they'd like to keep it that way because contracts make them more money

blaz

All the information you need is here:

http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/usa.html

Rumor is the Tuyo cards are the best option, but they're a bit hard to get by. Heading to the US myself in two weeks, let's see which of the options works out the best.

donkey balls

Looks like I'll have to buy a PAYG. Does anyone know if you can just buy the pay as you go phone in a shop or do they want an address in the US ?

im just back from the US i used a payg phone it was only $30 there is about 5 different networks the network i got was called net10.

dont go with them as you can only call irish landlines(no mobile nbrs) but you can use them to text us nbrs&calls.

one of the lads went with at&t where he could call irish mobiles also a word of warning if you receive calls on the moby while over there from other networks they deduct the minutes from your credit.

Our man in Havana

All calls cost minutes both dialled and received.

T-Mobile prepaid costs $1 a day on days you use your phone and 10 cent a min. Free calls to other T-Mobile numbers.

You can get cheap T-Mobile phones for around $30 but loose sim cards seem non existent. You can get them on ebay easily.